Healthy, French, Home-cooking, always fresh, (almost) no cream required!
This is about simple cooking for my kids away from home, family and friends and friends of friends. Not quite recipes, just inspiration.Often, no exact quantities, certainly no scientific potions, but a bit of magic and lots of love! and you could always ask for more details.
Share my love of cooking, enjoy the Pacific West Coast bounty and help me pass along the French Heritage from my Grand-mothers and my Dad who taught me.Salt and Pepper
Even when I don't say so, use Baleine sea-salt and fresh ground pepper from your Peugeot pepper mill, goes without saying!
Category Archives: Side
Katherine Jones’ King Apple Chutney
This recipe was written down by Katherine Jones of Victoria at my request after I served her Chutney at a dinner and all the guests wanted to know about the ingredients, not believing me that it was apple chutney. She … Continue reading
Posted in Little help from my friends, Side, Vegetarian
Tagged apple chutney, food, king apple, recipe, recipes, verygoodrecipe
2 Comments
Orange Recipes for Halloween Dinner
https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2011/10/30/halloween-squash-or-pumpkin-au-gratin/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2010/05/06/carrot-salad-summer-crudite-may6-2010/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2011/01/31/roasted-yams-a-la-canadienne/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2010/11/02/soupe-a-la-courge-at-aux-chataignes-served-in-a-pumpkin/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2010/06/12/stuffed-orange-peppers/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2010/06/16/roasted-butternut-squash/ https://thecookingfrogblog.com/2011/03/31/blood-orange-tart-with-pistachios/
Posted in Appetizer, Dessert, Lunch, Main Course, Side, Soup, Starter, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tagged food, halloween recipe, orange, recipes, squash, verygoodrecipes
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Black bean salad to replenish your magnesium!
Black beans are very rich in magnesium, a very beneficial mineral and they make a delicious warm salad in about five minutes. It is a wonderful menu item on a day when you are home-bound by a snow blizzard as … Continue reading
Posted in Lunch, Side, Vegetarian
Tagged black bean magnesium, black bean salad, black beans, canned beans, cider vinegar, very good recipe, warm salad
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Fresh Mayonnaise and Sauce Tartare
The first snow has arrived early in the Pacific North-West and it is an early warning to get organized for holiday cooking. You are going to need mayo, because it is a great complement to all seafood, a lot of … Continue reading
Pink onion and apple jam or is it relish?
This is just what you need to serve with sausages or to add to lamb burgers instead of the traditional Ketchup, green relish and French’s mustard. Jane provided the apples from her magnificent old tree and with a couple pink … Continue reading
Posted in Side, Vegetarian
Tagged couscous spices, food, onion jam, onion relish, pink onion, recipe, recipes
3 Comments
Looking for Cinderella’s pumpkin, is it midnight yet?
I bought a pumpkin at Dan’s Farm that may be what you are looking for. It is a French pumpkin – here is some info from a website that sells the seeds: “The Pumpkin French Cinderella, ‘Cucurbita maxima’, is a … Continue reading
Posted in Side, Soup, Vegetables
Tagged Cinderella pumpkin, cooking, food, oxo potato peeler, pumpkin, recipe, recipes, thanksgiving
5 Comments
Hedgehogs…not the chocolate kind
November is getting late in the season for chanterelles, but nature is kind to us on Vancouver Island as the even better Hydnum Repandum or hedgehog mushroom is now prime in old-growth forests. We found two kinds, the small orangey … Continue reading
Posted in Side
Tagged cooking, food, hedgehog, hydnum repandum, mushroom, recipe, recipes, wild mushroom
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Brussel sprouts that you will love! and so green!
Brussel sprouts are not to everyone’s taste and that’s because, most of the time, they are not cooked properly,and are reduced to a mushy, smelly, yellow or even brown, horrible food instead of a bright green, delicious vegetable. Right now, … Continue reading
Posted in Side, Vegetables
Tagged brussel sprouts, chou de bruxelles, food, recipes, thanksgiving dinner, thanksgiving vegetable
9 Comments
Tomato sauce
Whenever I can find bushels or bags of tomatoes and vegetables for sale in the fall, I know it is time to make a batch of tomato sauce. Originally I canned it, but the extra trouble is pretty … Continue reading
Posted in Side
Tagged food, freezer tomato sauce, nutritious tomato sauce, pasta sauce, recipe, recipes, tomato sauce, vegetable tomato sauce
1 Comment
Pine Mushroom scalloped potatoes
October 16th was Pine mushroom day in my family. The weather was perfect Indian summer and there were more than a dozen cars parked at or near my secret mushroom picking spot on Vancouver Island. It did not bode well, … Continue reading
Posted in Side
Tagged cooking, food, matsutake, mushroom, pine mushroom, pine mushroom scallopped potatoes, recipe, recipes
2 Comments
My Grand-Mother’s creamy polenta
Louise-Marie, or la Louise as my grand-father called her, was a great cook. She was a Savoyarde, from the region across the Alps from Italy and she was bilingual, French and Patois, the Alpine dialect spoken on both sides of … Continue reading
Posted in Side
Tagged corn semolina, food, gruyere, parmesan, polenta, recipe, recipes
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Chanterelles with butter and parsley
The end of August is that time when the first chanterelles spring out of the moss on the slopes of old forests. This year is not a good one yet, as we have not had much rain. But my tenacity … Continue reading
Pommes Mousseline (aka mashed potatoes)
At a restaurant, people eat “pommes mousseline”, but at home they eat “purée” and here it is mashed potatoes. Of course, one can have great mashed if they add enough cream. But, at home, I prefer this much healthier recipe … Continue reading
Posted in Side
Tagged cooking, food, mashed potatoes, pommes mousseline, puree, recipe, recipes
1 Comment
Gratin de Poireaux
This is a nice filling dish and my vegetarian guest tonight seem to love it, I had no left-overs. Pick your leeks well, only young leeks that do not have a woody core in the centre. The centre should be … Continue reading
Posted in Main Course, Side
Tagged cooking, food, gratin, gratin de poireaux, leek au gratin, leeks, poireaux, recipes, vegetarian
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Les Frites
When my brother finished his degree at the Lausanne Hotel school, he had to report for compulsory military service in France for one year. Like all new recruits, he had to do “les classes” or new recruit break-in for three … Continue reading
Green Bean salad
This is a nice side to lamb chops or a lamb roast and brings color to the plate. It also goes well with Gratin Dauphinois. Fresh green beans are best. Remove the ends. Boil a lot of very salted … Continue reading
Posted in Side, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tagged balsamic, Dijon, food, green bean salad, green beans, recipes, salad, yellow beans
1 Comment
Gratin Dauphinois, the original
This is a very easy dish to serve when you have guests as it requires no work at the last minute. It also goes well as a side to most meats. Of course, it is a kind of scalloped potatoes … Continue reading
Posted in Side, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tagged food, gratin, gratin dauphinois, Le Creuset, Peugeot pepper grinder, recipe, recipes
2 Comments
Potato Salad
Some really nice Yukon Gold potatoes or new potatoes are available right now, they are best for potato salad. Use potatoes of the same size, peel them or not, rinse in ice-cold water then, cook them whole on medium heat … Continue reading
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