Artichokes with Roquefort Dip

Ingredients:

4 artichokes
1 yogurt
50 g of Roquefort (4 tbsp) or other good bleu cheese
juice of 1/2 lemon
minced chives
salt and pepper

Equipment:

pot for cooking artichokes (or steamer, if you prefer)
fork or spoon to mix the dip

Directions:

1) Wash the artichokes thoroughly.
2) Boil them in lightly salted water for 45 minutes.
3) Prepare the sauce: Mix all the other ingredients together (mash the roquefort well; you can heat the sauce slightly in a microwave if you want it smoother & more melted. You can serve the sauce either in individual cups or a center bowl. Use it as a dipping sauce.

Best 5-Minute Dessert Ever

Ingredients:

Creme de marron (hard to find in the US)--one small pot or 4 Tbsp
1 petit-suisse (also hard to find in the US--sort of like a cross between yogurt and cream cheese)
40 g dark chocolate (about 1 and a half ounces)

Equipment:

2 glasses
spoon

Directions:

1) Spoon half of the creme de marron into each glass.
2) Put half of the petit suisse into each glass on top of the creme de marron.
3) Melt the chocolate, either on the stove or in the microwave, and put half on top in each glass.

You can change the proportions to suit your taste easily. Go easy on the creme de marron, though--it's strong stuff. You may want to double the amount of petit suisse. Try to get your spoon down through all three layers on each bite. It tastes best that way.

Suitable for baby food: NO

French French Toast (Pain Perdu)

Ingredients:

2 slices of bread (really, you'll have enough liquid to make lots more slices if you want more)
1/4 L of milk (2 cups)
1 egg
2 Tbsp of vanilla sugar (if you can't find vanille sucre, you can put in 2 Tbsp sugar and a little vanilla)
30 g butter (2 Tbsp)

Equipment:

Mixing bowl
frying pan
whisk

Directions:

1) Beat the egg together with the milk and sugar.
2) Heat the butter in the pan.
3) Dip each slice of bread in the milk-egg liquid, just enough to cover both sides.
4) Brown each slice on both sides for a few minutes, just until it turns golden-brown and is heated all the way through.

Suitable for baby food: MAYBE, if your baby is old enough for eggs and dairy and you make sure to cook it enough to avoid feeding your kid raw egg.

Quinoa Salad w/Avocado & Tomato

Ingredients:

100 g quinoa (a little over half a cup)
2 avocados
2 tomatoes
2 Tbsp nut oil
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp mustard
some fresh chives
salt and pepper

Equipment:

pot
knife
cutting board
salad bowl

Directions:
1) Cook the quinoa according the package directions.
2) While it cooks, wash and cut the avocados and tomatoes.
3) Mix the dressing (all the other ingredients).
4) Put the quinoa, avocados, and tomatoes in a bowl, add the dressing, and toss.

Suitable for baby food: YES. Delicious and very healthy.

French Grits

Ingredients:

20 cl (3/4 cup) skim milk
2 Tbsp semolina (you can also use cornmeal, but semolina is finer and will give you a smoother product)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp raisins (optional)

Equipment:

pot
wooden spoon

Directions:

1) Heat the milk in a pot.
2) When it starts to simmer, add the semolina and stir without ceasing for 5 minutes. It'll look too thin, but will thicken up right at the end. If it doesn't, add more semolina.
3) Add the sugar and raisins.

Suitable for baby food: Yes, IF you add plain yogurt instead of sugar. Also, it's better to make it for a young (pre-dairy) baby with water instead of milk, and to use baby-formulated yogurt like YoBaby.

Jonathan's Favorite Mousse

Ingredients:

240 g of chocolate (about 8.5 oz)
4 eggs

Equipment:

2 Mixing bowls
Electric beater
Thick-bottom pot or double boiler
soft spatula

Directions:

1) Put the chocolate in the pot (or double boiler) with two tablespoons of water, and melt it over very low heat (gas mark 2, 150*C, 300*F). Stir gently.
2) Separate the eggs, keeping the yolks in the larger bowl if you have two sizes, and the whites in another. Beat the whites at least 3 minutes on medium. Let the chocolate cool while you do this.
3) Mix the chocolate into the yolks.
4) Little by little, mix the whites into the chocolate/yolk mixture. Use a spatula for this step. Put it in the fridge till you are ready to serve.

How to use it as baby food: You can't. It has raw eggs and chocolate in it, and you didn't save the yolks to cook for your baby. It will give him hives at best and salmonella at worst. Also, if you are breastfeeding it would be wise to eat this when you are several hours away from your next feeding, so if you get salmonella you will know and your baby won't get food poisoning from you.

Jonathan's Favorite Muffins

Ingredients:

1 yogurt (small single serving)
3 eggs
2 yogurt pots of sugar
3 yogurt pots of pastry flour
1 yogurt pot of oil
1/2 packet of yeast
zest of 2 oranges
juice of 2 oranges

Equipment:

Muffin pan (enough for 8 muffins)
Mixing bowl
whisk

Directions:
First: preheat the oven to gas mark 5/6, 375-400*F, 190-200*C

1) Whisk the yogurt together with the eggs and sugar. Mix the yeast and flour, and add them to the yogurt mixture.
2) Whisk together. Add the oil and whisk again.
3) If making your own zest: wash, dry, and zest the oranges. Cut them in half and juice all four halves.
4) Add the zest and juice to the batter. Butter the muffin pan. Fill each hole with batter, not quite all the way to the top.
5) Bake for 30 minutes.

How to use as baby food: Feed your baby bites of muffin.

Easy Toasts

Ingredients:

Whatever kind of bread you want for toast, sliced
cherry jam or preserves
roquefort or other good bleu cheese

Equipment:

toaster

Directions:
1) Toast the bread.
2) Spread cherry jam on each slice.
3) Put roquefort slices on top of the jam.

How to use it as baby food: Feed bites of bread (with or without jam; only feed the cheese if it is pasteurized) to your baby.

McKenzie's Favorite Mousse

This is a really rich mousse, kind of halfway between mousse and icing.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
5 Tbsp (40 g) unsweetened cocoa powder (use a good-quality, rich, dark, pure chocolate--organic is probably your best bet for this. It's important because the quality of the mousse depends almost entirely on the quality of the chocolate).
5 Tbsp (40 g) powdered sugar

Equipment:

oven-safe ramikins for baking
electric mixer
whisk
mixing bowl

Directions:

1) Separate the eggs and put the whites in the bowl. Fry the yolks if you are using them for baby food.
2) Beat the eggs with the electric beater, on medium, at least 3 minutes.
3) Add the sugar and chocolate. Whisk in. Don't worry about the texture change; it is supposed to go from firm to runny.
4) Put the mixture in your ramikins (two medium, four small, or one large) and bake at gas mark 2/300*F/150*C for one hour.

Meringues

Ingredients:

2 eggs
80 g powdered sugar (about 2/3 cup; less or more depending how sweet you want it)

Equipment:

electric beater
whisk
baking sheet
parchment paper for baking (this is important because the meringues WILL stick even to a non-stick baking sheet, and they'll crumble when you try to lift them off--you can't grease the pan, so you need the paper)
icing tube for squeezing out the meringues (OPTIONAL--you can just use a spoon if they don't have to look perfect. Or you can improvise a funnel tube to squeeze out the meringues from a piece of parchment paper.)

Directions:

1) Separate the eggs. Keep the whites for the meringues, and fry the yolks for baby food if you have a baby.
2) Beat the eggs (medium setting) for at least 3 minutes.
3) Add the sugar and whisk it in.
4) If you are making fancy meringues, put the mixture in the tube and squeeze out about 10 meringues onto a sheet of parchment paper on the baking sheet. If you are doing it the simple way, spoon the meringues out instead.
5) Cook for one hour on low heat (gas mark 2 or 300*F, 150*C).

You must eat the meringues immediately, as they will lose their crunch and get sticky very fast. They pull moisture out of the air.

Crepes

Ingredients:

200 g (2 1/4 cups) of pastry flour (in France, they sell "farine fluide," or "fluid flour"; I think pastry flour is the closest U.S. equivalent since it's extra-fine)
1/4 L milk (about 1 cup)
1/8 L water (about 1/2 cup)
3 eggs
2 tablespoons oil
3 pinches of salt

Equipment:

crepe pan (you can use a frying pan, but it's easier with a crepe pan--the difference is that the sides don't rise nearly as high so you can slide it out more easily)
whisk
mixing bowl
ladle
flipping spatula

Directions:

1) Mix the flour and milk just until there are no more lumps.
2) Add, in this order, stirring each one in: the eggs, the salt, the oil, the water. Let the dough rest at least 20 minutes.
3) Heat a very small amount of oil in your pan over medium heat (5 or 6). Ladle in 1/8 of the batter, and tilt the pan to spread it all around quickly.
4) When it is ready, flip it. Two things will tell you it is ready: a) the edges change color slightly and come loose, and b) the top gets just firm enough that it won't make a big mess when you try to turn it. So really, you're looking for the same things you'd look for in a pancake. If you are more skilled than I am, you can flip it without the spatula. This recipe is pretty forgiving, probably since it's designed for kids to make.
5) Cook the second side briefly, about 30 seconds.
6) Slide the crepe out of the pan. Spread it with whatever filling you want, and roll or fold it. This will make 8 small to medium crepes. You can make all the crepes before filling and rolling.

How to use as baby food: Tear off little bites and feed them to the baby.

Jonathan's Favorite Hash Browns

Ingredients:

8 potatoes
2 eggs
sea salt
pepper
any other seasonings you want
olive oil

Equipment:

grater
frying pan

Directions:

1) Rinse, dry, and peel the potatoes
2) Mix in the eggs, salt, pepper, and whatever other spices you want.
3) Heat a little oil in the frying pan.
4) Fry the potato mixture, 1/4 at a time, to make four hash brown patties. Fry 10 minutes on each side over medium heat (setting 5 or 6).

NOTE: You can increase or decrease the amount of egg, depending on how big your potatoes are and how eggy you want them to be. The egg is there to get the potatoes to stick together.

How to use as baby food: Feed some to your baby, ground or in small bites.

Curry Chicken

Ingredients:

1 chicken cut into pieces
juice of 2 limes
2 onions
2 green onions
4 cloves of garlic
3 potatoes
1 zucchini
1 eggplant
2 tablespoons of curry powder
1 bay leaf
1 branch of thyme
a dozen stalks of parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Equipment:

cutting board
knife
big stew pot
bowl for mixing

Directions:

1) Rinse and chop the vegetables. Set them aside.
2) Put a tablespoon of oil into the big pot. Brown the chicken over medium heat (setting 5 or 6).
3) In the bowl, mix the curry powder, salt, and a quarter liter of water (about a cup and a half). Pour this mix over the chicken in the pot.
4) Add the vegetables and herbs. Stir a little. Turn the heat down a notch, cover and let cook 40 minutes. At the very end, add the juice from the limes.

NOTE: You can change proportions of vegetables or the specific ones you use as you like, as long as the overall amount pf material in the pot turns out the same.

How to use as baby food: Grind up and feed. Or, if your baby is past the mushy stage, feed small bites of chicken and vegetables.

Peach and Tuna Salad

for two small plates

Ingredients:

2 handfuls of dark young greens (mache, baby spinach, arugula--whatever you like)
1 peach
1 dozen walnuts or pecans
1 can of high-quality tuna

for the dressing:

15 g of feta (or to taste)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of mustard
1 teaspoon of vinegar
1 pinch of salt

Directions:

1) Rinse and dry the greens. Put them on the plates. Add the tuna in small chunks.
2) Cut the peach into small slices; add to the plates.
3) Crumble the cheese, if it isn't already crumbled. Mix it (with a fork) with the other dressing ingredients.
4) Add the nuts and dressing to the salad plates.

You can also mix everything in a bowl and then serve it. If you want the cheese to retain its texture, just crumble it into the salad and not the dressing. If you mix it in the dressing, it will largely dissolve. Either way is good.

How to use as baby food:

Feed your baby small bites of tuna and peach.

Duck Sandwich

Ingredients (for three sandwiches)

6 slices of bread
1 apple
6 slices of cured, dryish duck (you could also use a really fancy dry ham if you wanted to)
some chives
a little olive oil
some good mustard (Maille is nice)

Equipment

Frying pan
Toaster

1) Toast the bread, chop the chives, and put mustard and chives on the bread.
2) Wash the apple, cut it into slices (as thick as you want in your sandwich), and take out the seeds.
3) Heat the oil in the pan at setting 3 or 4, and cook the apple slices for 1-3 minutes on each side (depending on their thickness and on how cooked you want the apple)
4) On three of the bread slices, put a slice of apple, a slice of duck, and some chopped chives. Put the plain slices on top to make three sandwiches. You will have leftover apple, so repeat until you are not hungry anymore. This will fill you up faster in the U.S., since bread comes in much larger slices there.

How to use as baby food:

Obviously you can't just hand a baby a sandwich, but you can cut or tear off small pieces of apple and bread and feed it to him. It's a good way to teach your baby to like mustard, too.