Comfort Foods and Indulgences

If you make anything new this Fall season, make sure it's this. It would also be an amazing addition to the holiday table because it is so dang fantastic. No one is going to be able to keep their fork out of it.

This dish is so good, my twelve year old requested leftovers for breakfast. Go figure. It's just one of those lingering tastes that leaves you wanting more. It's earthy and decadent and received rave, RAVE reviews from my family.

This recipe came from Food Network's Magazine this month (I love this magazine), but I did change a few things. I used a little more bread, regular butter, bacon instead of pancetta, sage instead of tarragon, white wine instead of sherry and more cheese of course. It was perfect, just perfect.

Cremini mushrooms are also a nice choice for this dish. They are a little firmer than the white mushroom, so they hold up better. And, they have a fuller flavor.

I placed the hot mushroom mixture on top of the dried bread cubes to cool slightly before tossing with the egg mixture.

These little cakes have been on my mind since I had a version of them here. They were so, so good. Until now, I have never had a hot wing sauce quite like the one used to make these. It's literally mouthwatering....spicy...and tangy, which is everything you want in a hot wing bite. Definitely a step above the rest, and the reason why I have been craving this taste since I had it last.

Of course Saucy Mama sent us home with some of her amazing hot wing sauce, so I have been planning my little cakes since.  These are little bites of heaven with incredible flavor. I have no doubt, these will be your "go to" football food this season. I promise.

Saucy Mama used fancy little pastry shells and filled them with the chicken mixture. You can see their version here. I would use them too, EXCEPT you can not buy them in my town. I suppose we are not fancy enough in our part of wine country to have them. Lame! So I had to come up with my own version for a pastry shell.

I have a serious problem with this dish. I am embarrassed to say that I ate 25% of it before dinner was served last night. I am scared to put on my jeans. Instead of walking my usual 2.5 miles today, I am going to have to double that! What was I thinking?

The real problem here is that these are so utterly good, that one cannot just take a small portion. With that said,, eating 25% of the pan, isn’t all that unreasonable. Is it? In the past, I have always made Patricia Well’s recipe, Gratin Dauphinois from her book At Home in Provence. I adore her books and have made many of her recipes, but her particular dish requires one to cook the potatoes in the cream and milk mixture, on the stove, before layering the pan, etc. An unnecessary step. Dorie Greespan’s recipe from Around My French Table beats out any other potato dish of this kind and this is my new “go-to” dish for those nights when I just don’t have time to mess in the kitchen.

Potatoes au Gratin or “scalloped potatoes” as my dad endearingly referred to them as, was one of my dad’s favorite dishes. He loved his food. And he loved his restaurants. He was a carbs kind of guy. Happily I admit, I am as well.

Choux pastry is one of the most important kinds of pastry in French cooking. The translantion of the word “choux” is cabbages. Actually, “my little cabbage” is a term of endearment in France. With choux, you can make petite sweet pastries called profiteroles, and savory cheese puffs, gougeres. The basic dough is always made the same way with the same proportions — 1/4 pound butter, 1 cup water, 1 cup flour and 4 large eggs. This scientific formula will produce hollow puffs when baked, golden brown and crispy on the outside. With choux pastry, I make Cream Puffs.

My first taste of cream puffs came from a batch my mom made, filled with vanilla ice cream and doused with chocolate sauce. I liked them. I think we should start a Facebook page that would generate support for making the cream puff the new cupcake. Just like those sweet little frosted cakes, light, chubby cream puffs can be picked up and eaten out of hand.