Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

YUM strawberries. The strawberries this year have been really great. So I was compelled to once again make creme fraiche as a go with. This is not even a recipe. It's just sliced strawberries, with a few spoonfuls of creme fraiche, and some raw sugar sprinkled on top. Sorry if you think this is a cheap entry but I've been busy packing for Austin, which I'm totally psyched about going there because of the food. I guess I will have to squeeze in a little bit of the conference between meals.

Once again I had some sweet potatoes sitting around (my intentions are usually good but sometimes the carry out isn't). It was a little rainy so I thought it might be a good day for soup - and it was. Carrot Sweet Potato Soup (Adapted from my brain) 1lb carrots, cut into chunks 3-4 med sweet potatoes, cut into chunks olive oil salt 1 onion, chopped 2 stalks celery, chopped 3T brown sugar 1t cinnamon 5-6 c chicken or vegetable stock 1 c heavy cream Creme Fraiche and chives for serving Place carrots and sweet potatoes on separate roasting pans lined with silpat. Toss with about 1T of olive oil and some salt. Roast for about 1/2 hour on 450 (The carrots will be done before the sweet potatoes). Meanwhile put onions and celery in a dutch oven with some salt and olive oil on a low heat. Cook until caramelized. You can add 1T of brown sugar to help them along. Add cinnamon and brown sugar. Slowly add the 5 c of the vegetable or chicken stock. Remove carrots and sweet...

This is another one of those things that you throw together but it looks fairly impressive. It's really not a lot of work - even the creme fraiche! Cucumber Salmon Stacks (Adapted from ???) 1 English Cucumber, sliced into 1/4" rounds 1 c creme fraiche (homemade of course)* 4 oz smoked salmon fresh dill Place a small dollop of creme fraiche on a cucumber round. Top a small wedge of salmon and some dill fronds. DONE! See I told you it was easy. *Remember basically if you know how to stir, you can make creme fraiche

Ignore that smudge of soup on the edge of the bowl I had a butternut squash sitting on the counter and some homemade creme fraiche in the fridge. I thought the two would go rather nicely together. Roasted Butternut Squash Soup 1 butternut squash, cut into 1" cubes 3 T olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 3 sage leaves 4 sprigs thyme 1 celery stalk, diced 2 carrots, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 c white wine 3 c stock - either chicken or vegetable 1 c heavy cream 4 T parsley, chopped salt/pepper Serve with Toasted pepitas  and Creme Fraiche Mix squash with 2 T olive oil and salt. Roast in a 400 preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes. Meanwhile, saute onions, sage, thyme, and salt over a low flame in a dutch oven. Cook for a good 20 minutes so that onions become golden brown (you can add a pinch of sugar to help them along). Add celery and carrots and cook until carrots and celery start to brown - about 10 minutes.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add...

This is so easy that I wouldn't even call it a recipe. I saw it in this book that I've talked about making it before and decided I needed to give it a whirl. She says that it's so easy a 4 year old could do it and I do have to agree. All you do is mix 1 c of heavy cream with 1 T of cultured buttermilk, cover it, and let it sit out in a warm area for 24 hours. You can stir it once or twice. Simple huh? It thickens up quite nicely. The only problem is you have to think a little bit ahead of time to make it. You need to use cultured buttermilk; you can't use the buttermilk left from making butter . Creme Fraiche is a dangerous thing to have in the house.  It goes so nicely with fresh strawberries (with a dash of brown sugar or reduced balsamic vinegar ) or with soup (bisque, puree), on top of pie (pumpkin, apple) I could go on but you get the idea. It basically goes with everything.