Cheese Souffle

Cheese Souffle!

I am not the only one who became absolutely smitten when I saw the movie Julie and Julia. I am unashamedly part of the fan club 100%! This is why I came dashing in the door from work, to change into a more appropriate outfit (Julia Child Style), take a dorky photo of it, and immediately commence the 100th Birthday Celebration for a most inspiring French Chef.

It took me all day to figure out exactly what I wanted to make.
Mousse au chocolaté: YES I LOVE CHOCOLATE (duh)... oh but it won't be ready until tomorrow? NOPE I want to celebrate immediately.
Boeuf bourguignon: Classic, oh but that takes forever and a day. Mother will not approve.
French Onion Soup: Ohhhh Mother will SO approve, but this also takes a while to caramelize the onions yada yada

I am noticing that good French food takes time. Which apparently I don't have much of. A little thing called SHOPPING FOR AN IPHONE gets in the way... which I totally don't mind...

BUT... Luckily for me and my desire to want to celebrate immediately, there is a classic french dish that:

• I have never eaten but always wanted to
• I have never made but always wanted to
• I found a recipe by Julia Child for it on foodnetwork.com
• It MUST be served immediately.

HOORAY FOR CHEESE SOUFFLE!

All puffy and golden and glorious. A cheese pillow.

I found this recipe here, but it is originally from Julia Child's book: Julia's Kitchen Wisdom. And boy does she have some wisdom in the kitchen.

Julia Child's Cheese Souffle

Recipe not at all adapted because it is delicious as is from Julia's Kitchen Wisdom. Serves 4

• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp finely grated parmesan
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1 cup hot milk
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• pinch nutmeg
• pinch of salt and pepper
• 4 egg yolks
• 5 egg whites
• 1 cup grated swiss cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Butter a 6-cup souffle or straight-sided baking dish with 11/2 tablespoons butter. Dust the interior of the dish with the Parmesan and knock out the excess.

In a large saucepan, melt the remaining butter over medium high heat. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the butter and flour foam and froth. Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the hot milk, then simmer over medium heat and stir slowly until thick, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the seasonings, then the egg yolks, 1 by 1.

Whip the egg whites to stiff, shining peaks, then whisk 1/4 of them into the sauce to lighten it. Delicately fold the remaining egg whites into the sauce, alternating with the grated Swiss cheese.

Turn the souffle mixture into the prepared dish and set in the oven. Reduce the heat to 375 degrees F and bake until the souffle has puffed 1 or 2-inches above the rim and has browned on top, about 25 to 30 minutes. Serve immediately!

Right away!

Enjoy it without haste!

Serve with a light salad, the best french baguette you can find, and that $2 steal of a sign from a garage sale.

This was my first soufflé that I have ever eaten or made and it was a success! I like this whole soufflé thing. I am thinking the next one shall be a dessert soufflé... chocolate, anyone? I already have a recipe in mind... :)

And as she would always say...

BON APPETIT!

<3 Larissa

Peaches and Peanut Butter Stuffed French Toast

Mmmm... French Toast. One of the best breakfast foods out there. Everybody has "their way" to eat French Toast. I used to be very stuck in "my way", until a dear friend of mine introduced me to A NEW WAY. Gasp.

I grew up eating french toast with nothing but a massive mound of icing sugar plopped on top. No, I can't even say dusted or sprinkled... it was a real life mound or powdery goodness. I can't believe my mother let me put that much sugar on. But it was the best way!
I (obviously) think of French Toast as being a sweet dish, as opposed to savoury. I think that many people do too, however not my Ma. She thinks that French Toast should be savoury, not sweet! How bizzare! How not fun. She puts salt and pepper on her French Toast... which still baffles me to this day.
What baffles me more is that my Pa DOESN'T EVEN LIKE FRENCH TOAST.
Why family?! Why?! At least my brother knows what's up about icing sugar too. Two people have got it right.

Oh yeah, the new way! So, friend tells me his way to eat French Toast is with Peanut Butter and Syrup (Aunt Jemima's brand is ideal). Or, if they're available, PB+Syrup and fresh peaches.
When I first heard this, I thought, eww weird. Then I tried it and life changed forever. Now I have noticed that my powdered sugar policy is a thing of the past, and peanut butter is my new present. Try it, you may just fall in love.

In da pan.

One of my most favourite (in fact, probably my favourite) blogs, A Beautiful Mess, featured a post about Peaches and Cream Stuffed French Toast. This totally made me think "Yes, I do want to make Stuffed French Toast" as it is something I have not yet done. I adapted the recipe to use peanut butter instead of cream cheese because HOLY GOODNESS do I love me some peanut butter. And it being my "New Way" to eat French Toast, it just makes sense.

 Peaches and Peanut Butter Stuffed French Toast

Recipe adapted from A Beautiful Mess

Makes two sandwiches

• 4 slices french bread
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 peach, sliced
• peanut butter
• butter for the pan

In a shallow dish, whisk together egg, vanilla, cinnamon and milk. Heat a pan on medium high heat with a bit of butter in the bottom. Spread peanut butter on one side of two of the bread slices. Dip the non-peanut butter side into the egg mixture, then place in the hot pan eggy-side down. Place peach slices on top of the two slices of bread in the pan. Meanwhile, spread peanut butter on one side of each of the other two slices. Dip the non-peanut butter side in the egg. Place this top slice (eggy-side up this time) atop your peach covered slice in the pan. When the bottom of the sandwich is nicely browned, turn the whole shebang over and cook on the other side.
Serve with more peach slices on top, and a generous drizzle of syrup. YUM in the tum.

What is your way to eat French Toast? Maybe I will discover a new one :)

<3 Lari