Week 7: France

Of all the countries that we are exploring this summer, this week's country is the only one that I've actually visited.  It was the summer of 1998 and a time in my life when a lot of my friends were backpacking through Europe.  I remember the desperation that I felt to go with them, but for whatever reasons back then, it didn't work out... until it did.  We spent two weeks exploring as much as we possibly could fit into that time and had some positively exhilarating moments and some absolutely horrendous moments.  Overall, it was truly a wonderful experience... our first travel outside of the US.  So many memories, tied so tidily into one little photo album... how is that even possible?  Here are a few pictures from that trip.

Catedral de Notre Dame

Sunset on the Seine

Tour Eiffel

The husband in Nice with a big bowl of Bouillabaisse

Me in Marseilles

And now back to the food.

We actually fit in two French meals this week!

Dinner1:  Boeuf Bourguignon with Boiled Potatoes, Salad Niçoise, and Crusty French Bread
Dessert1:  Soufflés Chauds au Citron

Dinner 2:  Coq au Vin, Ratatouille, Quiche, and Baguette
Dessert2:  Mousse au Chocolat

Dinner 1:
My husband, not being a vegetarian who only sometimes eats chicken, really wanted a dinner with beef.  He is also an over-the-shoulder Internet surfer.  So when he saw that I was looking for dinner recipes for France, he requested something with beef.  He even offered to help prepare it, so he settled on the beef stew for our Sunday meal.  The boeuf bourguignon is traditionally served with boiled potatoes... perfect!  I attempted to round it out a bit, with a salad nicoise (minus the tuna), and the lemon souffles for dessert.  Voila... a perfect French dinner!  However, I did not want this to be our project dinner for two reasons:  1)I couldn't partake of the beef stew and 2)the kid's weren't prepared with any of their facts or flags.  And, besides... there is a LOT to choose from when it comes to French cooking.  My guess is that we could have devoted an entire week to France with a different meal every night.  Wait... isn't that sort of the whole basis for the book 'Julie and Julia'?  Well, except she did a year... but I digress. 

Boeuf Bourguignon

 Salad Nicoise

Lemon Souffles

I didn't try the boeuf bourguignon, but I'm so glad that I have my husband and my eldest to cheer me on with these dinners.  If I relied on the reception from my middle little and my littlest, I would be a lot less likely to put in all this effort.  The salad nicoise was surprisingly better than I expected... and it was a full meal by itself.  I replaced the green beans with broccoli.  The souffles looked perfect coming out of the oven.  I made the mistake of cooking them ahead of time, when I should have cooked them right before we were ready to eat them.  So as perfect as they looked coming out of the oven, by the time we ate them, they were deflated... and I was too.  I didn't even get a picture of them looking all puffed and perfect!  But they were oh so tasty!

Dinner 2:
I chose Coq au Vin strictly to use up that gargantuan bottle of burgundy that we bought to make the boeuf bourguignon.  I was a little worried about making two dishes that were so similar, or at least had such similar ingredients.  Although after talking to a friend, I was reminded that the chicken gives it a much different flavor, and also the coq au vin is less of a stew and more of a chicken in wine sauce.  The eldest was insistent that this dinner include quiche and mousse.  And I had always wanted to try ratatouille.  In fact, I was wondering just the other day how it was that I never tried it while we were in France.  I think I concluded that I just didn't know what it was back then... and may not have been adventurous enough then to try it even if I had known what it was.  Anyway... that is how tonight's meal was formed.

Spinach Quiche

Ratatouille

Coq au Vin

Chocolate Mousse

Let me first just say that the quiche was perfect! It was my first time making the crust from scratch and it looked, smelled, tasted absolutely perfect. The quiche was the one thing that my middle little assured me that he'd eat (which I wasn't sure I believed since it did have spinach in it), but he was begging for seconds! The Gruyere was the secret ingredient, I'm sure of it! The ratatouille, although good, wasn't as 'special' as I was expecting, especially as time-consuming as it was to make. I think that may have been everyone's least favorite... looking at how much of it was left over. The coq au vin was really good. I was afraid it would have too much of a wine flavor, but it wasn't overpowering at all. The only thing that I would have changed, using boneless, skinless chicken cut up into pieces instead of a whole chicken. I thought it was a bit cumbersome to eat through all the sauce. Although, honestly, I could have done without the chicken altogether and just had the sauce on my noodles! And lastly, but most definitely not least, the mousse. I have never made mousse, or even tried it... so making it and having it actually turn out was a surprise. I have this idea that these delicacies are more complicated to make than they really are. Although, what was really funny is that the middle little was worried that he was going to have to eat moose covered in chocolate. Thankfully, no... and the real thing... oh... so... chocolatey delicious! And truly enough said.

I'd say that overall, this has been an incredibly successful visit to France, without the plane tickets. Of course, the husband and I have been reminiscing all week about our trip. It's been nice, but it's time to move on. Next week... Costa Rica.

Interesting Facts:
- The capital of France is Paris.
- Although French is the official language, 77 other languages are recognized in France.
- The French currency is the franc.
- 20% of France's land is outside of it's European borders (e.g. French Polynesia).
- La baguette means 'little stick'.
- The Eiffel Tower today has 2 restaurants, an observation deck, a post office, and elevators to the top.
- The Statue of Liberty was made in France.
- The population of France is 60,876,136.
- The area of France is 210,026 square miles - slightly less than twice the size of Colorado.
- France won the 1998 World Cup, came in 2nd in the 1986 World Cup, came in 3rd in 1958 and 1986, and 4th in 1982. France has participated in 13 times in the FIFA World Cup.
- France had a high scoring soccer match, beating Azerbaijan 10-0.
- In soccer, the top scorer is Thierry Henry, from France, who plays for the New York Red Bulls.