Sorry for haven't blogging for so long

I am very busy, it's full spring around there and I spend most of my free time in my garden, we have a rainy spring this year and everything grows very fast (we have to mow the lawn once a week!)

Anyway, today I'll post a simple meal menu, the one I have made for dinner this evening.

Broccoli soup with diced bacon fat "lardons" and garlic croûtons and for dessert chocolate custard.

Chocolate custard recipe:

1 liter of milk (4 cups)

1/4 cup of sugar

1/8 cup of cornstarch

1/8 cup of powdered cocoa (unsweetened)

Take 1/2 a cup from the milk and mix it with sugar, cornstarch and powdered cocoa.

Boil the left over milk in a saucepan, then put the mix in and let boil one minute.

Pour it in ramekins and refridgerate for 2 hours.

I have also done some sewing for my daughters, I'll post a pic tomorrow (I hope so...)

Several of my readers ask me to post some of my basic recipes.

I do not consider myself as a great cook ! As you'll see most of the meals I cook for my family on a daily basis are really simple, but healthy

I can call this Basic Family French Cooking, because it's the way everybody cook in France.

For exemple, this is what I have cooked for lunch today for me and my 3 kids (I don't work on wednesday, nor my children go to school).

It took me less than 30 mns !

Fish coated with breadcrumbs (just soak pieces of fish in milk then roll it in breadcrumbs and cook in a non-stick pan 5mns each side)

Flat green beans, cooked five minutes in a pressure cooker, then "sauté", in a Tsp of olive oil with garlic and parsley.

Serve with fresh lemon slices, for dessert apples, for beverage water, that's very simple, it's just the kind of meal I use to prepare for us, you can see it's not a big deal to have something healty to it in less than half an hour.

I think I know hundreds of this kind of meal, I change them according to what I find on the market, I cook more sophisticated meals on the week-end...

I'm going to try to post exemple of meal at least once a week, I can't promise you more because I won't have enough time.

The next recipe will be a cake called "quatre-quart", it's a very easy one that you can make with a child (I hope I'll be able to post it before the end of the week)

I haven't update my blog for a while because I have been busy doing some research on the French-speaking internet about ecology, I want to learn how to make my cosmetics with natural and organic products.

After reading Crystal's post about making laundry soap, I also did research to make my own with the products I find here in France, I have found very interesting things, I hope I'll be able to try soon

Now Ladies and Gentlemen, the Mayonnaise !!

This recipe seems to be very simple, but it's not

There's a knack to it !

In France, I think everybody knows how to do the mayonnaise, it's something we learn to do very early from our parents...

Of course, you can find convenience ready-made mayonnaise in grocery stores, but most people prefer doing it from scratch, the taste is really better and it's not good to eat mayo to often because it's really full of fat

What you need:

- One egg yolk

- A teaspoon of mustard (in France, we use mustard of Dijon)

- Oil, I use sunflowerseed oil, but use the one you prefer

- salt & pepper

First, put the egg yolk in a bowl

Add a full tsp of mustard

The hardest part is beginning now, start to pour the oil very slowly with the bottle on the left hand. With your right hand whisk on the quickest speed of your electric mixer, (the ones with very strong muscles can do it with a fork...) As I'm left-handed, I do it upside down...

Stop pouring oil and whisking when it has thicken enough, it doesn't take more than a few minutes.

Then you can taste and add salt & pepper as you like it.

Put it in the fridge and don't forget to eat it quickly (within a day), because it contains raw egg.

Voilà !

I have done a lot of research on the net about frugal living during the past year.

I have learnt a lot of very interesting things, and change some of my cleaning and cooking habits  I already knew some of those, but others where new to me...

Frugal Cooking  Tips:

-Make your own salad dressing, mayonnaise and cake mixes, I have never ever buy one of those ready-made! I can share recipes if someone is interested, they are known by everybody in France

- I never buy convenience food, such as frozen pizza, or frozen meals, I make everything from scratch, of course most of the time I cook very simple meals (I only have 1/2 an hour to prepare dinner during the week), I cook better meals during the week-ends. 

- I use my  crock-pot all the time, I cook ahead some meals for the next week on sunday evening.

- During summer, we go to a "pick your own farm", and I freeze my own bags of veggies for the winter, we do this as a family, the kids help us and we have a lot of fun (the farm is just a few miles from home)

- I never buy take-away food, nor go to fast-food (it's expensive, unhealthy and a very bad eating habit for kids).

- About every other month we go to eat in a restaurant, it's a family treat !, we always go to same restaurant, because they have free kid's menu  on saturday lunch.

- I buy in bulk meat (I freeze it), potatoes, onions...

- I bake my own bread and I make my own yoghourt (in France, we eat plenty of yoghourt)

That's all for the moment, I'll post some cleaning tips later.

Feel free to share more frugal cooking tips in the comment section  I always enjoy to learn more !

Mrs B ask me why we leave the skin on garlic in the "poulet rôti"'s recipe.

In fact, when you leave the skin on the garlic glove, it won't cook the same way as if it was peeled.

The garlic inside the glove is becoming very creamy, you just have to sqeeze it with your fork, and you have a delicious garlic cream that comes out of it, simply yummy !   

The taste match very well with chicken, but it's also very good with lamb.

I hope I have answered your question !

And please Ladies, I would like very much to learn American (or other countries of course !) ways to cook a roast chicken, I'm sure some of you have recipes to share with me

It's been a while since I post a recipe on this blog

Today I'm going to talk about something very simple but so yummy... the roast chicken.

Also, I'm curious to know if in other countries you cook the roast chicken the same way as we do in France.

This is the typical sunday lunch meal, the traditionnal version has French fries as a side dish, but I prefer to add some sautéed zucchinis instead (guess why )

The recipe:

One chicken, biggest as possible

Salt, pepper and thyme inside of the chicken

Some olive oil on the chicken

I put it in a glass oven dish, and I add alot of garlic gloves not peeled ( we call them "ail en chemise" ~ garlic in shirt) and some pieces of tomatoes around it, I add next a little water

Then cook in a hot oven, during almost 1 1/2 hour (depends of the oven and the size of the chicken)

During the cooking, baste often, if necessary add some more water to have enough juice

I have a kind of dropper to do that, it's a very practical gadget ! (you can see it behind the dish on the picture.