French Savory Bread April 7, 2010

My great friend Courtney lives in Paris, France with her husband and shares my joy of reading food blogs.  She recently introduced me to a new blog, Lunch in Paris, by Elizabeth Bard.  I immediately loved the site.  Plus, I found out she also has a new book  by the same title.  When my mom let me recently borrow her Kindle, I knew instantly what book I wanted.  I really enjoyed reading Lunch in Paris, especially all of the recipes.  I love reading cookbooks and nothing is better than reading recipes in an actual book!  So I may be featuring a few recipes here on the blog, and the first one is “savory bread.”

When I first read the recipe, I happened to find another recipe very similar on another blog!  This blog, What Are You Feeding Your Kids Today, is also written by a French woman.  She had an almost exact recipe to Bard’s “savory bread.”  Here’s what she says about the bread:

A Cake Salé is generally made in the Summer to bring along to a pique-nique or to eat as an entree for lunch/dinner along a big salade. French people love them and I was surprised that with the American tradition of eggs-for-breakfast and brunch, I had not seen many Cake Salés in the US.

The basics seem similar between the two recipes…flour, eggs, baking soda, baking powder…and then you add whatever ingredients you would like.  I happened to have olives, sun-dried tomatoes, swiss cheese in the refrigerator, and I picked up some ham.  Here are the original ingredients:

•  1 slice (1/2 inch thick) of ham to cut it into dices.
• 1 cup of pitted green (or black) olives. (I used black) 
• 4 eggs (local)
• 1 Tb of Herbes de Provence or Fresh thyme (I used dried thyme from the cupboard)
• 1 2/3 cup (200 gr) all purpose flour
• 1 ts of baking powder
• 1/2 ts baking soda
• 1/4 cup (5 cl) Olive oil
• 1/2 cup (10 cl) beer (local)
• 1 cup (75 gr) of Swiss cheese or Comte (Shredded) (I used Swiss)
• a pinch of Chili Pepper (optional)
• Salt and pepper

Forgot the beer and tomatoes (from The Bradford Store) in the first pic!

So I set up the Kindle and got to work!

You basically just mix it all together!

And come up with this…

 After 45 min. in the oven…Perfection!

We ate this a couple of nights ago on a warm evening.  It was a perfect addition to a fresh salad. 

I am very pleased for my first attempt at French cooking…I think more is to come!

It arrived! April 1, 2010

No…not the warm weather, though that did as well!  🙂  My EnviTote!  Yay! 

I am very pleased with it and much more impressed than I thought I would be.  Very sturdy!  The strap has a velcro attachment so you can adjust the length. 

Also, the bottom of the bag has a piece of strong cardboard (?!) that will be great when food is in the bag, but removeable when I need to fold it up. 

I picked up some local eggs on my way home today and they fit perfectly in my new bag!

BTW, the eggs are from a new friend of mine’s farm.  He came to our first community garden meeting to give us advice.  He lives in Waynesville with his wife and young son and is a full-time farmer.  I asked all about his farm and what he produced and while his veggies won’t be ready until the farmers market next month, he said he had eggs! 

While I could pick them up directly from him, he also sells them at a local natural foods store, Zoolies. 

He said they sell them for $0.40 more than he does, so I decided to get them from the store to support them as well.  Can’t wait to cook with them!

I really wanted to get a recipe posted for you all…but it will have to wait until tomorrow.  I had a fun afternoon at the dog park with my two boys.  Here’s Nathan playing ball with Asher…

 

Off to wash dinner dishes 😦  At least the sun is still out!  Come on Spring!