Sunday, March 27 – 6:30pm

The inaugural Cookbook Club meeting! Inspired by Julie and Julia, we chose Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking as our first book. As you might expect, there was lots of butter, cheese, and cream! Perhaps something of an ambitious cookbook for us to start with, there were some members who did a bit of sifting to find Julia’s simpler recipes (me with the Oranges Glaces) and others who dove right in to take on dishes that were more like 4 recipes in 1 (props to Adrienne for tackling the Salade Nicoise!).

For our first event, I’d call it a success! We weren’t without challenges – the attendance was capped at 20 as that’s how many people Sheana felt she could comfortably host (thanks for welcoming us into your home Sheana!), but we had so many last-minute cancellations and no-shows that we ended up with a cozy group of 7. I also was so excited about chatting with people and digging into all the amazing food that I totally failed on taking pictures, so I apologize for the low quality of some of the pics and will try to do better next time!

On the plus side – people were asked to bring a bottle of wine to share if they felt inclined to imbibe, and we ended up with more bottles of wine than people (nothing bad about that!). We didn’t impose any guidelines on what dishes people should bring – just asked that they post their choice to the group – and ended up with a fantastic diversity of dishes covering starters, main courses, sides, and desserts. They couldn’t have gone better together if it had been a pre-planned menu. So without further ado…

The Menu

Petits Choux au Fromage – Sheana

Alana: Sheana made Petits Choux a Fromage. Translation – cheese puffs. These were light and airy, but deliciously cheesy. And according to Sheana… surprisingly easy to make!

Sheana: Indeed, these were SO easy to make! Basically just a baked cheese sauce. And delish.

Salade Nicoise – Adrienne

Alana: Adrienne made the Salade Nicoise. She had to separately make the eggs, potatoes, green beans, and dressing. Then assemble into one gorgeous dish. So it was a lot of work, but we’re all glad she did it.

Sheana: This is one of those recipes that felt surprisingly outdated to me: all the Nicoise salads I’ve had come with fresh (not canned) tuna. If making again, I’d make that swap (although it did sound like a lot of work, so this may not be topping my do-to list in general!).

Quiche au Roquefort – Nelson

Alana: Nelson brought the Quiche au Roquefort. In my book it’s hard to go wrong with pastry crust and filling of cheesy goodness, so yeah – it was yummy!

Sheana: This one was SO. GOOD.

Fondue de Poulet a la Creme – Robin

Alana: Robin brought the Fondue de Poulet a la Creme. Rusty on your French? It’s chicken simmered in cream… and what’s not good simmered in cream!?

Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme – Alyssa

Alana: Alyssa brought the Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme. That’s chicken with bacon, onions, and potatoes. She also added some carrots, because why not? And with all the cheese, butter, and cream, we were happy to have them!

Oranges Glaces – Alana

Alana: I brought the Oranges Glaces (glazed oranges). Hardest part of this dish was slicing all the pith (the white stuff) off the orange. The simple syrup and orange peel mixture solidified when I poured it over the oranges. Not sure if that was supposed to happen, but it actually added a nice texture.

Sheana: I was so happy someone brought anything not covered in cream! A nice departure from the otherwise awesome, but heavy meal.

Galettes au Fromage – Alana

Alana: I also brought the Galettes au Fromage (cheese wafers). I’d like to say it’s because I’m an overachiever, but really it was guilt that I’d chosen the other dish for its simplicity. When I baked these, butter actually oozed out and pooled up in the pan. It continued to drip off when they were on the cooling rack. Tons of butter! I liked Sheana’s cheese puffs better than these.

Sheana: I felt like these would have been amazing fresh from the pan. Time was not their friend.

Clafouti – Alex

Alana: Alex contributed the Clafouti. It’s a baked dessert that’s traditionally made with black cherries, but really you can use any fruit you want. She used blueberries and I’m not gonna lie… I ate 3 pieces.

Sheana: I wanted to like this more than I did. I guess I just don’t understand the appeal of custard!

The Verdict

There wasn’t a bad dish in the bunch. I don’t know whether that’s a testament to our cooking skills or Julia Child’s genius (I’m going to give ourselves a pat on the back and say both!), but everything was delicious. It’s definitely the kind of meal you walk away from needing a nap and maybe a follow-up day of eating nothing but fresh veggies. Sheana also thought the cookbook felt dated, but luckily no one served any of the meat gelatins that Julia so adored. Mastering the Art of French Cooking is pretty filled with rich and heavy recipes – so thank goodness for that Salade Nicoise! My takeaway – it was fun to try these and certainly got me cooking with techniques outside my comfort zone, but in the future I’ll probably be leaving it up to others to master the art of French cooking.

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