La Cuisine Française

So, cooking...not quite as dangerous and exciting as the driving adventures, but a close second. I mentioned before that I was intimidated at the prospect of cooking the evening meals, given that, well, I'm in France, and the people here are French and eat French meals. Imagine that.

A typical French meal consists of the following: first, an entrée, which can be either hot or cold. I've never understood why the menus in American restaurants list main courses as "entrées." Anyway, a typical entrée for a weeknight meal would be either a soup (cream-based, of course) or a cold vegetable dish - for example, tomatoes with a sauce vinaigrette (olive oil and vinegar - I still haven't really figured out how much to use), beats with walnuts, shredded carrots with vinaigrette, cold canned corn...They eat the entrée on a small plate first, and then they have the main course with a side dish (potatoes, rice, pasta, etc.) on the regular plate. For the main course, it could be anything, but they typically use a lot of heavy cream. I've eaten things in the past three and a half weeks that I never thought I would (I'm not too big on creamy things): a very creamy zucchini casserole, a creamy cauliflower casserole au gratin (yikes), raw oysters...and even - gasp - orange cheese! Can you believe it? But notice that I didn't say "yellow cheese;" I said "orange cheese." They actually don't have yellow cheese here (yellow cheese is a term that I coined to refer to cheddar, including white cheddar, American, and marbled cheeses, all of which I detest and refuse to eat). The orange cheese that I ate is actually Mimolette, and it tastes very much like Parmesan. After the main course, the French have a green salad with cheese and baguette. During the week, we don't normally bother with that, but for fancier meals, that's the way it's done. Apparently they eat the salad (with vinaigrette - surprisingly, no creamy bottled salad dressings) and cheese at the same time to aid the digestion (makes sense, I guess). My first night here, Caroline had set up the dinner in the dining room and made it a bit fancier than a normal weeknight meal. The entrée was on the table, as was the salad. I couldn't figure out why no one was taking any salad. She asked me if I wanted anything else, so I took some salad. I thought that was the whole meal, and then she brought out the main course! So French people eat big meals. After dinner, they take a "dessert" - and by "dessert," they mean yogurt or a piece of fruit. When Americans say they're going to have dessert, they mean ice cream or cake or bars - the French eat a little container of yogurt for their Calcium and then maybe a Clementine. I think it's actually a nice balance. I've noticed the past few weeks that I've started to become more "French" in that aspect. Yesterday for lunch (I was eating by myself), I took my little plate and had my tomato entrée, then ate my main course (and I've noticed that I've begun to acclimate to the cream), then tore off a piece of baguette and spread some stinky French cheese on it. French cheese, by the way, does smell horrible, but it's SO good. It does not taste like it smells.

So my problem with the cooking is trying to come up with ideas for what to make. It's not as if I can just look up American recipes - I suppose I could, but I don't think they'd like it. The challenge is trying to find recipes that are simple and fit with the French way of eating. Since I'm new at this, the housekeeper or Caroline either make the dinner ahead of time or tell me what to do. Last night, however, that didn't happen. Yikes! What a disaster! We were running low on groceries, so I had no idea what to make for the main course. I can usually bluff my way through the entrée ("Uh...here you go, kids - tomatoes again!"), but the main course is a different story. Because I'm trying to watch 4 kids at the same time, the meal can't be complicated. The housekeeper had mentioned before she left that there were some sausages in the fridge. So I threw those in a pot. I had found a good entrée recipe for carrots online, so I was trying to make that, but it was taking a long time (peeling and shredding carrots is hard when they're super tiny). At the same time, I was trying to feed Léopold. Sometimes if I'm working in the kitchen, I'll let him eat on his own and help him just a little. He's actually getting pretty good at it. Last night, though, he was not in good form. He ended up covered in food - like his whole face, part of his sweater, and his pants. And he would only sit in his chair for so long before he started screaming, wanting to get out. It was getting later and later, and Louise had to leave for her orchestra practice. And Edouard was supposed to have taken his bath an hour before. Oh, là. I finally got the meal on the table, and then Louise had to leave and didn't get to eat before she went. So I was going to feed just the boys, but then I remembered that Edouard is allergic to gluten, and I wasn't sure if he could eat the sausages. So I had to make pasta for him. Meanwhile, Léopold is running around covered in food. At that moment, I was thinking what a HORRIBLE au pair I am. But the reality is that stuff like that happens even to the parents - it's just HARD to do everything at once. I did manage to get it under control in pretty short order. But I hope that doesn't happen again. Afterwards, I was looking at my carrot entrée that I had worked so hard on - the kids hadn't eaten very much of it. So I was kind of bummed about that. What a waste of time and energy! If I hadn't been doing that, things probably wouldn't have gotten so out of control. But later, the carrot salad was redeemed, because Caroline came home and was extremely impressed by it. She didn't even think that I had made it. Score! I had hoped to show her that I am taking the initiative to learn how to do some things, and I think I did. It made the craziness of the night all worth it.

So now I need YOUR help: I need your best French-like recipe ideas! Anything simple that you can think of - even ideas for entrées. I really don't want to have to ask Caroline every day, "What should I make tonight?" and I think she would prefer that I just kind of come up with things. If I was more creative, I think I could come up with things on my own. But I'm not, so I need everyone to pool their creative geniuses!