FFWD Week #18: Chicken B'stilla

I wavered back and forth whether or not to make this week's recipe... finally, I decided to pull up my socks and just do it! I knew this was something special when I tasted the chicken mixture - sweet and spicy and so different than what I normally make. It is AMAZING! I made half a recipe in a 6 inch springform and it worked out great! I used chopped almonds instead of slivered and I quite like the crunch that they gave. I also left out the saffron - being a poor student and everything. The cinnamon sugar on the top was a great touch This is definitely one of my favourite recipes from Around My French Table so far! Check out how the other members here!

Lemonade Scones

A few days ago while hopping from baking blog to baking blog, I happened across a recipe for Orange Creamsicle Scones on Your HomeBased Mom. I love scones and have about a million different recipes I want to try. However, this recipe jumped to the top of the list in seconds flat! I was all out of oranges and too lazy to go to the store, so I decided to use lemons instead. Besides, lemons were on sale a while ago and I kind of went crazy =)These are some scones! They are soft and sweet and not dry at all! I only made half of the glaze and had plenty for all of the scones. I made 16 smaller scones and brought them into work (except for the ones I ate), where they were promptly devoured. SUCCESS! And don't worry, I sampled them hot from the oven, still warm and at room temperature and they are great at each temperature. Aren't you glad I did the hard work for you? I bought oranges today... guess what that means!?! Have any of you baked with Grapefruit? I am extremely intrigued by it - I must give it a go. Here's the Recipe.

FFWD Week #17: Michel Rostang's Double Chocolate Mousse Cake

This is my kind of recipe. This is chocolate. I tried this cake warm, and also once it was chilled after baking - my preference is definitely the chilled, baked cake. This Mousse Cake baked up without any glitches, and tastes WONDERFUL! After hearing about how some members had difficulty with leakage, I baked mine with the bottom of the springform in. (The top photo is supposed to be horizontal, but I was unable to upload it like that =( )

FFWD Week #16: Gnocchi a la Parisienne

I must admit - I had a tremendous amount of fun making this! Instead of dropping teaspoonfulls of dough into the water, I used a tip someone shared and put the dough into a piping bag and squeezed it out, cutting it into little pillows with a knife. I tried scissors first, but a knife worked better. For some reason, this was extremely fun =) I made the full recipe of GNOCCHI but froze 2/3rds of it for later. My sauce was VERY thick. There was no hope of pouring it so I heated it up with more milk until it was a pourable consistency. This was a very nice dish, very comforting and creamy. I used Emmenthal and I would like to try it with different cheeses.

FFWD Week #15: Paris Mushroom Soup

Wow, week fifteen already! Impressive =) I was wary of this soup - I have only recently began to semi-embrace mushrooms - but I went ahead and made it, although I did not made the seasoned mushroom salad to go with it. I don't like mushrooms THAT much! I was REALLY wary of the soup when I saw it in all it's grey glory, but it smelled good, so I tried it. And it is good. It is very good! But the colour... shiver!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope it proves to be a wonderful year for all =)