A Time To Cook

There is no way around it: I love food. I am pretty fond of eating it, but even more than that, I love the beauty of that ephemeral artpiece that is a meal.  My friends here make fun of me a little because I tend to take pictures of my food before I eat it (it's better than playing with it, right?), but I can't help but want to capture it! 

Stack of crepes: a lighter and lovelier version of a stack of pancakes. Alternating layers of crepes, peanut butter, assorted jam, and thinly sliced bananas, topped with chocolate and raspberries.



On Friday night, I had some friends over and prepared a french-ish meal.  It wasn't legitimately french, I'm sure, but with the Parisian accordian music and some French wine and cheese, it was close enough to count in my books!  I made a variety of canapé-style hors d'oeuvres (on crackers... forgive me),  a lovely salad, and ratatouille, while my friends provided the wine, cheese, and bread.  We finished with fresh fruit flambe, which flamed beautifully, but were harder to capture on a camera.  Just imagine blue flames flowing from a spoon full of honey, lime, and rum onto a delicious pan of similarly flickering peaches, pinapple, plum, and strawberry.  It was pretty exciting.

Canapes from left to right: 1) blackberry-elderberry cream cheese, peach, blackberry, sunflower seeds 2) italian herb cream cheese, smoked salmon, dried cherries, cucumber 3) italian herb cream cheese, smoked salmon, pepperocini, sunflower seeds, oregano garnish 4) italian herb cream cheese, tomato, cucumber, spicy mustard 5) cream cheese, tomato, stuffed olive, basil garnish.



Salade Verti: mixed greens, tomato, peach, cucumber, basil, nasturtium

Ratatouille a la Josie: tomato sauce topped with with fresh basil, onions, and garlic, layered with alternating zucchini, squash, eggplant, red pepper, and large wedges of tomato.  Garnished with feta and oregano.