Tuesday, November 1, 2011

FFwD, sort of. Quiche Maraichere.

This week, for French Fridays with Dorie, we're scheduled to make lovely-sounding honey-glazed duck breasts. After harassing three different meat-department employees as to where I might find the duck breasts, I was informed that they're seasonal, and the store won't have any until the week before Thanksgiving. Bummer. The man then showed me frozen whole ducks that were set up next to the turkeys, and said I could get one of those and just cut the breasts off.  I don't thinks so, buddy.

How can duck breasts be seasonal, but whole ducks are not? I'm confused. Maybe the whole ones are still frozen from last year. Ew.

Needless to say, that threw a great big wrench in tonight's dinner plan. As far as keeping up with the group goes, I'm moving things around so that I'll mostly be on schedule. Since Thanksgiving week was set to be a free choice, I'll use my freebie this week, and make the duck during Thanksgiving week. Boom. Problem solved. Even better, I inadvertently already cooked a different dish from AMFT this week.

A friend came by for lunch yesterday. I've made Quiche Maraichere (pg 158 of Around My French Table) before, and I made it again, because it's delicious. I must have made this for myself pre-blog, though, because I don't see a post about it. That worked out nicely.
I like this quiche because it's light and non-greasy. The vegetable (diced carrots, red pepper, leeks, and celery) to custard ratio weighs heavily on the vegetable side. With a light coating of melty gruyere on top, this quiche tastes like a treat, but really isn't so bad for you, as far as foods that involve a tart crust, heavy cream, cheese, and eggs go. Hmm...I wonder if I can eat all my vegetables this way?

Conclusion: Love it. It's a great dish to prepare ahead of time and serve to company.

On a side note, I'll be posting less often this month. When I think of what I want to be doing with my life, writing novels has always been part of the picture. I earned my masters in fiction writing, published one story, wrote an AWFUL first draft of a novel, had a baby, and got totally sidetracked by life. For two years, I've barely written any fiction. To kick myself in the ass, I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which is some psychotic enterprise that people set out on to write 50,000 words (a 175 pg novel) during November. The focus is more on quantity than quality, but I'm a big slowpoke of a writer, so pushing myself to just forge ahead and stop staring off into space will be good for me. I'll consider it a huge success if I even make it halfway to goal, since I'm starting from zero, and my time belongs to Charlie.

Point is, one obvious place to find time is right here. I'll still be cooking through my book, and will post about the recipes, but I'll probably do shorter posts, less often. Wish me luck! I did pretty well today.

15 comments:

  1. Yeah, I wouldn't have bothered with the duck either if I were required to purchase an entire one.

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  2. Cheering you on from the arse-end of the world! Write something fabulous for the competitionthing - you do just great HERE!
    XO

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  3. The meat you would get off a whole duck is nowhere near the "2 lbs" that the recipe calls for, anyway - unless they have some kind of mutant ducks down there in TX - ours all seem to come from Canada, which is only 3 hrs North - apparently, Canadian-French geese match up with French food portion sizes... So you probably made a wise call.
    I called this one the 2nd mortgage dinner. 2 Lbs of duck breast = pricey :-)
    Good luck on your writing!

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  4. Best of luck with your writing. Sometimes it's good to just get it on paper (or I guess on screen these days) and worry about editing it after the fact.

    Too funny that duck is seasonal in Texas, much better to wait than try to hack up a frozen duck. Can you imagine!

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  5. Your writing project sounds fantastic. I admire everyone who can actually go beyond outlining and get some real writing done. Best of luck!

    I couldn't even get my hands on frozen duck, after harassing all the specialty butchers in my area over the phone. Tomorrow might be a great day to visit a cute nouveau-Mexican place that makes a great duck + Provolone quesadilla.

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  6. WOW!! sounds ambitious! Best of luck! That quiche looks great!! I dont even remember seeing it in there! Cant wait to make it!!

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  7. Best of luck! If you start to blog about your writing novel experience I'd follow!
    :)

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  8. "psychotic project" - bwhahaha! I'm a slow-poke writer myself, so 50,000 words in a month is just crazy. :) That quiche looks beautiful, btw. I must try it!

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  9. So happy to hear that you're following your dream with action. I wish you the best with your fiction writing this month and beyond. Though I will definitely miss you FFWD post.

    The quiche looks tasty and I look forward to it myself. Seems like a great recipe to adapt to ingredients available in the fridge.

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  10. I love your description of this quiche. I'll add it to my "try soon" list. Hopefully the duck shows up as the butcher said because the duck breast recipe was an A-plus recipe.
    Best of luck with your writing. I'll look forward to the shorter posts this month. You juggle a lot, with your child, blogging, cooking, and now more intense writing schedule. Enjoy it all! And, thanks for telling me about The Night Circus. I'll see if I can convince my book group to give it a try. We're reading The Marriage Plot this month.

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  11. I didn't realize it would be so challenging to find duck either. Had to get the whole duck or nothing, but guess I at least had the opportunity for duck.
    The quiche looks great- will try that. Congrats on your competition and novel - let us know how to vote for you if applicable.
    Happy French Friday!

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  12. Cutting up a whole duck was definitely an ordeal. I think you made the right choice! I'm so excited for you and your new project. There's nothing like a deadline to get you motivated! Can't wait to hear how it goes!

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  13. I'm sorry they didn't have the duck, but I think it is a great idea that you just switched weeks. I hope you enjoy the duck as much as we did we you do get to cook it. Your quiche looks wonderful! Good luck with Novel Writing Month - it sounds like fun and I hope it does help you get back into the fiction writing mode.

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  14. Well, I'm happy to hear that this recipe is a success... good luck with your writing. I'm awestruck thinking about your project! So impressive!

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  15. Your quiche looks delicious! I can't believe duck is seasonal in Tx? Best of luck with your writing project!

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