Cooking on a Whim - Nutella Granola, Corned Beef Hash and Happy Hour Cookies

Cooking and blogging continue to be sporadic…lately, the mood strikes when I see something on one of the blogs I follow or in my Facebook newsfeed. I really wanted to Cook the Cover of Bon Appetit this month (Savory Short-Rib Beef Pies), but had just made Natchitoches Meat Pies and wasn't motivated enough to track down boneless beef short ribs after striking out at the local market.

My latest whim was inspired by David Lebovitz' Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Granola. I like snacking on granola occasionally, but I thought it would be fun to make a special batch to ship to Tennessee to take on the road for an out of town baseball tournament. I adapted the recipe to include a few of his favorites - Nutella, bananas, coffee, and pineapple. Unfortunately, since this was a last-minute whim, and without thought to overnight shipping cost, two pounds of granola will now be waiting on the doorstep when he arrives home! Sorry FedEx, not paying $90!

I have quickly become addicted to my Nutella version, but would like to try David's Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip version. Please consult his blog for the original recipe and preparation method, but this is a list of what I used in my adaptation (I added the coffee to the pan when I warmed the Nutella, orange honey and brown sugar):

Nutella Granola 

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raw macadamia nuts, very coarsely chopped
3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup banana chips
3/4 cup dried pineapple
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground coffee
1/2 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
1/2 cup Nutella
1/2 cup orange honey
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons water

A few other recent whims included Bon Appetit's Corned Beef Hash, which I made for St. Patrick's Day dinner….

And Bon Appetit's Savory Black Pepper and Parmesan Cookies, to share at our community's weekly happy hour. 

Walking back from the clubhouse, after happy hour, I caught a glimpse of crisp white sails against the dark sky, and ran inside to grab my camera…Spring was here last week, but has been a no-show this week!

French Fridays with Dorie - Lovely and Ruffly Poached Eggs

The French Fridays part of this post is going to be brief because I was too lazy to go to the store for the brioche, wild mushrooms, shallots, cream and herbs required to prepare this week's recipe:  Creamy Mushrooms and Eggs. The recipe calls for poached eggs or Ruffly Poached Eggs. I was intrigued with the technique for the ruffly poached eggs so I decided to give those a test run and create a simple lunch with ingredients on hand. The creamy mushrooms will have to wait for another time...

Toasted English Muffin, Prosciutto and Ruffly Poached Eggs

Achieving the "ruffly look" is a small production - Tear off two pieces of plastic wrap, put one on top of the other, lightly brush the top piece with olive oil, gently press the wrap inside of a tea cup, crack an egg into the plastic wrap-lined tea cup, forage through several drawers in search of kitchen twine, gather up the wrap around the egg, and then tie the pouch with twine. Repeat with each additional egg to be poached. Submerge said pouches in simmering water for 5-6 minutes, remove pouches to counter top, snip off plastic just below twine, unwrap poached eggs, and transfer to waiting English muffin halves, toast, asparagus spears, or salad. Add freshly ground pepper and parsley sprigs and serve.

Egg ruffling tools

I enjoy playing with my food, so this egg poaching technique was fun to try. Dorie shares the method here. The eggs do look elegant with their ruffles and pleats, but Michael Ruhlman's badass egg poaching spoon method also yields lovely eggs, without wrestling plastic wrap and hunting down twine.

Speaking of elegant and lovely, the annual Coronado Flower Show, the largest tented flower show in the nation, took place recently. The home front division competition excites the Coronado community and inspires everyone to spruce up their gardens and beautify the city in preparation for the flower show. Here are some photos from my self-guided tour of the top 25 home fronts. You can see the full album here.

Cheers, and have a great weekend!

- Denise & Trapper

***

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

French Fridays with Dorie: Chicken Basquaise

I took advantage of the cooler weather on Sunday to make this week's French Fridays with Dorie Chicken Basquaise. I'm glad I made it early, and over the weekend, because it may not have happened during the work week. It takes time to prepare the pipérade, a medley of sliced onions, bell peppers and mild chiles, slowly sautéed with tomatoes, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, and piment d'Espelette. It takes even longer to roast and peel all the peppers and chiles first. I didn't take the time to do this extra step (neither does Dorie) and didn't really mind a few floating pepper skins in the dish.  I also used canned San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes instead of peeling fresh tomatoes.

After preparing the pipérade, chicken thighs are seared golden brown, the pan is drained of the fat, and white wine is added to deglaze the pan. The chicken and pipérade then return to the pan to gently simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes. 

Dorie prefers to serve this colorful chicken and pipérade over plain white rice, finished with a sprinkling minced fresh basil or cilantro. I served mine over extra wide egg noodles, garnished with basil.

Dorie's recipes for the Pipérade and Chicken Basquaise were published in The Washington Post.

If you wish to go chicken-less, Pipérade and Eggs is another option. Simply spoon warm pipérade into shallow bowls, make a little well in the center of each, and fill the well with softly scrambled eggs. Drizzle the eggs with olive oil, garnish with fresh basil, and serve with slices of warm toasted country bread rubbed with garlic and moistened with oil.

Give me a few minutes - I just talked myself into making this for lunch with some leftover pipérade sans the crusty bread...

A few minutes later...yes, that's quite nice ;-)

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

Falling for You: Irish Cheddar and Chive Souffle

It seems I've neglected the blog, and my kitchen, this past week. French Fridays with Dorie is already here again, and I haven't published a post since last week's French Fridays. I happily blame it in part on this attention-sponge, who eats three times a day and is already up to 43 pounds at just 12 weeks. We can't walk into the kitchen without him bouncing up, perking his ears, cocking his head, and then flying into the kitchen to see if he's getting another meal.

Trapper, drifting into puppy nap time

Not to say we haven't eaten quite well this past week - that's definitely not the case after making the rounds to three Coronado restaurants.

Last Friday, we sat out on the patio for a sunset Happy Hour at Saiko Sushi, sipped $5 glasses of wine, and shared a few of the happy hour and house specialities: Saiko Edamame (seasoned with celery salt and garlic), Saiko Roll (salmon, yellowtail, crab, wasabi, aioli, eel sauce, tempura fried), and the Rey Roll (seared albacore, tempura shrimp, crab, apple and mustard vinaigrette).

Saiko Edamame

Saiko Roll

Rey Roll

On Monday, Leroy's Kitchen + Lounge invited us to photograph a Wine Dinner featuring Fritz Underground Winery (Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County, CA). The five course menu offered Asparagus Soup, Steamed Mediterranean Black Mussels, Mar i Muntanya, Spice Rubbed Tri Tip, and Zinfandel Poached Strawberries, paired with Fritz wines. Emily's Mexican Chocolate Cake Martini sealed the deal.

Our top pick of the evening was the Mar i Muntanya, a multi-layered paella-esque creation, paired with Fritz Pinot Noir.

Mar i Muntanya

Leroy's Kitchen + Lounge added a few new dishes to the regular dinner menu, including Diver Scallops with Asparagus Risotto, California White Seabass, and Duroc Bone-in Pork Chop. You can see our photos of the Fritz Wine Dinner, and new additions to the menu, on Leroy's Facebook Page.

Seared Diver Scallops with Asparagus Risotto

On Tuesday night, we photographed Il Fornaio's Passaporto Dinner celebrating some of the Festa Regionale crowd-pleasers. We photographed, and promptly devoured, Pasta alla Castellana from the Trentino-Alto Adige region. Rigatoni pasta tossed with pork tenderloin, bacon, shiitake mushrooms, Parmigiano, brandy, cream and fresh thyme...need I say more?

Chef Giorgio

Pasta alla Castellano

Last night, I was finally able to get to this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Cheese Souffle. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I substituted Irish Reserve Cheddar Cheese and chives, in place of Dorie's Gruyere and nutmeg.

Souffle Mise En Place

Rather than making one large souffle, I played around with a few different sizes...

Petite Souffle

Individual serving in a small ramekin

While attempting to get one last photo of two souffles together, I rushed to get them from the oven to the table and dropped the second on the table. Souffles fall quickly once removed from the oven, but they really fall fast when dropped! Despite doing what souffles do best, falling rapidly before your eyes, the flavor and texture was grand.

To accompany our souffles, I made these Sweet and Sour Glazed Pork Chops from Saveur. During grilling, they are brushed with a reduction of balsamic vinegar, honey and rosemary. I cooked ours stovetop, in a dutch oven, and they were tender, flavorful and pretty alongside the souffles.

Within minutes of posting a photo of my fallen souffle on Facebook last night, I received the most heartwarming e-mail from Ann, who gave me permission to share her words and photo:

"Despite your French Friday's with Dorie disaster, you are an inspiration to all of us. I love your blog and of course, Dooley and Trapper! My Sister Sal and I made this dinner last week, with Trapper supervising! See attached photo! Have a great weekend!"

Ann's Chicken Picatta, inspired from this post

Thank you, Ann. You truly made my evening with your e-mail and photo!

***

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s newest book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

French Fridays with Dorie: French Country Benedict

John is the biscuit-maker in our house. He has perfected John Besh's Grandmother Walters's Biscuits, and has been known to bake up a batch of Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits. Other than those, and a bite or two of his Biscuits and Gravy at a country cafe in our local mountains, my life has been pretty much void of biscuits.

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe, St-Germain-des-Prés Onion Biscuits, is Dorie's adaptation of the basic American biscuit. She adds chopped and quickly sauteed onions to the dough, cuts the dough into trendy cocktail-size rounds, and serves them with country ham and Champagne. Dorie's biscuits, named after her swanky Paris neighborhood, are now a staple at her cocktail parties.

St-Germain-des-Prés Onion Biscuits

I needed to make a meal out of these biscuits, so I decided to do a slight twist on Country Benedict, which replaces the English muffin, ham and hollandaise sauce in traditional Eggs Benedict with an American biscuit, sausage patties, and country gravy. The poached eggs are replaced with eggs fried to choice. I used St-Germain-des-Prés Onion Biscuits, sausage patties made with Jimmy Dean sage sausage, and country gravy; I did stay with poached eggs.

French Country Benedict

Breakfast for dinner is nice on occasion, and our French Country Benedict was simple and satisfying. 

Dorie's recipe for St-Germain-des-Prés Onion Biscuits can be found here. Other than the onions, the recipe is almost identical to the John Besh recipe we've used. Some biscuit recipes use buttermilk, instead of milk, and add a teaspoon of baking soda. Thomas Keller uses a combination of cake flour and all-purpose flour (he also uses buttermilk, baking powder and baking soda). 

Critical factors in biscuit-making are: Proper ratios of flour, leavener (baking powder and/or soda), salt, fat (usually butter), and liquid (milk, buttermilk, cream); quick cutting of the fat into the dry ingredients to keep the butter cold and firm (food processor with a steel blade works best); stirring in the liquid just until the ingredients are bound, so the gluten will not become activated (i.e, DON'T OVERWORK); gently patting the dough into a 3/4-inch thickness rather than rolling it with a rolling pin; resist twisting the cutter when cutting the biscuits; and high oven temperature (425 degrees F) with a short baking time (15-18 minutes). It probably goes without saying, but biscuits are best hot from the oven. We also like sprinkling the tops of the biscuits with a pinch of salt just before baking.

For perfect poached eggs, I used the method I learned from Michael Rulman, and for the country gravy, I used this recipe from Homesick Texan.

***

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s newest book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

French Fridays with Dorie...and Michael, and Thomas: Bacon and Eggs and Asparagus Salad

French Fridays with Dorie members must have been craving bacon, as evidenced by last week’s Spinach and Bacon Quiche, and this week’s Bacon and Eggs and Asparagus Salad, top recipe picks for the May schedule. We started off the month with a fabulous Tourteau de Chevre, which I know I will be making again for one of our summer Concerts in the Park. I skipped the quiche, because I failed to plan ahead by making a double batch of dough the week prior, and didn’t feel like making homemade crust two weeks in a row.

This week's Bacon and Eggs and Asparagus Salad was easy for our Wednesday night dinner, and I was able to take advantage of the lardon, red walnuts, and rustic loaf of bread we already had on hand. It’s no secret bacon and eggs are naturals, as are asparagus and bacon. Put them all together with mustard-sherry vinaigrette, baby greens, and toasted walnuts, and you’ve got a sure winner. A fresh grating of Parmesan, or a few slices of Gruyere, seals the deal.

I poached our eggs, rather than soft-boiling them, mainly because I wanted to test out Michael Ruhman’s method for poached eggs with his Badass Perforated (aka Egg) Spoon. I did not jump for the chance to purchase said Badass Spoon for $25.00 via OpenSky, because I had a similar $10.00 generic version sticking out of my utensil caddy already. The idea is to achieve neater poached eggs by getting rid of the liquidy, flyaway whites before poaching. And it does work: Simply crack an egg into a ramekin, slide the egg out of the ramekin onto the spoon, and allow the liquidy stuff to drain into the sink through the perforations. Slide the egg back into the ramekin, and then slip it into simmering water when ready to poach (no need for vinegar in the water). Use the badass spoon again to retrieve and drain the poached egg.

I used Thomas Keller's method for making lardons, and also made his Garlic Croutons, both from Ad Hoc at Home. Talk about badass!

Sorry, Dorie, I wasn’t completely faithful to your recipe this week. My little side flings with Ruhlman and Keller were just too tempting.

Thomas Keller Lardons: Cut the lardon or slab bacon into lardons about 1 inch long and 1/4 inch thick. Pour 2 tablespoons water into a medium saucepan and set over medium heat (the water will keep the bacon from crisping as the fat begins to render). Add the bacon, reduce the heat to medium-low, and let the bacon render its fat for 30 minutes. The bacon will color but not become completely crisp. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Thomas Keller Garlic Croutons: Cut the crusts off the loaf of white bread. Tear the bread into irregular pieces no larger than 2 inches. Measure about 3 cups of torn bread. Pour 1/8 inch of garlic-flavored oil (store-bought or homemade) into a large saute pan and heat over medium heat until hot. Spread the torn bread in a single layer. Add 2 tablespoons of butter. The oil and butter should be bubbling but not sizzling. Adjust the heat as necessary, and stir the croutons often. Cook the croutons until they are crisp and golden brown on all sides, 15 to 20 minutes. Move the croutons to one side of the pan and keep them warm until they are ready to serve.

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group, that just hit 2,000 members, dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s newest book, Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. As members of the group, we have purchased the cookbook and cook along as much as we can. There is a new recipe each week, and we post about that recipe on Friday. We are asked to refrain from posting the actual recipes on our blog. The book is filled with stunning photography, and personal stories about each recipe, which makes it that much more intriguing. I highly recommend adding it to your cookbook collection if you haven't already!

I found the actual recipe for this week's Bacon and Eggs and Asparagus Salad, published by the cookbook's publisher, here, so I'm sharing the link.

I recently received the comment below on one of my FFwD post, and I tend to agree, as long as the the recipe is "adapted" with your own words and attributed to the original author/cookbook. I'm interested to hear some other opinions, since these recipes have been blogged and posted by several other food bloggers by the time FFwD members prepare the recipe. Why should we lose readers, or be rejected by foodgawker and TasteSpotting if we don't post a recipe, when the recipe is readily available on other blogs? The FFwD rules state we cannot post the actual recipe, but does that mean we can't post our own re-written/adapted version?

Here's the comment: "The recipes look wonderful and the pics are fantastic...but, I have to say it absolutely drives me nuts that the "dorie participants" do not post the recipes. It totally goes against everything foodgawker is about, learning and sharing new recipes. It is a blatant promotion for Dorie's cookbooks and in my humble opinion, unacceptable. She's not reinventing the wheel here, it's just a recipe that people put their own spin on. I think foodgawker should not allow this to happen. Other than the "dorie days" I like your website."

Let me know what do you think?

***

Croque-Madames and Puppy Love

The Croque-Madame sandwiches featured in the December/January 2011 issue of Fine Cooking appealed to me for our occasional, at-home Sunday brunch. I almost ordered one when we recently dined at Cafe Chloe, a charming French bistro in downtown San Diego's East Village. When John and I stumble upon a food find, such as this little cafe recommended by Chris, it never fails. We end up bitching over Coronado's restaurants, and wondering why such an enchanting resort town is not blessed with just one sidewalk cafe that offers simple, yet marvelous breakfast dishes. I don't mean to sound like a food snob, but it's slim pickins in a town with so much potential. We're forced to settle for average, or go off island in search of gratifying food.

More often than not, we cook at home. This is a good thing, since we love to cook and manage to do it well on most occasions. So, on this particular Sunday morning, we picked up fresh bread, eggs, and ham, and had time to prepare and savor our crunchy, gooey, croque madames before an afternoon visit with Bob and Sandra, and new puppy, River.

Sandra warned me ahead of time to be prepared for unbearable cuteness.  This adorable boy came all the way from Colorado.

Tearing myself away from irresistible puppy fluff, and getting back to food, I don't recall ever eating one of these French sandwiches before. A croque-monsieur is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich that originated in France as a fast-food snack served in cafés and bars. The name is based on the verb croquer ("to crunch") and the word monsieur ("mister"), colloquially shortened to croque. More "elaborate" versions come coated in a Béchamel sauce or Mornay sauce. A croque-monsieur served with a fried egg or poached egg on top is referred to as a croque-madame. To me, this is backwards; a man is more likely to slap a fried egg on a sandwich. However, in this case, the egg apparently resembles an old fashioned woman's hat.

I quickly checked out a few of my cookbooks for recipes to compare with Fine Cooking's "riff on the classic" (FC uses leftover roasted fresh ham, rather than cured ham). When I haven't made something before, I like to compare a few recipes and them adapt them to my tastes. Barefoot Contessa's Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Make at Home, has a recipe for the croque-monsieur, but I definitely wanted the egg on top.   Thomas Keller's Bouchon also has a recipe, but with a more elaborate Mornay sauce than I was willing to prepare that particular morning. Fine Cooking's béchamel sauce was unique with the addition of brandy, Worcestershire sauce and fresh thyme.

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you...it's only John playing with his new Lensbaby!

Croque-Madames
Slightly modified from Fine Cooking
Serves 4

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-3/4 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons brandy
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 spring fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 slices brioche, or country-style bread
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
6 ounces Gruyère, or Emmental, grated (1 1/2 cups)
8 ounces ham, sliced, but not too thin
1/2 ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, finely grated (1/2 cup)
4 large eggs, at room temperature

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in the flour and continue whisking just until it turns beige, about 20 seconds. Whisk in the milk in a slow, steady stream, and continue whisking until smooth, thickened, and slightly bubbling, 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk in the brandy, Worcestershire sauce, thyme sprig, nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Whisk for 30 seconds, turn off the heat, and remove thyme sprig. Set aside, whisking occasionally to prevent a skin from forming.

Position a rack 4 inches from the broiler element and heat the broiler on high.

Spread four of the bread slices on one side with 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard each. Sprinkle some Gruyère over the mustard, followed by 2 slices of ham each, and then the remaining Gruyère. Top with the remaining bread.

Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook 2 of the sandwiches until brown and crisp, over medium-low heat, turning once halfway through the cooking, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with another tablespoon of butter and the remaining 2 sandwiches.

Ladle the béchamel sauce over the sandwiches (it will run down the sides), and then sprinkle with the Parmigiano-Reggiano. Broil until bubbling and lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a 10-inch nonstick skillet, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Crack the eggs into the skillet and fry them sunny side up until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny, 3 to 4 minutes.

Use a large, flat spatula to transfer the sandwiches to serving plates. Place a fried egg on each. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

Newf Notes:

After loving Fine Cooking's version, especially the béchamel, and in preparation for writing this post, I looked at a few more recipes to see if I would do or suggest anything different.

I'm sorry, the food snob is sneaking out again, but I just don't see how Paula Deen can even call her sandwich a Croque Madame when she replaces the luscious béchamel with slathered mayonnaise. It further blows me away her recipe has 5 stars.  I'm just "gonna" say, Paula, skip the mayo and go with the béchamel or mornay sauce, it ain't rocket science!

I might go with Brioche next time - our bread was a little too thick and crusty. Have it sliced for you if possible. Poached eggs would be nice - more yolk to ooze out over the top. If you want it prettier, add a sprinkling of chopped parsley over the top of that lady's hat. Perhaps a little fruit salad on the side.



***

Pumpkin Gorgonzola Flan, and Games Adults Should Avoid While Drinking

Where was this recipe when I was planning the menu in preparation for catering my friend's holiday party? It was hiding out in a fabulous cookbook I had yet to buy - Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours.

I'm apparently behind the times, because this magnificent starter or hors d'œuvre was already blogged by members of French Fridays with Dorie last month. C'est la vie! This cookbook is now a part of my collection and I plan on trying many of the recipes in the New Year.

For our group, it made its debut at Alec & Nina's Christmas Party, alongside Kai's Scallop and Crab Stuffed Shrimp, Nina's Asparagus, Prosciutto and Burrata platter, Chris' Filet of Beef Wellington, Carmen's Onion Tart, and Alec's Thomas Keller Fried Chicken.

The evening was stellar, with the company, extravagant food, fine wine, and hilarious version of Truth or Dare around the fire pit (instigated by Jack and Sandra). I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. You had to be there, and drunk, to appreciate the humor! John could have used a bit more alcohol in his system when Jack was dared to lick his face, and Kai could have used a bit less alcohol in his system when he demonstrated laying a large egg. I'll just leave it at that and share the flan...(although this would have been a really exciting blog post if we had remembered our camera)...okay, I also had to pretend to be a stripper pole while Sandra danced around me ;-)

Pumpkin-Gorgonzola Flans
Serves 12 (using twelve, four-ounce ramekins)
Adapted from Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours

1 can (29 ounces) pure canned pumpkin
6 eggs
4 egg yolks
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
8 ounces Gorgonzola, crumbled
1 cup toasted walnuts, broken into large pieces or coarsely chopped
Sour cream, creme fraiche, honey, or maple syrup, for garnish

Preparation:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F, and bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Butter twelve, 4-ounce ramekins. Line the bottom of a large roasting pan with a double layer of paper towels, and place the ramekins in the pan.

Combine the pumpkin, eggs, yolks and cream in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Divide the custard between the ramekins, and then sprinkle the crumbled Gorgonzola over the top of the custards. With the tip of a knife, poke down some of the Gorgonzola crumbles into the custard. Sprinkle the tops of the custard with toasted walnuts.

Carefully pour the boiling water into the roasting pan so it comes about half way up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake the flans 35-40 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center of the custard comes out almost clean. Transfer the roasting pan to a rack and allow the flans to cool in the water bath until warm. Remove from the water bath and keep lightly covered, at room temperature, for up to 6 hours before serving.

Serve warm or at room temperature, with a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche, or a drizzle of honey or maple syrup.

The flans can be served in the ramekins or inverted onto a plate. If you do invert them, carefully turn the flans back over so the toasted walnuts and crumbles of Gorgonzola show on the top.

These were divine as a starter or hors d'œuvre, but would also make a nice side dish, or a light meal paired with a salad and crusty bread.

Note: I doubled the original recipe and used 4 ounce ramekins instead of 6 ounce ramekins.