Crepes Suzette and a Book Review

If you've come in search of a delicious dessert, don't fret, I'm serving up Crepes Suzette in the second half of this post. But first, let's talk books.

Food for Thought is an online "book club" where members vote on a food-related book, read it, then review it online. You get bonus points for preparing a recipe from the book.

This month we read "My Life in France" by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme. This is the book club's fourth book and is by far my favorite.

The book was written by Julia's great nephew, Alex Prud'homme, toward the end of her life. Apparently, Alex had discussed the idea for the book with Julia years before, but it wasn't until she was 91 that she decided it was time to sit down with him and get started on "the France book". Through many hours of discussions and sifting through a mountain of letters written by Paul and Julia to Paul's brother while living overseas, the story of Julia' s life from 1948 onward unfolds.

It seems Julia bounced around for some time after college, in her words "drifting". Enter World War II. I can only imagine that during that period in history, it was hard not to be drawn in some way to the war effort. Julia was. Because she was too tall to join WACs and WAVEs, she joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, and the predecessor to the CIA) and eventually found herself in Ceylon as the head of Registry. It was in this role that she met Paul Child, her future husband. After she and Paul married, his job led them eventually to France where Julia was deeply influenced by France, the French way of life, and most certainly by the food.

Julia tells of her first meal eaten after arriving in France, sole meuniere. It was a profound experience. More French delicacies followed and soon, she started experimenting in her own kitchen (she barely cooked up to that point.) She enrolled in the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, and as they say, the rest is history.

Surprisingly, there is an element of suspense in the book. Although we know that the cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" was published and was a great success, you almost forget that, reading about all of the difficulties encountered by Julia and her co-authors, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. The cookbook was 10 years in the making, and I can't help but think that less persistent folks would have given up mid-way through.

Paul was an amateur photographer and many of his photographs appear in the book. I really enjoyed seeing Julia in her early years, before she became the culinary icon she is today.

I felt like reading her book gave me a sense of Julia as a person. When someone becomes immensely famous, it's easy to forget they're human, just like the rest of us. I also enjoyed reading about her fascinating life. She led a life and traveled in a way that I can only dream of.

My only criticism of the book is the occasional use of French language that wasn't translated.

The NY Times has a very nice review of the book here.

OK, if you're still with me, THANKS! Now, onto the crepes. There weren't any recipes in "My Life in France", but I figured the recipes from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" were fair game and couldn't resist trying the Crepes Suzette, a classic French dessert. The origins are credited to at least five different "Suzettes", from what I can tell.

OK, a quick rundown... first you make the crepes, which are basically really thin pancakes. As with all things, it takes some practice getting them thin enough and round.




You're supposed to dip each side of your crepe in the bubbling orange butter, but I had already been standing there making crepes for 30 minutes, so I skipped that step. You're then supposed to fold the crepes in half and then in half again. I went straight to the folding.


You take your orange butter...


...and cook it in your "chafing dish" (or your trusty saute pan).


Collect the folded crepes in the pan and "baste them" in the butter (my words there).



All that's left is the eatin'. I enjoyed mine with some raspberries, maple syrup, and whipped cream



And how were they, after all of that work? Delicious! It's a given that pancake lovers like me will be smitten. A word of caution, though. They must be eaten immediately. They became soggy before the second helping.

As for the recipe, I'm still waiting for permission from the publisher to reprint the recipe on my blog. However, I did find several recipes that are close. This crepe recipe (click here for recipe) from Creperie Chez Suzette is very close to Julia's. Gale Gand's recipe on the Food Network site (click here for recipe) is very close to the orange butter portion (you can use any crepe recipe, really). Note that Julia's orange-butter prepartion is somewhat unique compared to most I found.

If you're interested, you can watch a video of crepes suzette being prepared ---> here with Tyler Florence and friend. It's a slightly different method, but it gives you an idea of the finished product. If I can work up the motivation to cook up another batch of crepes (takes a long time, but can be done ahead), I might just have to try this version.

OK, bon appetit, and we'll see you next month.

Food for Thought: Bite Me

Dude! What? Bite you?

This month's Food for Thought book group selection was "Bite Me: Food in Popular Culture" by Fabio Parasecoli.

I find myself struggling to describe this book. It sort of feels like a bad boyfriend. Incredibly frustrating at times, then he's nice to you for a while and you think he's not so bad. I'm not quite sure how this relationship will end since I'm not done with the book. Now that I'm older, I'm not so willing to make time for bad boyfriends and difficult books. (Not that I actually have a boyfriend, since I'm married and all, but you know what I mean.)

This book started out reading like a senior level college textbook and I'm thinking "what the... ? Did I wake up back in college, except now I'm in some sort of food-related major?" It seemed like the author was trying to pack as many ideas into every sentence of the Introduction as humanly possible. I had to reread quite a few of the sentences, leaving me feeling like some sort of drugged out flunky. Here's an example sentence, where the author is trying to explain his definition of "Pop Culture":

"Received ideas about what culture is have deeply altered, following the counterculture movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the crisis of the project of modernity that hinged on the ideal of progress and often coincided with the goals of Western white males, the end of the old-style Cold War and the crisis of the traditional political ideologies, the beginning of new cultural wars (including the so-called "War on Terror"), the crisis of the post-colonial model of international relations, the complex and ever-shifting dialectics between globalization, national boundaries, and empire, and many other factors that go beyond the scope of this book".

That was one sentence, people! If you took all of that in on the first pass, please tell me. I will forever consider you a brainiac.

I skipped half of the Introduction and I also didn't make it all of the way through Chapter 1. They were just too heavy.

Chapter 2 was titled "Of Breasts and Beasts". OK. Interesting. We're now reading about breast feeding, cannibalism, and vampires... and (get this) how they're related. This chapter was an easier read, but the subject matter was well, mind boggling. I suppose I can accept that on a deeply psychological level, these ideas are related, but, as a mother who has breast fed two incredibly adorable babies... I'd prefer to remain blissfully ignorant of their cannibal instincts, frankly.

Chapter 3 was about works of Science Fiction. There are many examples of hunger and eating (or "consumption and ingestion" as the author says. Why can't he just say "eating"?) and it's symbology in works of science fiction. OK, yea, there are lots of hungry zombies out there jonesing for a dinner of fresh brains. OK. I get it.

Now Chapter 4 looks like it has promise. It's titled "Quilting and the Empty Body, Food and Dieting". Unfortunately, I can't make myself get back to it now that I picked up next month's book "My Life in France", by Julia Child, and accidentally started reading it.

I'm sorry, Fabio, but I just haven't enjoyed reading your book. And I'm sorry to dis your book out here on the Internet where my millions of readers will be influenced by my bad review (ha ha, "millions of readers"... I crack myself up sometimes).

Anyway, if y'all want to join us, please stop by Kate's site, The Clean Plate Club, and get yourself on the blog list. I'm already enjoying Julia Child's book. I think it's going to be a winner.

Vote Now: Food for Thought Book Blog

As if we didn't have enough excuses to blog, some of us bookworm-bakers and cooks have joined forces with Kate at the Clean Plate Club (sound familiar? Kate also hosts Cookie Carnival) and joined Food for Thought. It's a monthly excuse to visit the library and pick up a copy of whatever book the group votes in. Read the book, then, at the end of March, we share our views, thoughts, likes and dislikes. Plus there are bonus points if we chose a recipe from the book (if there are recipes) and make it.


For March, it's my turn to pick the pool of books we will chose from. Looking at my choices, I've got two "bad boy" books and one by the queen mother of the kitchen. LOL, If you pick one of the books by the guys, be forewarned that there's a bit of (OK, a lot of) foul language.

OK, folks, here are your choices for March:

1.Cooked by Jeff Henderson

2. My Life in France by Julia Child

3. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

OK, make yourself heard and vote by commenting to this post. Once the votes are in, Kate will send out an email letting know which book was chosen and the due date.

If you'd like to join us, head on over to Food for Thought and Kate will get you signed up.

Food for Thought: Talking With my Mouth Full

Hey guys, another quickie post here.

I just want to make sure the world knows that I did my assigned homework (we middle children are people pleasers, you know) and read this month's Food for Thought book, Talking with my Mouth Full, Crabcakes, Bundt Cakes and Other Kitchen Stories, by Bonnie Wolf.

This book read more like a collection of essays rather than a story. That's OK though, it's perfect for those times when you have 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there.

Ms. Wolf has lived in many different parts of the country that exposed her to a huge variety of culinary experiences. Maryland crabcakes, Minnesota anti-pasta (I know, it doesn't seem to fit, but I learned a lot about anti-pasta in that chapter), Texas chili, and the list goes on.

I enjoyed this book. There were so many recipes included that sounded delish. Unfortunately, I read it over Christmas and promptly returned it to the library before I wrote down specifics I wanted to talk about in my review. (So much for my career as a literary critic, LOL). I promise I'll have more substance next time.

Next month we read Bite Me: Food In Popular Culture. If you'd like to join us, feel free to stop by.

Food for Thought: Waiter Rant

I joined a new food book discussion blog called Food for Thought, hosted by Kate at the Clean Plate Club. Each month we will review a "foodie book" and we also have the option of trying a recipe from the book, if there are any.

For our first month we reviewed the book "Waiter Rant", by Steve Dublanica a.k.a. "The Waiter". You might be wondering what's up the "a.k.a." business.

Here's the deal... this guy is a waiter in a high-end New York City restaurant and he started a blog called Waiter Rant. He posted anonymously because he's got lots of dirt, er, insight on co-workers, bosses, and customers. He posted anonymously for several years and developed a following that eventually led to a book deal. Still keeping his identity unknown, he published his book, but then eventually "came out". (It's hard to be an anonymous guest on Oprah.)

There weren't any recipes in the book. I considered making a Valentines Day inspired chocolate raspberry cake (mentioned in the book) along with my review, but I ran out of time.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. Just like so much of life, you can't really appreciate someone else's position until you've "walked a mile in their shoes".

Waiters see the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of humanity. The author recounts many cases of selfish, unkind behavior, some of which are truly shocking. Like the couple who were so worried and uptight about getting a particular table... never mind that the restaurant had been turned upside down as an emergency crew was attending to a woman who had a stroke during dinner.

I know this sounds cliched, but, waiters are people too. They have lives and histories and bills to pay and they deserve kindness and respect just like everyone else. Sometimes it's easy to fall into the habit of thinking they are in a position of servitude. If there's one thing I learned from reading this book, it's that simple kindness, saying please and thank you, and tipping appropriately are the least we customers can do when eating out.

I thought this was a great read and I would recommend it. However, those with a sensitivity toward swearing might want to chose another title from the book shelf.