Pâté and Puppies

     I had a wonderful week filled with cooking and dogs!  Well, there was lots of snow, too, which made everything look quite magical.  I love the snow!  I grew up in Colorado Springs so I'm used to a Colorado winter.  If it's going to be cold, it may as well snow - that's my mantra :-) 
     The week began with dogs.  We had a rescue of 96 dogs who came in safely last Sunday.  We had intake for them on Monday and Wednesday.  The plan was to have the entire intake on Monday, but it started snowing pretty hard around 2 pm and since National Mill Dog Rescue is located about 25 miles east of Colorado Springs out in the country using dirt roads and smaller country highways to get there, our operations manager decided to call it quits after an hour and sent us all home.  So we finished up the rest of the dogs on Wednesday.
     This rescue was mostly small breed dogs - Yorkies, Maltese, Poodles - and most of them are really sweet.  Depending on the harshness and conditions of the breeders and breeding facilities we often have dogs who are super scared of humans and do not want anything to do with us for a few weeks until they realize they are safe and surrounded by love.  But most of these dogs want your attention.  They may not be too keen on being picked up, but most are happy to have your touch and their little tails go like crazy!  It's so rewarding to work with them.  I was out there again on Friday and Saturday helping with different things. Needless to say, we have a full house and there are lots of things that need to be done for these sweet little pups.
    But, I did find the time to do some cooking using recipes from my Gascon cookbook.  Then Andy came over today for lunch and was my guinea pig (he's used to that and usually enjoys it!)  As I mentioned last week I made recipes for the "apero" - that lovely French tradition of having aperitifs before dinner - or anytime for that matter!  On the menu was chicken pâté, green olive tapenade, "special" olives, crusty toasted French bread with butter and herbs, and Laughing Cow Cheese. 
     Also for lunch I made totally NOT French chicken tortilla soup and Italian cream cheese cookies for dessert.  Here are some photos of the aperitifs and cookies.

From L -R: Green olive tapenade, chicken pâté and cheese, "special" olives

Italian cream cheese cookies - yum!!

Roties Salées

     I liked the pâté much more than I thought I would and the tapenade much less.  This recipe called for green olives, but next time I make it I will use black olives as I prefer those.  The "special" olives are really easy to do: drain a jar of Greek olives and empty into a larger container with a sliced shallot, 2 halved garlic cloves, a pinch of red pepper flakes then cover all with olive oil.  The longer the flavors can "marry", the better.  I sliced a baguette on the diagonal, spread lightly with butter (the Gascon recipe called for duck fat), then sprinkled with sea salt and herbs.  Then place in a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes.
     I'm happy to share the recipes for the pâté and the super easy Italian cookies, just let me know and I'll send them to you.  In case you're wondering about the tortilla soup, I love this recipe.  It's Trisha Yearwood's recipe based on a soup that she had at a restaurant and decided to reproduce at home.  It's a creamy soup which I really prefer to any other tortilla soup I've ever had.  If you're interested in her recipe you can google it using her name followed by "chicken tortilla soup".  I promise you'll love it.
     I follow a number of blogs which are written by American or English expats now living the good life in France and they will often share recipes.  I am tempted by one I saw this past week.  February 2nd in the US is Groundhog Day, but in France is Candlemas or "Chandeleur" - the celebration of the presentation of baby Jesus to the temple.   But in wonderful French fashion there is food involved - in this case crèpes!  The blog I read had a recipe for a baked pancake, kind of like a souflé served with lemon and sugar or with berries.  But the recipe that caught my eye was for a savory puffed pancake with the flavor of Gougère.  Gougère are tiny puff pastries made with gruyère cheese which are served for an apero all over France.  They are wonderfully light and cheesy. 
     The idea of a skillet-sized gougère really appeals to me!  I mean, I love puff pastry, I love cheese, so what's not to like here!  I plan to try this recipe out this week. Or maybe both the sweet and the savory.  Afteral, life is always better with a little sweet and a little salty.
     And I leave you with photos of a bend in the road.  One should always be curious about what's around the next bend.  This is what feeds my adventurous spirit!  May your week be filled with unexpected joys!  Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post.  Merci!!

These goats weren't sure they wanted us to go around that next bend!

The cow was protecting her bend in the road