Hot Dog, Cheddar Cheese, & Chive Cake Salé with Tarragon Chive Butter for the Five Star Junk Food Makeover Challenge

When this posts Poppa Trix and I will be on holiday in Mexico City, sipping tequila at a cantina or enjoying a leisurely comida.  I look forward to catching up when we return!

I almost didn't show up for this month's Five Star Makeover Challenge, hosted as ever by the talented Natasha of 5 Star Foodie and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! It's not that I don't like the theme - using your favorite junk food and elevating it in a new dish - it's just that, as I've said here before, I am feeling rather "meh" lately. I expect that my trip to Mexico City will breathe some new life into me!

Plus, I don't really eat what most people would consider junk food. It's not that I don't love me a bag of chips, but the fact is, generally speaking I'm not going to waste my calories on that. It takes too long to work it off. Butter? Yes. Cheese? Definitely. A slice of pizza? Oh, hell yeah.

Gougères Filled with Whipped Butternut Squash, Dill, & Gruyère Cream for the Five Star Makeover Tailgate Party

Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

--Juvenal, Satire X

I don't want to be a party pooper, but the fact is, I do not like football, American or otherwise. I don't care for any team sport, really, and Poppa Trix and I don't follow any. For one thing, something about the randomness of madly cheering for a bunch of men just because they happen to be wearing a particular color jersey does not appeal to me. For another, I am a functional introvert,  and as such I am not a big fan of crowd activities. Besides, my contrary streak is a mile wide, and if a bunch of people are going mad over something, I grow suspicious. I am likely to at best ignore it; at worst, despise it. 

So you can imagine the blankness of my mind when this month's 5 Star Makeover challenge - hosted as ever by the lovely and talented Natasha of Five Star Foodie and the always creative Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! - was announced: Create a gourmet version of your favorite tailgate party food. And I have never even been to a tailgate party.

But then I rallied. This is supposed to be a challenge after all, right? My mind turned towards the ancient Romans and the Circus Maximus, and the phrase "bread and circuses," or "panem et circenses," first coined by Juvenal in Satire X. The phrase refers to the political philosophy of the late Roman Empire: Give the citizenry plenty of cheap food and entertainment, and they would happily abandon their political involvement and relinquish their rights, living only for fleeting distractions, thinking only of  their own pleasure and comfort.

Pass the Pissaladière ... It's French Friday with Dorie

Are you sitting down? No, really. If you aren't, please do. Or at least hold on to something. Okay, here goes ...

... For this week's French Fridays with Dorie dish, I played it pretty straight and stuck (more or less) to the recipe. And I liked it.

I know! First time for everything, right?

Spinach, Pancetta & Goat Cheese Crustless Quiche for French Fridays with Dorie

 It's been an appalling two whole months since I did a French Fridays with Dorie post. This is due to a number of factors: my trip to Prague, Krakow, and Vienna (which I've been posting about here, here, and here); the fact that I really haven't been terribly inspired to make the Dorie dishes lately (except the pepper steak - I wish I had found time to make that!);  and, finally, the fact that I just started a job cooking in the kitchen at the Desert Cafe, a Middle Eastern restaurant in Baltimore. I love it! But frankly,  I don't feel much like cooking when I get home.

And by the way, if you live in the area, come by on a Tuesday or Friday lunch or Wednesday dinner, and make sure to order the Trixie Truffle or the Mango Tango, my very own dishes that the owner put on the menu. Fun! And yes, I am still the online food and drink editor at a local magazine and I do other freelance writing projects ... so  ... whew, to say the least.

Gnocchi a la Parisienne for French Fridays with Dorie

Blogger Sanjana of KO Rasoi (if you don't read her blog you should!) recently jokingly referred to me as the supreme master of gnocchi. While I certainly wouldn't go so far as to call myself anything close to a master, I certainly do seem to have turned into quite the gnocchi maker of late. This is, after all, the fourth time I've done a gnocchi post. And I have a feeling it won't be the last.

First, I made sweet potato gnocchi with brown butter sage sauce; then came malfatti, lovely quenelles of Swiss chard, after a dish I loved at Al di La Trattoria in Brooklyn;  followed most recently by oh-so-light Viennese gnocchi baked in pumpkin cream. And now here we have these little dough balls again for French Fridays with Dorie, the weekly blogger event where members cook a predetermined dish from Dorie Greenspan's book Around My French Table. Yep, me and gnocchi ... we're tight like that.

Paris Mushroom Soup for French Fridays with Dorie

Even though I don't believe in making resolutions, I did make a New Year's decision to join in on the fun over at French Fridays with Dorie, inspired in part (and I believe unbeknownst to her!) by the indefatigable Mardi of Eat Live Travel Write. Each Friday, members of the group post a predetermined dish from the fan-tabulous Dorie Greenspan book Around My French Table.  I know, I know - as if I don't have enough to do ... but something about the discipline of the project (not to mention the recipes) really appeals to me. It's so easy to get caught up always trying to create that "new now next" recipe, that cooking from an actual book - not a blog, not a Web site - feels quite comforting and almost old fashioned. Of course, we'll see how well I keep this up once culinary school starts back up, but my intentions are good!

Roasted Chestnut & Butternut Squash Velouté

I think I have culinary Stockholm Syndrome. One of the things I had to prepare for my final last semester was a mushroom velouté, and now I can't seem to stop myself from making different versions of the same thing ... over and over and over.

Eh, I don't really mind.  I am not ready to jump on the January New Year's resolution salad bandwagon just yet. Sure, I'd love to lose a pound (or three) but ... I simply cannot bring myself to care all that much. At least, not enough to give up rib-sticking foods in the middle of winter. So, for now,  I'll just suck it up and do some extra time on the treadmill so that I can continue to slurp on hearty, mostly-healthy things (and wash it down with wine of course). May I humbly suggest that you do the same?

Rustic, But Not Humble: Caramelized Onion & Emmental Galette

To be honest, I am not 100% sure that this savory bundle of gooey cheese and sweet onions, encased in a flavorful herbed crust,  can properly be called a galette. Some say that a galette is a round, flat cake, which this is not; others define it as a free-form tart, which this clearly is. But, to paraphrase Shakespeare,  a rustic tart by any other name would taste as good.

Sole Food: Fish en Papillote

Remember that surreal feeling you got the first time you saw a childhood friend of yours - one you used to crack wise and joke around with -  do something serious ... something grown-up? It's quite shocking, really. This happened to me in my early 20s (practically yesterday, cough) at a birthday dinner for my grandfather.  My mom and I had chosen the restaurant because a friend of mine from high school worked there as a chef.

We ordered the fish in parchment paper, a dish I had never ordered before. Even though I knew my friend worked in the kitchen, nothing could have prepared me for the sight of him dressed in his full chef's whites, cutting open the parchment paper tableside. It made a huge impression on me.  "Whoa, he's a real chef!" I remember saying to my mom.

I Heart Savory Tarts!

I must have suffered some sort of carbohydrate-related trauma as a child.  Did an evil babysitter wrap me up in a puff pastry and stick me in the oven? Was I left in the woods with only bread crumbs to guide me home? Or perhaps I was frightened by the premature exploding of a can of Pillsbury breakfast rolls. I can't really say for sure.

But I do know that after years of shying away from working with dough - "I'll mess it up! I'll ruin it!" was my panicked refrain -  I have suddenly - and incurably - become absolutely tart-y for making savory tarts.