The French connection, part duex

So, the rest of the meal from last Saturday was really very simple too. For the green beans, with some help from my lovely assistant Little Miss K, we just snapped the ends off and steamed them whole. After they were done (and when I say done, I mean somewhere in-between the almost raw of fancy restaurant fare and overcooked to the point of gray-green stringy mush of Golden Corral) maybe after 5 minutes or so, toss with a little butter and salt. That's it, side dish number one, done.

For the Pommes Frites Campagnard (a.k.a. potato wedges) I actually cut up the potatoes a couple of hours in advance. I had heard that if you place cut potatoes in a bowl of cold, salted water the won't turn brown on you. Well, I'm happy to report that this is absolutely true. I couldn't believe how great they looked! Didn't even have to put 'em in the fridge.

About an hour before I wanted them done, I layed them out on a paper-towel lined baking sheet and let them dry off a little. Thirty minutes later I tossed them with olive oil, garlic powder (yes, between the chicken and potatoes, we were going to have stinky breath that night, but at least it was going to affect all of us), dried thyme, salt and freshly ground pepper. This recipe is slightly modified from one I found in the September issue of Everyday Food. After the chicken was out of the oven resting comfortably and covered in foil, I popped the potatoes in a 475 ° (thank you so much Dershana and Matt for teaching me know how to do this!!!) oven for 20 to 25 minutes. At the end of this time, the potatoes were done, but they weren't as brown as I wanted so I turned the oven up to broil and toasted them for a couple minutes. Perfection!

I'll post about the best part of the meal tomorrow: the galette!

The Main Course

From Saturday's dinner, that is. Here is the recipe for the delish Flank Steak Marinade from my brother-in-law Dave (but it's called Julie's - how confusing?!)

Julie’s Flank Steak Marinade

6 cloves garlic minced
3 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1.5 tbsp ground pepper. (I didn't use this much - maybe 2 tsp or so)
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup olive oil
5 tbsp honey (maybe a bit more)

Optional:
Shredded ginger
Green onions




I used this recipe for about 3 pounds of flank steak and, in hind sight, I should have doubled it (but I didn't have enough honey or soy sauce for that). I put the steaks and marinade, sans optional stuff, into a gallon sized ziploc bag and parked it in the fridge for about six hours. The flavor was great and not over-powering in the least. I guess if you let it sit overnight, the flavors would be stronger, but that's definitely not necessary.

Unfortunately, our grill is on it's last legs and we can only cook on half of the surface. They took a realllllly long time to cook and weren't ready when our guests arrived. Luckily, I knew they'd be forgiving :-) I handed them each a glass of wine and we listened to the ever-effervescent Katherine while we waited - luckily, they only took about 10 minutes more (this is after being on the grill for 20 already - painfully slow!).



Fortunately for us, I think we will be inheriting a really nice, almost brand new grill from my sister-in-law Karen and her husband Richard (did I marry into a great family or what - recipes, grills and so much more!). We just aren't sure when they'll be able to deliver it (or when we might be able to get it) - but I suppose I've got all fall and winter to get it here before the next grilling season strikes up again.

As for the side items for our meal, we had Three Cheese Garlic Scalloped Potatoes and Strawberry Spinach Salad. (didja see? didja see? I figured out how to link within the text!!!!! You can click on those and they'll take you to the recipes!)

For the potatoes, I doubled the recipe which I baked in a 13x9 casserole. Other changes: I only used two cheeses (cheddar and parmesan) and after reading some tips in the comments section, I substituted 1 cup of low-fat milk and 1 cup of low-fat sour cream for the heavy cream (if only making one recipe, use 1/2 cup each).


The proper tool for this job: a mandolin or food processor). I honestly don't think I'd ever make scalloped potatoes without one, they make the cutting potatoes job go so fast! It also works great for apple pie.



Oh, and completely ignore the times on there. Mine took 2 hours to cook and it really needed to sit for 20 minutes or so to set up.

This was taken at 1 and a half hours in, definitely needs more time. I was kind of worried about how soupy they looked, but after a few minutes on the table, they were much more solid.




These were fabulous and everyone (and I mean even the kids) wanted seconds, so make plenty!