[Lamb’s Lettuce Chicken Soup]

Foreword : you might notice that the picture above has the focus on the bread and not the soup. The soup will have to forgive me, I love it dearly and all, it is really the star of this post, but I’m sorry, soup, you are just not photogenic. At all.

La mâche, which I’m told translates to lamb’s lettuce, is a kind of salad which comes in small bouquets of soft green leaves in the shape of drops, and has a mild taste. I like its flavor and texture very much, I like that it looks very pretty and I like that “ça change de la salade!“, as a recurrent ad campaign says : “It’s a nice change from salad”.

We happened to have a bunch of mâche that was wilting so fast the naked eye could witness the process, and we also had leftovers from an astounding roasted chicken we had bought at our favorite rôtisserie a couple of days before. I considered making a chicken salad, but for all the daffodills and blooming buds, it is still winter here, so a soup felt much more appropriate.

This is the first soup I make that involves some kind of meat, and I am just now fully grasping the concept of chicken soup and what the fuss was all about : boy, talk about a comforting and fragrant soup! It is infused with flavor from the meat, bones and skin of the chicken which simmer in it for a while. Mâche turns out to be as delicious cooked as it is raw, with so mild a taste there’s almost a hint of sweetness.

It is also a very easy soup to put together, the only slightly annoying step being to remove the bones and skin. It would work with boneless skinless chicken breasts, but I still highly recommend using bone-in and skin-on pieces of chicken, I’m sure it really makes a difference in the depth of taste.

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For the longest time I wasn’t the greatest fan of oatmeal, at least when cooked in milk the usual way. The lumpy look and the weird smell and the mushy texture really turned me off. However, I was always a good friend of oatmeal in muesli, and in cookies, and in this baked oatmeal recipe.

The original recipe is actually one that is offered by Quaker Oats, and it caught my attention as it went through a bout of extreme popularity on the Cooking Light forums some time ago. I like to add nuts and dried fruit, such as raisins or dried cranberries, and an apple, a banana, a pear, a peach, or any fresh seasonal fruit is a great addition, too.

I call it a clafoutis because the texture reminds me of the typically French, grandmotherly dessert, and a slice of this oatmeal for breakfast or brunch is a delightful way to start the day : tasty, filling and healthful. You can have it with a side of yogurt and fruit; it is also nice with a thin spread of jam or peanut butter.

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With the amount of food shopping I habitually engage into, you’d think I would know better than to go to the grocery store with my stomach rumbling so loud it could be heard over the loudspeakers’ cheesy music.

Having come in with the intention to buy just plain yogurts to start a batch of homemade ones, I managed to walk away with two other types of yogurts, my favorite Krisprolls (the “Special” flavor with sunflower seeds), two different gâteaux au fromage blanc (the French cheesecake, light and moussy), malt swirl crackers, chocolate covered biscuits, the crêpes and the little pains au lait Maxence likes for breakfast, and a loaf of raisin bread. Can you tell it’s carbs I crave when hungry?

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[Swiss Chard and Squash Seeds Tart]

Had you been in my kitchen last week, you would have heard a small squeal of joy. That would have been me, unloading the contents of my weekly Campanier basket of fruits and vegetables, and discovering a lush bunch of swiss chard.

The next day found me picking up a couple of ingredients from the grocery store, then getting on to make this Swiss Chard Tart. I have recently bought a bag of squash seeds and a bottle of squash seed oil that I seem to throw into everything I make these days, and it turned out to be an excellent mix of flavors. In passing, squash seed oil is apparently excellent for your prostate, should you be in possession of one.

This tart is second cousin to a swiss chard pie I had made back in October of last year, which included raisins and pinenuts. This time, I decided to purée the cooked chard mixture before putting it in the pie shell. I like it both ways in terms of texture, but this second method makes for a much nicer appearance.

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