Martha Meets Lucy

Croque Monsieur

I’m going to make a very, very gross assumption and say that all food bloggers talk to their food. I know that I have begged, pleaded, and bartered with food. I’ve showered it with compliments.

Yesterday, I cooed at it. Before I'd even cooked it.

"Look at you all teeny tiny. I could just eat you right up.”

“Who’s the cutest little sandwich ever? You are. That’s right, you are.”

There was more, but what little dignity I have insists that I stop.*

I love food in miniature, but little sandwiches with a formal name are extra cute.

This is going to become my new favorite brunch/cold weather/appetizer dish. They are so easy and everyone is going to love them. To quote my cousin Michael**, “They’re really good, but you cheated. You put melted cheese on anything and it is going to be amazing.”

Touché.

I did make the bread from scratch because I could not find mini brioche. And I didn't want full sized brioche cut into small pieces. I wanted mini brioche. I also didn’t look very hard because I looove making bread. But making the bread is definitely not necessary and as such I will not be sharing the recipe until later this week. Seriously, any good brioche would be amazing.

I haven’t even gotten to the best parts. It can be made in advance and the sandwich is cooked in the oven. The top gets all melty and gooey, and the bottom gets brown and toasty and I wish I still had some left now. Put a fried egg on it, and you have a Croque Madam, and a room full of amazed brunch goers (or Oscar party attendees). They don’t need to know how easy it was.

Pancetta Crusted Mini Quiche

You would think that after telling you about the party, then giving you a dessert from the party (which was the first to vanish), you would think I would give you a picture of the food at the party.

But I can’t. Because I didn’t take any. Not a single solitary picture.

You might also think that I would be so well stocked in recipes to post, but you would be wrong. So very, very wrong. Because again, I took no pictures.

Technically, I took some pictures but none of them turned out l because I was in a hurry and I need to take time if I want an appealingish picture (so you get blurry pictures instead. Yay you!). And there’s no picture of the final product because by the time I was done getting ready (looking pretty takes time, which is why it's not normally in my repertoire), I threw everything in the car and drove to the hotel. I’m lucky there weren’t curlers in my hair when I got there. 

 Then the party started. And I got to stand there and get showered with compliments all night long. And we all know how much that sucks.

Just kidding. It was amazing. And I totally took the modest “thank you” route instead of my usual “I know” response.

I am so classy sometimes it just kills me.

And the dish that got me the most compliments? The mini-quiche. I was expecting the meatballs to get all the praise. And I think if more people had eaten dessert, the blondies would have gotten the praise they so very rightly deserve.

Chicken in a Jar (aka Chicken Rillettes)

Remember that chicken stock I made the other day? You know, the one with the feet? I just felt a shudder, so I guess you do remember it. Well, as delicious as it is in soups and anything that calls for chicken stock, its true calling in life is to be one of the main ingredients in Chicken in a Jar.

Chicken in a Jar is what I call Chicken Rillettes because I don't know how to pronounce rillettes and I always serve it in a mason jar. I can sound out Spanish, so I've always pronounced it Ree-yets, but I'm pretty sure the rules of Spanish are not the rules of French. Lucky for me, no one else knows exactly how to pronounce "rillettes", so Chicken in a Jar it is.

Tastes even better when the wine has your initial on it.

I've been making this recipe for years, and despite numerous requests, I have never shared the recipe. I tell people its hard (its not) and its time consuming (most of it is inactive) and leave it at that. Really I don't want people to know how much butter is in this stuff. Better to live in denial.