Menu 1

I began reading the recipes last Sunday night in order to familiarize myself with the ingredients and procedures for today's menu. I noticed that the order of preparation was not provided. I armed myself with paper and pen and came up with a list of cooking times and steps so I could get it all on the table about the same time.

I didn't know if I could buy a small airline size bottle of Cointreau at the liquor store. I was wondering why the cookbook had the word spelled with a capital C and found out that it is a brand name of a French orange liqueur. The Cointreau site (http://www.cointreau.com/) says that it is a "marriage of sweet and bitter orange peels". Another site says it may date back to 1849. Since the husband and I are only occassional drinkers (a beer or a glass of wine in 3 months, if at all) I have no idea what this tastes like. I do keep a bottle of Grand Marnier for crepes. Here is a site that gives explanations of various liquers: http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/nieminen/liqueurs.html (I am left wondering about the connection between liquers and the College of Physics at the University of Queensland, Australia).

Happily, the man at the liquor store said that I could use the Grand Marnier since they did not sell airline size bottles of the Cointreau.

This cookbook is not for someone without some cooking experience since it assumes that the user has prior knowledge of planning, preparation times and experience to guide them.

Now I know that I have a lot to learn about presentation, as I should have given more thought to the serving dishes to use for each course so that the food would stand out. Oh well, maybe next time.
Cucumber Salad with Mint. Crunchy and tasty. It would have looked better in a green bowl.

Roast Chicken. A simple roast with thyme from my garden, a clove of garlic and a bay leaf.


Peas with Lettuce, Parsley and Onions. The original recipe called for chervil and allowed a substitution of parsley, which I harvested from the garden. The lettuce is wilted in the pan while cooking with the peas and onions.


Fresh Fruit Salad with Grand Marnier. The recipe called for Cointreau and, as I mentioned earlier, I already had some Grand Marnier on hand so I used it. Very yummy fruit salad. I also didn't have an orange so I added some grapes, which livened it up :-)

All in all my family loved it. It took 2 hours to make from start to finish, including the roasting and resting time for the chicken.

My husband and son ate it up. I would serve this meal to guests.