Come Dine With Me

The language assistans in Avignon have been recreating a British tv show called "Come Dine With Me." The premise of the show is that there are four people and each one hosts a dinner party for the other three. The host is required to make an appetizer, an entree and a dessert. At the end of each dinner the three guests rate their host and the person with the most points at the end wins. My group started before Christmas but because of the break we weren't able to finish. I did my dinner last night and not to brag or anything, but it was pretty dang delicious! When I was trying to decide what I wanted to do, there were so many ideas in my head. Do I do breakfast for dinner? or attempt a French meal with escargot and ratatouille? or a classic southern meal inspired by Paula Deen and lots of butter? I ruled breakfast for dinner out because Aunt Jemima pancake mix in France costs 6.90€ ($9.30) and the syrup is 5.70€ ($7.70)!!! I got my roommates input and they said that they have been craving the sweet potato casserole that I made at Thanksgiving. So I went for the southern inspired meal, using mostly Paula Deen recipes. For my appetizer, I made one of my favorites, Brie en croute. I have made this several times at home in various ways. Good thing cheese is so cheap here! This time I made it with raspberry jam, brown sugar and a pie crust. There is a good chance that we ate it all last night. For my entree I made green beans (unfortunately I wasn't able to cook them in fat back like we do at home, so I opted for onions instead), sweet potato casserole and baked chicken. For the sweet potato casserole, I just used marshmellow topping because some people have nut allergies. I marinated the chicken in EVOO and Herbs de Provence and baked it with cherry tomatoes and onions. Next dessert. Now, if there is one food that I had to pick to import here, it would be canned pumpkin. For Thanksgiving we found a pumpkin patch and steamed the inside and made a pie with fresh pumpkin. It was good, but I am still attached to my canned pumpkin. The fresh pumpkin gave the cake a bit of a gummy texture, but my roommates again convinced me to recreate a pumpkin dessert. A friend brought us two giant pumpkins last week, so we steamed the insides and did a little experimenting. The other night we made a pumpkin pie and again, I wasn't completely satisfied with the turn out. So for my dinner, I looked up a white cake mix recipe and added some fresh pumpkin. Again, the texture was more gummy than cakey, but I think I made up for it with the cream cheese frosting and the candied pumpkin garnish. Overall, it was a great night full of laughs, good people and good food!