Parisian Inspiration

Guest blogger San here...after a recent trip to Paris, I was inspired to come to the farm and cook a traditional French dinner for Nan, Vin and Meliss, who was visiting as well.

Our dinner consisted of French Onion Soup, Caesar Salad, Stuffed Mushrooms as well as our appetizer of Naan flatbread with various toppings.

For the appetizer, we heated the Naan slightly and garnished it with each person's choice of goat cheese, roasted red pepper bruschetta, sun dried tomato bruschetta, black olive tapenade, and green olive tapenade.


The Caesar salad consisted of a store bought bagged Caesar, and below are the recipes for the stuffed mushrooms and traditional French onion soup:

Stuffed Mushrooms (18 large mushrooms)
(prep time 10 minutes; cook time: 25 minutes
1/2 cup Italian-style dried bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
2 garlic cloves (peeled and minced)
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
18 large white mushrooms

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Scoop out the mushrooms and reserve the scoopings.
Stir the "scoopings", bread crumbs, Romano, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper.
Add 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil and blend (I sometimes need more olive oil to "moisten" the stuffing).

Drizzle a heavy large baking sheet with about 1 tablespoon olive oil, to coat.
Spoon the filling into the mushroom caps and arrange on the baking sheet, stuffing side up.

Drizzle a little olive oil over the filling in each mushroom.

Bake until the mushrooms are tender and the filling is heated through and golden on top, about 25 minutes.

French Onion Soup (recipe serves 2-multiply as needed)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees (if making at the same time as the mushrooms, 400 will work)
2 medium onions
2 tablespoons margarine
1 10oz can beef broth
3/4 cup dry white wine
Crostini bread (or Holland Rusk if you can find it)
1/2 cup Swiss cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Saute onions, sliced thin, in margarine
Add beef broth and wine
Season with salt and pepper
Bring to a boil and simmer 15 minutes
Pour into oven safe soup bowls (see picture above)
Lay Crostini on top (enough to cover soup)
Sprinkle Swiss (sliced and cut) and Parmesan
Bake 10 minutes
Broil 2-3 minutes until cheese is bubbly and slightly brown (WATCH carefully).