These are all French dishes. I didn't want to clog up Hunter's thread with them. I'll post any of the recipes if anyone would like them. It's a lot of stuff, but nothing is all that complicated or takes very long. There will be a lot of people eating all of this stuff.

Tarte Tatin
a tasty apple tart in a flakey pastry
Chickpea Flour Socca with Tomato and Parmesan
a stovetop French pizza
Frisée Salad with Sautéed Chicken Livers and Croutons
Cinnamon Financiers with Figs
buttery French almond cakes
Heirloom Tomato and Eggplant Gratin
Double-Baked Three-Cheese Soufflés
Gascon Walnut Bars
Le Grand Aioli
fish, clams, vegetables and sauce
Golden Potato Tart
Herbed Hanger Steak
Summer Berry Clafoutis
Wine-Poached Pears with Prunes and Citrus
Twin Savory Pissaladières

edit: I am so sorry for being stupid. I just realized that Hunter had the "French thread" not Board-O. I apologize to both of you for confusing this.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: WiseGuy,

WiseGuy- you're not kidding - there's a lot of dishes there. I made a Tarte Tatin last weekend and it's always a family favorite. Are you going to prepare it in a cast iron skillet?

I wish I were going to your house. My niece is preparing Easter Sunday and she's never learned the art of cooking. Her whole side of the family cooks out of boxes and 1970's recipes handed down of which many contain some sort of jello or canned soup (not in the same dish, lucky for me :-))

I have never made tarte tatin and it's one of my wife's favorite desserts. Please post a recipe.

Yes, a cast skillet is the way to go. I've got one from a Boy Scout festival about 30 years ago. It was older than old when I got it. It was in such bad shape that I had it sand blasted at an auto shop. The best $3 I could have spent. It's about 14' across, doesn't fit well on top of the stove and barely fits inside the oven. It still works great though.

This is a F&W recipe. I use both apples and pears. I also jack up the amounts, being that, as you can read, my skillet is rather large. Here it is.

ingredients
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into thin slices
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 pounds apples, such as Golden Delicious, Fuji, Jonagold or Northern Spy--peeled, halved and cored

Crème fraîche or whipped cream, for serving

directions
Spread the sugar evenly in the bottom of a 9-inch cast-iron skillet. Scatter the butter over the sugar and drizzle with the vanilla. Arrange the apple halves on their sides in the skillet in 2 concentric circles with all of the apples facing the same direction. Pack the apples closely together. Place 1 apple half in the center to fill the empty space.
Set the skillet over moderately low heat and cook the apples until the surrounding syrup becomes a thick, golden brown, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Baste the apples regularly with a bulb baster. The liquid should remain at a gentle bubble.
Preheat the oven to 425°. Set the skillet on a baking sheet and bake the apples for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Set the Classic Flaky Pastry (the other pastry I gave you at the bottom works well too) on top of the apples and carefully push the edge of the pastry down inside the pan. Return the skillet to the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the juices are bubbling over.
Remove the tart from the oven. Immediately invert a platter with a lip over the skillet. Quickly and carefully invert the tart onto the platter so the apples are on top. If any apples stick to the skillet, set them back into the tart. Serve warm or at room temperature, with dollops of crème fraîche.

Classic Flaky Pastry

ingredients
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 stick (4 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
3 tablespoons ice water

directions
Blend the flour with the salt in a food processor. Add the butter and process until well blended, about 8 seconds. Add the water and process just until the water has been absorbed and the mixture looks like wet sand. Transfer the pastry to a work surface and knead lightly until it comes together. Pat the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry into an 11 1/2-inch round. Drape the dough over a rolling pin, then open it out on a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

Buttery Cornmeal Pastry

This recipe can easily be doubled. The cornmeal in the pastry gives it a lovely crumbly texture.
ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons fine white cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (4 ounces) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup ice water

directions
In a food processor, pulse the flour with the cornmeal and salt. Add the butter and pulse until the size of small peas. Sprinkle with the water and pulse just until the pastry is evenly moistened. Transfer to a lightly floured board and pat into a disk. Wrap and refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes.

My Tart Tatin is pretty close to WiseGuy's, though I sprinkle some good quality cinnamon on top of the apples prior to adding the crust.

WiseGuy - I used to borrow a friends cast iron skillet to make this because they are kind of hard to find, and then they aren't 'broken in'. She grew tired of my borrowing of her skillet, and one year for a gift, wouldn't you know she went to a flea market and found a great used one for about $5. I cooked a bunch of bacon and other stuff in it to get rid of anyone else's residual 'stuff' and built up my own, if you know what I mean until I didn't feel icky about it anymore.

Thanks. I intend to try that when we return.

You can do that with bananas too

I am preparing an old russian dish:

http://ljplus.ru/img/d/a/dashing/060413_stol.jpg

with Champagne and PN to match

No pasca?

quote:

Originally posted by ArieS:
No pasca?

You bake them that night, and unlike the beautiful lemon/cucumber/ham/orange/apple ensemble that illustrates Serge's heritage and his less than coherent personality, it is OK to eat it all week long.

p.s. note the oil stain from sardines.

I hadn't checked the link when I posted.
Priceless.........

They are not sardines, they are sprats.