Caesar Salad

• Cook bacon until slightly crisp, but not over cooked.  Cool and chop into small pieces.
• Wash and rip romain lettuce into bite size pieces.
• Some people add croutons, but since I don't like them, I don't add them!
• Sprinkle with fresh grated parmasean cheese.
• Toss with dressing.  Serve immediately.

Caesar Salad Dressing (adapted from the Joy of Cooking)

• Peel 4 cloves of garlic and mash using a fork with 1/2 tsp salt
• Whisk in:
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• salt and ground pepper to taste
• a generous dollop of anchovy paste
• Add in a slow and steady stream, while whisking constantly 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Whisk continuously until you have a thick emulsion.

Soup Stock

Roast beef bones (on the right) and Oxtail bones (on the left) until fully cooked.  Drain off excess fat.

Add bones, carrots, celery, onions and garlic to stock pot.  Season with pepper, thyme and rosemary (or any flavours of choice).  Cover with COLD water.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.  Simmer for 3-4 hours.

Strain stock, discarding solids.

French Onion Soup

Peel LOTS  of onions.  Try not to cry to much!

Sauté the onions in some butter and olive oil on a medium heat.

Once the onions start to cook, lower the heat to very low and stir occasionally.  Continue to cook until the onions are caramelized.   Be prepared!  This can take several hours.

Place your onions to an oven proof bowl and add your hot soup stock.

Float a rusk on the soup and cover with grated cheese.  We like emmental.

Heat under the broiler until the cheese is melted.  

Plum Tart

Hilary made this lovely plum tart tonight.  While it was very good, if we were to make it again, we would not use cornmeal in the crust, but would go with a more traditional shortbread style crust.  The plums were simply cut in quarters and tossed with white sugar.  Once the crust had been proofed, she spread a half cup of pumpkin jam on the bottom, added the plums and baked it for another 15 minutes.

Overall is was a great quick desert and a good way to use up extra plums.