My cooking and baking are very different from my mothers’ style. I never had the opportunity to spend two years in culinary school inFrance, and needless to say, that influences ones cooking style. Growing up you would think she was still inFrance, cooking gourmet meals with all the finesse that comes with French cuisine. Cream of mushroom soup with heavy cream and butter, how could it be done any other way? The perfect bottle of wine would be selected from the cellar to go with the flavors for that evening’s pot roast or gourmet cheese and French bread.
And to think all my two brothers and I wanted was canned Chef Boyardee noodles… Children don’t exactly appreciate an aged bottle of cabernet sauvignon paired with Brie cheese and warm French baguettes. To me the wine was bitter and the cheese, funky is the only way to describe that smell.
Tastes change with age and by the time I was sixteen I gained more of an appreciation for a sophisticated dish, and the true art of blending ingredients and spices. Chulent and potato kugel lack in the finesse department, at least the smell is better than Brie, and while I was becoming religious my mothers culinary influence fazed to the background. She used to toy with me that I’ll be making my bread from scratch! and when I started making challah the joke was on her.
But one thing stayed with me from all her years of gourmet dinners, nothing is frozen, everything is made fresh. I don’t double a kugel or meatballs and save half in the freezer for some other night. Also, I make everything, and I mean everything, from  scratch.
You don’t have to be in the city of love to make a meal friends and family will love.
Enjoy our Mushroom Soup
Mushroom Soup
Chop 1 box of mushrooms very fine and sauté in lots of butter over low heat. Cook 10-15 min. add 1 TBSP flour, then add 1 cup cream or milk, some sherry and a bouillion cube dissolved in ½ – 1 cp. Water. Puree but not completelyÂ
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~Love From Our Kitchen to Yours