Mardi Gras...the art of cooking while having fun

With my turkish neighbor in LA who is becoming a very good friend of mine we invented a concept on friday night based on our desire to have fun by cooking together. We randomly chose a day, tuesday it would be, on which we would test our cooking skills and enlight each other on how to be a better cook. Nida actually started cooking recently and to my mind is not bad at all. In fact we had a great dinner with her two weeks ago when she made chicken provencal and basil cream pasta. Delicious!

So since we decided to cook every tuesday - both to learn and to have fun - we named our recurring event: Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is a french celebration that dates back from the Middle Age and that consists of a day of eating, drinking and having fun. The interesting part though is that translated in english, it literally means Fat Tuesday. Well fat tuesday it would be!

For our first Mardi Gras, we debated on the menu. Two girls, two boys would be attending the reception. Asia, Europe and America would be represented at our table so the menu had to please every attendee while still being original, delicious and stunning in appearance.

After a couple of hours reading Jamie Olivers's Chef cookbook, Cyril Lignac's - a contemporary cuisine chef- recipes and brainstorming, we came up with a quite pleasant menu:

Menu du Premier Mardi Gras

Entree

Petit toast with cheddar and turkey on a toasted garlic bread

Main course

Eggplant parmesan and pine nut crumble with its tomato, basil and pomegranate balsamic vinegar filling.

Desert

Chocolate and Zuchinni cake.

How did it turn out? Well first we had a great evening. While our guests were enjoying our petit toasts we struggled to grate the zucchini, peel the eggplant, dice the tomatoes but with a lot of laughter helping us forget how much effort fine cooking requires. It was then time to sit down and eat...finally. The dinner was great - though the eggplant crumble raised some eyebrows- and desert served with wipped cream was heavenly.

I can't wait for the next Mardi Gras though we haven't yet figured out the menu...

A table!

My appartment at the Metro 417

Hi, This is me in my downtown LA appartment. This photo was taken two weeks ago by my best friend Vincent who came to visit me in California.

La rue Mouffetard...the start of a culinary adventure..

Why a blog..on cooking

Hi everyone,

My name is Raphaelle and I am from France (not from Paris, but from a great town in the South called Montpellier). I am currently living in Los Angeles as I am working in a finance company in downtown LA, transferring from the French office for three months. Lucky me! This is not my first time in the US - in fact I come to the East Coast to visit my mom twice a year - but coming to the West Coast or to SoCal is a premiere. So far so good...

Why create a blog? And why on cooking?

No I am not a desperate housewive thinking of how to please my husband (by the way I don't have one) or children for dinner..although there is a little bit of truth there I must say. The reality is that I dicovered cooking a year ago when moving in to my first Paris appartment and discovering the joys of living in la Rue Mouffetard, a village like neighborhood in Paris. I started going to the local market - le marche de la rue Mouffetard- every saturday morning and trying out new recipes...ranging from a simple apple crumble to more sophistacted dishes such as "carre de veau servi avec son beurre ail/persil" which tastes fantastic. The simple fact of waking up on a saturday morning and saying hello to the shop owners is probably what I miss the most here in LA where my daily grocery shopping now consists of Trader Joes's, Whole Foods and Ralphs. I try to alternate the mass retail store/ perfectly organic but expensive concept.

The whole idea of writing a blog had been trotting on my mind for a couple of days and while making a random turkey sandwich with a little personal touch, I said to myself: wow, maybe you should open a sandwich restaurant.... That idea quickly disappeared as I said to myself that simply adding grilled cheese, aragula and black pepper did not make me a Jamie Oliver or a future restaurant owner. And that being humble was a key to success...

Nonetheless, I said to myself well cooking is a great thing and sometimes great recipes come from very little things. That is why creating a blog where I could share my ideas was a humble beginning and yet a first milestone on what could turn out to be a long path. But then again a beginning is needed for everything, right?

I have to add that cooking is something I really enjoy as it represents a distraction from my every day life as an investment banker. Considering the current financial turmoil. I wake up every day and think that I should diversify my "career" options as banks are maybe not an option anymore. Moreover I tend to think now that having a balanced lifestyle is quite enjoyable and cooking (and going to the gym in consequence) is now a part of that...

Speaking of that, I must say that this blog will not solely be focused on cooking...i will also try to share some of my insights on America and the American Culture which I am modestly trying to discover in a changing context.

Well with this being said and a part of my reasons for creating this blog, I have one last thing to say: enjoy!