Let's reflect challenge - October

Hello everybody,

another month passed and we are now in October. Eeek !

I think I must have been a Bear in a previous life, because I find the idea of hibernating extremely attractive. You get to eat all what you want in order to put on weight ( and the fatter the better ) and then when the weather gets really annoying ( cold and humid ), you get to sleep and cuddle with your family in a cavern for a good couple of months. 

Well not being a bear, unfortunately, I am trying to prepare for the "naughty " months as I call them and do the best I can with them.

For these last 3 months of the year, we are going to be even kinder to ourselves. This month, our challenge's word starts with I and it's going to be 

                                                     IRRESISTIBLE

This is such a positive word as it only has to do with the nicest things. 

You don't say bad weather is irresistible or catching the flu is irresistible, but a beautiful smile can be irresistible, a cake can be irresistible ( tell me about it ), that little dress or top in your corner shop is definitely irresistible.

So this month, we celebrate the arrival of Autumn and if you don't like it too much like me, we just think about the nicest things so we can go through.

So, what is irresistible for you ?

As of our photo challenge, let it be a bit more " challenging " this week : Let's take a photo of things we can eat, starting with any of the letters of the week days : M, T, W, F, S and if you want to (no pressure), you even can upload the recipe.

I will start with the letter F, a Flan aux oeufs. Of course, it's French. It's something like a creme caramel but much thicker. It's a dessert, it's rich in taste (and in calories too I am afraid) and it is truly irresistible, at least in this house.

This is what it looks like :

Below is the recipe. It's for 6 to 8 people (but we more or less eat it with 4 people, told you, it's fabulous).

So for 4 to 8 people, depending how fond of it you are, you will need :
1 liter milk
220 g sugar
6 to 7 eggs
1 vanilla pod (it's a bit more expensive than liquid vanilla but the taste is sooo much better, it's worth it).
A dish that they can go into the oven ( I used 2, as I didn't have one big enough)
Another big dish in which your other 1 (or 2) will go.

Sorry, explaining very badly, but you surely can understand via the picture.

- Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees, that should be around 8, I guess.

- Pour the milk in a pot, add the vanilla pod and heat it until it boils. It will take a while but keep an eye on it as it goes out of the pot before you know it. You also probably will get a bit of cream on the top of the milk, I normally remove it with a small colander. You can leave the vanilla pod inside, but don't forget to remove it when you will use the milk.

- Whilst you are waiting for the milk to boil, choose a very big bowl that can contain all of the mix as we will add the milk into it later. Mix the whole eggs with 100 g sugar (just in case: whole egg means white + yellow, but you DO remove the eggshell, LOL). Mix it with a hand whip until the color is uniform.
When your milk has boiled, pour it step by step onto the eggs/sugar mix, very slowly and mixing all the time. Let it rest.

- Take a small pot, put the remaining sugar (around 120 g) and pour 2 table spoons of water on it. At medium heat, constantly turn until it becomes very brown. Congratulations, you made some caramel. If you want a bit less, you can half sugar and water.

- Take the the big ceramic dish and put your final dish (or 2) inside. Share your caramel between the 2 of them, starting from the top of the sides, so it makes a nice design. Then slowly add the milk/egg/sugar mix. Add some boiling water inside the ceramic dish (roughly until 3/4 of the height) as we will heat in a bain-marie. 

- When your oven is hot enough, place inside, in the middle. It normally cooks for 40 mns. Check after 35 mns what it looks like. The top should be very brown and when you put a knife inside, the mix should be "solid". Sounds difficult but in fact, just base yourself on the color of the top.

- When taken out of the oven, let it rest a bit. Some people eat it warm, some people eat it out of the fridge. It's delicious both ways. You can add some whipped cream on the side and then starting with the next day, you can eat carrots for a week to compensate the calories, LOL.

I though that because we live or come from 4 different countries, it would be a good idea to exchange some recipes, but as I said, don't feel obliged if you don't have time.

Let's see what you will come up with and how many kilos we can put on all together. After all, we might not be bears, but it's going to be winter and everybody needs some reserves, right?

Anne xxx