French Cocktail Hour

Mr. MPChouChou and I love nothing more than enjoying French wine, food and culture first hand. Sadly,  since we purchased and renovated our first house this spring, our annual trip to France is out of the question this budget fiscal year.

If we can't go to France, we resolved to bring France to us......no, I will not use the word stay-cation, let us call it a French cocktail hour.

Which is exactly what we did a few weeks ago, when we had people over to share our version of a French feast. Here's how we pulled it together! First and foremost, the evening started off with an epic cheese & wine spread.  Starters and nibblies included a terrine of foie gras (overnighted, by my friends at D'Artagnon), armagnac soaked prunes stuffed with foie gras (called French kisses), fresh apricots & blackberries, canard au porto/terrine, le delice de Bourgogne (a creamy soft cheese from Burgundy), Cazelle de St. Affrique (a semi soft, pungent cheese) with salumi and baguettes.

We drank Kir Royals as an apertif (recipe here), made with cremant from Trader Joes NV Blason de Bourgogne a steal at $10, and a rose from Bordeaux, Chateaux Larroque, the perfect summer vino for a red wine fiend like myself. Dinner, though sadly not captured on film, was a cheese soufflé with cave aged gruyere, served along dressed greens and another bottle of Bordeaux (the delicious Chateau Cote de Baleau 2002, from our local wine purveyor, Esprit du Vin, where Keith always has a good recommendation for you).  Finally, everything was finished off with a caramelized apricot tart (recipe here) accompanied by whipped cream and champagne.

We succeeded in capturing everything we love about French food and wine and I promptly recalled why I put on so much weight in France;) It will have to hold us over until next year, le sigh!