Un Canadian Croque

November 16th
It has happened!

I have finally made un croque monsieur! TADA!

Yeeeess! Feast your eyes upon it in jealousy that you did not think to make one yourself! 

It's really quite easy.

All you need is 2 slices of bread
Some sliced ham
Some cheese squares whichever flavor you'd like ( I used swiss)
And lots and lots of butter!

To all my Canadian friends sitting at home reading this and are thinking "this is just a grilled cheese sandwich with ham in it" you are absolutely right! Which makes it all the more easier to make since no Canadian has lived to the age of 20 without eating a grilled cheese sandwich...unless they're allergic to one of the ingredients.
There are other variations to the recipe if you'd like to give it a little twist:

• croque provençal (with tomato)^[8]
• croque auvergnat (with bleu d'Auvergne cheese)^[9]
• croque gagnet (with Gouda cheese and andouille sausage)
• croque norvégien (with smoked salmon instead of ham)^[10]
• croque tartiflette (with sliced potatoes and Reblochon cheese)^[11]
• croque bolognese / croque Boum-Boum (with Bolognese sauce)
• croque señor (with tomato salsa)
• croque Hawaiian (with a slice of pineapple)

• the "Croque McDo" sandwich at McDonald's locations in France (which is kind of terrifying to think of)

So yeah just put it all together! I like to fry one side and then sprinkle cheese on the top of that side as the other side is frying so it melts everywhere.
There are variations to this recipe of course. A Croque Madame is a Monsieur with an egg on top of it
It's super easy and super quick and makes a great snack.
When I went to Normandy a few years ago I would have at least one of these a day. Of course mine pales in comparison because those bistro chefs are experts and they use the best ingredients where as I am a poor student who buys processed ingredients because they are cheap. But it's the thought and the memories that count I think.
I could not tell you if this snack is originally French. The earliest documentation of it in France was in 1910 but clearly many other cultures have something similar to it.
We in Canada have the grilled cheese sandwich.
In the UK they have Welsh Rarebit where they pour a hot cheese sauce over the sandwich and this documents back to the 18th Century.

So what came first? Well the Croque Monsieur probably came before the Classic North American Grilled Cheese but could the Croque Monsieur be a less messy version of the Welsh Rarebit?
Who's to say what came first.
All I know is that it's delicious and a classic snack I think should become more popular in Canadian cafes.
Until next time.
Cecilly <3

How to Be a French Gangster

October 28th
Alright,
So the other day I had to read this article on wine and milk for the french class I'm writing this blog for.
The article was interesting enough, fairly insightful....but then it mentioned something very strange.
That gangsters and hoodlums of France back in the day would drink a combination of milk and grenadine because it was....cool? A real mans drink?
Frankly I have no idea why you would drink it! I had certainly never heard of people doing such a thing before. Especially not in America, I couldn't possibly understand why the gangsters of France might find this tasty.
So I decided to facebook my friend Francois who lives in Languedoc-Roussillon, France to see if he had ever heard of it. Took a while for him to reply, as it usually does with young boys, but finally he responded with a very vague "yea i've heard of it" ....thanks child. That really clarified the issue at hand.
So I figured, if it's a thing why not try it out! Maybe it's actually pretty good. Not very threatening at all but maybe the gangsters just like the taste.

The least I can tell you is that it was very pretty. The french call it Bebe Rose (Pink Baby) and I wanted to make sure I was doing this right so I looked up my handy Easy French Recipes website that Julie and I go to if we're feeling exotic (link) On this subject it was not very helpful other than to explain that grenadine syrup is not actually pomegranate as they would like you to believe but a mixture of other red fruits, lemon juice and probably some chemicals.

So I mixed it all together, my milk turned pink (I know it looks very orange in the picture but it was pink in reality) ...and I drank it....

I honestly can't tell you what I think of it and I'm not really willing to make more to decide if it tastes alright or not. Part of me thinks it tastes like kids cough medicine or something but then it's almost sweet and tastes like a strawberry campino candy....

I don't know... but I think I also should have stirred some more because some lumps were definitely left in the bottom of the class.

...I won't recommend you to this drink. Gangster or no gangster, there's no real reason for this to exist and it's certainly not something I would want to drink more than one glass of per sitting.

So try it at your own risk.

Cecilly