Radish Butter with Baguettes

Yield: 4 servings
Time: 10 minutes

The French figured out a long time ago that the best way to cut the heat of a raw radish is to dip it into softened butter and sprinkle it with salt. They also take it one step further and put it on a baguette, turning it into a light lunch or a snack. The trick is not to skimp on the radishes or the butter. Think of the radish as the meat and the butter as the mayo. Usually they are served as sandwiches, but they can easily be turned into delicious hors d’oeuvres by serving them on individual baguette slices.



Ingredients:
2 bunches radishes, trimmed
1 baguette
Unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. flaky sea salt
1 small handful arugula
1 tsp. finely minced fresh garden herbs (chives or tarragon) (optional)

Preparation:
Soak cleaned radishes in a bowl of ice water and chill at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. Drain radishes and slice thinly.

When ready to serve, slice the baguette lengthwise and then crosswise, creating “subs”.  Spread butter generously on half of the pieces. Top with layered radishes. Sprinkle with salt. Lay the arugula on top of them and sprinkle with additional herbs if desired. Put tops and bottoms together and press down firmly.

Optional serving suggestion: Cut the baguette diagonally into several thick slices. Assemble “open-faced” and serve individual slices as hors d’oeuvres.

My Chez Gourmet B-day Party

My mom only throws "friend" birthday parties every other year.  On opposite years, it's just extended family parties.  This was the year for a friend party.   I decided on a cooking night with a French cuisine inspired menu. 

This is the invite my mom created.

As the guests arrived, they received a new apron to wear and a recipe book of all the food we would be eating that night.  We all worked together and made a yummy dinner, then ate it. It was a lot of fun. We got to try lots of new foods including radish sandwiches and ratatouille.

Radish Sandwiches

My mom made French Onion Soup and many of the girls who had either never tried it or didn't usually like that kind of soup, LOVED it.  They said it was the best!  It's now one of my favorites, too.  My mom also made a yummy sauce to go over the chicken cordon bleu that the girls and I helped to prepare just before.   We had extra so my mom served it to dip our bread into it like a cheese fondue.  It was soooo good.  My mom forgot to make the couscous.  Oops!  It was supposed to be served with the ratatouille.  We at all of our food on my mom's fancy china!!  We felt like we were in an upscale restaurant for a special occasion.

Chicken Cordon Bleu with Ratatouille and grapes

One of my favorite parts of the party was watching a cooking demonstration (lead by my aunt Holly) of our dessert...Peach Blueberry Galettes.  The crust started out as crumbs and if you push it together it would goes into dough. I thought that was really cool. After she showed us how to make the crust, we all helped to put the galettes together.  We rolled out the crust, layered the fruit on top, and rolled the edges of the crust over the outside edge of the fruit layer, creating an open faced pie.  We brushed the crust with an egg wash and sprinkled cinnamon/sugar all over the top of the galette.  Into the oven they went so that they could bake while we ate our dinner.

The Banquet Table

Finished Galettes...YUM!!

It was a very fun night full of good food!  I can't wait to eat food from this menu again and some of the girls said they were excited to go home and make the recipes with their families.  (All the girls got to take home their aprons and recipe booklets.)

Happy Birthday to me!!

Make a wish!

Cupcake Wars

I was invited by my friend Rachel to come over to her house and compete in a Cupcake War.  This was such a fun activity and I love it when my friends share my interest of cooking and baking. She got all fancy and made some radish cupcakes! She had some other fun flavors too.  I decided to play it safe and not go that crazy. Her parents and some of my family came and judged the cupcakes. I lost and she ended up winning. Those radish cupcakes must have been really good! But that's okay, it was lots of fun!! Next time I will venture out there and try new flavors.

Welcome to "A Pint-Sized Chef"

Hello...my name is Dakota.  I am 13 years old and love to cook and bake.  And, I love to eat.  I have Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) which is a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow all over the nerve endings in my body.  I have a large plexiform tumor growing on my left shoulder that hurts a alot, 3 brain tumors (including an inoperable brainstem glioma that is actively growing), and neurofibromas (non-cancerous tumors) growing all over my body.  Time in the kitchen helps to keep my mind off of the pain.  NF often affects height growth and people with NF are usually shorties.  That is how I came up with the name for this blog "A Pint-Sized Chef".


My mom said that when I little, it was all about the food for me.  I always wanted to know what was on the menu.  Often times I would ask, "What's for dinner?" before I had finished my lunch (and I still do that sometimes).  I also told others that I wanted to be a "cooker" when I grew up.  I have spent time in the kitchen learning about menu planning, food preparation, trying new recipes, table settings, plating food, and food safety.  In fact, I am always reminding others who enter to WASH YOUR HANDS before getting food (even to the point of annoying my family members).  Let's face it...it's important, right???!!!

More importantly, food is what brings us together.  It is a big part of gatherings, celebrations, culture and customs, traditions, and LIFE.  This blog is a way for me to share my adventures in the kitchen and to have a place to talk about one of my passions...FOOD.