I seem to be on a every-other-week schedule lately. I read somewhere a while back (I think it was on Simple Mom) about the “seasons” that occur when running a home-based business, especially if you have kids. Some seasons you have a lot of time to devote to your business and other seasons you don’t. Accepting the reality of the seasons and even preparing for them can help ease the pain of not having the time you wish you had. The seasons can apply to a personal blog too, and I seem to be in an “off-season” right now. And I’m OK with it.
I cooked two French Fridays with Dorie recipes this week (poor planning and a trip out of town caused last week’s to go unmade): Lentil, Lemon, and Tuna Salad and Olive Oil Ice Cream.
The Lentil, Lemon, and Tuna Salad was unlike anything I had made before. Lentils du Puy (French green lentils) are cooked and then combined with a mustard-olive tapenade vinaigrette, a preserved lemon, green onions, and canned tuna. After a rest in the refrigerator to blend the flavors, the salad is served. I served mine on a bed of mixed greens with sliced tomatoes adorning the sides.
I really liked this salad. I loved the piquant flavors of the dressing mixed with the lentils and tuna. Leftovers for lunch were quite tasty. My husband was more neutral about this one. While he didn’t mind it, he won’t be requesting it for future meals.
Quite intriguing was the Olive Oil Ice Cream. It is a basic custard-based vanilla ice cream, except some of the cream is replaced with olive oil. Dorie suggests tasting the olive oil before using it to make sure it doesn’t have a peppery finish. I’m so glad she suggested this, because the oil I had planned on using did have a peppery finish. I served this over two nights, two different ways. I wanted to us to experience the ice cream fully.
The first night I served the ice cream plain, with just a drizzle of olive oil and a light sprinkling of grey sea salt. I asked my husband to guess the flavor. He couldn’t guess, but you can clearly taste the olive oil when you know it’s there. The flavor was interesting (in a good way!) but we decided we would rather have plain vanilla or another flavor all-together for eating it plain.
The next night I served the ice cream drizzled in chocolate sauce and topped with a sprinkling of grey sea salt. The flavors were fantastic together! Dorie wasn’t kidding when she said the ice cream is “spectacularly good” with chocolate. We both thoroughly enjoyed it and my husband was hoping for more the next night.
My conclusion with the ice cream is that I will make it again if I am serving it with something that it will go well with, but for “just eating”, I will stick to other flavors. It was very fun to try!
From Scratch 
Both of those recipes turned out beautiful. I really like the way you presented the lentils with the tomato on the plate. I skipped the ice
cream recipe but Tricia shared some of her results with us and I used
some chocolate sauce on it. Delicious. Lovely photos.
Karen, So glad you were able to get both of these done. I really enjoyed the lentil salad…and my husband and I both loved the ice cream. I have to make it again so I can try it with chocolate! Looks delicious!
Both are your recipes look good enough to eat, Karen. I liked the lentil salad although I didn’t first try lentils until I was way, way, way adult. But, the ice cream, yeah it was delicious with chocolate sauce as well as many other toppings. Pretty rich but creamy. I think a sophisticated taste that one probably wouldn’t want to have every day.
I finally made the ice cream last week and enjoyed it. I agree with you – it’s something to have with another component, rather than on its own. The lentil salad was a favourite, but I haven’t made it again. Perhaps I should revisit it.