Bouchons au Thon

The date has been set for one of several friendly competitions between friends this summer. 

AppetizerFest will be an afternoon of consuming delicious tidbits and assigning marks based on various criteria.  It's really just another excuse to have a laugh with friends and partake in some culinary jousting.  One of our friends thought this would be the perfect time to introduce a woman he had recently began seeing romantically.  Can you imagine what ran through her mind with fifteen other people pulling out score sheets and mulling over every detail of an appetizer?  It's one thing to know you're amongst friends who are completely full of it but poor Ms M must have been wondering what she had got herself into.  While everyone was chewing and mulling, pens poised to assign a mark, I leaned over and said quietly "We are so full of it it's not even funny" which made her laugh.  The very lovely Ms M is still around and will be in on the fun for this year's competition.

Mrs Miniver's Daughter recently wrote about discovering a copy of A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg and a craving for Bouchon au Thon was heartily underway.  I made a batch on Wednesday in regular muffin tins as called for but I'm thinking that baked in those miniature tins they would make a lovely bite-sized appetizer.  Would they be boring without some sort of dipping sauce?  These are basically tuna, egg and Gruyere cheese so if you have any suggestions for something zingy to accompany them please feel free to share!

A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg - Part One

It's a truth universally known that I've never made anything for dinner with a name as exotic as Bouchons Au Thon. I'm on page 288 but have been dying to make these since reading the recipe on page 101. Anything that starts off with a tin of tuna is well within my abilities so I knew that we'd get on. Add in some Gruyere cheese, eggs and creme fraiche and oh, la, la! as Molly Wizenberg says 'they taste like France'. I was on my own for dinner tonight so it was the perfect opportunity to give this recipe a test run. The creme fraiche was in the house five minutes before I whipped a scone out of the freezer and into the microwave while plugging in the kettle. A girl can have her dessert before dinner every once in awhile can't she? It's hard to tell from this shot but the batter is baked in muffin tins. I'm laughing just now as I read that the recipe yields '8 bouchons, enough for 4 light eaters'. I ate 4 myself which should tell you that they were absolutely delicious! Molly likes to eat them with a baked potato or a salad but I didn't bother with any other side dishes. Heavens, I wouldn't have had the room because of my dessert. That's one way to make sure you don't eat too much dinner. A review of this wonderful book will soon follow. Right now I'm off to dream about page 204. It involves a lovely little lemon cake with lemony icing, yum!