Mustard Deviled Quail Eggs with Smoked Salmon (Oeuf Mimosa Recipe)

Oeuf mimosa ("deviled egg" in English) is a first course (or appetizer) made of hard cooked eggs from which the egg yolks have been removed and mixed with mayonnaise and herbs and then filled back into the egg white.

Deviled eggs are a very common French bistro dish but instead of using large chicken eggs, I used quail eggs. There are simple rules on how to boil quail eggs. The freshness of the eggs is very important. Remove the eggs from the refrigerator 15 minutes prior to cooking to bring them back to room temperature, then cover them with cold salted water and add a hint of vinegar. Egg shells are porous and by salting the water, the eggs will already be seasoned; the vinegar helps the egg whites coagulate in case they break while boiling.

The eggs are usually dressed with anchovies rolled into a ring with a caper or olive on top. Today I wanted to glam them up though, so I served the deviled eggs with smoked salmon and dill. Our guests love the mini appetizers and so will you if you give this recipe a try!

Loquat and Strawberry Pate de Fruits Recipe (French Fruit Jelly Candies)

These ancient sweets are called pâte de fruits "maison". "Maison" means house in French. The candies are very easy and require only a few ingredients: fruit pulp, pectin and sugar. The flavor is similar to fruit leather, but with a softer texture.

I made strawberry fruit purée and added fresh loquats as well. The key is to use freshly picked, extremely ripe, naturally sweet fruits to ensure optimum flavor. Once the fruit pulp is cooked, you'll need to air-dry the candies for at least 12 hours, cut them and roll them in sugar. The texture should be soft and the taste should be fruity, without being overly sweet.

I usually make these candies when I have very ripe fruits in the garden. You could make them from any fruit purée, such as blackberries, quince, blueberries, cherries, lemon, gooseberries, cantaloupe, peach or plum. Let you imagination run wild! I've always found making homemade candies so much fun because of how flexible the recipes are.

These "mignardises" (pretty, delicate sweets in French) are delicious to take to a picnic or as homemade gifts. That is, if you don’t finish them off first!

Grilled Tomatoes (Simple Barbecue Recipe)

This tomato recipe is simple but so flavorful. I always make it when we barbecue. Unfortunately, this year was horrible for the tomatoes from our garden. Lulu planted two dozen tomato plants. I was so ecstatic about getting sweet, juicy tomatoes, but the gophers killed all our plants. If you have a cure for a gopher infestation, please send me a message. Anyway, since we didn’t have enough from our garden, I bought plum tomatoes from the farmers' market for our 4^th of July barbecue.

Grilling tomatoes only requires skewers, garlic, oil, salt and pepper. To make it more flavorful, I thread the tomatoes onto oregano sprigs. Once the tomatoes are cooked, I drizzle them with shallot vinaigrette. They're best when they're still warm. Yum!

Gourmet Red Potato Salad Recipe

This potato salad recipe is unique in that it contains no eggs. My husband Lulu doesn't like mayonnaise and one of his sisters is allergic to eggs, so I made an eggfree salad dressing using chipotle peppers, lime, cream cheese, sour cream, roasted Roma tomatoes, roasted red bell peppers, red wine vinegar and pickled garlic. I used wax potatoes from our garden which add color to the salad. To the potatoes, I added red radishes, celery, sun-dried tomatoes, red kidney beans, pine nuts and a myriad of herbs. It’s perfect for a summer picnic!

Gardening with the girls... They were so proud of finding the potatoes!

Dopiaza (Indian Onion Curry Recipe)

This Indian dish consists of a generous amount of onions, both cooked in the curry (masala) and as a garnish. Onions are added at two stages during cooking, hence the name dopiaza in Urdu ("two onions"), [according to Wikipedia]. The sauce contains onions of course, ghee and yogurt and is flavored with ginger-garlic paste as well as several Indian spices.

Our garden is still filled with the red Creole onions Lulu planted this season. The onions are so fragrant and prolific; I thought the best way to use a large quantity was to make dopiaza. I tried to choose same-sized onions for even cooking.

If you have leftovers, you can make upside-down savory onion tarts the next day.