The Coconut Palm

I was hungry for dinner, and I wanted to make something out of the ordinary. So, I decided to try a croque monsieur from an old French cookbook. My friend swears by this cookbook, and says that all the recipes are delicious. Here is the croque monsieur:

These sandwiches are tasty. Crispy and warm, you’ll want to have them right out of the oven.

Here’s the recipe (translated from French):

Croque-monsieur

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes

Serves 4:

– 8 slices of stale bread
– 60g butter
– 4 slices of ham the same size as the slices of bread
– 80g Gruyère cheese in one piece
– 80g grated cheese

Grill the slices of bread on both sides.

Cut the piece of cheese into thin strips.

Turn on the upper oven.

Butter the slices of toasted bread on both sides, and garnish them with four slices of cheese on which you put a slice of ham, cover it again with slices of cheese and then put the last slice of bread on these elements, press slightly.

Repeat the above 3 more times.

Put the croque-monsieurs in a buttered dish, sprinkle them with grated cheese, and sprinkle them with the rest of melted butter.

Put in the oven, let brown for 15 minutes; serve hot, right out of the oven.

Obtained from:

Buteux, Paulette. La cuisine toute simple. Éditions Stock, 1973.

(The recipe calls for stale bread; I used fresh, and it tasted great.)

Homemade dark chocolate ice cream. The dessert was made with chocolate from France!

Tom yum soup made last night. Delicious!

An iris in my garden.

A fluorescent rose in my garden.

My new ‘Cairo Apricot’ hibiscus bloomed!

My new ‘Cairo Apricot’ tropical hibiscus.

I am going to try my luck with morning glories again. Last year, I planted the variety ‘Grandpa Ott’ in the ground. It grew a little bit, and threw out a few flowers, but our terrible California soil did them in.

This time, I completely replaced the soil. I dug down where I was going to plant the seeds. I excavated a hole about a foot deep and two feet long. After cutting out roots, I filled the hole with fresh garden soil. I then planted seeds of ‘Heavenly Blue’ morning glories.

They are watered, and hopefully they will grow tall!

A very green and mossy cascade in Las Trampas. I hiked to this green cascade in January, 2008.

A rushing waterfall in Las Trampas Regional Park the day of a heavy rainstorm.