Cooking for One - Part I

One of the downsides of living in a big city, like Paris, is paying more for less when it comes to living accommodations. You pay for the location... "Location, location, location."

My little studio looks like a closet in comparison to ones I've seen in Duluth, MN, Atlanta, GA or Chicago, IL. After visiting several of my friends' apartments here, I now feel as though I live in a mansion... well...you get the idea.

I eat with my host family Monday-Friday for dinner, and MWF for lunch. That leaves me with 13 meals a week to fend for myself. In my little kitchen I have one working stove-eye, a mini-fridge (without a freezer), a microwave, and absolutely zero counter space. Needless to say, cooking can be difficult... not to mention, cooking for one person. If I cook a "normal" meal, I often have a lot of leftover food. I get so sick of eating the same things all the time, or throwing out food. With my au pair salary, I can't afford to waste my money. I have decided to make more of an effort to cook creatively, while staying healthy. The next several posts will be some of the recent dishes I've enjoyed. They won't all be "French," but good nonetheless, and perfect when cooking for one! Don't worry... this is not going to become another food blog...

The first one I've chosen is an endive salad. This dish is not necessarily French, but one I've eaten several times since being here.  Endives are fantastic! Because they last 10-14 days in the fridge (much longer than other types of lettuce) I don't have to worry as much about them going bad before I get around to consuming them! For information and other endive recipes, go to http://www.endive.com/

Endive Salad
2 endives
Salt
Pepper

Go-To Dressing
1 Part Olive Oil
2 Parts Balsamic Vinigarette
Touch of honey or dijon mustard

Trim the stems off the endives. Pull apart the leaves and put them in boiling water until cooked. Drain and mix in Go-To-Dressing. Refrigerate until chilled.

You can also eat this salad with raw endives. Mix your other favorite chopped veggies, and voila!