Questions from Americans: what do you cook/eat in France?

In addition to my trip to the US in June, I was also in California in August for my grandmother's memorial service/family reunion.

One question I got both places was "What do you cook/eat in France?"

First off, I should mention that my husband and I don't buy a baguette daily. We only need a half baguette for 2 people, and we don't always eat things that "need" bread like dishes with lots of sauce. We often buy pre-cooked baguettes and stick them in the oven for 15 minutes when we need some bread. I also don't buy a big variety of cheese (besides emmental, parmesan, and ricotta) because I'm the only one to eat them and they get hairy before I can finish them.

In Albuquerque I mentioned that quiche is a fast and easy dinner meal, to which someone expressed surprise that it wasn't breakfast/brunch food. My husband likes to make quiche lorraine with some added cheese, but I prefer things like quiche/"tarte" with tuna or mackeral and tomato paste; spinach, ricotta, and pine nuts; salmon and spinach; oignan; tomato slices and mustard. I generally cook in English (all my cook books are in English), but when looking for a quiche/tarte salé recipe I usually find something online in French on Marmiton or Journal des Femmes.

An easy summer dish I learned from my mil is sliced tomatoes with fresh mozarella, fresh basil (I grow it on the balcony), sel de guerande, and drizzled olive oil. I don't buy salad dressing from the grocery store anymore, so we mix our own depending on what we're eating and how many are at table.
We also eat a lot of melon (cantelope) in the summer, although I rarely make the effort to buy jambon cru to serve with it.

In terms of barbecuing, we generally stick with things like saucisse de Toulouse or duck breasts. We only have a small electric barbecue that we set up on our balcony, so it's not really the best set up for barbecuing a leg of lamb like my in-laws can do with their wood burning bbq.

In the winter we'll have raclette parties with friends, and last winter I started making onion soup after I received a bag of 2kg of Cevennes onions.

I occasionally buy swiss chard, which I more or less discovered in France, but I don't make any traditional French dishes with it.

So what else do I cook?
I'm a huge fan of Jamie Oliver and I use his pesto recipe with basil from our balcony. I also make his Saturday afternoon pasta and risotto. I made my own pasta using his fresh recipe once, with decent results (my gnocchi were not so successful).

We only eat meat a couple times a week, to the other days are vegetarian meals or extra large services of side dishes.

I'm a firm believer in the slow food movement, so I use Jamie Oliver's recipe to make my own mayonnaise whenever I need some. I freeze the egg whites and make meringues later.

My mom's family has Bretheren/Mennonite roots, so I also do some cooking from my tattered Amish and Mennonite cookbook. In the winter I'll make corn chowder or soup, and I just make some sweet rolls from it (great for breakfast and my after work snack). I also have a couple casserole dishes I like to make (but I add extra spices). And then there are all the cookies, cakes, and pies I make.

I find as much pleasure in the making of food as in the eating of it, which means sometimes I'll decide to make a batch of cookies or a cake for no particular reason. It also means that I rarely buy read to eat food (frozen pizzas aside; those are used in case of 'crap, we need to eat and leave in 20 minutes!'). If I feel like I need a little snack to tide me over, it might require cooking something. Right now I have the sweet rolls to snack on, but that's because I made them a few days ago nights ago. For breakfast I often make a large batch of pancakes on the weekend and freeze half of them to last me through the week.

Five years ago my 'going away' present from colleagues at the end of my job contract was a subscription to Cuisine Actuelle. I've kept all of them, but I actually don't use them much anymore.

Overall, I cook a big mash up of French and American dishes and mix traditions. I might make an American casserole, which we will accompany with French wine, and then eat yogurt and fruit for dessert. Like most other elements of my life, when I eat at the home of French friends I realize how American my cooking is, and when I eat in the US I realize how French my eating habits are.