Green Beans with Preserved Lemon and Black Olives, p. 271

Kathy and I had some green beans to use up last night for dinner. We also had some preserved lemon left from the chicken recipe a while ago (it is preserved, so like a pickle, almost). So, we made this dish--a perfect fit for our ingredients. The original recipe on p. 270 is green beans with gremolata. We followed the variation very closely. I was suspicious of the length of cooking time--15 to 20 minutes, but the beans did turn out really tender and melty--not crisp like I usually like them. My mom would be proud of them! I did not add salt to the beans as they cooked since the preserved lemon and the olives are both salty. Turned out just right. 

We served these as a side dish along with something I made up--sauteed turkey cutlets with a wine, mustard and dried cherry sauce. Kathy liked it better than I did, but it was fine. I also served baby "confetti" potatoes--small potatoes--including the purple ones (I just love purple potatoes, just for the fun of it!). 

We also had a good dry white wine with dinner--Floria, a French varietal from Gascony. It was in a box of "12 wines under $12" that I bought at a wine bar/restaurant in Virginia. We are going to look for it again--at least the same region of France.

Little French Fudge Cakes, p. 313

I made these for a dinner at Lori's Saturday night. They we expensive, but really good. I modified the chocolate used a little bit. I used one bar of the Lindt Excellence they recommended - half for melting and half for the little bits of chocolate happiness. I then used the unsweetened as directed, as well as some Baker's bittersweet. Because (a) I'm kind of cheap and (b) I didn't really want leftover Lindt. So all that chocolate was pricey, but these would be at least $3 each if you tried to buy them anywhere, so totally worth it.
Anyhow. The chocolate and butter melted up beautifully - I did the "double boiler" version instead of the microwave. That's the first picture. I added the extra sugar "for the kids" because not everyone at the party was a hard core bittersweet chocolate fanatic. I didn't find the result too sweet at all. I baked them in this old cast iron Griswold popover pan. That I actually took out of a dumpster from Steve's neighbor's house when they were cleaning it out. It worked really really well for this purpose. (And yes, it's been washed several times.)
I served the cupcakes with Cool Whip (not Reddi Whip, which is fake). They were just yummy. The only thing that I'll change when I make them again (which I plan on doing) is to use a little less cinnamon next time, but that is probably because I used my Vietnamese cinnamon from Penzey's, which is quite potent.
Okay, kids, this is the only posting in March. Get to it!