June French Fridays with Dorie Roundup

I dove into June's French Fridays with Dorie recipes with wild abandon.  Every single one of the recipes sounded wonderful to me: Warm Weather Vegetable Pot Au Feu, Roasted Rhubarb, Jam and Cola Ribs and the one that I wanted to make most of all....Mozzarella, Tomato, and Strawberry Salad.  Funny how things work out because I never got around to the Mozzarella, Tomato, and Strawberry Salad.  I meant to make the salad and I darn sure bought tons of strawberries, but the kids gobbled them up faster than I could put the salad together.  Seeing the kids eating piles of fresh strawberries makes me happy so I just let it be.

Dorie's Warm Weather Vegetable Pot Au Feu was absolutely amazing.  I was lucky enough to get all the vegetables fresh from the farmer's market: baby potatoes, asparagus, carrots, and spinach. On top of all the veggies and the light broth sat a perfectly poached egg.  I was truly in love with this soup.  I found it refreshing and extremely pleasant, light and yet hearty, and I really looked forward to having a bowl for lunch throughout the week. 

The minute I gazed upon this Roasted Rhubarb I was in love.  Just look at all that gorgeous pink syrup! I can't help it.  This definitely appeals to the girl in me. When I took my first bite it was like a heavenly explosion of tart juicy love.  I wanted to run to the computer and post this roasted rhubarb right away.  Who knew roasted rhubarb was such a terrific treat begging to be shared?  My original plan was to serve the roasted rhubarb on top of plain vanilla ice cream later in the evening for dessert. That never happened.  I pretty much ate it straight from the pan.  Myself.  Later that night I served my family plain vanilla ice cream.  Shhh!! 

Last up are Dorie's Cola and Jam Ribs.  I have a rib recipe that I love and I don't usually tinker around with rib recipes for that reason.  However, the ingredients in Dorie's recipe had me curious and I've read a lot of success stories regarding cola and barbecue so I thought I give it a go.  Dorie's ribs are rubbed with salt, pepper, ground ginger and Chinese five spice and then marinated in apricot jam, orange juice, and lemon juice.   They bake in the oven for around 2 hours and towards the final baking time they are basted with Coca Cola.  Very different from my standard recipe.

Let's just say that Dorie's ribs rival mine.  I loved these just as much, possibly even more, than my standard recipe.  They were fall off the bone tender with a nice bright citrusy flavor.  We really licked those bones clean.

Each of this month's recipes was a home run.  I usually select a favorite recipe for the month, but in this case I think all of them are winners and each recipe is one that I will enjoy again.  Can't wait for next month!