Back in Paris

Believe me, the photos from the trip are coming! I got through a lot of photos today from our first stop: Paris. I can’t stop thinking about Paris. I have been there before when I was 18 or 19 with my sister for three days. We packed too much into those three days and couldn’t really enjoy the city. For this trip with REB  we spent five days there, which yes, isn’t that much longer, but it was much more relaxed. We were able to see a lot of the city and got really comfortable there.

France isn’t exactly a country that caters to vegetarians, but we were able to find plenty of food to satiate our palate. One of the best meals, that we still talk about two weeks later, is the salade chevre chaud aka warm goat cheese salad. We had a lot of this salad at various cafes in Paris, but one cafe near our hotel served it best. Le Bosquet cafe on the Ave. Bosquet in the 7th district made THE best warm goat cheese salad we had while we were there! In fact, we went there twice just for this salad.

I’ll have an entire post about the food we had during our honeymoon (and yes, the food alone warrants its own blog post lol) but for now, here’s the goat cheese salad we tried to recreate here.

It’s not exactly how the cafe made it, but we came pretty darn close. It was crispy, creamy, fresh and full of flavor!

It was also super easy to make! It brought us back to that cafe on our last day in Paris before we went to the next stop. It makes me remember the 7th district and how badly I would live there ;)

So I can’t be the only person who has memories of the food they eat on vacation. What about you?

Warm Goat Cheese Salad:
•One round piece of goat cheese, cut long ways (to make two rounds)
•Two slices french bread
•Mesclun salad mix
•2 tablespoons honey
•1 tablespoon olive oil
Salad Dressing:
•1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
•2 teaspoons lemon or lime juice
•S&P to taste
•1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
•2-3 tablespoons olive oils whisked in

Preheat oven to 350. Toast the two slices of French bread in the toaster (but not to darken them). When they pop up, place them on a baking sheet and drizzle a little honey and olive oil on each piece. Place one round of goat cheese on each slice of bread. Drizzle the rest of the honey on top of the goat cheese. Bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes or until the cheese starts to melt and the bread it nice and toasty.
In the mean time, add the mustard, red wine vinegar and lemon or lime juice to a bowl and mix it up. Then whisk in 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. You can make this dressing as salty or mustard-y as you like. Toss the salad mix with the dressing. You may not have to use all if it. Use enough to dress the mesclun but don’t soak it or it will be too soggy.
Place some salad mix on each plate. When the bread and cheese are done, place one piece on each salad. Drizzle honey on over the top and serve!