NEVER, EVER TRY COOKING WITH SESAME OIL. It is a seasoning added at end of cooking. Its smoking point is too low to use for cooking.

Thanks for making a real suggestion. I don't like Alsation wine myself because it is too sweet for me, so
I did not even think of it. (I love the beer, though). ut Americans generally drink sweeter wine than I like.

I will include it. Thanks!

All proper pie dough is greasy. Grease is the main ingredient of it is made right

I never use cream in quiche. In the 70's, I was asked to "bring your qiiche" hundreds of times. People would walk in my door asking where's the quiche? (JC's l'aubergine made with skim
milk.) If the other ingredients are good, I prefer the taste made with skim milk. Like I said, the menu is rich in cheese, but it's
French.

Thanks for the advice on charcroute. It just did not seem to fit. We used to get it on those beautiful German beer gardens in
Alsace, with girls in native costume carrying 4 steins in each hand, not in more formal places.

I make about a quart and a half of chinese soups once a week for a group of 10, including 2 older Chinese who really prefer their native cuisine.

Every 10 weeks, I take several jours to make up 10 packets of the base, and freeze it. Each packet contains:
1.5 t minced ginger
1.5 t minced garlic
3T extra dry sherry
2T kikkoman lowered sodium soy
2 rounded spoons dry Chinese soup chicken soup base
(Knor brand,
sold in Chinese groceries,
the spoon is in the package)
1/4 c sauteed sliced onion,
red pepper, carrots,and celery
1/4 t black pepper

Then when I make soup, I simmer one packet with 4 c water for 10 minutes, and make it into egg drop, won ton, hot and sour, or Chinese watercress soup.

Each week I add different side ingredients:

chicken or pork sometimes

one dried Chinese garnish, softened for 20 minutes in warm water:
black mushrooms, tiget lilies, wood or tree ears

One or two veggies, often including a Chinese green.

At the end of the10 minutes cooking, I add one of several seaweeds, softened.

Most weeks, I make egg drop because it is easier., adding 6 beaten eggs, while stirring soup in a circular dore tion.

Thanks so much for caring to comment. I thonk there's some misundersta.ding. Its an extremely light menu -- probably too light for the men. That's what got me thinking of the chaucroute. Only a few main quiche will have crusts because noone wants to eat much greasy pie crust. Most will be timbals, which Americans tend to call "crustless 'quiche' ".
Crepes are not heavy on flour. They are so thin that
they are not heavy on anything. Six crepes have less
flour than one small biscuit, and no one person will
have 6. The desserts are rich in alcohol, but small
because they are so rich. The menu is a little heavy on
cheese, but it's French. If someone does not want to
eat much quiche, s/he can have salads, plus I think I need something more substantial than this light meal.

My worry about the charcroute is that it may be too
rustic for quiche amd crepes, plus the meal is already
very expensive (The cheeses cost up to $30/pound.)
The special sausages for charcroute are also very
expensive here.

I know most Americans consider quiche to be difficilt to make, but when they see how simple it is, they
would feel freer to make it. I was worried about them
having to make it almost immediately. How about just
the crust and a recipe. I think everyone milk, eggs,
nutmeg, and pepper.

I'm trying to think of a way to let people make their
own at the party from dishes of cooked foods - a quiche bar, so to speak. But cooking all of them presents a problem that I have not yet resolved.

I have not cooked with salt for years. Just stop using it and you'll stop wanting the taste. Research shows that your taste for salt will dimenish over 6 weeks. Then things taste better. Don't substitute amything. You'll enjoy food more.

CARDOMOM is great in any Indian dish. Use about 1/4 as much as you use of cumin or coriander. It's strong.

JACQUES PEPIN beet salad dressing for 2 pounds cooked. beets: 1/2 c sour cream, 1.5 T cider vinegar, 1.5 t sugar, 1 t salt, 1/2 t pepper.

French beet salad is just cooked beets with vinaigrette. No sugar.

American Harvard beets has a sickeningly sweet dressing. Hard cooked eggs are often added.

Carrots Vichy is cooked carrots, sauteed in butter and seasoned well (Lemon pepper works very well).

I am planning a lunch of a variety of quiches as appetisers and chicken-broccoli crepes as a main course. The theme is "Remembering the 70's! When quiche was king and Julia Child was queen."

Soup will be potage parmentier. Side dishes will be lettuce-watercress salad, fruit salad or jello, and French beet salad. Desserts are crepes suzette (flambeed in advance), baba au rhum, and Alsatian bread pudding pie.

QUESTION 1: There will be two Alsation appetizers and an Alsatian dessert. (I lived in Alsace years ago, and Julia included Alsatian recipes throughout her cookbooks). I'm wondering if I should include the most popular Alsatian main course: choucroute garnis (saurkraut with sausages, pork, and ham).

QUESTION 2: For the take-home party favor, I have several ideas. (a). Have lots of extra quiche, and give guests quiche to take home in a good storage box. (b). Give guests a gift bag with a pre-baked mini quiche shell, a bag of cheese, and a container of mixed quiche filling. I would call this "Tomorrow's breakfast with Julia". The guest would just add any meat or
vegetable and bake. (c). Give each guest a Christmas balloon.

I would appreciate any advice.