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The traditional and old fashioned Dulce de Leche (Caramel Sauce) has been in the pantries of almost every home in Argentina for ages as a somehow well kept secret. Recently or just a few years back the secret got out to the world and big retailers like Haagen Dazs Ice Cream, Yoplait Yogurt or Starbucks Coffee decided to include in the list of products they offer to the public this sticky, sweet, caramelized milk-and sugar sauce as a new flavor for their products. The curious thing is that even cosmetics retailers have felt for the Dulce de Leche fever and even OPI has a nail polish tone in ‘Dulce de Leche’.

The story goes that ‘Dulce de Leche’ may have been invented by Napoleon’s soldiers burning milk and sugar while in the field, or by a housekeeper who forgot the milk on the stove.  Whatever the origin, the flavor is legendary. In fact nobody is sure where it comes from, Argentineans claimed that WE invented it but Mexicans have it too (although they call it ‘Cajeta’).

Sitting at home with a head cold, looking at the clock and thinking about what to make for dinner, I thought about the beautiful cookbooks my sister-in-law gave to me while visiting my husband's family in France for CNY. Mind you, I did not have any intention of whipping up a french dinner in a moment's notice, but I did want to share one of my favorite, and easiest, french recipes that I turn to when short on ideas. It sounds more difficult than it really is, but make it once and you are sure to return to it. I am not that loyal to recipes for I am not good at following them and the measurements drive me crazy, but this one, I can do (even though I still made up my own quantities).

I also thought of doing something along the lines of “Julie and Julia”, cooking up one recipe per month (not per day!) in one of those books. I will think more on that...it will fine-tune my recipe-following abilities; never mind my french!

Tonight's dinner menu:

Carbonnade (the Flemish kind) served over pasta or rice

Low-fat strawberry muffins

10 of us girls decided to organise a cooking night, held by the Chinese Cooking Workshop. It's a large industrial kitchen with bilingual chefs and assistants - basically catered for expats to get together and learn how to cook Chinese food. IT'S HELLA FUN!Chef Huang was our star of the evening - a very very sweet guy that joked along with the rest of us. He handled 10 women wanting to marry him for his culinary skills very well ;) Man, the guy can cook! He makes it all look so easy, though we were struggling and looking so uncoordinated. It made me realise that Chinese cooking isn't so hard, but it's all in the preparation - which takes ages chop chop chopping stuff. Other than that, it's all actually quite straightforward.

We whipped up 10 courses (!!!!) and got to sample our hard work. The food was all, surprisingly, delicious! Impressive considering we were first-timers, but I chalk it up to Chef Huang's great instructions and patience.. especially since we were all drinking wine and laughing whilst trying to cook.