Endive Made Sunday Dinner

On a trip to France in 2000 I ate endive wrapped in ham and baked with cream. It was delicious. I've thought about that dish often but, for some unknown reason, never tried to recreate it. Never, that it, until this week.

I've always shopped pretty much daily, deciding what I'm in the mood to cook then picking up what I need. In New York it was easy – vegetables were literally downstairs, the health-food store within site, and a traditional grocery store two blocks away. I passed Trader Joes and Whole Foods on my way home from work. In Raleigh I was farther from the shops, but relished hopping into my Mini Cooper and zipping around the city.

During the week in Germany I can continue daily shopping, but the weekends are different. On Sundays, everything is closed. That means that on Friday or Saturday I need to make sure I have something in the house for Sunday's dinner. Sometimes I plan a menu plan but more often I gather up what ever looks good and wait and see what strikes my fancy.

This Sunday, my fancy struck when I realized that I had four heads of endive and four slices of ham. I'd never have a better excuse to try to pull together the endive au gratin. And though it was a little different then what I remember — I used skim milk instead of cream and added Greyer to the béchamel — but it was still delicious.