Is this a Farmers Market or what?

On our way to the Musee du Louvre today via foot on a busy boulevard, Rue du Turbigo, we happened upon 2 of my "don't miss" points in Paris! The 1st was a visit to E Dehillerin, a cookware paradise! It was a tight fit, literally, but I left with Birthday treasures! The tiny terrine pans, copper pots, and everything in between had my name on them, however I controlled myself and purchased a few must-haves: knives, wooden pate spreaders, a square tart pan and "Le Repertoire de la Cuisine" book! The girls and John surprised me with an omelet pan later in the evening...I nearly took it to bed with me, I was so excited!



The 2nd must see was the street market and it was phenomenal. Interesting area and the whole street was shut down. I took many photos and bags home, I could not resist the madelains and gateaux, the girls could not resist the racks of clothing! John was sniffing pans full of Paella and oogling the seafood! The "Madame"s start as soon as you pull out your Euros! It was festive, smelly, beautiful...purely heaven!

I have lots to talk about this day, but will save for another post! We are off to my Birthday celebration! Au Revoir!

Travels & Food

In my opinion there are moments that are life altering. Today was that day! We awoke early after a 2am family pow-wow...it seemed like morning?!?! Place des Vosges, Bastille and Notre Dame are on the agenda. These sites are in a reasonable walking distance from the apartment and we set out! Place des Vosges has a fabulous feel with it's many fountains, trees lined up like soldiers and historical buildings as it's backdrop. We strolled the covered shopping area and sat down for people watching and enjoying the sunshine. We moved on down to the Bastille and felt the gold angel on top watching for us! It was a lovely site representing French history. We walked Henry IV Boulevard on the Seine river side and soaked up the nature around us. We crossed over the Seine halfway to walk the tiny island! We began to see peaks of Notre Dame and soon crossed the river on a foot bridge (with a 4 piece band singing Elvis Presley in English...what?) and arrived!

As we entered the enormous wood and ironworked doors, a hush fell over the people as we took in the stained glass windows, ceiling buttress' and stone monuments. AMAZING...my life has changed to be here today. At once, I see both my insignificance and significance in this world. I lit candles and prayed today at Notre Dame. I am blessed to be here with my family.

Photos...

I LOVE PARIS! Surprisingly friendly, always a "Bon Jour" and "Merci", even on the streets...not at all what I had heard people talk about. the French have been very patient with us and willing to help us order, give directions, cut cheese and pate and give us room on the sidewalks. I like that all prices are displayed in the windows with the items for sale (easy to know whether it's affordable or not!) and the window displays are absolutely so beautiful! I have been inspired to make my windows at the Market lovely too! We picked a lovely Vin du Pays from the Savoie (white) from this wine merchant and Gina picked out a lovely white bordeaux. Julia selected the nasty-ist, gray skinned goat cheese (delicious!) from the fromagerie and we have been frequent patrons to the cafe across the street, note my cappucino from this am!

Bon Jour!

We arrived in Le Marais yesterday at 1pm local time and LOVE the apartment! French, tiny and charming! As we were completely jet lagged, yet not too tired to find some fromage (cheese) and baguettes we set off to explore our neighborhood. The Marais district is a lovely neighborhood with many bakeries, fromageries, wine shops and cafes. We explored the local grocery store, florist and Enfants Rouges, Paris' oldest covered market. While many vendors were not open, we found some beautiful produce, homemade ravioli ( from a Napoli native) wine, tangines dinners, cheese, mushrooms and more! (See photo of our dinner, and more on Facebook; The Boulevard Market) While jet lag was making monsters of us all, we had a lovely cheese/baguette supper in our apartment complete with Cahors Malbec. Magnificent! Raw milk Vacherin Mont d'or, tiny, creamy, Brebis, hard, green/grey nubs of goat cheese and garlicky Gaperon. Meat and vegetables consisted of Fresh Mozzarella rolled with arugula, proscuitto, sundried tomatoes...

I have to say, I'm surprised at how many cheeses are the same as we carry at The Market! I am so excited that we can procure such great stuff for Tecumseh-ites!

I am looking forward to breakfast at our local Boulangerie, tomorrow is on to tourist sites of Notre Dame, Bastille, Place des Vosges and the Jewish area of the Marais.

If you haven't had cheese for supper, still on the paper, broken baguette and a slice of pate...do it today and experience Paris through flavor!

Spring Cupcakes!

Easter gets me in the mood to fuss a bit in the kitchen and I had all those pretty pansies...so here was our Easter dessert!

If you tell me you don't like cupcakes, I know you are lying! There is something irresistible about tiny cakes with fluffy frosting, and they are small, so less guilt than that big chunk of cake. I do not care for boxed mixes, so this is a little standby recipe that makes 12 delicious, moist cupcakes and a butter cream frosting that you will eat by the spoonful (go ahead, I won't tell!)

The frosting does make a large batch and I have been unsuccessful in halving it, so I just plan to make 2 batches of cupcakes and share them with friends and family.

Pansies are edible...or go with sprinkles. I am including a list of edible flowers for this recipe or salads....they do add a bit of romance to lots of dishes!

CUPCAKES:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
7 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup self rising flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease 12 cup muffin tin or use paper cups. Cream butter and sugar together in mixing bowl. Add 1 egg until completely blended and then half of the flour, add remaining egg and remaining flour. Add vanilla and 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until a batter forms. This doesn't seem like it will fill 12 cups but it will! Bake 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown.


ORANGE BUTTER CREAM FROSTING;
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup orange juice
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
20 tablespoons butter, room temp
1 cup powdered sugar

In a small saucepan combine sugar, cornstarch, salt and orange juice. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and add extract.

Lightly beat egg yolks in a medium bowl, add half of orange juice mixture and combine, add to remaining orange juice mixture and mix until combined. Cool to room temperature.

Beat butter until fluffy. Beat in orange juice mixture and powdered sugar. Can be refrigerated up to 3 days.

EDIBLE FLOWERS:
Pansies
Johnny Jump Ups
Violets and violas
Nasturtiums
Roses
Lavender
Jasmine
Chamomile
Lilacs

Memories of Focaccia

Life is crazy again and yet I yearn to do a little something special for supper! Focaccia bread is just the thing! We had homemade focaccia bread in Matera, Italy and this recipe takes me back to that mountainous, misty area with goats running across the twisty roads, ancient olive trees and fresh goat yogurt from a bucket. We were welcomed to the home of olive oil and cheese producers in a movie setting! (The Passion of the Christ was filmed in Matera) It was one of the most memorable and beautiful places I've seen to date! We ate focaccia bread with different toppings, wine, goat yogurt with chestnut honey and a lovely lemon tart.

The smell of bread baking is so instinctively comforting and hunger inducing! I've never experienced an angry person in my kitchen while bread is baking! (This includes teenagers, small children and animals!) I use a 10 inch stoneware dish for this bread, so I prefer to split the dough in half for a bit thinner bread, or you can use a larger jelly roll pan for the whole batch!

I have also changed the yeast in this recipe for INSTANT yeast. This really cuts down the time required to make bread, but does leave a more yeasty flavor behind. Feel free to use dry active yeast and proof accordingly. This dough also keeps well in the fridge for fresh focaccia in about 45 minutes!

FOCACCIA BREAD- YOUR WAY

1 Tablespoon Instant Yeast
1 ¼ cups hot water (115 degrees)
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
½ cup extra virgin olive oil, divided


In your mixing bowl, blend water, yeast, 1 Tablespoon of EVOO and sugar. Add all of the flour and salt. Using the dough hook, blend at low speed until dough forms ball on hook. Continue kneading additional 3-4 minutes until dough looks shiny and all flour has been incorporated.

Coat dough with 2 Tablespoons EVOO and let double in size (about 15 minutes), punch down. Liberally oil (with EVOO) a 12-13” round pan and press half of the dough into bottom. Make depressions with your fingertips. Let rise until dough has doubled (15-30 minutes) and add toppings, drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle with salt.

Bake 450 degrees for 25-35 (whole batch of dough or 18 minutes for a half batch of dough) minutes until golden brown and dough has cooked through.

Herbs, cheeses, tomatoes, anchovies, roasted peppers, salami, spinach. The sky is the limit on toppings!

Our favorite is: add 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 Tablespoon fresh Rosemary and 1/4 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano to dough. Top with 3 Tablespoons each: grated Romano and Fontina and a few more sprigs of Rosemary.

Spring!

This week I have been changing gears and getting Spring projects done. Closet cleaning, touching up paint (sort of- I bought the paint and brush!) putting out the patio furniture, washing curtains, etc. (We won't discuss that the cats are furious or my Lysol induced migraine!) We leave for Paris next week and I thought it would be nice to come home to a clean (er) place!

I love the what the whole putzing around the house does for my soul. I feel such a sense of accomplishment when I open up tidy linen closets or see the sun shining through clean windows! I am trying to eliminate some STUFF in my house, so this feeling happens more frequently. I'm not on "hoarder" status, but that show scares the heck out of me and I've started making regular trips to Goodwill!


I got the most pleasure out of 2 projects, planting purple pansies in my window boxes and making a potato green bean salad. I guess it's always the little things!

This salad combines my most favorite foods and I ate the first batch standing up at the counter! I shared the 2nd batch with the family and the 3rd with my spring cooking class. All in the same week! (We are having it on Easter Sunday too!) Soft creamy potatoes, just crisp, bright green beans and a hint of licorice in the tangy vinaigrette! The salad would pair up great with any grilled meats or ham, some fresh bread and cheese! I drank it with Santa Guistina's Malvasia, a lovely white wine from Italy that has a bit of floral essesence and the perfectly balanced acidity you need for a salad course!


POTATO AND GREEN BEAN SALAD

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon Sambuca
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ cup Extra virgin Olive Oil (best quality)

1 ½ lbs. red potatoes cut into 1 inch chunks
¾ pound Haricot Verts (tiny, skinny green beans) blanched (3-4 minutes in boiling water)
½ Red Onion, minced
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
Optional:
½ cup Parsley, finely chopped
½ cup tiny black olives
Combine the first 7 ingredients in a glass jar, or shaker and shake vigorously to combine. This can be made several days in advance.
Boil potatoes until tender about 20 minutes and blanch green beans. You want the beans to be bright green and retain a bit of snap. Drain.

Combine potatoes, onion, green beans and herbs, coat with vinaigrette and toss to coat. Do about an hour in advance for the best flavor! This salad is best served slightly warm or at room temperature.