Since being back I've baked a lot, like a lot! It was crazy of me to bake in this crazy heat Philly got hit with! A 3rd floor walk up, no AC, and using an oven.. hot diggity dawg! Hot hot hot! I survived though! I made 2 batches of croissants... that was a tough challenge! On Days 2 and 3, rolling out that dough, wooo! so hard! Well, by day 3 I had installed my AC in my bedroom (realizing that I now need to buy one for my living room if I plan on doing any more cooking this summer... which I do :) ). So, the smartest thing to do was to do the roll out and shaping of the croissants in my bedroom with the AC on blast! And my dear friends, that is what I did (below is the picture for evidence).
(my room is now titled the croissant factory, until further notice)
I dragged my kitchen table into my room, set my AC to 65 and bam! rolled and shaped away. It was still a mess though! The dough was proofing while I was shaping and it was sticky... ugh, my croissants look crazy "special." But I got a whole batch of plain croissants and half a batch of almond and half of chocolate croissants.... I hope they turn out deliciously :)
I not only made croissants but I also did a trial run for a wedding cake I'm doing in July. I had the bride and groom do a taste test last night between 2 recipes I tweaked and the decision was happily made! Yay!
Anyways, I'll focus on writing a post of that cake when the time comes around.
Back to France!!!
France! Delicious France! A few things I want to mention. Of course I ate a croissant within the 1st hour of being there, thanks to my Uncle Leon (big props to him :) ). I ate half of a personal sized raspberry tart by the 3rd hour I was there, kudos to Paul. Later on that day I had generic Nutella on a baguette, which I might add, had more of a hazelnut flavor than Nutella does, yum!!!
Food at the wedding!! I wish I took photos of the cocktail hour! I took photos of everything else but the cocktail hour! The cocktail hour had delicious, amazing, melt in your mouth foie gras! AMAZING! mm! Apparently there was some grilled foie gras I didn't get around to tasting. There were fresh oysters (I didn't hit that part, not an oyster fan), smoked salmon and some other kind of fish, there were endless glasses of champagne. Little chinese soup spoons with a piece of steak and a pear sauce (? I think), or soup spoons with some kind of shrimp thing (didn't try that one). There were waiters walking around with trays of mini croq-monsiers, or fried dumpling type of things, there was just so much I know I'm forgetting things! But, that was by far, the best cocktail hour... (well it was 2 hours long)... I ever experienced. DELICIOUS! I took photos of the dinner we had.. I forgot to take a photo of the appetizer which was a glass with layered crab salad, shrimp salad, some kind of green sauce, I think there was a lobster salad too? All very delicious! Here are the photos I did take of the dinner:
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Okay!!!! #1- The place setting with the menu and a piece of bread :)
#2- Dinner!! Sea Bass with a most amazing, delicious cream sauce. Top Right corner was a little mound of veggies, like a little almost sorta ratatouille mix. Top Left yummy risotto! Bottom Left a hazelnutty buttery/oily garnish.
#3- Dessert!!! (my favorite part!!!) Top Right- mini fruit tart, no big. Middle- a delicious opera cake!!! The difference was that the bottom was a pecany, carmely mixture, sooo delicious!!!!! Bottom- a delicious citrus mousse with a thyme glaze on top, the combo was seriously amazing.
The next day we went to this little restaurant at Lindbergh Beach called Le Bac a Sable. It's run by a British guy and he's got some banging fish and chips! (that's the only good link I could find for it!) Or you can try this link too!
The last 2 days of the trip was spent in Paris. Hanging with the family. One night my cousins and I went to this delicious fondue joint by where they live, called Le Chalet. Really yummy fondue and an interesting way of doing raclette, which is the original way of doing it (but I never did it this way). Here David Lebovitz has some good pics of racletting! I love cheese, and melted cheese is almost even better!!!! So delicious!!!!
I was just about to finish this post up and remembered that I had one more important thing to mention!! Something that has apparently existed in France for a while and my brother just learned about it from browsing through David Lebovitz's site.... this is the most amazing thing you could ever try... no doubt, hands down, delicious!
It is called Speculoos! sigh.... do you enjoy eating graham crackers? If you ask me what my favorite part of a cheese cake is, I'd probably tell you that the graham cracker crust is.... because it is!! It's just so freakin delicious!!!! Now, if you are a graham cracker crust (or non crust) lover, this is the spread for you. Imagine a graham cracker spread. Yup, let it sit with you for a second. It's like peanut butter, but its not, its a spread made out of these delicious cookies... Biscoff cookies..... it's fucking amazing. AND! GET THIS!!! THEY SELL IT IN THE STATES TOO!!!!! Two days after coming back to the states and me cursing myself for forgetting to buy jars upon jars of this wonderful goodness, my brother gets back from the market with a surprise for me, SPECULOOS!!!!!! But! In the states it's called Biscoff Spread. Now, not all super markets carry this, but my brother happened to find it sitting right next to the Nutella! So friends, please do yourself a favor and search every market in your area and buy this thing, it's truly life changing.
I was asked if I was stranded on an island and had to choose between Nutella and Biscoff, which would I choose.. I really couldn't answer.... and most of you who know me know how much I love Nutella, so that says a lot.... This is what the jar looks like... keep an eye out for it, PLEASE!
It's actually a Belgian product. So let's give those Belgians a big HIGH-FIVE!!!!!!!!!
okay!
The end!
ENJOY!!!!!!
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