My Nomadic Life | NYC chapter

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Friday, April 23, 2010

Paris in the Spring

The Eiffel Tour:

Sacré Coeur

Montmartre Cemetery

Lunch Time

L'Arc de Triomphe

The new Cy Twombly Ceiling in the Louvre

Our walk to the Eiffel Tower

Oh the stories I could tell. My mom and her friend Mary came to visit. Paris Day 1: lost camera, 7 flights of spiraling staircase and two 50 lb suitcases. Amsterdam: Red light district, asking the server what language they speak, buying lots of cheese, erupting volcano, craziness at the train station. Amsterdam train to Brussels: cancelled. Next train completely packed like a metro. Brussels: Watch a man dig through a stolen purse, waffles, chocolate, peeing boy statue, cancelled flight to the US. Brussels train: a running adventure, almost missed train, UK security. Paris (again): rebooking of flights, leaving mom and Mary to fend for themselves with 2 large suitcases plus carry on luggage. SNCF strike, finding a new train to Tours. Tours: 16+ mile bike ride. Tours train: cancelled. Train jumping until I made it back to Brest.

Mom and Mary: finally got a flight on Tuesday, tried to carry on cheese from Amsterdam, threw away cheese from Amsterdam :( , made it to chicago, rechecking of bags, security, staying overnight, throwing away of all liquids, 6 am flight to STL.

I think I hit some of the more important aspects. Maybe one day I will revisit them in detail. photos soon to come.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Madeleines

Saturday I left for Montpellier for a short trip to visit Nick! And as a surprise I made madeleines for him! Oh how sweet I am and how delicious the madeleines turned out. Here are a view horrible photos that I took with my webcam and... my recipe!

Madeleine Recipe:

For 8 people or 1 hungry boyfriend:

For about 30 madeleines (although I didn't count) :

225 g de Flour

175 g de sugar

100 g de butter (I used semi-salted butter)

1 sachet de levure chimique, umm... I'm going to translate that as 1/4 t baking powder and 1/4 t baking soda

4 eggs

1 lemon (for the zest)

15 g honey (or more)

1. Combine the 90g of butter and honey in a saucepan and melt the butter. Set aside and allow to cool a bit.

2. Combine the flour and baking powder/soda together in a sifter and set aside.

3. Whisk the eggs and sugars together until everything is a pale yellow and at least doubled in size. The batter should fall in ribbons from the whisk. (This step takes a bit of whisking. It’s much more comfortable to do on a machine than by hand.)

4. Sift the flour and baking powder (and lemon zest) on top of the batter and gently fold. Pour the cooled honey/butter along the edge of the bowl so it gently pools on top of the batter. Gently mix, trying to maintain the volume as best possible. Cover and allow to rest in the fridge for at least 30min.-1 hr.

5. Preheat oven to 425° F regular bake or 400°F convection bake. Melt @ 1 T butter and brush the madeleine molds.

6. OPTIONAL: I used a spoon! Carefully pour batter into a pastry bag fitted with a 4pt or 6pt tip (depending on your madeleine pan.) Try to keep from over-handling the batter and destroying it’s volume. Alt. method. Put batter in gallon size plastic bag then cut tip of one corner for an instant, disposable pastry bag. Pipe a line of batter in each mold cavity filling about 85% full (batter will spread during baking, so don’t worry about pressing it to edges.)

7. Place in oven on middle rack, and bake for no more than 5 minutes (10 min. for regular madeleine pans.) Be careful not to over-bake or else the madeleines will dry out. Immediately remove madeleines from molds and allow to cool on a wire rack.