She Bakes, etc.

Used to be a baking blog. Now it's whatever comes into my head, which is usually something about how I miss France.

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Progress

I had a breakthrough with my kid last night. After French class he listened as I spoke to him in French for several blocks of our walk, didn’t cut me off, didn’t beg me to speak in English, didn’t stomp his feet or roll his eyes. He even responded un petit peu in French. Afterward he said he was glad we could have a conversation in French. Floored. Please, let this development stick. S’il vous plait. 

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Must make more orangettes today. 

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Countdown

Booked our next visit to Paris. Summer can’t come soon enough. 

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Note to self: be more like the sidewalk in le Marais. 

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Paris is a big city, in the sense that London and New York are big cities, and that Rome is a village, Los Angeles a collection of villages and Zurich a backwater.

Edmund White, The Flâneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris

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Thinking about this lil dude today. Back in November when I was in Paris for a few days he sat under my table, close to my feet, at Les Deux Magots while I sipped vin chaud and read a book. He was dirty and had a bad foot and seemed to know he was safe there by me. We spent about 45 mins together in respite, just him and me and that fallen leaf. I wonder how he’s doing. 

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Security in Insecurity

It’s a struggle familiar to most self-employed workers: a project ends and the battle to control one’s own level of worry about filling the void begins. No matter how many times it’s happened before and no matter how many times it’s all worked out fine there’s no guarantee that this time will be OK, so the insecurity sets in. History tells me it will work out because it always has, in this I should take solace... but I’m me, so that’s tough. This particular client relationship is a good one, a long-standing one of several years, but the program is ending and taking with it a good chunk of my freelancing stability. Now I will start the battle to limit my internal panic about finding new work while resisting the impulse to say yes to bad work in the meantime. When there’s a hole, my tendency is to fill it, but filling it with walnuts (which I don’t like) rather than figs (which I like very much) would be a mistake. The hunt for figs is on. I’ll try to resist the walnuts. 

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Il ne parle pas

My kid is taking French language lessons. He doesn’t ever want to speak French with me. We’ll have entire conversations where I’m speaking French and he’s speaking English. Unrelated: today Paris had flurries and temps in the 22F range. I am filled with jealousy. 

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Perspective

My fridge stinks of camembert washed in calvados. It’s the kind of stink that could easily be mistaken for something decomposing until you remind yourself that it’s the stink of Normandy food funk. Then it’s delicious. I wish I could change my own mind about other things as easily as I can realign my food smell barometer. “Things feel tough and sad and dark because the world seems to be spinning out of control lately,” could be swapped in a jiffy with, “Anytime you’ve felt like this before it’s been only a matter of time before the clouds broke.” 

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Drat

Ready to bake... no parchment left! Bundling up and out into the 8" of snow and 18 degree temps I go.

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Naan!! No tandoori oven needed!

Today was a snow day of sorts. The Kiddo had no school and we got about 8" of the white stuff dumped on us as we slept last night. This kind of weather calls for something warm and stewy - veggie korma. Can't have curry without naan and since the curry is homemade, the naan must be, too. Broiler and cast iron skillet to the rescue!

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Corn muffins. Some plain, some sharp cheddar, some jalapeño cheddar. Honey butter is chilling in the fridge.

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Cooking class with Grammy - caramel apples

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Whole Wheat Biscuits

Moist, buttery, not heavy, yet substantial.

1 & 1/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

8 Tbsp cold butter, cubed

1 cup cold milk (pref 2% milkfat or higher)

Preheat oven to 450.

Combine dry ingredients, cut butter into flour mixture (use a pastry cutter or 2 forks), when butter is broken down into pieces small enough to look like coarse cornmeal make a well in the center and pour in milk. Slowly stir to combine milk and flour mix, then knead by hand just until sticky ball holds together.

Roll out on a floured surface to 1/2" thickness. Cut biscuits with biscuit cutter or cookie cutter. I'm partial to hearts.

Rub some softened butter on the bottom of a cast iron skillet. Place biscuits into pan (they won't spread much, you can place them very close together), rub some more butter on the tops of the biscuits. Bake for about 15 mins.

Eat with some jam and smile.

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French Macarons, part deux. Chocolate with raspberry buttercream.

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French Macarons, part deux

Lessons in disappointment. Teensy feet, cracked tops. Methinks I've over-beaten the egg whites and then under-folded the final mixture. Classic missteps combined. The raspberry buttercream I've made to fill them, however, is a dream of deliciousness. Here's hoping that even if ugly they'll taste divine.

Next time I'll pay more attention to the egg whites. I was much happier with my sifting this time, at least. As I've said many times, even ugly treats can taste good.

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Chocolate Caramel Cake in a Mug

Seriously. It was pretty good, for a mug cake. Never thought I’d make one of these, but the kiddo asked for dessert and we didn’t have anything dessert-ish in the house. So, it became a science experiment/cooking demo/dessert. Pretty fantastic.

3 caramels 4 Tbsp flour 3 Tbsp cocoa 3 Tbsp sugar 1/4 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt (a pinch more if you’re like me and you like salty caramel) 1 egg (beaten) 1 Tbsp veg oil 1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix everything (except caramels) up in a bowl, pour into a mug, drop caramels into batter, microwave on high 2 mins. Careful, mug handle will be stupid hot.