La fête des Mères

A few weekends ago, we celebrated Mother's Day in France. This time around the day was especially important for us because we also celebrated the baptism of our daughter.

We were very fortunate that both my huband's parents and my own mother, as well as our siblings and a cousin who lives in Switzerland, were here to share the moment with us. All in all it was a day that we will always cherish.

Since they came all the way over from the US, my family stayed on a few extra days. As always, we had a blast visiting some favorite neighborhoods and sights in Paris. Here are a few shots from the weekend.

Close-up of one of the front doors of the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral 

The Eiffel Tower 

Modern sculpture in front of the main courtyard at Versailles 

And, one of my favorite sights from the weekend, bakeware that I bought (but for which we had no room in our suitcases) during our trip back in November plus my favorite cut-out, iced sugar cookies (thanks Mom & Blair!!!) 

Valentine's Day

Ahhh, Valentine's Day. Some people love it and others hate it. Listening to colleagues and friends, I'm starting to think that a majority would just as well do away with the holiday -- the stress of having to buy the perfect gift, getting dinner reservations, of not having someone to buy a gift for / receive a gift from / go out to dinner with...

Valentine's Day is much less complicated when you're a child. I remember having "home room" parties at school, usually involving a Valentine card exchange, fruit punch and cookies and games such as bingo using conversation hearts instead of chips or guessing the number of heart-shaped cinnamon red hots there were in a glass jar.

Thinking back to those parties got me into the mood to make some heart-shaped sugar cookies. If there's one thing you have to love about Valentine's Day, it's the color scheme -- when else can you get away with combining pink and red? or icing cookies flamingo pink? What I enjoyed most in making these cookies was tinting all of the different icings. Accompanied by tea (hold the fruit punch), they will be perfect for dessert on Valentine's Day.

Galette des Rois

Look what we found in our king cake ("galette des Rois") this year -- isn't she adorable?! In France, a king cake is a puff pastry tart filled with frangipane and one token ("fève", which means bean). It's a tradition to eat a galette des Rois on or around the Epiphany, when the Magi visited baby Jesus. Whoever finds the token is the king (or queen)!

You can find some pretty interesting tokens in king cakes -- we've found them in the shape of ice cream sundaes, Frère Jacques, Donald Duck, a coin with Harley Davidson's logo imprinted upon it...but I think we just found the cutest one ever. Recently I've seen a lot of Kimmidoll accessories in the stores, and it looks like they've now made their way into cakes. We normally toss our king cake tokens, but I think I might just have to hold onto this one!

Pandoro French Toast

When we were in the US back in November, I made a stop at Williams-Sonoma for a bottle of vanilla extract and some harmless browsing (it's harmless because though I always find a million gadgets and cooking equipment I'd like to have in this store, I know I would never be able to bring it all back home in my suitcase, much less find space to store it in my kitchen).

Walking out with my extract and a cupcake corer (that'll fit in a suitcase!), I grabbed a recipe card for Panettone French Toast. I decided that since we'd be at home on Christmas Day this year, it would be perfect to have for breakfast. I've also always wanted an excuse to buy a panettone, a sweet Italian bread studded with raisins and / or candied fruit that you see pop up in the stores around Christmastime.

Well, I went to the grocery store looking for a panettone and ended up coming home with a pandoro, which is not exactly the same thing -- no raisins or other fruit involved -- but works fine as a substitute. It is excellent just plain and reminded me alot of a kugelhopf or a brioche-esque bread. I liked it so much that I bought a second one for dessert on New Year's Eve.

I regret to say that I lost a good part of the pandoro trying to make the French toast. Some pieces soaked too long and fell apart while others stuck to the bottom of the pan. The bread being rather large in diameter, cutting it into managable pieces unfortunately meant not having a sturdy crust on all sides. All in all, three slices came out ok, which was perfect to share between the two of us.

I served the French toast-ed pandoro sprinkled with powdered sugar and with maple syrup on the side. Like on New Year's Eve, I also made cranberry-orange sauce to accompany the dish. This recipe is a keeper -- I loved the addition of orange juice and zest to the egg mixture and plan to try with on other types of bread.

Pandoro French Toast

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma’s recipe for Panettone French Toast

Yield: 6 servings

1 pandoro

3 eggs

1 cup milk

Grated zest of 1 orange

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

Softened unsalted butter for brushing

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Warm maple syrup or other accompaniments for serving

1. Preheat your oven to 200°F. Cut the pandoro into horizontal, 1-inch thick slices (discard the end slices). Cut each slice in half.

2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs until just blended, then whisk in the milk, orange zest, orange juice, granulated sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour the egg mixture into a large, shallow dish and add the bread slices. Soak, turning once, about 5 seconds per side (do not oversoak!).

3. Heat a griddle on medium heat and brush with butter. When the butter foams, add a few of the bread slices to the griddle. Cook, turning once, until lightly browned, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Turn the slices over again and cook for a few minutes more per side until browned. 


4. Using a spatula, transfer the French toast to serving plates and place them in the oven. Cook the remaining bread slices.

5. If desired, sprinkle the French toast with confectioners’ sugar. Serve with maple syrup or other accompaniments.

Le réveillon de la Saint Sylvestre

Photo credit: Microsoft Office Clip Art / Fotolia

This year we hosted New Year's Eve at our place. It was a small gathering, just us and another couple. It's a tradition in France to enjoy a long dinner -- similar to the practice on Christmas Eve -- before ringing in the new year at midnight.

After cocktails and hors-d'oeuvres, we started the meal with fois gras and a salad. Not very original, I know, but everyone loves to eat fois gras at this time of year in France. Since our friend is pregnant and couldn't eat the fois gras, I had green / black olive tapenades and a red pepper spread on hand as well. 

For the main course we served roast pork with prunes and apricots and roasted winter vegetables, including celeriac, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, turnips and shallots.

 

Next came the cheese course and, once again, I forgot to take a picture of it. We had comté, English cheddar, goat cheese with herbs, Saint Albray and a spread similar to Boursin.

I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't make the dessert myself. I normally do when we have guests, but this year I ran out of time. I bought a Pandoro, a sweet Italian bread similar to brioche and traditionally sprinkled with powdered sugar, and served it with fresh fruit - grapes, figs and clemetines - and a cranberry-orange sauce (the same I make at Thanksgiving).

 

By the time we finished dessert, it was getting late so we skipped the coffee and tea and instead opened a bottle of champagne and a box of candied chestnuts to ring in the new year properly. Hope everyone had a great time on New Year's Eve -- I wish you all the best in 2011!