Food for Food's Sake: Smileyfood in Paris!

I am just back from four days in Paris with my mother and sister. I have found all the cliches about French food to be true: Ubiquitious crepes, croissants, and baguesttes; red wine at every meal, a preponderance of nutella, affected waiters. But especially true is this: Eating is something that is done with purpose in Paris. There is no food-as-fuel multitasking nonsense- I didn't see one to-go container or a styrofoam coffee cup. I call this Food for Food's Sake.


Here's my mom and I enjoying a Kir Royale on the Champs d'Elysses. It's champagne with cassis, a currant liquer. Drinking mid-day was somewhat new to me but I managed to adjust.

This was my dessert at the Louvre cafe: currant sorbet with berries and whipped cream. I'm finding that I am not a fan of rich desserts, and this was a perfect hot-day sweet. My family and I had all run out of steam and just couldn't deal with the lines and seat-searching at the cafeteria. It turned out to be a lovely meal. Below is the chocolate pyramid that my sister ordered. It was light and chocolatey and not at all cloying or over-rich.
What in the world is that fruit on top? We couldn't figure it out.
My mother ordered a rhubarb tart that had a surprisingly strong mojito ice. It was almost too beautiful to eat. Almost.
My sister, ever the carnivore, ordered steak, which came covered in butter. No complaints were heard. Actually, she said very little until her plate was empty.

At the Champs d'Elysses we had a lovely salad that was described on the menu as "Small assortment of vegetables." It was actually a large pile of delicious hearts of palm, carrots, corn, olives, green beans, peppers, corn, and lentils. It was fantastic on the hot, humid day!
There were very few candy bars or packages of candy. Bakeries like this, however, were pretty ubiquitous. The pastries were like little pieces of architecture.

This omelette had the most lovely texture: crunchy, chewy, gooey.
At the same meal, my sister ordered a salad with baked goat cheese. It tasted as good as it looks.

One of the more exciting discoveries was a restaurant called La Table d'Erica. I had read about it in my guidebook and was so sad to find that it was closed. But it did allow for some great photo ops. Here's a close-up:

Cupcake Bread Pudding

Last night my husband was making pizza dough and he used a package of gelatin instead of a package of yeast.

If you know my husband, this may not surprise you. And you may also be unsurprised to hear that on Sunday he made bread pudding from cupcakes. He's been crazy about bread pudding since he had one made out of Krispy Kremes in Connecticut last year.

Anyway. Remember the July 4th cupcake fail? We made chocolate Guiness cupcakes that kind of fell apart due to their general delicious gooiness. That's what led to his brilliant idea. Because I hate to waste food, we took the broken, decapitated cupcakes and froze them. Then, a few weeks later, he took them out and soaked them in a mixture of milk, eggs, and vanilla and let it all bake. He tells me that he just used a bread pudding recipe and cut down on the sugar. And ultimately, what looked like brownies was actually a super-moist, ultra-rich chocolaty concoction.


Which was perfect for our friends' brunch garden party. It was 2/3 gone before I got my camera.

Cupcake Fail with a Silver Lining

I love cupcakes.

Why don't they love me back?

The picture above is my wedding cake cupcake tower. They were wonderful- lemon with lemon curd filling, chocolate with raspberry filling, and vanilla with chocolate ganache filling. And they were delicious. Thanks to sandcastlematt for the image! And yes, that's Batman and Wonder Woman on top.

However. The following is my Facebook status report upon trying this recipe
for Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes from Smitten Kitchen:

"Erica Smiley's Irish cupcakes met with mixed results. Removal from pan proved difficult and there were many casualties. Decapitation frequent and gruesome. Lack of more formal piping bags led to collision of ganache and ziploc. Must work quickly to establish historical precedent for "Erica's Awesome Spatula Cupcakes." Am hoping preponderance of butter, Bailey's and cocoa will smooth things over. Results to follow."

Well, the results were gooey, rich, and delicous. I halved the frosting and doubled the whiskey in the ganache. But all I can say is: Use paper liners on these cupcakes, people. Paper liners.

Update: While my cupcake tin did not have a silver lining, this story in fact does. My culinary/coronary daredevil of a husband, who fears nothing high in fat or cholesterol, has taken the cupcake wreckage, placed it in a tupperware, and vowed to make it into bread pudding. Ladies, that's what we call a keeper.

Jonah's Birthday Feast: a Photo-Documentary

Jonah's Birthday Feast
Part I:
Selections From the Menu

Just click on the title for the recipe

Ribs, Alton Brown style

Avocado Sushi

Bubbly White Russians

Lavender Cashew Toffee

And the Famous Blue Velvet Cake

Winter White Bean Soup for Cousin Marilyn

My cousin Marilyn just asked me for this recipe, so here it is, with a few tweaks. Thanks to Matt and Melissa for getting us started with this! This bread is amazing with some crunchy sauteed veggie sausage and Jonah insists that real bacon would be great too. Just so you know.

Also, we usually make beer bread to go along with this. It's the easiest recipe! Takes about 5 minutes to make the dough, no rising necessary, then an hour or so to bake. We've adapted from here: http://www.recipezaar.com/Beer-Bread-73440, but for goodness sake, you really don't need a half cup of melted butter so you can leave it out if you want. Start it about 30 minutes before you start the soup so they're done at the same time.

THE BREAD

3 cups flour
1 bottle beer
1tbsp baking powder
few pinches sugar
few pinches salt
1 tbsp rosemary or any other spice like basil or oregano (optional)
1/2 cup cheese (optional)

Mix all together with spoon or hands. Grease loaf pan. Bake 45 minutes to an hour until brown and crusty. Serve warm. If you let it go stale it makes excellent breadcrumbs.

THE SOUP

2 cans white beans
4 cups broth (we used veggie boullion)
1 onion
1 tbsp dried rosemary
2 carrots
real or veggie sausage or bacon (optional)

Big saucepan
Big soup pot
stirring spoons
Blender or immersion blender
ladle

In the soup pot, chop and sautee veggies in a little olive oil. When they're soft, add broth and sautee a few more minutes. Add beans and rosemary and simmer for 10 more minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Not too much salt- canned beans are pretty salty to begin with. To thicken the soup and improve its consistency and richness, take about 1/2 the soup and put it in the blender for a smooth consistency. Add it back into the soup and serve.

Bubbles Away!!!

Is there anything better than a bubble tea? You eat, you drink, you chew...

So, I came up with the idea for a Bubble White Russian. I plan to implement this at Jonah's birthday party. Milk, kahlua, vodka, and bubbles. Does it get any more tasty?

Join us! Email me for details.