Good things

Bon Anniversaire grande dame

March 31, 2009 is the 120th birthday of one of the worlds best known icons, the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was originally built for the 1889 Universal Exposition celebrating the centennial of the French Revolution. Gustav Eiffel's design was selected by the World's Fair committee for it's "beautiful, transparent structure" and also because it was the least expensive submission. It took 2 years, 2 months and 5 days to build the tower and was finished 7 days before the expo opened. The tower was to be torn down after 20 years but was saved when it was turned into a radio tower and the height was perfect for transmission.

More interesting facts of the Eiffel Tower

She is 1,063 feet tall with 1,665 steps

It takes 50 gallons of paint every 7 years to paint the Eiffel tower and it takes 15 months to paint it. The use 3 shades of brown with the darkest at the bottom and the lightest at the top

20,000 light bulbs on the Eiffel Tower light it up the first 10 minutes of every hour each evening.

The Eiffel Tower is the most popular paid admission attraction in the world

I can't imagine a life without this beautiful lady

So we must make something special for this big birthday and had I honestly knew about it before the 30th I would have made an Eiffel Tower cake, but a lovely tart will do instead. A tomato & Camembert tart is light and lovely and perfect with a mixed green salad.

 

before it went into the oven, and below right after coming out

 

 

perfect on some Eiffel Tower plates and it tasted fantastic...

Don't miss Martha on Tuesday

Tune in tomorrow, March 31, to The Martha Stewart Show for a crafts-themed show.

Martha and the always hilarious Rosie O'Donnell kick off our Crafts Week with a show full of creative projects from our brand new "Encyclopedia of Crafts.”

First, Martha and Rosie are joined by popular radio hosts Alexis Stewart and Jennifer Koppelman Hutt ("Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer") to make shell-covered terra-cotta pots, a beautiful -- and practical -- project gardeners will love.

 

Then, Hannah Milman, editorial director of crafts for Martha Stewart Living, is back with some fun ways to glitter eggs for Easter. Plus, Marcie McGoldrick, holiday editor for Martha Stewart Living, shows you how to use simple craft punches to create fabric flowers perfect for embellishing barrettes, bouquets, cards, and more -- it's a show no crafter should miss!

Martha Stewart Craft Encyclopedia

 

A few weeks ago I was a very lucky girl to arrive home from a less then wonderful day at work to discover the newest edition to the Martha Stewart library, the Encyclopedia of Crafts to be sitting on my doorstep with a large set of glitter. It was just what I needed, glitter can brighten any day and the new book weeks before it's arrival, well that is just the bees knees. Thank you MSLO for sending it and making my day!

This is one great book, there are hundreds of fantastic ides and crafts for any level, I decided that I should tackle at least one of them that I haven't done before and try it out just for this post. After recently getting a book about Coco Chanel and the history of the Paris fashion  house I was inspired by her white camellia that she used and wanted to try making it in clay. This was my first dance with the clay and I had a hard time finding the air dry kind the book called for. But normal clay that you can bake in your oven worked just fine as well. It took some getting use to, but since I love the crepe paper flowers it came in handy knowing how to shape the clay into petals.

 

Not so bad for my first time, it was pretty simple and the clay is about $2 for a few ounces and I only used a 1/4 of it for 2 flowers. Not a bad deal.

And then of course I made some glittered eggs, but those I could do in my sleep. In fact I had a dream last night that I was glittering a huge bunny for my Easter table.... I may really need some help now...

 

I'll tell you about these cute bunnies a little later.

Make sure you get out and get this book right away, you can pre-order it at Amazon.com right now for $23. It is filled with over 400 pages of great tips, ideas and amazing photos and in the back there are some great templates that you can use for all the crafts. it is a must have!

Gratin de Queues de Crevettes

I love to watch cycling, but it also gives me a great excuse to try out some new French recipes from one of my very many French cookbooks. As I did yesterday for stage 1 of the Criterium International which takes place in the Champagne-Ardenne region way up in the Northern most spot of France.

Today was Gratin de Queues de Crevettes or Gratin of Shrimps and Salade de Pissenlits au Lard Champenoise, or Hot dandelion and bacon salad. For the salad I actually used a mixture of greens since the dandeleions were hard to come by. With the bacon and the greens was slices of potato that added a great mix to the salad. I will make this one again, for sure. The Gratin of shrimp was great and a perfect match to a salad but makes a lot, nice for leftovers...

 

Both recipes are from the Anne Willan French Regional Cooking book, if you would like the recipe at all let me know and I would be happy to email it to you,

Bon Appetit!

Fricassee de Poulet au Champagne

One region of France I haven't got to cook from is the Champagne region. Best known for what else, Champagne, the worlds favorite bubbly drink. This weekend is the two day, three stage race Criterium International. The race is solely in the Champagne-Ardenne region for all three stages so the choice will be easy for the cooking. The first stage began in the town of Monthois and ended in the town of Charleville-Mézières who just happens to have a mayor named Claudine. Ooh la la!

So for dinner tonight we had Fricassee de Poulet au Champagne, or sauteed chicken in Champagne cream sauce. It was Tres Bon!

my current favorite things

These days things are a bit hectic for me and for all of us it seems. Stress levels are up and taking time to do the things we like to do seems to be getting less and less important. Although I have been working day and night I am trying to find some little moments of things that will make me relax and bring a smile to my face. These days I am doing research for my Tour de French Cuisine this summer on any spare moment that I can and with that I have found some great things:

 

What I am listening to in the car constantly is the Paris Magnifique CD from Starbucks, I had to have it since it was filled with French music and one of my favorite songs "Champs Elysees"

 

This brand new cookbook from Stephane Raynaud called Ripailles is AMAZING! I haven't even had the time yet to sit down and look at the whole thing, but I was in love as soon as the package arrived. The cover has a think sort of puffy feel to it and then are over 475 pages of amazing pictures, recipes, songs, and stories about French chefs, and how to's like making your own butter fully illustrated, chateauxs of the Loire valley, ect. I think it may be one of my favorite cookbook ever, and of course it is about French cuisine. More pictures from the book, you must get it!

   

 

 

One more favorite little thing are these new bowls from Martha that are part of the summer collection. I loved them as soon as I saw them, and with a gift card in my pocket it was a perfect find. I love the blossom look to them, they are made of melamine and are too cute for the spring and summer, they also come in blue...

 

Almost forget one more, your local library has a large selection of DVD's and of course I am always in the French foreign film section. They are free and can even order them on-line, so they are waiting for you when you arrive. I watched this one last night and it was adorable, I am now trying to find all films by Alain Chabat but I DO, or Prete-moi ta main was a great movie, funny and touching. I recommend it to all.

These are a few of my favorite things... at the moment

Easter Workshop

Spring is finally here and Easter is just around the corner. I can't wait to get my glittered bunnies and gold Easter eggs I made last year. There is something about getting them out each year that is like looking at them as if they are brand new again. Last year I glittered a dozen or so bunnies that I found at Michael's and even put a few away to glitter for this year. I can't wait to see them.

If you haven't already joined the Martha Stewart Easter Workshop hurry and do so today. The workshop starts Monday, May 23rd and lasts for three weeks.

Week one: Decorations, I better get out the Manzanita branch and egg ornaments before the week is up. There are some great ideas like thread wrapped eggs that would look perfect on my tree.

 

Week two: All about eggs, I have to try these amazing eggs made by decoupaging cocktail napkins. Amazing!

 

Week Three: Menu and table top, one of my favorite things in Spring are tulips. Lots and lots of White tulips are my very favorite. I am more of a monochromatic kind of girl when it comes to my flowers so a large vase of 2 dozen densely packed white tulips makes me spin with delight

Don't forget to sign up right away, 43,000 people already have and you don't want to be left out.

Paris-Nice, stage 8: Beef Daube with Mustard

They made it, over 776 miles and they rode into the sun drenched town of Nice in the South of France. There were mountains and sprint finishes and of course some breathtaking views. And over the week I cooked the way through the country as they headed south.

Tonight was no different, on the menu tonight was Beef Daube with Mustard, herbs and white wine. Normally Daube is made with red wine, but the white wine gave it a much lighter taste and not the heavy feeling that a Red Wine Daube has. Patricia Wells sure knows what she is doing. Served with a Onion-Parmesan Gratin that was given a very unique flavor with ground cloves.

John now knows when he hears my camera that dinner is ready, that's a little better then the smoke detector going off I guess. (I love the steam coming off the dish in the photo)

As much as I love cooking and researching and creating the menus for this, I am a little relieved to have leftovers tomorrow night,

Bon Appetit!

Paris-Nice stage 7: Fricassee de Poulet

One more day to go and the Paris-Nice tour is already in the south of France. Just to the east of Nice in the town of Manosque the tour started today and rode into the Pays de Fayence and its little perched villages just minutes away from the Mediterranean. 

So tonight we have Patricia Well's Fricassee de Poulet au Chorizo et aux Poivrons or Fricassee of Chicken with Chorizo and Peppers. The chicken was moist and flavorful and the onions, peppers and chorizo made a great comfort food on a very rainy day. Served with some fresh homemade pasta and it was great.

 

Bon Appetit!

Paris-Nice stage 6: Provencal Chicken

Stage six of the Paris-Nice tour today headedout of the Rhone-Alps region and into the Provence region in what is called the Queens stage. The Queens stage is the defining stage of a multi stage race and normally includes the climbs of the most grueling mountain passes. The mountain stages are the best part of any tour in my opinion and I always look forward to them. The tours are won and lost on most of these climbs and today was no exception.

But for dinner tonight we had a little taste of Provence with Provencal Chicken with three kinds of tomatoes and olives. I did forget the potato at the store for the dish, but it was very flavorful anyway.  Two more days and not sure what to make tomorrow yet.... back to the cookbooks for me. 

Bon Appetit!