Claudine, Oui c'est Francais

Counting down the days

One of my very favorite things of the whole year starts this Saturday, the 95th Tour de France and I can hardly wait! I started watching the tour years ago when Lance Armstrong was still riding and winning every year. Those might have been the good old days, and in America I think it has had a decline in popularity. But I still love it and look forward to July all year long.

I have picked up my special issue on the tour with details of every stage and city. One of the best parts is the beautiful French countryside that you get to see along the way over 3 weeks. Yes, 3 wonderful weeks. There will be sunflowers, hay bails made into bicycles, cows that are near the road that could care less and the crazy guy that dresses like the devil and runs alongside the riders. Oh and then there is the oh so dreamy Phil Liggett & Paul Sherman, with there wonderful stage by stage reports.

the tour is on live everyday on Versus network in the US and that means on the first day that I will be up at 4:30am to watch the start. In this day of DVR's you may think I am nuts, but I will be having a fresh homemade croissant (at least I will attempt to make them for the first time) and maybe even some crepes and champagne.  Oh I can not wait.

So this week I have lots of things to do in preparation. I need to change out the Martha Lorraine plates, to my French plates, re-do my ledge with lots of Eiffel Tower things, finish my Martha Stewart Crepe Paper Yellow roses and plan out what I will make for dinner for the whole month.

I have decided that I will make French food all month long but it will be specific to the town or area the tour stops in.... I will keep you all updated everyday, and if I make escargot, John may order pizza. Oh how I love escargot.......

the Jack Cake

When my friend Jan asked me to make a cake for her husband Jack's 60th birthday and then gave me a doll that was dressed as a construction guy. Now when you make a doll cake, the skirt is the cake. So I was up to a challenge figuring out how to incorporate the doll into the cake. But I had some ideas up my sleeve....

To start with I made some gum paste 2x4's, complete with a faux bois affect

 

making the 2x4's and cutting them out. I did these 3 days out so they had plenty of time to dry. I made a ton of them but my motto is better to be safe then sorry.

Because the party was for 250 people we wanted to make sure we would have plenty of cake. I made two cakes, a sheet cake and a five-tier cake. The sheet cake theme was Jack's favorite thing, golf. I covered the entire top of the cake with the “grass” it took forever, but I loved it. The green disk was waiting for the 3-D golf ball.

 

Here is one of the little tricks. Wilton has a large icing tip that they sell. You just fill up a pastry bag with the tip and then run it around the sides and top of the cake. Make sure that the icing is thin enough to spread easily, that will also help keeping it from pulling up the crumbs into the cake. You no longer need a crumb coat with this little trick. 

 

For the five tier cake, I made it out of a 14”, 12”, 10”, 8” and 6” I think I went through 5 batches of buttcream to cover the cake in all.

 

I decided to stack the 14” and the 12” at home, there are a lot of dowels in that baby holding them up and together. It was very heavy with just the two tiers. The 10”, 8” & 6” were each boxed up individually and then I would put them together when I got to the location

 

I took everything out of my car and then loaded all the cakes, supplies chocolates and extra tools. It was loaded in like a puzzle so that nothing can slide around. I pulled out of the driveway and noticed the sun shining in the window onto the golf cake and decided to pull back into the house and I used some cake boards taped to the window to block the sun. Not such a good idea for driving but the cake didn’t melt

 

And here is the Jack cake as my niece called it. The “sawdust” was ground up cinnamon graham crackers, chocolate tools made from some great chocolate molds. Somebody asked me if they were fisher price toys. I placed Jack on top of the cake with the red chocolate tool box and 2x4’s scattered all over. I was very happy how it turned out. It was a big hit and it also tasted great….

 

And the golf cake, the golf ball did not come out at all like I wanted. Next time I will cover it in fondant. They were both a lot of work, but they were so fun and was more then happy to make them for my friend Jack's birthday.

Fourth of July desserts

I have been making this lovely little Flag tart from Martha since 2002. It originally appeared on the cover of her July 2001 issue. But inside it was made for a story on Bastille Day.... C'est bonne! I must make it. It is not for the faint of heart and takes many steps. The homemade Creme Fraiche needs to be started 48 hours out and then depending on the amount of people and the number of tart pans you have, it could be even more steps. I finally got 3 of the rectangular tart pans so that I can make many at once.  I saw that the video of Martha making them was on On Demand as well as iTunes. But in the video they don't do the chocolate layer in the bottom of the tart shell that the recipe calls for or the creme fraiche. You can buy creme fraiche but it is like Lemon Curd or Salad Dressing. They are so good homemade and easy, why not make it yourself!

Homemade Creme Fraiche

1 cup Heavy Cream

2 tablespoons Buttermilk

In a bowl, combine the cream and buttermilk. Cover with a clean kitchen cloth in a warm, draft-free place and let sit until thickened, but still a pourable consistency, 12 to 16 hours.
Stir and refrigerate until ready to use. (Can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.)

I will be making it again this year for both the 4th and Bastille day, I will share lots of pictures with you then.

Check out all of the other great Fourth of July desserts Martha has as well:

Red, White and Blue Parfaits 

Red, White and Blue Stars

 

Beachside wedding cake

A few weeks back John asked me if I would make a cake for his coworker/carpool buddy for the work pot luck to celebrate his upcoming wedding. He said "nothing big, just a cake" well in my mind that means "make a miniature wedding cake with a beach theme" Since I always go over the top, why stop now..... so here is some step by step pictures for my Martha friends out there....

Step one, made the chocolate shells in the candy molds. This was so easy, I can't wait to do it again

They are so pretty and shiny, I love how they turned out

the baking bands soaking in water. These are the best invention in the world. They soak in water and then you lightly press some of the water out and then wrap your cake pans. I always use the 3" deep pans, I think they are the secret to a moist cake.

Oh yes, the other secret. The Wilton cake leveler... for the perfectly cut and even layers. This is another must have!

After I cut it in half, you tort the layer with the blue butter cream. I used the small tip that was already on the bag, but normally I would use a larger tip but it still works the same. It acts as a dam to hold the filling in. The filling is my signature Bavarian Creme that I always use.

For each layer they need some dowels for support. For the bottom layer I used 4 dowels and then for this layer just three. These hold the layers up so they don't sink into the lower cake

it's a little fuzzy, but this is the dowel after I sharpen it to a point. It will go through all three layers into the base to hold it all together.

The dowel as it is plunging itself into all three layers. I use the Wilton drum bases for the base on bigger cakes. It is also cardboard so you bang this all the way down and then cut it off just below the frosting. It would be a mess to transport it without this little guy.

 

And here it is all put together. The "sand" is actually ground up graham crackers. I am really happy how it turned out. I plan things out in my head and they sometimes don't turn out how I want, but I am really happy with it.

Martha's crepe paper flowers

As soon as these came out at Michaels in January I bought one. Although with the best intentions they sat on a shelf, but I kept buying them when I had a 40% or 50% off coupon. But I finally made some, and I love them. The Martha Stewart Peony set was the first ones I was going to try. They have great instructions and templates and was easy to do, once you get the technique done. I think that any craft skill level can master these easy to do flowers.

 

 

Since I made these, I had to go to all of the area Michaels and buy up all that I can find (they are on sale now as well) There are tulips, red roses, yellow roses, iris, dogwoods and daffodils. I have a few packages of the yellow roses that I need to get started on so they are done in time for the Tour de France. The best part, these will never die.....

View all of the kits at Martha Stewart Crafts.com

And a real peony, very proud of my pretty pink peony that bloomed...

Salade Nicoise

Salade Nicoise is one of my very favorite things, I know I mention a lot of "very favorite things" but I can't narrow them down. Salad Nicoise is a perfect French salad with Haricot Verts, potatoes, hard boiled eggs, quartered tomatoes, anchovies and tuna. My favorite that I have found is from the Anthony Bourdain Les Halles cookbook. Besides having a minor crush on him, his cookbook is awesome. It is written in the same style that he speaks and is a book that you can sit back and actually read. There is also a kick ass recipe for escargot which is a must make!

And no I am not eating on the Champs Elysee with the Eiffel Tower behind me, sadly it is just my dining room table...

I can't find the recipe on-line but post a comment and let me know if you would like me to email it to you. Or just go and get the book, you won't be sorry!

Copper River Salmon lax of love.....

Living in the Northwest we are ohhhh so lucky to be able to get some really great local food. And one of my very very favorite thing is Salmon. Once a year like the great Tour de France the Salmon of the Copper River rolls into town. Copper River is the Queen Bee of Salmon in my opinion and worth every penny that they charge. One of my other favorite things is Salmon Lax (that's how Martha spells it) and when I found the luscious pink goodness at the store I had to get it.

 

 

Just look at that beautiful, natural, Not colored and Not farmed beauty!

Making Lax from scratch is almost the easiest thing in the world, all you need is kosher salt, sugar, white pepper, fresh dill and plastic wrap..... add 36 hours and there you have it.  I have made it many times and always use the Martha Stewart recipe....like you needed to ask.....

And my favorite way to enjoy it is on a bagel with cream cheese and capers....mmmmm. Can't wait for tomorrow so I can have some more. I just need my friend Manny to bring me some of his homemade bagels now...

Pissaladiere

The other night I made the John Barricelli / Martha Stewart  recipe for Pissaladiere . Or French Pizza, well it had French in the description so I had to make it. It is also in the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook, which is a must have for anybody. It has onions, garlic, tomatoes, nicoise olives and anchovies and the homemade dough is beautiful...

 

 

I was a little worried how it would go over, but it was fantastic and so delicious! I can't wait to make it again. Maybe in July when I have decided to make nothing but French food for the entire deration of the Tour de France. Oh I can't wait until July 5th!

12 of 12 June 2008

Here we are, the 12th of the month and that means more pictures from my exciting day.... visit the rest of the 12 of 12ers and Chad Darnell the master of them all here.

Still up working on my Martha video tape project and a quick check to see what time it is and how the Eiffel Tower is looking on my little web cam, also notice that I have a quote of the day from Jon Stewart each day...

Just checking, yes it is June 12th...

Stopped by to visit my mom and a visit to Louis. How can you not love that big boy!

I can't remember what my my told me this tree was called, but we also have one in our backyard but it isn't this big yet.

a little visit from my little friends.

My John F Kennedy rose, on its last few days

This is part of my giant project of Martha Stewart video tapes. They are numbered in the hundreds and I have a bright idea of putting them onto DVD. But I may be 100 by the time I am done...

The back of my car.... change is a "good thing"

 a good mail day, a new issue of Martha Stewart Living and a DVD of Julia Child.

Dinner tonight is Latkes and I also made some Gravad Lax with Copper River Salmon. My mouth is watering just looking at the picture!

My oh so pretty peony, with all our cool weather we have been having I was very happy to see it bloom

And the Martha Stewart crepe paper flower version of a peony, I love them and they will never die....

French Almond Macaroons

French Almond Macaroons are not to be confused with the more common American Coconut Macaroons. French Macaroons are crispy on the outside and light and airy on the inside and filled with Swiss Meringue butter-cream. All over Paris they have these in every color imaginable  from bright green to bright yellow. I made the recipe from the Martha Stewart Baking handbook, the regular color turned out better then the pink ones. I think I need to beat the meringue more after I add the food coloring. They spread pretty fast and look different from the Almond colored ones. But they still taste pretty good!

And the version from the Martha Stewart baking handbook: