appropriately costumed

Dear Costumeless and Counting,

Counting the days, that is, until Halloween.  Perhaps you only need a little costume, just a one hour change from the rest of the year...?  I have three simple costume suggestions for you:

 Lydia, the Tattooed Lady.  Or Lyle, the Tattooed Man.  Martha Stewart will show you how, here.

Anime characters- you'll need one of these.

Or, how about going to the ball as a Smoker?   You will be the only one at the party, I'll wager.  But, man, you will look good, because these people sure do!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween, whomever you wish to be, and I'll see you at the Monster Mash- look for a smoking tattooed gypsy in pink hair!

Macaron

The macaron is made in many interesting flavors in France.  The filling is what is most often varied, but the macaron batter is also made with different flavorings.  Some fillings to consider:  raspberry jam, lemon curd, chocolate ganache, buttercreams of all kinds, dulce de leche.  To flavor your batter try rose water, espresso powder, mint extract, grated citrus rind, or cocoa powder.

I reviewed many macaron recipes.  My version is most indebted to the recipes of Jacques Pepin and Martha Stewart.  This recipe will make only a few macarons- 8, maybe 12.  The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.  Testers at the Dodo found these to be more delicious even than the macarons we ate a few weeks ago in Paris.



These have a filling that is tres French:  Marron, or chestnut.  I can't wait for you to taste them!

Macarons, in the Parisian Style:


one vanilla bean's worth of vanilla seed (see note on vanilla beans below)

1/3 cup of powdered sugar

1.5 ounces of almond flour (see note on almond flour below)

1 egg white

a very small dash of salt 

4 teaspoons of granulated sugar

one vanilla bean's worth of vanilla seed (see note on vanilla beans below)


Put the almond meal and powdered sugar into a blender or food processor to break up any clumps of sugar or almond.

Whip the egg white until it foams; add the smidge of salt and continue to beat until soft peaks form.  Add, slowly, the 4 teaspoons of granulated sugar.  Beat until fairly stiff.  Add the vanilla bean seeds. 

Fold the almond and sugar mixture into the egg white.   Mound or pipe the mixture onto a parchment covered baking sheet.  Make them one to two inches wide; leaving about 2 to 3 inches between each mound.  If there is a little peak on the top, smooth it down with a wet finger. 

Let these trays sit for at least ten minutes, while you heat the oven to 300 degrees.  Bake them for 12 to 15 minutes.  You do not want them to become crisp inside.  They could take as long as 20 minutes, depending on your oven and the size of your mounds.

Let them cool on the baking sheets.  When completely cool, carefully lift them with an offset spatula.  Pair them up into likely looking couples, and make the filling.



Chestnut Buttercream:


1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup sweetened chestnut cream (see note on chestnut cream)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Blend the butter with an electric mixer until it is fluffy and pale. Add the chestnut cream and vanilla and continue to beat until it is well mixed and sufficiently light in texture.

Put a daub of the butter cream between the two mated macarons and you also will regret nothing!






A note on almond flour:
You may use blanched almonds or almond slices, ground up to a powder in the food processor, or you may use an almond flour that is pre-ground; like Bob's Red Mill, or Trader Joe's Almond Meal. 


A note on vanilla beans:
To get vanilla bean seeds out of the pod, you must have a soft and flexible vanilla bean.  If yours are stiff, let them soak in a shallow pool of vodka or bourbon for a few nights.  If you like, you may join them.  After this period of debauchery, your vanilla pods should be able to be split lengthwise with the tip of a sharp knife.  Then, use the knife's tip to scrape the tiny damp black seed from the pod and shepherd it carefully into your egg white mixture.  An excellent place to buy vanilla pods (and they arrive in perfect flexible form, no soaking required) is Vanilla Saffron Imports.  Their vanilla extract and saffron is also top drawer.


A note on chestnut cream:
Chestnut cream is usually sweetened- if you cannot find it, but you are able to locate unsweetened chestnut paste, you may use the paste, after you have added some powdered sugar to it.  Add the sugar to taste.  If you are only able to find chestnuts; pas de probleme: Just put the shelled chestnuts into a food processor, puree, and add sugar to taste.  If you become enthralled by chestnut, you must try the geophysically gorgeous Mont Blanc.

Somebody Up There

Dear Tasteful Ones,


Somebody up there likes you, too.  Here's proof:  Cardamom ice cream.  I first tried it this Summer. 
Further good fortune:  There is a shop just 33 miles away that shelves the stunning  Dad's Cardamom Three Twins Ice Cream. 

Cardamom is the most transporting of the spices, nutmeg and mace notwithstanding.  Cardamom is warmth, green sap, pepper, and the scent of the desert in the rain (also known as petrichor.)

So, what are you waiting for?  Get out and get some!







Before you go, how about a David Bowie encore?







Don't forget your spoon.

Tot ziens!

Not a Word

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfettered and Alive

Dear Ones,


     Today, I am a free man in Paris.  I am thinking of you, and I send you these treats from the Champs Elysees.  We will make some together, when I get back.


 Å bientôt, mes amis.

Travel by Pocket to Save Space

Dear Searchers of All Sorts,

 

Is your house a machine for living in?  Are your pockets and books a time machine for traveling by?


Pockets and evening bags are salted in anticipation of rediscovering stubs and ephemera-  I continue to leave my Alban Gerhardt ticket in my over coat, so I can visit the concert again and again; next year, late fall.  I will recall his breathing and swaying in unison with his cello; bow streaming back and forth.  He and his cello were transcendent, and remembering the two, even after 20 years, yields frisson.

A subway pass in a raincoat, from 13 years ago:  I pull out the wrinkled paper square and the rain, the gray and the damp of Paris.

There are notes and lists in cookbooks and poetry volumes-  “register for hat class; talk to E. re: schedule.”  Or, a diagram of dishes to serve at a party, with bowls and platters labeled and assigned to “almond bean dip” and “artichoke toasts.” 

Sometimes even matchbooks from far away places, like Jack’s Waffle House.  





If you'd like a little contextual overlap in today's entry, try Alban Gerhardt's audio section, and listen to a track from Solo Cello, titled Kodaly: Sonata for Solo Cello - Allegro maestoso.  This music was composed just a few years before Le Corb wrote his Vers Une Architecture.

 

From Nowhere, Silly Geese.

 

 

  

 

 

 



 

Untitled,  James Castle, 20th.c.



Dear Watchful Ones,


     Did you hear them?  See them?  Today, in the wee first blush of light, a tremolo whistle, then louder; a distinct chorus of honks.  First, in the West, then the East-  then, with a low fury, right overhead.  Each wingbeat sounding against the dense dawn.  They circled very wide, very low, and then?  To the South, in a undulating arc.  If you see them, they will be one of 11 different subspecies.

     Let them turn the season for you.











    
      In honor of the geese and their beating direction, many more maps, to guide you, or shape your thoughts, if you will.  These maps came to me just a little before the geese did, from a dear co-conspirator. 







     Something else, about, or for, the world.