ooh are my muscles achy

Tags

postaday2014, skiing, slopes, snow, trails

Yesterday and today, my sister, niece, nephew and I hit the slopes at Blandford Ski are; I have never skied better snow conditions ever. For the Northeast, this snow cover was exceptional, not a single inch of ice anywhere. My sister and I kept on saying as we skied down the slope, how amazing the snow conditions were and our mother would have been so happy skiing these trails, not stressing over ice, just relaxing and letting her skies flow down the mountain.

My nephew who is seven, got two lessons spaced out over the two days and today, it really came together for him; he graduated to the lift and he was so proud of himself when he got off the lift without any help and didn’t fall. He is probably one of the most enthusiastic little boys that I have ever met, even when he would fall down, there would be an easygoing smile on his face. He melts my heart with that beautiful smile of his.

My niece is quite independent for her almost eleven years; she definitely goes to the beat of her own drum. She reminds me quite a bit of my baby girl and I tell my sister quite often that she will not have to worry about her when she gets older; it will just be challenging in the meantime. When one of your kids is firecely independent, it’s challenging tying to keep the group together, especially when the other child isn’t on the same level of skill as everyone else.

I love being with my little sister, it brings back a lot of great and happy memories and being with my niece and nephew reminds me of my two when they were little. And just their ages makes them fun to hang around with, they make me laugh with their spontaneity and imaginative tales.

But all of the exercise and neglected muscles are starting to stiffen up, tomorrow will be a tough day, my muscles will be yelling at me, they have already started moaning and groaning, that might be me getting up and picking my arm up, bending over, moving my legs up and down the stairs. Oh boy, skiing once a year is not the best thing to do if you don’t like sore muscles. I don’t like skiing alone and it seems that my hubby and I always have something else to do on the weekends. This is why I love having my sister come up to Blandford for skiing, it gives us great alone time with her two and it gets me on the slopes.

Feeling old, but feeling very happy.

Finally the brioche bread pudding

Tags

brioche, postaday2014

I had to put the bread pudding back in the oven once I cut into it because the custard hadn’t completely set, but I wanted to take a picture to show you the insides, the custard, the raisins and the orange zest. Actually thank goodness for my desire to show you a picture, because I would not have been aware that the custard wasn’t set all of the way if not for the need for a picture. I had planted a knife, but the knife was short, I didn’t notice, I was that rushed and in a hurry. It all came out alright in the end, the custard set, the babies loved it and so did I.

I am definitely going to make this again, it was a great comfort food type of dessert, perfect for the apres ski dinner scene. We are going to have it tomorrow for breakfast, a great breakfast to power ourselves up for ski.Tonight we had lasagna and tomorrow we’ll have it again for lunch when we come back home from our morning ski run.

It’s always so much fun to have my sister and my niece and nephew over for ski or for any old thing. Their puppy Harry came over to play with Jack.

They have been non-stop running, jumping and horsing around. They are going to sleep like babies tonight.

So there you have it, the end of the brioche saga. It ended very well. Hooray!

Part two in the brioche saga

Tags

baking, bread, brioche, cooking, postaday2014

Today was the day to see if all of my work in preparing and kneading the brioche dough was successful. After going out food shopping with my hubby for the lasagna ingredients and the rest of the bread pudding ingredients, I came home to start the tomato sauce and to bake the brioche. I had taken the dough out of the refrigerator before leaving and put it in a warm place to get a second rising and then I had gotten home, I had punched down the dough and shaped it into the loaf pan, brushed it with egg wash and off into a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes.

At this point, I couldn’t tell if it was going to turn out well or not. I was still nervous at this point and so I had 35 minutes to wait before I knew if my work was going to pan out. I was so happy to see a golden brown brioche when I opened the oven door. Here is the picture of the brioche just out of the oven.

Hooray, it looks pretty good and it is cooked all the way through, the knife came out clean. I called my hubby into the kitchen to look at it, he said that it looked a little weird, he was imagining something more grand I think, but no matter, I was impressed with it. Now my hubby asked me to turn it out of the pan, so that he could taste it.

He really, really liked it, I tasted it and it tastes light and buttery, perfect for the breakfast bread pudding tomorrow. All in all it isn’t too much work, it is more a question of timing than actual work, the resting time is the “tricky” part. It’s also a much stickier dough to work with than what I am accustomed to, what with the eggs and all of the butter. I will definitely make it again, now that I know what to look for and what it feels like as a dough. That is what I love about baking and cooking, always something to learn and it involves all of the senses, it isn’t a static or boring past time, it keeps me constantly engaged and interested.

Here is a picture of my tomato sauce, it’s about ready so I will be putting my lasagna together and tomorrow we will have lasagna to eat, always better the next day.

A first for me : Brioche dough

Tags

bread, brioche, postaday2014, pudding

http://www.instructables.com/id/Brioche-Dough-101/step2/Step-2-make-the-dough/

Today I am making brioche dough for the first time ever. I’ve made other types of yeast dough such as for croissants and raisin buns, but never for brioches. I don’t know why, I do know that I have had brioche on my mind for a few years now because it is intrinsic to a recipe that I have wanted to make for the longest time; a brioche breakfast bread pudding. The recipe comes from the Barefoot Contessa or Ina Garten and it sounds absolutely delicious for breakfast.

The occasion is because my sister and the children are coming Monday and staying until late Tuesday and I want to have a wonderful warm breakfast for Tuesday morning for my niece and nephew, and my sister. They are coming for skiing, after all the snow and the ski area just down the road; why not come over for two days of great skiing conditions?

Brioche dough needs to be made the day before which is why I made the dough this evening, so tomorrow I can shape the dough into my loaf pan and bake it. The bread pudding needs day old brioche bread so by Monday I will have everything ready to make the bread pudding. We can have it for Monday night dessert and Tuesday morning, I’ll warm it up for breakfast.

The bread pudding will be two layers of brioche bread with a sprinkling of raisins in between and a rich custard bathes the brioche slices, almost like French toast with a vanilla custard. I can’t wait to try it.

Before all that, I hope that the brioche dough rises and then I hope that the brioche bread tastes good. If that happens then we will be on our way to a wonderful bread pudding, all my hopes for success rest on my dough. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I am nervous because I’m not sure if I kneaded it too much or maybe not enough, it was really sticky, seriously sticky and I added a bit more flour and still it was sticky, sticky. I finally got it to be smoothish and elastic, but it took an awful long time, my shoulder muscles were getting tired from lifting the dough up over itself, over and over again for at least twenty minutes. I really hope that it comes out fine, but even if it doesn’t, I will try again because practice makes perfect or pretty darn good.

Thank you Geoffrey Chauncer for Valentine’s Day

Tags

chocolates, postaday2014, Valentine's Day

As I was reading up on the history of Saint Valentine’s Day to refresh my memory, I skimmed through the martyrdom of Valentine during Roman times, martyrdom is very tragic, even though the priest who was burned because he heroically married soldiers and their loved ones despite those weddings being against the law. He was also aiding and abetting Christians, so I am not sure which was worse in Roman law, performing marriages or spreading the Christian faith.

Now Geoffrey Chauncer, the Father of English literature, is also the Father of the romantic tradition during Valentine’s Day. he wrote the Parlement de Foules, or the Parliament of Birds, is the first reference of Saint Valentine’s Day being the day of lovers. In high school during freshman year, I remember Mister Manion, my English teacher, guiding us through the Canterbury Tales and it was fantastic, I always thought that Mister Manion had missed his true calling, an actor on the stage, because he also acted out the great story of Graendal and Beowulf and I can’t forget the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Mister Manion, such a fantastic teacher, I was truly blessed to have a teacher who unabashedly showed his passion for literature and reading.

Today I received the wonderful chocolates of Teuscher from my hubby. They are very special chocolates, my favorite as you all know. I will definitely share them with my hubby and the baby boy, but not Jack. Sorry Jack, chocolates are bad for you.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! 🙂

My hubby, mister creative

Tags

fireplace, postaday2014, steak

My hubby ran, literally through the snow, to the General Store, bought some rib-eye steaks, came into the living room, surprising me in the process, and put them in the fireplace. They are cooking as I am typing, the living room smells delicious. My hubby is truly amazing and keeps me constantly intrigued and entertained.

More than just a winter wonderland

Tags

postaday2014, snow, storm

It looks more like a winter storm, not a winter wonderland. I have officially had more than enough of snow and freezing temperatures. Poor Jack won’t even go outside, we took him outside in the back while my hubby and the baby boy were getting the snowblower revved up and Jack wound up in the safety of the Jacuzzi room, his little sanctuary against the elements. According to the weather reports we might have snow for the next few days. Spring hurry, we need you!

You see, I wasn’t exaggerating. Craziness I tell you. Thank goodness for my hubby and the baby boy, if I was left to my own devices today, I don’t think that I would have ventured out to shovel just yet. I’d just accept the snow and deal with it later tomorrow. Or the next day, or the day after that.

New York bagels

Tags

bagels, food, postaday2014, specialty shops

In the 1980’s when my parents first bought their house, a Bagel Shop opened up right across the street from us and we found Bagel nirvana. The shop owners were two couples and I remember for the first few years, they were at the shop morning, noon and night, doing everything themselves, trying to make a go of their nascent business. To this day, I have not had a better bagel than Astoria’s Bagel Shop’s bagel; they offer my favorite, pumpernickel and the whole range starting with plain, poppy seed, sesame seed, cinnamon raisin, whole wheat, onion, salted and the everything bagel. That is quite the variety, wouldn’t you say.

I often wonder what happened to the two couples. After the first few years, I noticed that they themselves weren’t coming to the shop anymore, they had solid, dependable people looking after the shop and I was happy for them, after all of their hard work and long hours, I wanted them to enjoy their time of leisure and I hope that the shop has financed a wonderful retirement for them.

I’m excited because right before leaving my mother’s house this afternoon to come back home, I went into the Astoria Bagel Shop and ordered two everything bagels with lox spread and my pumpernickel bagel with lox spread as well. For those who may not be familiar with lox spread, it is smoked salmon minced and mixed into cream cheese, it’s really good. That is what I’m going to have for dinner. Hooray for me 😀

Hooray for France!

Tags

athletes, Biatholon, Olympics, postaday2014

Not to be mean, but the French are not really medal winners in any of the Olympic Games. This is usually why I think that I get so excited when one or two of my fellow Frenchmen achieve any one of them; gold, silver or bronze. Yesterday I got to watch a young French man, Martin something or other, win a Gold in the Biathlon! And then his teammate Jean-Guillaume Beatrix won the Bronze! Two medals for France, hooray for them!

I have to say that this year I was disappointed to not see any French participants in figure skating, speed skating or skiing. Perhaps they were there but failed to qualify for the final rounds. I remember the days of Picard skiing, and we had a few excellent snowboarders, but this year all of the French names were representing Canada.

Well I am proud for France, we got two medals so far and that is a feat in and of itself. Who knows the Games are still in progress so I may have to come back and edit this post. I definitely hope so. Fingers crossed for the athletes. I hope that everyone watching is enjoying the accomplishments, courage and sheer determination of all of these young athletes. My hat off to every single one of them

The Sochi Olympics

Tags

figure skating, Olympics, postaday2014

I have become a fan of the young Julia Lipnitskaia, the 15 year old Russian figure skater. My emotional reaction to her reminds me of how I felt watching Michelle Kwan when she was justing out. I think that it is always magical when the sports world introduces its newest young talent. We, the audience, get to spend years following their successes and progression into the mature and amazing sports star.

This video is of Julia’s short program, granted she had a small wobble on one of her landings, but the rest of the program was just so lovely and graceful. I couldn’t help but think as I was watching Julia skate; she is so tiny, yet a tiny powerhouse of strength, jumping into the air and twisting her body two or three times and then landing on a thin piece of steel, the skate’s blade. That got my focus on her feet with the heavy skates at the end of her thin legs, those legs bely the power necessary to throw those feet up and around with such command and precision.

I heard one of the commentators talk about the Winter Olympics of 2016 as being her Olympics for sure and I am sure that we are definitely going to be following her even beyond that, she is only 15 and already setting the world a buzz with her raw talent, imagine what it is going to be like with a little maturity added in to the already precious talent.

I love figure skating even though it is so stressful because I never want anyone to fall and they do, I always feel so badly when they fall. I hate falling, it stinks but it happens, why can’t falling only happen during practice?