Hanging with my sister

Tags

backyard, dessert, lobster, postaday2016

Yesterday afternoon, my mother, my husband and I ventured out to my sister’s to have dinner at her house. We had the luxury of sitting outside in the back, the bugs weren’t biting, we had a nice breeze keeping us cool and we felt hidden away from the rest of the world.

Our restful afternoon gave us the energy to take care of the dinner preparations.

Dinner was simple; a tomato, mozzarella and basil salad, boiled lobster and roasted baby potatoes.

We started with the lobsters and the roasted potatoes because they were piping hot, we saved the salad to act as a palate cleanser if you will, because a birthday dinner isn’t complete unless you have dessert. We wanted to truly appreciate our dessert, so the fresh tasting salad cleared the rich lobster and potato flavors away from our palates. 

This beautiful dessert is called a Sainte Honore, we bought it Cannelle Patisserie in Jackson Heights Queens. I have made it myself in the past, this one is excellent and minus the hours of work, all I had to do was sit back and enjoy. It’s a dessert made from two different doughs, one puff pastry dough and a flaky pastry dough, two different cremes, a vanilla pastry cream and creme chantilly all tied together with molten caramel. I have burned myself working with the caramel each time I had put this cake together. It’s always great to find one from a patisserie that tastes as good as homemade. My fingers appreciate it, lol.
 

New York under grey skies

Tags

dessert, Hudson River, Intrepid, postaday2015

Today I spent the day with my mother, we went out to lunch to celebrate her birthday early. We even splurged and had dessert, two of them! We shared a coffee flan topped with a creme chantilly, I am not a fan of coffee in desserts, but this was delicious, creamy with an intense coffee flavor, which I really enjoyed, the whipped cream was icing on the cake if you will. The other dessert was simply decadence with a capital D, it was a banana tarte tatin with a salted caramel sauce, walnut nougatine and cinnamon ice cream, it was so sinfully wonderful, the cinnamon ice cream was the key to the success of this dessert, its cold and cinnamon bite cut through the inherent sweetness of the caramel, it was to die for, I have to confess.

So after all of this sweetness, what did we do? We went walking for hours and hours, we both enjoyed the walk, it took us right to the Hudson River and the Intrepid.

   
     

   
     

   
         

There is something so magnificent about the Intrepid and today with the grey skies, I felt that my pictures reflect the somber and contemplative feel of their subject. I can’t help but feel how apropos it is that the Intrepid had been converted into a museum instead of being consigned to a scrapyard or sunk down into the deep, lost to us forever. I believe that history is one of our most valuable possessions and the famous saying “those who don’t know their history are destined to repeat it” should be heeded and exercised if only for our own good.

The skyline was an interesting mixture of blue, white and grey which made for great pictures. My feet are tired, so are my mother’s, we are both resting our feet up in the air as I type. According to my mother’s fitness app, we walked 16,000 steps or about 6.2 miles, I would say that our desserts hae been walked off, wouldn’t you?

An invitation to Passion Fish

Tags

dessert, postaday2014, restaurants, seafood

The title to this post must have raised a few eyebrows, I would imagine. Passion Fish is a lovely restaurant in Reston, Virginia that we were invited to this evening by my husband’s newest friend Charlene. I had never met her before, just knew her from all of the telephone conversations that my husband has with her since she was introduced to him within their business circle of colleagues. The construction world is amazingly small; there are six degrees that separate everyone from someone that you know.

I can see why my husband calls her his friend; she is genuine, very, very smart, very savvy and very good company and conversationalist. The hours sped by very quickly this evening; before we knew it, it was past 9:30, I could have sworn that it was only 7:00, that was how quickly the evening went.

The restaurant specialized in seafood; raw bar, sushi and cuisine as well. My husband and I shared two appetizers while we were waiting; we got there quite early; the Loco roll, a spicy tuna, shrimp and avocado roll with a spicy aioli mayonnaise on top ad Vietnamese spring rolls. These two were quite good, but when Charlene arrived, she ordered the Kung Pao Calamari and that was delicious; a spicy interpretation of fried calamari and it was very well executed and presented. The main courses were very good as well; I had the Ciopinno, an Italian fish stew and my husband and Charlene each had the tempura batter soft shell crab. We were actually pretty quiet around this time, savoring our meal as we all should no matter where we are, it is infinitely better for the digestion.

The star of the restaurant show for me was dessert; they had Key Lime tart and meringue; I had never had Key Lime pie before, despite having heard of it for eons. You have to be careful because there are some places that do not do the right thing and substitute regular limes in place of the real mccoy, the actual Key Lime. This is a crucial distinction because the Key Lime is smoother than the regular lime, you would never make guacamole with Key Limes because you wouldn’t get the tartness needed to cut the fat of the avocado, but it is decidedly the smooth and delicate citrusy taste of the Key Lime that you want in your tart. My tart was so light, just sweet enough with the taste of Key Lime enveloping my taste buds. It was a dessert that I had waited way too long for, but never again. The next time that I see Key Lime tart on the menu, if I have room, that is definitely the dessert that I will be savoring once again.

Charlene ordered the Chocolate Mousse Crumble; I have to say that I had been intrigued by her dessert before I had seen the Key Lime tart; anything with chocolate always grabs my attention. Her dessert had the chocolate mousse hiding inside a ball of hardshell chocolate atop a raspberry coulis and a praline creme anglaise. Charlene said that her’s was delicious and then she did something that put me in awe of her; she left the dessert half eaten, she had eaten just enough to satisfy her desire and not a bite more. Tell me that isn’t amazing, I thought that it was amazing. Here are the pictures of our desserts:

Aren’t they small pieces of culinary art? I thought so.

We had a great evening with Charlene and I hope that we get to do this again soon.

Dinner in Soho

Tags

dessert, dinner, Francois Payard, Lure, postaday2014

Today my husband, our daughter and I drove down to New York to stay with my mother and we took the occasion to take my mother out to dinner in the city to thank her for all of her hospitality. I remembered that she had been to Lure and had really liked it a few years ago; particularly Lure’s crab cakes, those had stuck in her mind and I figured that she would be happy to go back once more.

The picture up above is the salmon tartar that our daughter ordered; she is the queen of tartar; that was her appetizer and for her main course she ordered lobster ravioli. My mother ordered two appetizers; her crab cakes and she was very happy with them and then she had grilled Spanish octopus and she enjoyed it very much. My husband started with a tuna ceviche and finished with sautéed soft shell crabs. I had an exquisite fluke ceviche; it was so very flavorful with a citrusy zing that made my taste buds sing with every bite. It was so lovely on the palate. My main course was steamed Red Snapper on a bed of steamed Bok Choy with a red curry sauce right next to it for the swabbing, because that is what I did with my fork, I cut a piece of Red Snapper and Bok Choy and swabbed it into the red curry broth and it was fantastic, I normally shy away from red, green or yellow curries because I am not too sure what to expect, but tonight I threw my usual caution to the wind and I am so very happy I did. The dish was perfect; the fish was flaky and clean tasting, the Bok Choy is one of my favorite greens so I was instantly happy but the red curry broth blew my taste buds away, it had so much flavor and depth, it gave real character to the fish and the Bok Choy.
We all left Lure satiated and happy and intent on walking for a while taking in the sights and sounds of New York on a Saturday night.

As we headed North or uptown, we stumbled across a Francois Payard patisserie on West Houston. Here is a picture of something that they offer:

This is a rouleau hazelnut, doesn’t it look delicious?

We looked, salivated and kept on walking uptown. We passed my alma mater New York University and then continued up to Union Square Park. We followed Broadway up towards 23rd and stumbled upon another fantastic French patisserie; Erik Kaiser, it was here that we made a few purchases; a pain au raisins, a financier praline, an eclair au chocolat, an eclair Paris Brest and a Sainte Honore:

As soon as we got home, my mother asked me if I was going to have a taste of the patisseries; when my mother says it that way, she means that you take out the patisseries and cut them into small pieces so everyone has a tiny bite. It is a great to eat patisserie, just enough so that you have a wonderful flavor lingering in your mouth, but not too much that you feel guilty.

Tonight was a very lovely evening.

Happy Easter everyone!

Tags

dessert, dinner, Easter, postaday2014

I am wishing everyone a very Happy Easter! It is late and I am tired from driving all the way from my sister’s house in Westchester, New York down to Herndon Virginia. We had a fantastic meal of steamed artichokes with my mother’s vinaigrette followed by butterflied leg of lamb on the barbecue, roasted fingerling potatoes, flageolets simmered in chicken broth, after having had shallots and garlic sautéed with diced prosciutto to give the beans added flavor, finally we got to the salad and then it was the piece de resistance, le Saint Honore:

My mother, my sister and my brother-in-law, all of them, outdid themselves with this fine feast. But besides the food, our favorite part of visiting is to spend time with the little ones; my niece and nephew. Their eyes lit up at dessert time; the cake and the Lindt chocolates were a lot more fun to eat then the beans, at least in my opinion.

I am off to bed.

My dear hubby is the naughtiest man in the world

Tags

chocolate, dessert, postaday2014, sweets, weight

I told my hubby that I decided to take a break from ice cream because I have been feeling icky, bloated and fat. It isn’t a bad thing to lay off the ice cream because honestly it is full of sugar and fat. My hubby, I think, probably feels that I am going overboard in my breakup with my favorite dessert.

Having said this, imagine my reaction when while I was waiting in the car while he went into the convenience store at the gas station and I see him come out with a bag and a huge self-satisfied smile on his face. My hubby made a purchase of something that I have always had a soft spot for, the Snickers bar, but not just any Snickers bar, the biggest bar that I have ever seen.

I know that my hubby bought these goodies with a lot of love in his heart. I also realize that it is my craziness with my weight and how I feel about my body that is driving me to want to take a break from ice cream and from all sweets in general. I’m lucky that I have a hubby who is very concerned about my well-being both physically, mentally and emotionally. But I still wish that he hadn’t purchased a Snickers bar that will tempt me to no end, the naughty man.

Tarte tatin in pictures

Tags

apples, dessert, food, pictures, postaday2012, tarte tatin

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I have to say that the chicken pot pie was a hit. Both casseroles are gone and the little Tupperware is going into the freezer. We are having a great time, watching movies together, eating together and talking about everything under the sun. The tarte tatin was demolished yesterday, we still have whipped cream and ice cream for whomever has a sweet tooth. This afternoon I made four pizza pies because nothing goes with Sunday football better than pizza.

Tomorrow is another story, I think I’m going to hand the reins over to my hubby. We have plenty of steaks and chops that he can grill, I know that I have frozen broccoli and frozen fries that I can sauté the former and throw the latter into the oven.

Our guests are leaving tomorrow but my hubby and my baby girl aren’t leaving until Tuesday morning so I’m really happy with that, next week will feel a little lonely with everyone gone, but I have my dogs and my WordPress to keep me busy and engaged.

More food and family

Tags

cousins, dessert, eating, family dinners, family gatherings, food, postaday2012, spring rolls, swiss cheese, tomato salad, vietnamese spring rolls

By now you must be thinking that I have gone through all of my relatives and no, I haven’t just yet. Today we welcomed my cousin, her husband and their nine children, none of which are twins, at my Tantine’s house. She is the one who is my chauffeur’s mother and my mother’s sister, who is currently staying there as well. At 11:30 this morning my Tantine, Tonton, the baby girl and I got into Tantine’s car to help prepare for the arrival of two carloads of small human beings and their parents. We didn’t come empty-handed, my Tantine made a terrine of potatoes, tomato and zucchini with creme fraiche and swiss cheese, she also brought the roast beef, the bread and the apricot tart. Tantine L. at her house had made a tiramisu and a huge mushroom, avocado and tomato salad. She also spent all day Wednesday making Vietnamese spring rolls for all of us, for later today at dinner. The roast beef and the terrine were simply for lunch.

We sat down to eat, mind you we were 17 divided between two tables, at 12:30, we had the hors d’oeuvre of gratton on toast rounds, gratton is a type of pate, and cantaloupe. The salad was the appetizer, next came the roast beef and terrine, followed by cheese and salad and then the two desserts. My cousin Didier and Vivianne stopped by for dessert and left after coffee.

Since we were killing time until it was dinner time to get back to the business of eating, we played cards for a while and then went for a walk around the neighborhood. When we got back, it was time to sit back down and tackle the Vietnamese spring rolls, to be brief, there aren’t any left. We went through the spring rolls, the lettuce and the mint as if we hadn’t eaten just a few hours before. On top of that we finished what was left of the apricot tart and graduated to ice cream. I tell you it almost feels like I have entered in the French marathon of family dinners, I am not complaining, they are just too great to pass up. The food, the laughs and the conversation, it’s the best.