For all of us belonging to French Fridays with Dorie and Tuesdays withDorie: Baking with Julie, this is a very special day and opportunity to raise our whisks in celebration of our leader. Today, October 24th, is Dorie Greenspan’s birthday. We are honoring you, dear Dorie, with good wishes and baking efforts and love………..
First, Our Birthday Beauty Makeover
Mary & Dorie, Au Naturel, International Food Bloggers Conference in Seattle
Recently, at the IFBC in Seattle, many FFWD participants were able to meet you, Dorie. Knowing we each dreamed of a photo op to mark the occasion you were ever the good sport and didn’t disappoint. After posting our picture on my blog, Lights on Bright no Brakes, my good friend, artist Dale Hollinger (KarlHollinger), decided a beauty makeover would be a giggle. Since my birthday was October 22 and yours, two days later, Dale got busy and sent us her gift. You and Michael [Dorie’s husband] and I were amazed by the power of rouge, lipstick and airbrushing. We thank you, Dale, for a vision of “us” we never had.
A Birthday Bash and Two Cakes
When my friends discovered your birthday was also this week, Dorie, they included you in my October 22nd celebration. Happy Birthday and a healthy year ahead from (l to r) DonnaDeux (the two Donnas), Charlotte, Bernie, Kathy, Fred and me with Stephen and Michael, behind the lens. All of them have shared many FFWD recipes with me and consider you part of “the” family!
While I will write about my delicious and unique birthday dinner in another post, I did want to show you our birthday cakes. The blonder Donna made me a classic Hummingbird Cake using the same recipe that renown Chef Art Smith made for Oprah’s 50th Birthday Bash. It was a moist, amazing banana cake with a tropical pineapple twist and delicious cream cheese frosting. I’m a Birder. It was the perfect choice.
For you, I made the Classic Banana Bundt Cake from your cookbook, “Baking, From my Home to Yours”. To my eyes (and, I hope, to yours), this little beauty is a thing of wonder and amazement. Dorie, this is the first baking success I’ve had since returning to Aspen and 8,200‘ altitude. Although I haven’t yetmade a cut,I just know it’s as ‘dense, moist and extremely banana-y‘ as you describe it to be.
From a loyal member of your flock, Dorie, I wish you a wonderful and happy day and a year ahead filled with good health, continued professional successes, and making more joyful memories with friends and family. To see the birthday greetings of other colleagues who also cook-the-books, go to our French Friday with Dorie and Tuesdays with Dorie:Baking with Julia links.
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Caramel-Almond Custard Tart, a delightfully delicious dessert and a classic. To be honest, it was by-the-book-classic until Dorie lessened the sugar, carmelized the custard pudding and added one cup of lightly-toasted sliced almonds to intensify the flavor.
Although not terribly difficult to toss together, my caramelization process suffered in color. I tend to blame my high-altitude adjustments. Or, non-adjustments. Moving from Nevada’s 2,181’ altitude to Aspen’s 7,890’ has further damaged my fragile baking ego. (Not yet discussing last week’s bruising cookie fail.)
This particular pastry concoction is not ready-for-prime-time at my dinner table. However, my Dorista colleagues give it an enthusiastic toques up so check out their tastier versions here.
The beautiful Clark’s Nutcracker ……..birds.audubon.org
While I am still struggling with altitude adjustments, let’s chat about someone who isn’t. Today’s Post honors the Clark’s Nutcracker. This full-time resident flies high (and, nosily with its throaty squawks) despite oxygen deprivation, weather and predator aggravation. Discovered by you-know-who during the 1804-1806 Lewis & Clark Expedition, it has nested in the mountains over two million years. Survival longevity is just a minor phenom about this incredible creature.
This week, besides the Caramel-Almond Custard Tart, I also prepared a presentation for my nature-study group about our forty or so non-migratory birds who survive our winters and live to chirp about it. The Clark’s is my favorite.
This nutcracker is all about cache-and-carry with a diet of pine nuts** being its primary source of survival during our challenging frigid months. Each fall this 4.6 oz. bird removes seeds from fallen pine cones, not rendered easily, to bury in the ground. By the first heavy snowfall, each bird may have concealed 98,000 seeds in 30,000 caches.
The extraordinary Clark’s Nutcracker…..nextdoornature.org
Are you kidding me?
Nutcrackers have a unique sublingual pouch, an opening in the floor of the mouth beneath it’s tongue. They can cram more than eighty pine nuts (seeds) into their pouch before flying nearby or miles away to a cache site. One-by-one they bring up each seed and bury it about an inch beneath the ground, one seed or fifteen to a cache.
Wait, there’s more.
Where can I cache my seeds? birdingisfun.com Robert Mortensen
What’s hidden must be found and these birds rely solely on their long-term memory to retrieve each high-energy morsel. Despite the snows which alter the landscape, they appear to triangulate, remembering boulders, tree, stumps and logs as markers. Each year they recover about half their seeds, leaving the others to germinate and propagate future forests.
When hiking this fall, it’s rather exhausting to watch the frenetic pace of the Clark’s and others – jays, woodpeckers, chickadees – as they fortify their bodies and their food supply chains to weather the coming months. I’m reminded that many of nature’s critters residing in the northern hemisphere are also making preparations in their own particular and unique manner.
Loyal readers, this seemed an ideal opportunity to salute these creatures, great and small, who enrich our lives and bring us pleasure. Thank you for sharing this blog post with me.
** A nut is a seed but not all seeds are not. In this Post the terms are used interchangeably.
Thanks to Wild at Heart by Janis Lindsey Huggins and Made for Each Other by Ronald M. Lanner for teaching me about the Clark’s Nutcracker
More than three-hundred food bloggers converged in Seattle last week to greet, meet, eat, and, learn. The three-day International Food Bloggers Conferencewas exhilarating and exhausting……the norm, rising at 5am and hoping for sleep at 11pm. Tick. Tock. Leave a wake-up call.
That’s why this week’s French Friday’s with Dorie recipe choice is perfect. Rice Pudding and Caramel Apples, the ultimate comfort food, is nourishment for my weary soul. As a kid, our comfort pudding was tapioca. Mom’s tapioca pudding was like little clouds floating in a bowl. Yummmm. In France, it’s rice pudding. “Little children grow up on it, adults crave it for comfort, and bistros all across the country serve it year-round,” Dorie explains.
Rice Pudding with Caramel Apples topped with Whipped Cream
As usual Dorie takes some twists and turns to put her own signature to this special dessert. While the recipe is quite explicit here are some tips. Use Arborio rice. It makes a tastier pudding. When the rice is added to the milk and sugar and brought to a boil, be vigilant. As Dorie cautioned, the milk has a tendency to bubble up exuberantly, spilling over the pan. Readers, this is true. Scalded milk and a radiant cooktop are not friends. My clean-up is still an on-going project. Last, cook the pudding only until most of the milk has been absorbed. If you boil away all the moisture, your pudding will be stiff.
I found this pudding, plain, to be creamy and yummy. Although adding caramelized apples and whipped cream made for a more festive presentation, it took away its simplistic goodness. Try it and find your own flavorful comfort zone. You’ll find Dorie’s recipe here.
It’s called Mise en Place and it’s important. Gather all your supplies and ingredients before you begin a recipe.
Now, back to the conference. I will be writing more as I digest the information overload but I want to share five lightbulb moments:
1)A keynote speaker sets the tone for any convention and the ever-so-gracious Dorie Greenspan, our FFWD leader, was the perfect choice. She did a superb job of uniting Old Media to New Media in a manner which showed strength in the coupling. Unlike many cautionary business leaders who rely on polls, focus groups and the like, Dorie is a Just Say Yes business woman. I like her inspiring style.
Dorie with me prior to her keynote address.
2)oDESK This is the virtual worldwide site where you can hire a freelancer. Need help? Web or Software Development, Networking and Information Systems, Writing & Translation, Administrative Support, Design & Multimedia, Customer Service, Sales & Marketing, or Business Services. Foodista.com founder Barnaby Dorfman pointed us to this valuable resource during a tech seminar. Who knew?
3) In a 90-minute session, we were introduced to 19 different speciality, niche or hard-to-find food brands. My new bff, best food friend, Manuka Doctor fromNewZealand, produces an unbelievably delicious 10+bio active honey. Not especially sure what that means but, honey, it has to be good. I used my bag of Sahales’ Maple Pecans with Walnuts, Cherries & Cinnamon to flavor this acorn squash from my farmer’s market. You can get these products atAmazon.
4)Love those friends from faraway places who spice up my life. Two years ago my FFWD colleague, Adriana, gave me a virtual tutorial on Sriracha, a popular Thai hot sauce, which seemed to be a staple in everyone’s pantry but mine. Adriana who lives in Puerto Rico and blogs at greatfood360, joined our French Fridays group in Seattle. Her gift to me? Sriracha Sea Salt. Just livin‘ on the edge.
Adriana, who blogs from her home in Puerto Rico, brought me Sriracha Sea Salt. The answer is, “I have no idea…..yet.”
5) When food bloggers get together, it’s all about, well, food. Oh, yes, we enjoy fine wine and our cocktails but food is our focus. Toques off to Pastry Smart, an impressive company promoting humane, organic and sustainable food production practices, which put it best. “Seventy-nine million members of the Millenial Generation with a strong value system are coming of age in the United States. They are changing business as usual within the food industry.”
Our food blogs, this new media, primarily written by our younger generations, are all about being responsible, shaking up the status quo and writing about food with a keener voice. To visit sites of my FFWD colleagues who each have their own unique voice, go here. French Friday’s with Dorie is a group working its way through Dorie Greenspan’s amazing “Around My French Table” cookbook.
From virtual friendships to the real deal – gathering with my French Friday colleagues prior to the opening session.
A tartine, if you are not acquainted with the term, is what the French call an open-faced sandwich with a sweet or savory topping. These spreads can be exotic or simple. At one of my favorite food blogs, theKitchn, is posted ten of their favorites, from Ricotta, Fig and Honey to Egg, Arugula and Herb to plain old Roasted Tomato Tartine.
Have I piqued your interest?
What’s for lunch? Hallelujah-It’s-Healthy Tartine, Lemon Basil-Mint Lemonade, & Raw Brownies
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice is Hallelujah-It’s-A-Healthy Tartine. To be truthful, that’s really not what Dorie chose to call this wonderfully delicious idea for a lunch or snack. In France this recipe is called Tartine Régime. Sounds sexy, right? It translates into English as Dieter’s Tartine. Thud.
So sorry, Dorie, I changed its name. Let’s move on.
First, you vigorously mix together a topping of cottage cheese and sour cream. Generously spread it on a large, toasted piece of country bread. Toss seedless cucumbers, peeled and diced, together with a small tomato, peeled, seeded and diced. Put on top of the spread. Add a dash of Herbes de Provence and fresh chives or basil. Voilà. Quick and Easy.
The ingredients are all prepped and waiting for their slab of toasted country bread to appear.
Because I wanted this lunch to be all about eating healthy, I chose Deborah Madison’s Lemon Basil-Mint Lemonade over a French Rosé for my drink. Although Madison’s new cookbook, Vegetable Literacy, has carried the edible plant kingdom into my kitchen with surprisingly tasty results, I was skeptical about this lemonade business. Why do I ever doubt Deborah or Dorie? It’s not-for-nothing that they publish successful cookbooks. Try this lemonade, Readers, you’ll love it.
a healthy and delicious tartine – American style
For dessert I made Raw Brownies, a recipe my friend, Susan Phillips, adapted from Sarah Britton, an innovative Danish chef who blogs at My New Roots. Susan first shared these with me, saying, “These brownies will change your life.”
In a word, Addictive.
It takes only five ingredients – walnuts, cocoa powder, Medjool dates, almonds and salt – tossed together in a food processor plus a little freezer/refrigerator time to make these beauties. My tip? After pressing the crumbly mixture into a dish lined with waxed paper, refrigerate until cold enough to cut into squares. Then, toss them into a baggie and throw into the freezer to eat when tempted. Although Britton suggests topping them with cinnamon, I don’t bother. A caveat……substitute cocoa powder for raw cacao (in Britton’s recipe) in the same proportions.
Brownies: Healthy – Delicious – Raw (no sugar or eggs)
I’ve started taking these healthy treats on hikes for snacks/ dessert and have found it’s increased my popularity as a hiking partner. Although I’m not yet the hiker I aspire to be, slower than my friends, I bring yummy treats. That counts for something.
To see if my colleagues liked this diet fare (healthy choice) as much as I did, go here. And, please let me know if you try any of this week’s recipes. I’m really excited about this lunch combo and was happy to be able to share all the recipes with you.
What do a newly-retired airline pilot, a building contractor, a Chicago banking executive who’s also just retired and I have in common? Give up? We all thoroughly enjoyed, devoured and didn’t leave one yummy crumb of this week’s recipe choice, Whole-Cherry Clafoutis.
Dorie Greenspan’s Whole-Cherry Clafoutis
This dessert français, Clafoutis, is not without controversy. A dust-up over food? The French? As in a is-it-cake-or-is-it-pudding fuss? Bien sur.
“Technically,” Dorie explains, “clafoutis is considered a cake, but, as you’ll see, it’s more like a pudding, a firm, eggy, flour-based pudding that, when cut into wedges stands up straight on the plate.”
To begin, I settled a pound of whole, sweet pitted cherries snugly in a well-buttered, two-quart, deep dish container. Although in France it’s traditional not to pit the cherries – if you keep the pits the cherries retain more flavor and juice – that wasn’t an option I considered. Next, I whisked together eggs, sugar, flour, milk, cream, vanilla extract and salt. I poured my smooth, almost flan-like batter over the cherries and popped it into a 350 degree oven. Dorie recommends 45 minutes baking time. My clafoutis took more than an hour. You want firm, no jiggles.
Admittedly, this is not a sweet dessert. It’s, how do I explain this, just filled with goodness and completes a dinner nicely. If you want a sweeter clafoutis, and many prefer that option, look at Julia Child’s recipe which uses more sugar.
Karen and Ann ( l to r)
I was nervous about asking Karen (building contractor) and Jim (her husband and former pilot for Saudi Airlines) and Ann (retired Chicago banking executive) to join me for dinner this week. They didn’t know each other, both Jim and Ann are new to Aspen, and, if this small group didn’t click, it would be a loooong evening.
Not to worry, it was close to midnight when they left. Click. Click. Click.
Discussing the Pros and Cons of retirement. Although Ann’s was by choice, Jim, like all pilots, had to adhere to the mandatory age requirement. He’d rather be flying………..
I’m giving some credit to my delicious Whole Cherry Clafoutis.
A light dusting of confectionary sugar. Yes, I’m a bit heavy-handed with the CS but I love it.
If you’d like to make Dorie’s clafoutis dessert, here’s a recipe that’s closely adapted to hers. To see the clafoutis of my French Fridays with Dorie colleagues, go here.
Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table recipe book. Photo: Elise, Simply Recipes.
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice, a buttery sweet shortbread galette slathered with lemon curd and topped with seasonal berries, is a fabulous dessert which can be made by committee. Last evening at my house, six of us created this delicious cookie tart.
Sablé Breton Galette with Berries
When I moved back to Aspen in April, my neighbors and good friends, Fred and Cathy, suggested we get together once a week – on Thursday – for Dinner Not a Dinner Party. Cathy’s cousin, Ann, a newcomer to Aspen and my neighbor, was also game. Cathy suggested guidelines. Simple fare prepared by the host. Nice wine. To avoid talking about our health issues, golf, or other people, our host would e-mail a Question for dinner discussion. For example, the first DNDP question I proposed was, “What event most changed the course of history?” (My answer: Joseph Gutenberg’s invention of a printing press in 1440.) Everyone always has a different response- there are no rights or wrongs – that provokes further discussion. We’re surprised at the fun of these gatherings.
Le Sablé Breton: buttery shortbread cookie dough made into a Galette.
Since I was the host last night, I decided it would be fun for us all to put together this week’s recipe choice, Sablé Breton Galette with Berries. Earlier in the day I made the galette, a giant shortbread cookie formed in a 9-inch fluted tart pan. I purchased a jar of Wilkin & Sons TiptreeLemon Curd at Whole Foods (lemon curd and the high altitude don’t play nicely). I also bought blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries.
Because the lemon curd will spread, Dorie suggests leaving a 1/2 to 1-inch of the edge bare. Luky was a bit obsessive about lining this border.
Our friends, Luky and Gene, not only joined us for ham, black bean & quinoa salad and very tasty wine but also helped with the dessert. A picture is worth a thousand words so……..
Ann spread the remaining lemon curd and circled the tart with blackberries.
It’s Luky again, with the blueberries.
Did I mention, obsessive? Notice that Ann does throw on some blueberries.
Cathy loves raspberries. Serious business.
Gene puts both whole strawberries and halved berries on the tart.
Fred finishes it off with more blueberries and seeks approval from the hecklers.
A Job Well Done. (Might I add that all my friends are good sports.)
The question for the evening was, “What are five Objects/Things/ or Pieces of Equipment that have made the most difference in your life that weren’t around when you were born?” Our answers were as amazing as our dessert. My answers were: 1) All of Apple’s High Tech Equipment; 2) Garage Door Openers; 3) Pacemakers; 4) International Airliners like the 747, 777, Airbus and Dreamliner; and 5) Well-designed Sports Equipment, especially Helmets. Both Luky and Cathy voted #1, Blowdryers!
To see who my colleagues shared their desserts with, go here. If you wish to make this recipe (and, I suggest you try it), go here.
