Green Beans & Cake

29 and holding, ma'am

"Cash or credit, ma'am." said the grocery store cashier.

"Credit." I said.

"Excuse me, ma'am." asked the man in line next to me.

"Yes."

"Where did you get that hat?"

I was wearing my husband's MBA baseball-style hat. Apparently it's great at attracting the attention of strange men who insist on talking to me in the grocery store line.

"Uh, my husband." I replied.

But I was thinking...damn. Why did I just get ma'am-ed TWICE in the last two minutes? Have these ma-am-a-holics stolen my ID and know that I'm about to turn thirty?

That was two weeks ago. And the "ma'am-ing" has not seemed to decrease.

Would I prefer "miss"? No. Who wants to feel like a little girl? How about "sugar"? Nope. Not any better. But still better than getting "ma-am-ed" every five seconds. Don't you think?

What's a gal to do on her 30th birthday eve? 

I turn the big 3-0 in a matter of hours, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I had envisioned feeling "grown-up" (whatever that truly means...) or really focused...or...something. Anything? Maybe this birthday isn't such a momentous occasion, after all.

Anyway, let's forget about my ma'am paranoia and my ambivalent birthday girl attitude.

Champagne, anyone?

Y is for "You call that Yaourt?"

 Hmmm.

Apparently, I'm on a role these days. First the Tarte Tatin that almost was, and now it's the Yaourt (yogurt--nice translation work, huh?). What was the problem this time? Here's my hypothesis. It was all in the temperature. My "yaourt" never became creamy. It was more like a runny, goopy mess.

The bright side?

I made homemade apricot jam that was delightful.

 

 P.S. I know that these are apricots...not jam. Husband has the camera at the moment. Work with me here, k?

P.S.S. Yes, the apricots look a little skanky. But once they were cooked in the sugar water mixture, you'd never notice the slight imperfections.

V is for Vin

This is a post that I would love to come back to and update.

Here's a question for all of you out there in the blogosphere.

What's your favorite French wine?

 

FYI: That's my arm and shirt on the left-hand side of the picture.

FYI-I?: By the way...I made that while in Lyon. More later.

FYI-II??: And, I think the wine is E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone...not sure of the vintage.

U is for Un bon jeune homme

Well, well, well. Look at who knows how to cook.

Let me tell you, the Un bon jeune homme ("a fine young man") recipe, just might be one of my favorite desserts to make. Ok, that's a pretty strong statement, but you get the picture. All the recipe entails is melting chopped chocolate (I use Scharffen Berger 70%) with milk...and lots of stirring...and then? A creamy, intense dark chocolate dessert. I served my "un bon jeune homme" with a sprig of mint, a sliced strawberry, and a shortcut creme anglaise sauce. Add a flute of champagne and strawberries, and oh laa laa, the perfect dessert.

 

 

Un bon jeune homme

Recipe from Ginette Mathiot in I Know How to Cook, p. 726

Ingredients

• 3 cups milk
• 6 ounces chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 quantity creme anglaise

Directions

Bring the milk to a simmer in a pan. Mix the chocolate and sugar into the milk. Simmer gently for 45 minutes, stirring frequently, to make a very thick paste. After about 30 minutes the chocolate will have the consistency of yogurt, and should be stirred constantly. Pour into a bowl, and allow to cool. Coat with the creme anglaise and serve very cold.

Shortcut Creme Anglaise

Idea from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa

I adore Ina Garten's show, The Barefoot Contessa. On one episode, she made a shortcut creme anglaise sauce to complement chocolate cake and strawberries. Simply buy a pint of high quality vanilla ice cream (I used Häagen-Dazs), let it sit at room temperature, and then add the melted ice cream to a dessert plate. Creme anglaise doesn't get any easier than that. Trust me.

T is for "Thanks for trying"

Sigh.

Here's the thing about learning how to make desserts like Tarte Tatin (ah hem...the dessert I was supposed to blog about today). You don't always get it right the first time. Unfortunately, and maybe it's a character flaw that I should work on, I get very frustrated with baking when *I swear* to have followed the directions, but seem to be greeted with a Tarte Tatin that falls apart when "flipped." Granted, I only tried the recipe once. Once! I'm not through with you, Tarte Tatin. Just you wait.