French Pastry Class

Isaac and I attended a French pastry class taught by world-renowned baker Gesine Bullock-Prado.  I have seen her several times on cooking shows, so I was excited to hear she was teaching a class in our area.  After our trip to France, this is a skill I am highly interested in.

She made a beautiful creation - cream puff swans on a pastry puff (Saint Honore) cake.

Cooking classes are my favorite date nights!

The cake was amazing!  I am not sure I would make the whole thing myself, but I definitely feel more confident about making cream puffs now.

Maren's notes:

Isaac's notes:

My sweet husband bought me her new cookbook, which she signed for me.  Vive la cream puffs!

Bonus Texas Week

Shortly after returning home from Texas, I learned that Isaac and I would be traveling to Dallas for work...bonus trip!  We knew it would be a great week when we spotted bluebonnets from the runway at DFW.  We stayed in North Dallas during the week, and we were able to spend time with family and friends on the weekends.  My Dad had a business trip during my last visit, so I was grateful to come back and have time with him.

We went to the Main Street Arts Festival in downtown Ft. Worth

It included a performance from Squonk Opera, a fascinating band complete with bagpipes and pneumatics.

We went to Rodeo Goat, a can't-miss burger place, with Jami and Patrick.  How cute is this hubby of mine?!

And we discovered the joy of Torchey's Tacos.  Dave has been raving about the Trailer Park (served extra trashy), and now I am fully converted.

Biscuits!

I have lived most of my life below the Mason-Dixon line, but my recipe repertoire is missing a few southern staples.  One of these is homemade biscuits, so I attended a biscuit making class with my colleague Gabriela.  We had a wonderful time!  It was a small class, so we got a lot of hands-on practice making both drop biscuits and cutout biscuits.  Once they were were baked, the cooking school staff served them with fresh fruit, prosciutto, sausage gravy, grits, and the most amazing jam I have ever tasted - blackberry rhubarb vanilla bean.

A few tips I learned about making great biscuits:

• Buy the expensive buttermilk;  it makes a big difference
• Don't use self-rising flour as your bench flour; it makes for bitter biscuits
• Don't twist the cookie cutter as you press down to cut out biscuits; the biscuit will not rise as well.
• Use fresh baking soda.
• Don't over handle the dough.  Mix until just combined and cutout/drop into the pan.

Jake's Baptism

A few weeks ago, I took a short trip to Texas to visit my wonderful family and see Jake-aroni Macaroni get baptized.  Dad was on a business trip in Oregon, and I spent most of my time with Mom. She always makes sure I get plenty of TexMex, BBQ, and shopping when I visit, which I love!  

Jake's baptism was beautiful. I was so proud to see my brother baptize his sweet boy.  Kim, Tauni, Lauren, and baby Hannah came up from San Antonio, so it was great to catch up with them!

I love this boy!!!

Doubletree Cookies

We had more winter weather roll through last night, so church was cancelled today...we got a SNOW DAY!  My personal tradition is to always bake something on snow days.  When I haven't been grocery shopping recently, that gets interesting.  However, I shopped yesterday, so I was completely prepared!

I was shocked to see the most recent recipe from Our Best Bites...Doubletree Chocolate Chip Cookies.  We stayed at a Doubletree last week on London, so we know the appeal of these cookies.  When you check in, the staff greets you with a warm cookie, and you can purchase a tin of them to take with you.

Below is the recipe from Our Best Bites:

Ingredients

1/2 cup rolled oats

2-1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1-1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1-1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. lemon juice

2 eggs

3 cups semi-sweet, chocolate chips

1-1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

Instructions

Grind oats in a food processor or blender until fine. Combine the ground oats with the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice in another medium bowl with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and mix until smooth. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix until ingredients are well blended.

For the best results, chill the dough in the refrigerator before baking the cookies for 6-8 hours or longer.

Spoon rounded  portions onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Place the scoops about 2 inches apart. Bake in a 350°F oven for 12-15 minutes or until cookies are light brown and soft in the middle. Store in a sealed container when cool to keep soft.

They were delicious!  I will definitely be making these again!

Western England

Our last day in the UK was our favorite.  It was a reminder that Isaac and I are not big city people.  Our best vacations are away from the city in a more secluded, slower-paced environment.

We rented a car and headed for the English countryside.  It was beautiful, although I have to say I expected to see more sheep.

Our first destination was a Stonehenge Drive-by.  We did not even get out of the car (actually, we didn't even slow down).  Since Stonehenge was not our primary objective of the day (and we weren't feeling great), we would take pictures from the road, which we was recommended to us by several people.  

Then, we went to Trowbridge!!  This was the #1 most important item on my European to-do list.  There is not much to the town.  There are quite a few beautiful old red brick buildings, and a ton of friendly people, but not much else to speak of.  It it simply a place I have always wanted to visit based on its name, and I am so glad we went.  Several people waved to us as we were taking pictures by the sign, and a few people even offered to take our picture for us.  I always knew Trowbridges were nice people.

Our last stop was Lacock, a tiny medieval town where most Jane Austen movies are filmed (and a few of the Harry Potter movies, too).  I did not have the energy to wander through the entire town, but we went through a few streets, which were beautiful.  If you take out the cars, it is very Pride and Prejudice-esque.

I love the mossy rooftops!

We fought crazy London traffic to return the car and get back to our hotel.  I was SO impressed with Isaac's ability to adapt to UK driving, which included about 100 crazy roundabouts, all with different rules and signs from each other.  

UK was a great experience.  The people were kind, and the city is very clean and organized.  Only the friendliest, funniest Brits can become taxi drivers!  However, Paris is still my preference.  It is romantic, has better food (food in UK was great, but Paris food was AMAZING), and it is just more my style.  I am SO grateful for the opportunity we had to spend so much time immersed in such a beautiful place, and we made so many great memories.

We came home yesterday to snowy NC, where school has been cancelled yet again (I think for a full 2 weeks now).  Our house survived the snow and ice storms, except for a big branch on our magnolia tree.  Our neighbors left us a little welcome home gift on the driveway.

Last Day in London

I feel terrible today.  The German motion sickness medicine I purchased in Munich is the only thing keeping my nausea in check.  I have had chills and swollen tonsils all day, but despite all of this, today was wonderful.  We went to Stonehenge, Trowbridge, and Lacock.  All were awesome!  I will have to go through my photos tomorrow or Friday, because it is packing and sleeping time.

I have loved our time in Europe.  I am so excited to go home having used up an entire huge memory card in my camera (around 2,000 pictures).

Au revoir!