Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Time
http://www.clocklink.com/Clocks/0001-Blue.swf?TimeZone=PST" width="200" height="200" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash
Monday, January 17, 2005
I make L'Opera [Cake]
Well, I actually made the classic French Opera cake!
The process is one hell of a production and took all day, not including the shopping for the ingredients!
Ever since I read about L'Opera mentioned in my research on the web about Paris patiseries, I have been curious about it. It consists of three thin layers of almond cake, each soaked in a potent coffee syrup; a layer of espresso-flavored buttercream; a layer of bittersweet chocolate ganache; and a topped off with a very thin shiny chocolate glaze. I have never had the pleasure of tasting it, so the cururiousity has been even stronger.
Two weeks earlier S and I were at "Bittersweet" on Belmont in our neighborhood and I inquirered if they were familiar with it. They said yes, and they would make me one with two days notice for $25.
Never having tasted it, I was a bit leery of taking the gamble, since they don't sell it by the slice so I could do a taste test.
Since R's B-day was coming up, I decided I would do some research on the web and see what A9.com, my current fav search engine would dig up.
Well it hit pay dirt with the very first item listed: the actual recipe used at Dalloyau patiserie in Paris. It was the one that Dorie Greenspan had gotten directly from the chef there for her book, Paris Sweets: Great Desserts from the City's Best Pastry Shops. S and I had heard her speak last year at the Chicago Historical Society.
First I had to shop for all the ingredients. That alone took a bit of time.
Then I assembled the ingredients in groups for the 6 or 7 layers. Then I dug up all the bowls, spoons, wisks, etc. to make the cake. I had to go out and purchase special longer baking sheets for the thin cakes.
Using my digital therometer, I preheated to the exact correct temperature. I had been warned by culinary student's blog that if the temperature was too hot or I baked the cake too long that I would end up with a hard cracker! Mine were perfect!
I'm going to take a break now, will write more later.
The process is one hell of a production and took all day, not including the shopping for the ingredients!
Ever since I read about L'Opera mentioned in my research on the web about Paris patiseries, I have been curious about it. It consists of three thin layers of almond cake, each soaked in a potent coffee syrup; a layer of espresso-flavored buttercream; a layer of bittersweet chocolate ganache; and a topped off with a very thin shiny chocolate glaze. I have never had the pleasure of tasting it, so the cururiousity has been even stronger.
Two weeks earlier S and I were at "Bittersweet" on Belmont in our neighborhood and I inquirered if they were familiar with it. They said yes, and they would make me one with two days notice for $25.
Never having tasted it, I was a bit leery of taking the gamble, since they don't sell it by the slice so I could do a taste test.
Since R's B-day was coming up, I decided I would do some research on the web and see what A9.com, my current fav search engine would dig up.
Well it hit pay dirt with the very first item listed: the actual recipe used at Dalloyau patiserie in Paris. It was the one that Dorie Greenspan had gotten directly from the chef there for her book, Paris Sweets: Great Desserts from the City's Best Pastry Shops. S and I had heard her speak last year at the Chicago Historical Society.
First I had to shop for all the ingredients. That alone took a bit of time.
Then I assembled the ingredients in groups for the 6 or 7 layers. Then I dug up all the bowls, spoons, wisks, etc. to make the cake. I had to go out and purchase special longer baking sheets for the thin cakes.
Using my digital therometer, I preheated to the exact correct temperature. I had been warned by culinary student's blog that if the temperature was too hot or I baked the cake too long that I would end up with a hard cracker! Mine were perfect!
I'm going to take a break now, will write more later.
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Warm Winter Days and font & color test
Today is as dreary as a London day, gray, foggy and snowing a heavy wet snow on the verge of rain.
It has been extraordinarly warm the last two days with rain. The rain has washed away the 6 to 10 inch snow, but all that moisture has led to soil that cannot obsorb anymore and now heavy fog.
Today RCN was to arrive and plug me into the new wonders of digital cable. Of course "cable guy," who was to arrive between 2 and 5 pm never appeared. Called RCN that issued a investigation tag and was to call me. Never did. Maybe, just maybe it IS time to jump ship with the bankrumpt carrier.
Today Susan had her apointment with the pain clinic and we discussed the possibility of Cryroneo therapy to freeze her nerve endings to relieve her pain. I had done a lot web research and submitted copies of that as well as questions to the doc. He will peruse them and answer the questions and we will discuss it all next month and make a decision.
The following test of fonts and sizes: (the first name is "normal size")
Ariel larger
Courier larger
Georgia larger
Lucida Grande larger
Times larger
Trebuchet larger
Verdana larger
Webdings
It has been extraordinarly warm the last two days with rain. The rain has washed away the 6 to 10 inch snow, but all that moisture has led to soil that cannot obsorb anymore and now heavy fog.
Today RCN was to arrive and plug me into the new wonders of digital cable. Of course "cable guy," who was to arrive between 2 and 5 pm never appeared. Called RCN that issued a investigation tag and was to call me. Never did. Maybe, just maybe it IS time to jump ship with the bankrumpt carrier.
Today Susan had her apointment with the pain clinic and we discussed the possibility of Cryroneo therapy to freeze her nerve endings to relieve her pain. I had done a lot web research and submitted copies of that as well as questions to the doc. He will peruse them and answer the questions and we will discuss it all next month and make a decision.
The following test of fonts and sizes: (the first name is "normal size")
Ariel larger
Courier larger
Georgia larger
Lucida Grande larger
Times larger
Trebuchet larger
Verdana larger
Webdings
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Horay! The tree and all the docorations are down & packed!
The task is completed. We managed to get all the ornaments, lights, stockings and heavy picture frame sock hangers as well as all the other decorations, etc. packed away into two large plastic storage containers. By judicious culling we got rid of two corragated cardboard boxes. This is a giant step forward in saving space.
This does not take into accord the medium sized tree Susan places on the buffett that is in the dinning room. Nor does it include the two plastic shirt boxes that contain her sizable collection of minature tea cups, saucers and tea pots that she decorates the tree nor her foot and a half desk top Christmas tree.
We attended David and Gay Anderson's open house in Oak Park this afternoon.
Justin and his wife with their 6 month old child were there. I hadn't seen him in years. I don't think I had ever met her. He is still working at a map company and lives in Geneva, IL.
I custom created a slide show of lo-res images of our trip to the Cotswold villages in the south western area of Great Britain. I did this task to include with with some of my research documents and list of URL's for the area that I sent to Mary Greenough who had ask for any info I had, knowing Susan and I had visited the area in the fall of 2002.
This does not take into accord the medium sized tree Susan places on the buffett that is in the dinning room. Nor does it include the two plastic shirt boxes that contain her sizable collection of minature tea cups, saucers and tea pots that she decorates the tree nor her foot and a half desk top Christmas tree.
We attended David and Gay Anderson's open house in Oak Park this afternoon.
Justin and his wife with their 6 month old child were there. I hadn't seen him in years. I don't think I had ever met her. He is still working at a map company and lives in Geneva, IL.
I custom created a slide show of lo-res images of our trip to the Cotswold villages in the south western area of Great Britain. I did this task to include with with some of my research documents and list of URL's for the area that I sent to Mary Greenough who had ask for any info I had, knowing Susan and I had visited the area in the fall of 2002.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Finally taking down the Christmas tree
Well, we are finally taking all our unique ornaments off our Christmas tree! We have quite a collection, since we've been aquiring additions for over 30 years. Every year we swear we will not purchase any new ones, but always seem to aquire a half a dozen over the year of travel, etc.
This year, as we unpacked them, we discard many. Some we threw out in the garbage. Others our daughter took, and some we hope to sell at a garage sale in the spring.
We hope to cut down on storage space by going through this process. I'll let you know how well I did when I finally start to efficently repack all the ornaments and other decorations in the special boxes we have.
This year, as we unpacked them, we discard many. Some we threw out in the garbage. Others our daughter took, and some we hope to sell at a garage sale in the spring.
We hope to cut down on storage space by going through this process. I'll let you know how well I did when I finally start to efficently repack all the ornaments and other decorations in the special boxes we have.
Taking down Christmas decorations: January 7, 2005
Finally taking down the Christmas tree!
Well, we are finally taking all the unique ornaments off our Christmas tree! We have quite a collection since we've been at it for over 30 years. Every year we swear we will not purchase any new ones, but always seem to break down and acquire a half a dozen over a year of travel, etc.
This year, as we unpacked them, we discarded many of them. Some we threw out in the garbage. Some our daughter took, and some we hope to sell at a garage sale in the spring.
We hope to cut down on storage space by going through this process. I'll let you know how well I did when I finally get down efficiently repacking all the ornaments and other decorations away in the special boxes we have.
Well, we are finally taking all the unique ornaments off our Christmas tree! We have quite a collection since we've been at it for over 30 years. Every year we swear we will not purchase any new ones, but always seem to break down and acquire a half a dozen over a year of travel, etc.
This year, as we unpacked them, we discarded many of them. Some we threw out in the garbage. Some our daughter took, and some we hope to sell at a garage sale in the spring.
We hope to cut down on storage space by going through this process. I'll let you know how well I did when I finally get down efficiently repacking all the ornaments and other decorations away in the special boxes we have.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)