Boxcar Kitchen

A few months ago we finally replaced our terrible-very-bad-no-goodforyou non-stick crêpe pan. We just hadn't gotten around to replacing it earlier. Mostly due to the fact that we were in the process of replacing the rest of our kitchen battery since moving to induction. The only two things that made the cut were my All-clad saucier from mom and my cast iron egg pan from pop. When the hub first suggested induction I was skeptic and still harboring a flame for a gas stovetop. But once he made me realize what a pain putting a gas line in is and that I would be “forced” to finally chuck all my old non-stick, I was sold.

So the crêpe pan was replaced and replaced it was. Calling it an upgrade would be just too banal; we got the Rolls Royce of crêpe pans - a Staub. We had been eyeing it for months and couldn't really bring ourselves or our budget to buy it. In the end, it was a present from the mother-in-law (thanks!) and we spent our money on a lovely and more practical Cristel sauteuse. Talk about a win-win situation.

The pan is simply amazing but it did call for a period of adjustment. For our first trial run we made buckwheat galettes or savory crêpes. I had picked up some organic buckwheat from a small producer in Brittany at my local health food store. I had been looking for some for awhile after having read an article this past summer about the new wave in artisan buckwheat production in Brittany. Apparently buckwheat is very delicate. Industrial style production, milling and storing don't do it any justice and it seems that the flour that comes from these productions is partly to blame for our previous failed attempts in making galettes. Humph.

So a lot has happened this year. We welcomed a better version of ourselves into our family, moved, bought a new place, and remodeled.

Needless to say, it has been a whirlwind filled with late nights and very early mornings, first smiles and soft sweet cuddles, laughter and exploration, cries and frustration, indecision and budgets, and construction and paint fumes. It takes a long time for the dust to settle when you have so many things going at once. And in the process of all this newness, some things are forgotten or put off (Insert story about losing domain name here and the jerks that bought it out from under me...) and there really is never enough time. Time. I guess I've come to realize that although I'm pretty good at taking control and finding solutions for other people, I'm not that great at managing the daily life that is mine. I think my seemingly clean house and overstuffed disheveled closets are proof of that.

But one of the best things about forgetting is remembering. The twenty you pull out of the pocket of a pair of pants you haven't worn in months (Everything fits, yeah!), pictures from dusted-off photo albums from the early years, or a camera and a blog that are finding old friends - flour and butter.

So here is to making more good food, fattening up the husband, finding inspiration, taking more pictures, connecting with friends, always having cookies in the freezer, and teaching Casper how to properly fold in egg whites.

Here is to getting this kitchen dirty.

Well, it certainly has been awhile. I swear, I really I have been cooking - and eating for that matter. But free time has been spare and I've had quite a few fish to fry. Between work and getting ready for the addition of the "Bean", I just didn't have the energy to produce anything that I thought worth sharing. But now that Bean is here and his internship in "learning to sleep through the night or the better part of it" is nearing its end, I've got a little more time and energy. Still, everything I make is really simple. Basically, if I can't whip it up during nap time or it takes more than 20 minutes to get it from the fridge to the plate, I'm not going to bother.

Fennel, in all its forms, has been a diet staple since bringing Bean home. I was betting on its calming properties to help sooth the little man's colic. The colic was short lived but not the vegetable! Fennel was always one of those things that I love and enjoyed but never prepared. Now, most of the time I just chop it up, throw it in a pot with a big hunk of butter, let it get all brown and caramelized, and then cook it down his a little bit of water until it was melt in your mouth tender. Its warm and comforting and a nice change of pace from all the winter root vegetables we've been eating. Delicious - caramel and anise - almost like dessert for dinner.

In October, to celebrate my 30th birthday, some friends gifted me with a baking class at the Ecole Ritz Escoffier. The hub was perfect in choosing a 4 hour-long Saturday afternoon class dedicated to chocolate. (Yeah!) The combination of spending an afternoon with a real-life pastry chef in a veritable professional pastry kitchen at on of the most prestigious palaces in the city was enough to make me swoon. The only hitch was the wait. The class was scheduled for January which meant three long months of perusing their website and obsessing about what we might bake.

The day finally arrived and it it was one of those unseasonable warm days that have made up the majority of this winter season. With just a light jacket and the sun on my shoulders, I took the bus along the Seine to the Concorde and then walked up rue St. Honoré. I cut through a marbled shopping gallery that spills out on the Place Vendôme and came face to face with the Ritz. As I crossed the threshold of the main entrance I couldn't help but have one of those "I can't belive I'm here" blasts of happiness.

There were 10 of us in the class and we were split up into two groups which meant that we really were able to be hands on and not just silent observers. Each armed with a plethora of utensils and crisp white aprons we got down to business. Our chef was relaxed, easy-going and really interested in answering questions and teaching us just as much about technique as about the recipe we were preparing. The dessert in question was Le Délice or The Delight: a Sacher spongecake layered with chocolate mousse (saturated with a simple syrup) and a pistachio crème, covered in a chocolate ganache and painted with cocoa butter.

The best part though was all the little "pro" hints that make baking at home so much more interesting. For example, instead of using cake pans you can use rings which de-mold a million times easier. If your cake bakes in the shape of a volcano it means that you've overmixed. Although I'm sure that never happens to anyone. You can use a pair of square dowels set on either side of your cake to act as a guide when cutting it into cross sections. When making chocolate mousse, you can add your sugar as a boiling simple syrup to your egg yolks which gives your dessert a longer lifespan. When making a dessert like The Délice, which has a caramelized cream center, you freeze it before assembly. Cool, right?

Now, the only thing I need besides a kitchen torch, a 10 pound bag of Valrhona 70% chocolate, and an airless paint sprayer for the cocoa butter finish is a spot in the Ecole's 6 week-long pastry program this summer followed by a champagne toast at the hotel bar!