Showing posts with label WTF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WTF. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

WTF Wednesday - petit pain au chocolate

It's time to bring back one of my favorite blog features - WTF Wednesday! 


 A little over a year ago I discovered the secret to happiness - you can totally make chocolate croissants (or as my French husband would say - petit pain au chocolate - he refuses to call them by the easy name) at home! This is either good news or bad news depending on your perspective, I guess. I am choosing to throw all thoughts of diet aside and declare it the Best. News. Ever.

I took pictures of the entire process to share with you. They are really easy to make, I figure even I could do it...but why would I want to when I have my own personal French chef? ;-)

just a few ingredients away from warm, melty, chocolate croissants!



Lightly flour your surface, unfold the puff pastry sheet and then cut in 3 pieces by following the fold lines

measure about 7 inches and cut the rest off to use for something else


fold over a little at the top



brush on an egg wash at the bottom. this will be your "glue" later

line up your chocolate chips, keep them in the middle when it's all folded over

fold over and press down just a little on the bottom where the egg wash was brushed. don't press too much or it won't puff up in the oven

preheat the oven to 400

set the timer for 20 minutes

put those babies in the oven
about five minutes before time is up, pull them out and quickly (and lightly) brush the entire croissant with egg wash, then put them back in the over for the final 5 minutes



DING! They're done!

Make sure you let them cool down a bit before devouring or else you'll burn your mouth...then again, maybe it's worth a little pain.

Now Wasn't That Fun?
and yummy too!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

WTF: chocolate croissants

One of the nicest parts of having a husband that grew up in France is that he frequently craves the food of his childhood. A few weeks ago it was Bastille Day and he had a craving for a chocolate croissant (or as Mr. French likes to remind me - petit pain au chocolat) and he couldn't find one at any of our local bakeries. Not one to take no for an answer, he proceeded to figure out how to make them for himself.

I took pictures of the entire process to share with you. They are really easy to make, I figure even I could do it...but why would I want to when I have my own personal French chef? ;-)

just a few ingredients away from warm, melty, chocolate croissants!



Lightly flour your surface, unfold the puff pastry sheet and then cut in 3 pieces by following the fold lines

measure about 7 inches and cut the rest off to use for something else


fold over a little at the top



brush on an egg wash at the bottom. this will be your "glue" later

line up your chocolate chips, keep them in the middle when it's all folded over

fold over and press down just a little on the bottom where the egg wash was brushed. don't press too much or it won't puff up in the oven

preheat the oven to 400

set the timer for 20 minutes

put those babies in the oven
about five minutes before time is up, pull them out and quickly (and lightly) brush the entire croissant with egg wash, then put them back in the over for the final 5 minutes



DING! They're done!

Make sure you let them cool down a bit before devouring or else you'll burn your mouth...then again, maybe it's worth a little pain.

Now Wasn't That Fun?
and yummy too!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

WTF: what I wore today

I had another post in mind for the 2nd edition of WTF, really I did. I have a fabulous post in my head about a fun and easy way to make chocolate croissants complete with detailed pictures of the process. It was the most delicious research I've ever done. Unfortunately writing that post is taking longer than making the croissants ever did so today's post is going to be about what I wore to work today. Fun, right?

 
This is pretty typical of my style. The skirt is brightly colored so that it can go with a variety of tops. It's just the right length and I would much rather wear a skirt than a pair of pants, especially in the summer. I know that in the past skirts and dresses have gotten the reputation of being more for dress up but I think they're perfect for running-around casual wear and it's nice to see them coming back into popularity in the stores. In hot climates they are much more comfortable than pants or even shorts.

 I've paired it today with a new lace top. I love to wear a little lace for that vintage touch without looking like you're trying to recreate another century. The top came from an online catalog shop that I've recently discovered - Monroe and Main. What I really like about their clothes is that everything comes in plus size which is really nice because it's no fun to see a really cute outfit and find out it's not available to me.

 
On top of it all I have added a little cardigan with a ruffle trim. I wear a LOT of cardigans because it's always jacket weather here.  Luckily I love cardigans and they've been pretty popular in the stores for a few years now so I have built up quite a collection. I try to find ones that have interesting trim, ruffles or flowers rather than go for a plain, boxy style.
 
No outfit is complete without accessories and that's usually my favorite part of getting dressed in the morning but I went a little minimalist on this outfit, only a little white belt.
 
I finished it all off with my favorite yellow flats that have a peep-toe and a little flower accent. I have these shoes (from Payless) in yellow and navy blue and I have worn them non-stop in the summer for 2 years now because they are perfect for both pants and skirts.  I do a lot of walking during the course of my day, up and down stairs, so heels are out. I love to find cute little flats. Like my cardigans, most of my shoes usually have a bow or a flower or some little frippery to keep them from being boring. I like shoes but I'm not shoe crazy like my mother...although I do see leanings in that direction from time to time. Luckily I wear a perfect size 8 so shoes are pretty easy to find in my size and I limit my shoe shopping to discount places.
 
I was having a sort of trial run with this outfit, I've never paired these particular pieces together before. I want to wear this on the plane to Las Vegas next week when we go for a family reunion. The great thing about this top is that it's sleeveless so I can ditch the cardigan when we get there and it'll be perfect for the 110 degree heat.
 
Of course lace tops and little dog toenails don't go together so I changed into my play clothes when I got home from work
 

 
 
We're having a mild day here (although no sun, just clouds) so I am rocking the capri jeans but note that I still have a cardigan on...I just can't get away from them.
 
Please excuse the spots on the mirror in the home-style picture. The cleaning person obviously hasn't cleaned the mirror ever in a long time. I'll have to have a talk with her. It looks like she didn't make the bed either. Sheesh
 
So that's my Wednesday in just a couple of pictures. I know it wasn't as good as a chocolate croissant but
 
Wasn't That Fun?
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

WTF Wednesday


Welcome to a little feature that may or may not appear here on Wednesdays - I call it WTF. Sometimes I'll feature a recipe, some days I might take us sightseeing, every once in a while I might even bore you with show childhood pictures but at the end of it I promise you'll say - WTF?

Does your family have any little traditions? Something I've always liked about the Betsy-Tacy books was the tradition that the Ray family used to follow called Sunday Night Lunch - Betsy's friends would gather at the Ray house every Sunday evening for singing and dancing and Mr. Ray would make onion sandwiches for everyone. The whole thing started because their cook needed the night off and the poor Ray family had to fend for themselves. Apparently none of them could cook so the best they could do was slice up raw onions and slap them between two slices of bread but the crazy high school crowd loved it and a weekend tradition was born!

My family had similar traditions and they all revolved around food. Every Friday night my dad made popcorn on the stove, for Saturday supper my father would grill hamburgers, Sunday breakfast consisted of Pillsbury biscuits and honey and Sunday lunch was always steak, also grilled by dad. Truth be told, my mother had come up with a brilliant scheme so that she never had to cook on weekends.

Saturday breakfast was my favorite. My father would bust out a can of corned beef hash, fry it up with some chopped onions and top it all with perfect eggs - sunny side up, of course.

Saturday mornings were just the best when I was a kid. I got up whenever I wanted and I could spend the entire morning watching TV. There were chores waiting for me for the afternoon (and as the only child at home, I had ALL the chores with no one to trade with...ever) but the morning was mine. In the midst of this orgy of cartoons, my father would start cooking and the house smelled amazing. I mean, is there anything better than the smell of fried onions? He would bring me a plate and we'd sit together eating this ambrosia while watching a cartoon...or he would try to talk me into switching over to a cowboy movie. It was bliss.

Every once in a while, when I'm feeling nostalgic, I recreate these perfect Saturday mornings and I thought I'd bring you along today.

It's a complicated process with lots of ingredients so start taking notes now. You need 3 things - a can of corned beef hash, onions, and eggs. Got that?

 

Chop up an onion and start cooking. At some point, doesn't really matter when, you can open the can and scoop the hash into the pan. Mix together with the onions and cook until everything is hot.

Crack a couple of eggs in a different pan and fry them.

You really should be writing this down, I told you it was complicated.

When the eggs are done you spoon the hash out onto a plate and top it with the eggs.


The perfect plate of corned beef hash and eggs

If you are very lucky you will end up with eggs that look like this

 
Unless, of course, you don't like runny yokes in which case you might want to cook them longer but I don't see the point because corned beef hash tastes best when mixed with runny egg yoke. That's just how it is.
 
If you follow these simple steps you will have the building blocks for a perfect Saturday morning. Go turn on those cartoons and enjoy! If you're really nice I might loan you one of my H.R. Pufnstuf videos so that you can have a truly authentic experience.
 
Now Wasn't That Fun?