It's been rather chilly in Paris this past week but the last two days have seen moderate temps with hints of sun peeking through the clouds here and there. No snow here unlike much of the rest of northern Europe.
It's been a good week here in Paris. Susan continues to get into the flow of the pastry world compliments of Pascal Pinaud and "Ms. Chocolate," "Ms. Bread" and Yoshi, who will be leaving this week after several months of hard work. Pascal's sense of humor and easy-going outlook, mixed with his diligence to his craft and never-ending hard work has made a very frustrating and sometimes distressing situation bearable, and that is a real blessing to be sure.
As for me I've been tidying up our cyberspace a bit this past week, getting Susan's old website back up and running, putting up her 10 or so teddy bears, most of which she's made since we moved abroad. And of course I spent quite a bit of time designing, building and executing my new website www.pariscemeteries.com, which has been a challenge for me.
I'm also in the final stages of editing the The "Glorious Old Third": A History of the Third Michigan Infantry 1855 to 1927 , a 800+ page tome that I hope to have ready for electronic distribution very soon. John Braden of Fremont, Michigan is going over the manuscript for content and my niece Christina, who lives in Germany and is a professional editor, is going through the book with a keen eye and ruthless red pen -- all of which is sorely needed to be sure.
It had been a week or so since I was in the cemetery last so I took advantage of the warmer temps, grabbed my cameras and headed out to Pere-Lachaise late this morning, leaving Susie to bake up a storm -- which she commenced to do even before I got out the door.
Upon my return I discovered the following recent additions to our kitchen larder:
"Apricot-almond muffins" (from her favorite basic muffin recipe in Cook's Illustrated), modfied by using almond cream piped into the center of the batter (almond cream is a major component of many baked goods in France).
"Double chocolate chunk walnut blonde brownies" need I say more?
"Lemon pound cake" from the basic curriculum at LCB; she's been dying to try this. Now we both can.
"Chocolate pistachio buche" (the chocolate comes in with the ganache on top) a scrumptious pistachio cake she made on Thursday. Anyway she had enough batter left to make a second cake which she took out of the freezer today and created another layered cake with a chocolate mousseline cream (chocolate pastry cream whipped with butter).
And last but not least she made pizza dough; hey we're having pizza tonight and two pizza dough balls will go in the freezer.
We are also thinking of our friends Don and Gloria Archer in Brooklyn, and their children, in their loss of their son Sammie. A young man whose life was taken far too soon for reasons we will never understand. We can't imagine the pain and heartache a parent must suffer in the loss of a child, and we can only hope the anguish they feel will somehow be comforted by the knowledge that he is at peace.
Wish you were here,
Steve
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