Cooking in Paris with Charlotte

Yesterday in Paris it was 40 degrees, grey and drizzly.

I went out looking for Valentines goodies to put in the February Paris Sketch letter. Found some doozies including French recipe cards, very excited. This stunning cake is in Dalloyau's window.

Le Grand Epicerie has Love jam waiting for you made of strawberries and champagne!

Next door Bon Marche's windows are full of pink flamingos, some dropping their shorts...ahem.

They have a promotion with The Webster Miami. Who knew? Pink flamingos everywhere.

On rue du Bac, chocolatier Chapon is in a flamingo state of mind.

Is this little French girl getting ready for Saint-Valentin?

Next door an over-the-top love birds window.

The day before yesterday, I left the house at 8:00 AM to join cooking teacher Charlotte Puckette at her marche Grenelle by 9:00 AM. We had a ball. Charlotte knows what every cow, goat and sheep in France ate for breakfast. And why and when you should buy their cheese, milk or meat. Pretty impressive visiting Paris markets with her.

Then we made a fish 'bone' broth, which by the way is the new hot, hot food for 2015. Alert: bone broth of any species is IN PBers. Throw out your bouillon cubes. Run to the butcher. More to come. Check out Karen Wheelers book on what Marie-Antoinette ate. M-A was a big bone broth eater.

The end result was

This gorgeous Tunisian fish soup from Charlotte's The Ethnic Paris Cookbook (page 30).

Followed by a chocolat fondant with crème Anglais.

More to come on cooking with Charlotte Puckette and bone broth soon, I promise.

Yesterday I was inspired to get up early and go out to my own marche Bastille by 9:30. Yahoo. Every Thursday/Sunday I have the best of intentions and never make it.

But Charlotte has shown me the way. Visiting Paris' marches is an upper better than pills or sun lamps. Full of color, conversations and enticing smells. A Don't-Miss in Paris and Free.

These early birds share freshly-shucked oysters. Do go before the crowds ascend.

Alert: there are new bus shelters going up all over town.

They must have elves working at night.
Another Alert: I got invited to Opening Night at the Brussels Salon du Chocolat - an opp not to be missed. More to come on this.
Bon Weekend PBers !

365 Creative Dresses

Tuesday January 8, 2013

Meet Jeanne Crockett of 365 Creative Dresses.
As a result of reading "365:A Daily Creative Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life!" by Noah Scalin, Jeanne decided to create and post a new dress every day. Most of the dresses are around 6" tall. In a life journey, Jeanne and her husband living in Paris for a year. Jeanne and I met through Paris breakfast and being a bit of a foodie I'm partial to her creations based on edibles but there are many other witty dresses made of silk and satin etc.

Dress #141 Bonbel
The wax coating on the bonbel cheese is so tactile! I carved a small dress into the coating of one of the mini cheese. Next time I'll use a larger one!

Dress #246 Daily Bread
This is made from the remains of two different loaves of bread. I thought the pattern they made was quite nice. Day old bread from Boulanger Eric Kayser and a piece of ribbon.

Jeanne's beloved Eric Kayser in the 5th looking somewhat Hopperish...

I asked Jeanne for her favorite food?
'Tan' foods was her response. A first for me though as a kid I only ate orange foods for a time. Kayser's baguette Monge is top of the tan list.

With a close followup from Rose Bakery's bread pudding. Jeanne said she gets her best dress ideas walking the islands in the morning (ile de Cite and Ile Saint Louis). Hmmm...

*Here's a handy trick Jeanne taught me on Tuesday.
Add view/flipcard/ to the end of any Blogger home address and you'll get this terrific mosaic so you can see at a glance the posts someone has done.

Here's Jeanne's source of inspiration and it looks very tempting for someone starting a diary. The Kindle version looks like it could come in handy for me in Paris. Have you tried doing something for 365 days?
Visit Jeanne's blog and please ask her not to stop at the end of 365 days coming up soon. This is too much fun to put an end to in my opinion.