Mother's Helpers

Quite a few of you begin your emails with,

"I know you must be a fanatic Francophile like myself bla bla bla.."
 

Honestly I came to Paris because of the enchanting kitchen gadgets. It was love at first sight with the Chef's Palm Zester (which just happens to be American born and bred).
 

I can thank Chef Marthe as the Pied Piper who led me down the road to French kitchen gadget madness. I fell hard for her herb-cutting sissors.
 

In no time at all I had my own pair. Sadly I left them back in NYC.

An instant coupe de foudre/like a flash of lightening the attraction I felt for this adorb apple peeler/slicer.
 

I discovered it all on my own at the Agricultural Salon and no one pushed me to buy it (15€). I take full responsibility.

I met the French Fry potato-cutter in the Sunday marché. I never eat or make French fries but the appeal of instant carrot sticks was irresistible. What's a girl to do?
 

Here's a French gadget I had no problem passing up. Too many parts, bits and pieces.

This one selling in the street I liked a lot but fortunately my pockets were empty. Most of these run around 10€ on average so you won't break the bank if you do fall in love.
 

At the Foire de Paris this week lightening struck again. It's not like I eat pineapples daily, weekly or even monthly. But with a mere twist of this gadget you get such lovely slices. True, most of these demonstrators are strapping young men, who probably lift 50 pound barbells when not cutting up bushels of pineapples at trade shows. Somehow this fact eludes me as I stand entranced and then dig into my purse for the do-re-me.

Did I mention that you get a FREE (unripe) pineapple along with your purchase? Here's my sad attempt at duplicating the master's technique. I filmed him as a reminder. I think I need to re-watch it many times or start lifting weights. 365 Creative Dresses says there's nothing a good sharp knife can't do in the kitchen so she takes a pass on these Frenchies. But she was not along at the Fair to dissuade me.

Ahhh the 'Holy Grail' of gadgets (belonging to Chef Marthe again). I am still on the look out for this baby. Le sigh...

Y'all can dream of Mona Lisa's and Eiffel Towers.

I'm waiting for the next French gadget to come along...

Chef Marthe au Marche Gastronomique

 Sometimes in Paris the country comes to the city

 I popped round to see Chef Marthe yesterday. I mentioned I'd seen an artisanal marche by her Metro Pasteur of purveyors from all over France.

 Marthe was busy preparing for her macaron class later on - so organized.

 'This comes just 2X a year. Let's go take a look', Marthe suggested.

 Tasting everywhere - here from Corsica.

 Chef Marthe, who has secrets hidden up her sleeve (remind me to keep a notebook handy to write down all her French expressions!) said this was good pain d'epice but forget the Tourteaux fromager nearby. Really you couldn't find a better person to visit a marche with than Marthe.

 We came to a purveyer from the Alpes, M. Sylvain, Chez le Savoyard.

 Marthe whispered this viand sechee/dried meat keeps forever and is perfect for the regime/diet.

 In a clin d'oeil/wink of an eye, M. Sylvain was slicing us paper-thin tastes with his amazing Swiss Victorinox knife, (you can easily adjust the thickness you want it) and offering the small piece to Marthe

.

 Who could resist M. Sylvain's charm.

 Marthe mentioned Beaufort is a wonderful cheese.

 Before we knew it Monsieur S was cutting a hunk for us, moitie-moitie/halves. Marthe said in French,’This man could sell milk to a cow'!

 We both walked away with cheese in our bags we'd never planned to buy. c'est la vie

 I continued to wander the marche by myself. Don't you love all the red stripes and signs?

 Who can never resist someone cooking on the spot. This Breton made me a fresh crepe.

 Butter + canelle/cinnamon + sucre. Look how he tamps down the salted Brittany butter in various spots.

 Voila - the perfect outdoors snack for a cold wintry day. Later I ate the fromage de Beaufort with pain au cereale from des Gateaux et du Pain + 'Mogador'/passion fruit jam from Christine Ferber-Pierre Herme.  Does it get any better than this?

L'Amour Fou

 Everyone goes to Paris looking for love in all the wrong places.

 I found my true own love across a crowded room at Chef Marthe's.

 I fell hard.
Truely, madly deeply in love with her lemon zester.

Has this happened to you?

Un coup de foudre/instant attraction.

 In a town with easily 50,000 tarte citron on almost every street corner surely a good lemon zester shouldn't be hard to find.

 Alas, c'est pas comme ca.

Even Galeries Lafayette Home is sadly lacking in a good variety of lemon zesters.

Pink dishwashers? Oui.

Lemon zestors? non pas trop.

 Chef Marthe suggested I try Eva Baz'Art
53 rue St. Andres des Arts.

Ferme :(

And the vitrine was filled with coccinelle!

 Macaron earrings? They are at Anne Maisonneuve.

 Pretty Ballerinas in every color of the rainbow?

Oui bien sur.

 Want go swimming (nater) at Pontoise?

There are 38 public pools in Paris.

I visited 4 this time - 34 more to go.

 Lapin in Paris?
Oui beaucoup.

Muguet...de trop

 I felt like this devoted dog waiting..

Where is the lemon zestor of my heart?

 In the end I made do with a plain number from Monoprix.

Quelle disastre.

 This morning I went to look on Amazon.fr but I found my TRUE LOVE!  right on Amazon.com!!

A Chef'n PalmZester!

 You might be wondering what does she see in this guy?

Especially when there are hot high-tech Microplanes a plenty. With Microplanes the zest goes ALL over - impossible to measure.

And they're so sharp you get more white stuff than zest.

With this cutie the zest collects INSIDE the handle.

What's not to love?

So now that my love quest has been fulfilled do I start looking for a scooter to fall for?

What do you think?

Paris Pinks

 Thanks to you I wasted easily an hour this morning pinning Pinterest pinks. (An hour I don't have since I am NOT packed and this trip I would like to remember to take my makeup so I don't have to replace it for a lot more $$$ in Paris!). We made these gorgeous pink framboise macaron shells at Chef Marthe Brohan's private class at her home.

More to come another time.

 Paris pink renoncules on rue Vavin.

 Pink French writing at Boulangerie Secco

 on rue Jean Nico

 Sooo pink.

 Spring pink yaourt at Monop

 Put a pink ribbon on it and you know you're in Paris.

 At parfumeur Annick Goutal.

 On rue Oberkampf an R-rated pink bow.

 Hot, hot pink scarf goes on anything in Paris

 Green leaves are essential to make your pinks PINKER on rue Raspail at Sunday Bio marche.

 A touch of green makes a marsipan bun from La Mere de Famille pinker.

 See, it's universal. 
Bears love ice cream!

 A pink gateau mold that looks surprisingly like the cover of Pierre Herme Pastries book.

What do you think?

 Along with inspiring me to make ice cream and showing me how to put a PIN IT button in my browser(!) my niece suggested I might...ummm...work on my posture.

This is a pink reminder.

Practice practice practice

Then I might look like this gorge Printemps watercolor illo by Aurore de la Morinerie TOMORROW in Paris! Please pray I get packed in time and I don't forget my MAKEUP etc.

Cheers, Carolgxx