Friday, December 26, 2008

The Pastry Chef





Christmas this year was cold and rainy here in Sunny Southern California. A perfect day for staying home in the kitchen to prepare a gourmet dinner: 1) for Uncle Michael who missed Thanksgiving due to not feeling well and 2) for Manny to celebrate a hearty Christmas. The first thing I did --before tackling the stuffing (not easy with a broken food processor) and the turkey (never easy to remove the stupid frozen wire), was to bake a cake. Motivated by Bobby Flay's red velvet cake throwdown and the Cakery Bakery's Buche de Noel which I had purchased for our Alliance Francaise holiday fete, I composed a Moura Secret Family Recipe Red Velvet Cake. Here I am with the finished product. Needless to say, it was delicieux. Oh, and please don't let on about the Moura Secret Family Recipe Cream Cheese Frosting.



While on the subject of gourmet pastries, I will also boast about my Grape Pie. Concord grapes are extremely difficult to find here in SoCal. They have to be imported from Back East. I only found them once this year at Whole Foods. With apologies to the Locavore movement, with whom I completely agree, I bought them and concocted the pie. Even mon ami the French baker asked for the recipe. Note to all: he said he would have put a layer of creme under the grapes. But we all thought it was delectable as is.

1 comment:

Paul said...

I can buy concord grapes from about five different fruit stands within rock-throwing distance of my apartment. I even bought a box of them for just a dollar the other day.

I also ate all of them in one evening and spent a lot of the following day in the bathroom.