Serenity & Spice

 “A woman happy in love, she burns the soufflé. A woman unhappy in love, she forgets to turn on the oven.” - Sabrina (1954) Sabrina is probably one of my favorite movies. It stars Audrey Hepburn at the beginning of her career after winning the Oscar for Roman Holiday . It was also the first film she worked with Hubert de Givenchy for her costumes. It was a partnership that lasted decades.  This film is the other reference I think of when I think of soufflés. As a lovesick teenager, I loved this movie. I always dreamed of going off to Paris and coming back as a better, more cultured version of myself. However, I didn’t go to Paris; I went to Iraq. It proved to be a far dirtier personal transformation.   Hepburn plays the titular character as the daughter of the chauffeur to a wealthy family on Long Island. Her whole life, she had been in unrequited love with the younger son of the family, David, played by William Holden. To help her move on, she gets sent off to cul...

 "I did make you a soufflé, but it was too beautiful to live.” - Clara Oswald, “Asylum of the Daleks” Doctor Who Why make a soufflé? Why make two soufflés? They are notoriously temperamental, and I have never made one before. Julia Child called them the "epitome and triumph of French cookery." Master those, and you can conquer the world.  As per a previous blog post , when it comes to a recipe rooted in classical French cuisine, I have discovered that it's best to first consult Julia before Pinterest. I have a feeling this may be my first attempt at what I assume will be many. I will start with probably the most basic of basic: soufflé au fromage or cheese soufflé.  When I think of soufflés, the first reference that comes to mind is Clara from Doctor Who played by Jenna Coleman. The impossible girl who is obsessed with the impossible recipe. When we meet her in “Asylum of the Daleks,” she's baking a soufflé for what we can assume is the hundredth time while trapp...

In my last post, I talked about taking pressure off yourself to save your own sanity during the holidays.  It just occurred to me that I may be a bit of a hypocrite as this time, I have probably created the most involved and expensive baking project to date. I present to you traditional mincemeat pies .  Why do I use the word traditional, you ask? Since the Crusades, mince pies have actually included meat until being phased out of the recipe during the Victorian era. The modern version without meat remains a Christmas staple in the United Kingdom. The reason they didn’t quite get the same iconic seasonal status here in the United States is because we were colonized by Puritans who hated Christmas and anything fun. The first step in this three-step process was making candied citrus peel .  Some of the ingredients for the pies were hard to come by, and as no grocery store here carried these, I followed the suggestion in the recipe to make your own. Each step is simple but r...

“Savory, tasty, scrumptious, delectable, succulent, mouth-watering.” When I have the rare moments of euphoria and clarity, I realize that any time is the time things can happen.  All you have to do is make them happen. It’s hard most days.  My attention is usually on other priorities.  Clinical depression gets in the way.  It’s always easier thinking about doing something than actually doing it.   My first cooking challenge will be to make caramel éclairs. I’m going off the recipe I found at Little Ferraro Kitchen . I have wanted to make these since I was 14 years old and saw the movie Simply Irresistible . It stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, at the height of her Buffy fame, playing a chef who incorporates everything she’s feeling into her food, which in turn causes everyone who eats it to feel the same way.   If that concept sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same concept as Like Water For Chocolate . Magic in the kitchen. That’s where the sim...