Laduree Paris Pastries

Photos: Callies Portrait Photography and personal photos

Last year in Paris my husband and I ate at Laduree http://www.laduree.com/ as many times as possible. Laduree is a French bakery with exquisite pastries and chocolates. I think I spent the majority of my cash eating rose creampuffs (rose religieuses) and Lily of the Valley macarons on a daily basis. Truly it's a bit of heaven on earth. I brought home as many goodies from Laduree as I could cram into my suitcase. Mostly chocolates and teas. Flavors like Marie Antoinette, Almond, Earl Grey, Laduree's own blend, Violette, Herbal Infusion, and some Cocoa. I pray that someday Laduree will open in the USA. Fortunately they have published a cookbookthat gives an easy version of some of their most popular sweets. I've made the rose creampuffs a couple of times and they do taste similar but not as good as the real thing. The recipe calls for rose water, rose syrup, and rose essence that can usually be found at Indian grocery stores.

Tea and Roses

Photos: Callies Portrait Photography

Tea and roses...nothing is quite so lovely on a rainy March afternoon as a delicious cup of tea to warm your soul. Especially when everything has a sentimental memory attached. Drinking from tea cups lovingly collected on vacations bring back happy memories of sunny carefree days. Tea puchased at Laduree in Paris called Marie Antoinette made of roses, jasmine, orange, grapefruit, honey, nuts in a black china tea reminds me of my wedding anniversary spent there. And my very favorite teapot, a child sized pink and gold rose teapot was given to me by my husband for Christmas. I've never seen another like it and wonder if there are a cream and sugar bowl that match. I've searched the internet looking for more information about it to no avail. If you know anything about this tiny rose shaped teapot please leave a comment.

Here are my tips for a perfect cup of tea:

1. Begin by running your tap water for a while to get cold oxygenated water, even better if you have a filter on your faucet.

2. Bring water to a rolling boil for black tea but not quite boiling for an herbal infusion

3. Never pour boiling water into a delicate antique teapot. If it has small fractures, you will shatter the pot. Before you add your tea slowly warm your pot under the tap, starting at cold water and moving toward the hottest water in your tap.

4. Add a sufficient amout of tea, loose or bags, depending on the size of your pot, not the number of people being served as many books suggest. For a small rose teapot like mine above, a heaping teaspoon will do just fine. I usually add about a teaspoon per cup of water for strong flavored teas and a tablespoon per cup of water for mild flavored teas or herbal infusions.

5. Let the tea steep for three to five minutes, pour and enjoy. Add cream, sugar or lemon to taste. Although the French would gasp at the thought of ruining the perfume of the tea by adding cream, I really love the addition of half and half or real cream in a strong black tea.

The Hope of Spring

Photos by Callies Portrait Photography

Dreaming of Spring. I was so excited that Restoration Hardware carried a few of the Burgon and Ball garden tools from Scheffield England this Christmas. www.burgonandball.com

They seem to be so hard to come by in the States. I picked up the cute seed starter kit that came with a few of the hand tools and the garden tote. A few of my other favorite products are the Guy Wolffe pottery, Nut Scene Garden Twine and Foxgloves garden gloves which are so soft and luxurious. This year I am going to plant a vegetable and herb garden. Can't wait to get started. www.guywolff.com www.nutscene.com www.foxglovesinc.com

Pink Candies and Divine Truffles

Photos: Callies Portrait Photography

Valentines Day has me thinking of chocolate and candy. Here is my collection of cute candy boxes, most of which I ate the entire contents already:

Pink Marc de Champagne Truffles from Charbonnel et Walker. Made in the UK but you can order off the Neiman Marcus website. They are pink colored truffles dusted with powdered sugar filled with a milk chocolate butter and Marc de Champagne center. Yum.

Dilettante Chocolate Champagne Truffles are also made with Marc De Champagne but add Strawberry Essence.

The Laudree Dragees are a French version of pink candy coated Jordan almonds. Usually handed out as wedding favors. The little jar of pink rose hard candy is from Paris as well. I purchased them from a florist who only sold roses, and mostly only pink ones which are my favorite.

Teuscher's Original and Dark Champagne Truffles are not pictured here but are one of my favorite. They are a dark chocolate ganache filled with Dom Perignon Champagne-laced buttercream. Delicious.

Annick Goutal's Splendide Rose Skin Care

Photos top to bottom: Callies Portrait Photography (skin care on china)

next three personal photos taken in Paris at Annick Goutal Castiglione

next three photos from http://www.annickgoutal.com/

last four photos: Luxe-Magazine of the Annick Goutal St. Sulpice boutique

Splendide is a French skin care line designed by Annick Goutal especially for rose lovers. It uses rose sap, rose water, even rose thorns in the ingredients. I love facials, and roses are such a passion of mine I decided to get a facial when I was in Paris. It was pure heaven. The sweetest lady named Gloria gave me an excellent and extremely gentle facial using all the Splendide products. There were Annick Goutal trademark butterflies on the ceiling, see photo above, that glowed in the dark. Wrapped in a cacoon of pink, I couldn't help but feel I would emerge a beautiful butterfly. The fragrance is so lovely, rose scented but also a little bit green and fresh, I bought a couple pieces to take home with me. Every time I use it, I am transported back to the memory of the girliest facial I have ever recieved.

A Rose by Any Other Name

Valentines Day is around the corner and with it comes a few of my favorite things. Pink roses, champagne, chocolate truffles and silk lingerie. Aaaaah....Romance. The photos above were taken during my last trip to Paris. The first four pictures are taken in one of the oldest and most famous florist shops in Paris called Lachaume. http://www.lachaume-fleurs.com/ My husband bought me a bouquet of white sweetpeas for our hotel room so we could sneak inside and take pictures of their beautiful bouquets. The floor is the original pink marble from 1845 when the shop first opened on Rue Royale.

We walked along the river Siene to take in the exquisite beauty and fragrance of the flower markets. The last picture of the cute rose bouquets were taken at a charming florist shop called Au Nom de la Rose. He bought me a little bouquet of roses, some rose syrup for baking or to flavor champagne cocktails and a box of candied rose petals to drop into champagne and make it fizz. http://www.aunomdelarose.com/

Chateau de Bagatelle

Chateau de Bagatelle in Paris, France is by far the most adorable achitectural gem ever to behold. I pray that my mansion in heaven will look like this. It was originally a hunting lodge but would later become this adorable little castle designed by architect Francois-Joseph Belanger. In 1777, Comte d'Artois, brother of Louis XVI — acquired the property. He demolished the hunting lodge following a bet with his sister-in-law, the Queen Marie-Antoinette. She bet him that he could not build the French chateau in less than three months. The chateau was estimated to cost over two million livres and was constructed in 63 days. Comte d'Artois kept the crews working day and night in shifts. Marie lost the bet. I wonder what she wagered. Maybe diamond necklaces or perhaps something more scandalous?