foodstuff: quiche de noël

during this week twenty-three years ago, i sat in fourth period french class and learned how to make quiche au jambon.

my teacher, madame shiptenko, was a passionate foodie and a lifelong francophile. she had studied cuisine in paris and absolutely loved to cook...

she regularly taught us cooking lessons in french. i'll never forget her first spectacular display: crêpes suzette. what a brilliant way to capture the attention of high school students - by bringing strong liqueur to class and dramatically setting it on fire.

the week before christmas during my freshman year, madame shiptenko taught us to make a simple but spectacular ham quiche. it was so fantastically delicious that i made it for my family just a few days later on christmas morning. everyone instantly fell in love with it...

thus, a tradition was born. i have made this quiche every year since then. twenty-three quiches to date and hopefully many more to come.

i still have the paper with the original recipe, which is the source of these images. it's withered and worn, yellowing and splattered from year after year of use in the kitchen. this recipe makes a fluffy, rich, golden brown quiche which fills the house with a heavenly smell.

merci beaucoup, madame shiptenko, for the gift of your passion. merci for the food, for the french, for the learning, for the love. i think of you every year when i make the christmas quiche...

a few innkeeper notes:

* i use a combination of emmentaler and gruyère cheese, which was the suggestion of madame.
* use icy cold water when making the pastry.
* if you are short on time, use freezer pie crust. however, if you do, don't tell madame. she will exclaim "mon dieu!" and roll her eyes to the heavens. i know it isn't the same as the buttery handmade pastry, but it's still ridiculously good.

* baking time is always longer than 30 minutes. i usually cook it for approximately 45 minutes. look for a golden brown color over the top.
* it needs time to cool when coming out of the oven. even though you may want to dive in immediately, i highly recommend letting it firm up a little before serving.
* if your pie plate isn't very deep, you risk an overflow of quiche juice. avoid making a mess in your oven by placing a cookie sheet or piece of foil on the rack underneath the quiche.

* vegetarians: skip the ham and substitute veggies. i've used caramelized onions with great success.

bon appetit, mes cheris! joyeux noël!

{camp cozy} belgian hot chocolate

i try a new hot chocolate recipe every winter.

honestly, my choices keep getting more and more decadent with each twirl around the sun.

this year i made a chocolat chaud that is by far the most creamy, rich, and robust that i have ever tasted...

{belgian hot chocolate + vanilla whipped cream}

the recipe is from the great book of chocolate by david lebovitz. it orginated from wittamer, one of the best chocolate shops in brussels. it is a beautifully simple blend of whole milk, semisweet and milk chocolate, cinnamon, and just a pinch of salt.

the result is a very, very rich drinking chocolate. i only made half of the recipe and it was absolutely too much. i definitely recommend serving it in espresso cups or something smaller than the hearty coffee mug pictured above.

i added my own homemade whipped cream to the top. heavy cream, vanilla extract, and a tiny pinch of sugar were all frothed into fluffiness by my beloved mixin' vixen. the creamy clouds were delicious and helped balance the intensity of the chocolate.

p.s. take a look at the calendar of flavors for the twenty eleven hot chocolate festival in new york. dreamy!

{dewdroplets} six

a cabinet of curiosities for your enjoyment...

{aurora borealis via nasa}

{video: how the aurora borealis works via brainpickings}

{monthly delivery of artisinal sweets via black box dessert club}

{waterless snow globe tutorial via sweet something designs}

{dance vs. powerpoint via john bohannon at tedx brussels}

{vintage holiday illustration via jill clark}

sent with love from your innkeeper!

foodstuff: wildflour bakery

if you drive toward the beach from the treehouse where i live, in ten minutes you will arrive at wildflour organic bakery...

{welcome}

{my favorite kinds of deliciousness}

{piles of warm bread + scones}

{menu}

{taste}

{birds}

{sign}

{organic growth}

{portal}

{my best friend's twins}

{poppy}

{garden buddha}

{fuzzy pods}

{hops}

{sunflower}

foodstuff: homemade nutella

this week, i bought my first jar of nutella.

ever.

yes, that's right...

{via turbosquid}

i have never once in my life purchased the rich creamy chocolate hazelnut spread and brought it into my house.

of course, i have consumed this deliciousness at restaurants on many occasions, most frequently between the layers of a warm buttery crepe.

but somehow i never brought a container of it home until now.

it's ridiculously good on lots of simple things, like toast or bananas.

well, i'm totally hooked and now i would like to try making my own...

{via babble}

this recipe, from david lebovitz, seems simple and would fill the inn with the smell of toasty hazelnuts and melted chocolate.

yes, indeed.

perhaps next year i will participate in world nutella day, where "thousands of bloggers and fans worldwide celebrate italy's edible treasure."

dear guests, are any of you nutella lovers? have you ever made your own version of this delight?

foodstuff: peach crisp

i love to imagine that when you visit my magical inn, you smell your favorite dessert baking when you walk through the door - that somehow, this innkeeper discovered your very favorite treat in advance and whipped it up just for you.

on the recent occasion of father's day, i concocted a crisp for my wonderful beau-pere because he has always expressed his adoration of baked fruit desserts that involve any sort of delicious crumbly topping.

since it's stone fruit season, i decided to make him a peach crisp...

{the only photo i could manage with my peach-juicy hands}

it was an adaptation of this strawberry rhubarb crisp recipe from the williams-sonoma cookbook essentials of baking...

{a frequently used cookbook from my collection}

i simply substituted six cups of peaches mixed with three tablespoons of sugar for the filling.

in preparation for this recipe, i researched the easiest way to peel a peach. in doing so, i finally tried a kitchen technique that i have oft read about but never attempted: i blanched the peaches.

just so you know how my mind works, this is the imagery in my head when i think of blanching something...

{blanche devereaux}

i was delighted to find that blanching peaches (a brief dip in boiling water followed by a brief dip in ice water) is quick and makes the peeling process so easy.

this short tutorial on the kitchn via smitten kitchen showed me how to blanch peaches and made me giggle...

"Deb warns of slippery peaches sliding around on your countertop. Naked fruit doesn't always behave, you know."

it's true. peaches without their skins are slippery creatures indeed!

although i did not taste test the crisp when it was done, i got a wonderful beau-pere review endorsing its yumminess.

dear guests, if you were visiting the inn, what would you want to find baking upon your arrival?

foodstuff: baked oatmeal

every once in while, i discover a recipe that looks wonderful and that requires only ingredients which are already in my house.

this kind of recipe is my baker's nirvana, my special place of kitchen happiness. in these moments, i don't have to plan ahead or go on an ingredient gathering expedition. instead, i can instantly put on music and an apron and make something tasty.

recently, this recipe for baked oatmeal allowed me a morning of baker's nirvana...

{heidi swanson via lottie + doof}

when i discovered this creation, there was a new container of blueberries in my fridge and two perfectly ripe bananas just waiting for the right opportunity.

thus, i spent a saturday morning filling the house with the scent of vanilla, cinnamon, toasted nuts, and sweet roasting fruit.

i substituted two things in the recipe: i used sliced almonds because i didn't have walnuts, and i used quick cook steel cut oats because i didn't have rolled oats.

the almonds worked out beautifully, but the steel cut oats were extra grainy and slightly al dente. of course, this didn't stop me from eating some every single day until it was completely gone...but next time, i will use rolled oats.

visit lottie + doof or purchase heidi swanson's cookbook super natural every day if you are interested in whipping up a batch of this deliciousness.

foodstuff: cherry jubilation

earlier this week, i walked into andy's, a local family-owned market that always has the most incredible fresh produce.

i literally gasped out loud when i saw a robust display of ripe cherries...

it was instantaneous love.

i pulled out my phone and snapped a few pictures.

an older woman with long silvery hair and tiny spectacles was standing next to me and said, "are you taking pictures of the cherries?"

"yes," i said...

she considered my answer for a moment, and then asked, "why?"

"because they're gorgeous," i said, without hesitation.

and she smiled.

i grew up with a cherry tree in my backyard, and i have always found them to be a thing of sheer beauty...

i'm thrilled that it's time to pull out my cherry recipes. perhaps a clafoutis, or cherry brown butter bars, or even just a traditional pie. my mother made a cherry pie so good that my dad used to sing a sweet, silly song about it.

do you have any special cherry recipes to send my way?

foodstuff: meyer lemon pots de crème

pots de crème are one of my favorite desserts. if you are unfamiliar with this deliciousness, it is a creamy baked custard. in even simpler terms, it is french pudding.

when i worked at zuni cafe in san francisco, we had pots de crème on the dessert menu almost every night. bittersweet chocolate, dulce de leche, espresso. sometimes, at the beginning of the evening, i would stare into the dessert cooler at all of the beautiful pots lined up and ready to be scooped out by lucky patrons.

thus, i was filled with joy yesterday when we had meyer lemon pots de crème with raspberry sauce as brunch dessert at the reid ranch...

my beau-père and belle-mère made these delights using meyer lemons from my favorite tree on the ranch...

the crème was sweet, rich, fragrant citrus - a perfect late winter/early spring dessert.

i have made these before using this recipe.  initially i was scared of baking something that required a bain-marie (water bath), but it was actually easy and the results were completely worth the effort.

salut to spring baking!

foodstuff: s'mores with homemade vanilla marshmallows

this, dear friends, is a photo of the final treehouse s'more of the season...

you are looking at a homemade vanilla marshmallow toasted golden brown, resting on melty dark chocolate, and nestled snugly betwixt cinnamon sugar graham crackers.

yowza.

twenty ten was the year i decided to stop being afraid of my candy thermometer. for the first time ever, i charged headfirst into the wild world of candy making. this adventure resulted in salted honey caramels for halloween and vanilla marshmallows for christmas s'mores...

i used this springy, fluffy marshmallow recipe. if you haven't noticed  by now, i am a devotee of smitten kitchen. deb's recipes are absolutely reliable and beautifully photographed. if i follow her directions i almost always end up with pure deliciousness.

in the case of the marshmallows, i just did what deb told me to do and ended up with these tasty treats...

i found the cooking part of this recipe easy. the most challenging part was cutting and rolling almost one hundred sticky little cubes in powdered sugar. it was a slightly gooey and time-consuming process, but totally worth it. they were as promised: bouncy fluffy vanilla heaven.

although the marshmallow adventure was incredibly fun, i think it's best for everyone around here that the s'mores are officially gone.

{camp cozy} day eleven: holiday moments

it has been a flurry of activity here at {camp cozy}.

the week of christmas was filled with:

a trip to see cavalia in san francisco...

{horses + humans -> poetry + performance}

snuggly evenings at the treehouse...

{starry night}

beaucoup baking...

{slicing cinnamon rolls}

{whipping up marshmallows}

a journey to pop's house for his ninety-seventh christmas eve...

{pop's handmade sign + classic game}

a beautiful christmas day at the reid ranch in napa...

 

{my christmas quiche * since 1989 * via madame shiptenko}

{daria by the reid ranch tree}

{preparing for the feast}

{musical crackers}

{hannah's horse by the hearth}

{s'mores platter with my homemade marshmallows}

mucho merrymaking + happy exhaustion...

{sleepy pup}

we spent the day after christmas in our pajamas by the fireplace eating popcorn and hanging out together in true {camp cozy} style.

i am very thankful to have spent this time celebrating with those i adore and love.