Snowscapes

and snowstracts...
We woke up early this morning and went for a walk in the snow.
Our favorite park was so peaceful and quiet...

More cookies and flannel sleepwear...

...that was in a nut shell my weekend. And there was fresh snow too!

I can't remember the last time I wore flannel sleepwear. The last flannel PJ's I can remember, are the PJ's I bought for at that time still little M.. They had little duckies on them and she wore them all winter. She posed in them under the Christmas tree at my parents'. It was right before our big move to California. M. was 18 months old and recovering from a double ear infection. And there was snow too then. M.'s first snow ever. She would look at it falling down through the kitchen window of my parents' apartment. She can't remember, but I can - she had to stand on her tippy toes in order to see. Little H. wore the flannel ducky PJ's too, later on, in California - no snow - until she too outgrew them. I can't remember what happened to them after but I do remember both of my girls looked adorable in them...

So, when I was looking for our Christmas ornaments (yes, we did get a tree - an even smaller one than last year) and I came across a bag with among other things a big piece of checkered flannel in it, I knew right away what I wanted to make out of it. Flannel sleepwear - for me this time! I found a pattern in an old Burda I still had laying around, altered it slightly and fixed it in an afternoon. Nothing special, not even pretty but warm and cozy - bringing back those memories!

And then we baked cookies and they too brought back memories. The idea was to bake speculoos. I found a recipe, the spices - the only thing I didn't have was the dark brown sugar. The label said the box contained cassonade, but it was still too blond to make real speculoos which is supposed to be really dark. But never mind - the cookies turned out really good. They actually taste like the Trader Joe's Alphabet Cookies and Animal cookies we used to buy! In case you want to give it a try: You can find the recipe here - I added a second egg and combined 1/2 teaspoon of pain d'épices spices with 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon to obtain 1 teaspoon of mixed ground cake spices, and I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla, just because we like it. We planned on taking some cookies with us to Belgium for the holidays, but I'm not sure they'll last that long as we've been munching cookies all day!

Yummy! :: Cranberry-Pistachio Biscotti

The holiday season or maybe winter in general, traditionally is baking season. One of our home made favorites are these cranberry-pistachio biscotti (biscotti literally means baked twice). Even K. who doesn't have a sweet tooth at all or doesn't even care about desert, can't resist these. They have a nice nutty flavor to which the cranberries add the right amount of tang. I made a batch late Friday night and they didn't last through the weekend! The recipe is adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe.


ingredients (makes about 20):

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (levure chimique)
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup cane sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup pistachios, peeled

1. Preheat oven to 350° F/ 175-180°C.
2. In a pan roast the pistachios until golden or slightly brown. Set aside.
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
4. Put flour butter in a bowl and mix on medium speed until smooth. Add sugar and mix until pale and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and eggs, 1 at a time, until well combined. Add flour mixture at once and mix until well combined. Add cranberries and pistachios and mix with a fork until well combined.
5. Transfer dough to baking sheet lined with parchment paper and dusted with flour. Pat into a long flat log. Dust hands with flour if too sticky. Bake until firm, golden brown and cracked on top and an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack, about 20 minutes.
6. Transfer to a cutting board and cut 1/2 inch thick slices using a serrated knife. Arrange slices onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake cookies until brown at edges, about 12-15 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Bon appétit!

Snow

It wasn't in the forecast, really, but we did get some snow yesterday here in Paris. It only lasted a couple of hours, but long enough for a stroll and fun in the snow at the park...

Cold

It's cold out here and really gray, and as if that weren't enough little H. has come down with a bad cold and a headache. We're also having trouble with the water temperature in our shower lately, the water being beyond cold. Yesterday, I almost passed out cold when I stepped into my shower! 
And when I mentioned the problem to the concierge later that day, I got a cold "we fixed it on Saturday..." as a reply... 

I  responded with a cold stare...

 

Softness

No, these willow catkins are not a sign of early spring, here. They're store bought - and given the cold winter we have this year they must come from elsewhere. I couldn't resist their softness. They bring back childhood memories, too. And now, my girls can't keep their little fingers from touching the soft brushes either...



For more softness, check out my Flickr photostream

Going abstract in the snow...

It's been a while since my last abstract shot. Never thought the next one would happen in the snow...




Wishing you all a great weekend!

xo, P.

Winter happiness: Snow

We had some snow yesterday. Only a little bit, but there's more to come on Saturday. We keep our fingers crossed as we still haven't had our real snow fight yet!

Though I had a busy schedule yesterday (K.'s still sick), I couldn't resist taking half an hour off to make photographs. These were shot in the courtyard of our apartment block. Though our courtyard is not spectacular at all on regular days it gets quite magical under a thin white blanket. I hope you enjoy these shots as much as I do...

Winter happiness :: the smell of homemade bread

This is what I did yesterday. Bake bread.

I just love everything in the process of baking bread. The bubbling of the yeast and the smell it releases, combining the ingredients and the stickiness at first, how all of a sudden the ingredients blend and turn into a smooth mass, the kneading, the silky feel of the dough, watching the dough rise, the final shaping, and best of all the scoring - the baker's signature - right before confiding it to the oven. And oh, that divine smell while baking...
I used to bake bread quite a lot, but since we moved to Paris, there's no real incentive for baking bread anymore with more than a dozen of bakeries within close walking distance.

Was it the winter cold, I'm not sure, but yesterday I felt a sudden urge to bake bread. And it turned out so good. Even with the crust a little burned...
This is what I call real comfort food - homemade bread with a bowl of steaming hot homemade soup...

Snow and Sew Mini

We were supposed to get snow today - 5cm they promised - and it would be extremely cold, they said, way below zero... Well, we did get snow, just some, and it melted right away as temperatures went up instead of down. So, all we see are wet puddles (as opposed to dry puddles?). And these blossoms - I'm not sure whether this is normal or not for the time of the year, but it sure looks pretty...



Oh! And Santa came today! A bit earlier than expected, probably because we won't be home much the coming days. He brought plenty of fun stuff: books, lots of them, a sewing basket for the girls each and... A sewing machine - not for me, sadly enough, but for the girls. A real one: the Janome Sew Mini. I'll post pictures of it later and pictures of the projects we did today. Both girls made a cherry pit heat therapy pillow and M. sewed a bag - incredibly pretty, and I'm not saying this because I'm the proud mom, but because it simply turned out gorgeously! All I did was cut the fabric, give some instructions and put the pieces together so she could stitch them.
This will be so much fun...

Snow flakes

These two pictures were shot one week apart. Exactly one week ago, I spotted this little fellow on our balcony, happily dancing around, preparing what might have been his last dinner (I looked it up: spiders either die or hibernate when winter hits). The thermometer indicated 14°C. The temperatures have dropped considerably since, flirting with a mere 0°C for days in a row, now.

This morning my girls were the ones to be happily dancing around. In the news, they announced snow for today, but when we woke up, there was no snow to be seen. "Ah, well! They got it wrong again...", we said.
Fifty minutes later, however, when we were about to leave for school it started snowing - and it still is. The girls just loved it. The two of them ran upfront all the way to school, while I was struggling, pulling the caddy loaded with snacks for H.'s Christmas party in class and both girls' teachers' presents. I kept looking down, watching my steps - glasses are so annoying with this kind of weather...

I just looked outside my window and everything is covered in white and looks so peaceful. Will this be enough to get me in the mood for the holidays...? Not so sure... But it definitely got the girls in a good mood.
It's sticky snow, so it might last. I hope the girls had their snow fight at recess...their first one, for this year...

Winter

We're experiencing our first winter cold here. At the beginning of the week average temperatures were still around 14°C. But not anymore. Temperatures are supposed to drop to close to 0°C over the next couple of days. Even though I bought a woolen hat, the matching scarf and gloves, I'm so not ready for this...

Wishing you all a happy, warm and cozy weekend,

xo, P.

Signing off...

... for the week. The girls have their well-deserved winter break now and we'll be spending some time at the beach. So, I'm taking a couple of days off from blogging. But I'll be back soon, with - who knows - some more crafts and pictures from the beach. And I'm planning on a give-away in March. So, please, keep checking in from time to time! I'd better start packing now...

Have a wonderful week!

...first blossoms spotted

Under a white blanket

This morning, Paris woke up covered under a white soft blanket. The girls couldn't leave early enough to school. Unfortunately, the snow probably didn't last until recess time as it started to rain. Bad luck again, as they were so desperate to build a snow man...

A splurge...?

Not really.
You guessed it. I went to the sales yesterday. I was in need of a winter coat. Really! Except for the short winter jacket I bought last year, I was still wearing the "before-California" era stuff. Old stuff, that means. So, I went out yesterday, spotted a couple of things I thought I liked, showed them to K. over his lunch break, only to hear that maybe I should spend a little more time looking unless I wanted to look like the Michelin-guy. So that's what I did. I took my time. No pressure. And I found this (weathered) leather coat I'm so happy with. It was on sale at a posh store. A store where I wouldn't dare to enter unless (even?) during the sales. (At some point, one of the posh ladies shopping at that store thought I was a sales person - got the picture?). It's like it was meant to be, though. Not only did I find this coat, in the right size and the right color, it was affordable too. I actually couldn't believe it. About the same amount as what I would have had to put down for a regular fabric winter coat on sale.

I'm so happy with my new winter coat!

// Happy 2009 !! //

Everything is back to normal here - well, sort of, as right now it's snowing outside my window. Paris is covered in white and even more beautiful than usual. I hope I'll be able to sneak out today with my camera ...

We had a great and relaxing Christmas break, spent the holidays with family and friends and the days in between at the seaside. It's been exceptionally cold and exceptionally sunny the entire break with temperatures consistently below zero. The beach was covered in frost, the sand too hard to build castles with (poor girls), but we had lots of fun playing silly games in the dunes. We even watched fire works and a bonfire on the beach, while eating freshly grilled sprat and potato in the peel. Soooo yummy! To my surprise, even the kids loved it!

And now, we're in 2009! I'm not sure what this year will bring us. Some change maybe/ hopefully...? I'll keep you posted at this particular spot. In the meantime I wish you the very best for a happy, healthy and exciting year!!