I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

suzieq60

Miss Poppy doesn't want to get up yet - she knows her Mummy isn't going to work. I bet when I go upstairs to cook breakfast she'll follow though.

Started researching the weather in the UK - it's better here!!! Looks like I won't need any summer clothes. I've decided to take one summer outfit each just in case Paris puts on a hot day for us.

BarbaraA

Heading out to the French joint to get some profiteroles. YUM!  All bets are off tonight, organic...probably not but WTH.

Bren-2007

Happy Anniversary Barbara!  Have fun at dinner.  I don't know what profiteroles are.

hugs,

Bren

BarbaraA

OMG, they are puff pastry with vanilla ice cream injected covered with hot chocolate sauce. OMG.

Anonymous

testoserone - YIKES  - that's all I need - more facial hair  If I ever have to go into the hospital for any length of time, I've told a friend she is going to have to be the Designated Plucker!  These loong ones appear under my chin ovr night - I swear it is over night!  Pluck, pluck, pluck....

eta : they look delicious!  Happy Birthday!!

Bren-2007

O.M.G.  That looks so good ... yum!

lewing

Whoah. I want some profiteroles NOW! Those look amazing.

apple

i use my husband's electric shaver on those facial hairs... zoom - begone

YramAL

Lewing-yes-summer has finally arrived here in the Seattle area! I am enjoying it soooooo much. 

Chin hairs and mustache? I got myself one of those "personal" bikini area trimmers and presto! No more facial hairs. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. I used to pluck, and pluck, and pluck....this is so much easier.

Mary 

otter

"Profiteroles".  I've learned a new word. The pastries in BarbaraA's pic looked familiar, so I did some googling...

http://www.citywifecountrylife.com/2011/05/cream-puffs-eclairs-and-profiteroles-oh.html

http://www.meneba.nl/Passage/en/cms.nsf/0/22D7C9BAD4D98B4FC12571FC00373556

http://gwenskitchencreations.blogspot.com/2011/04/cream-puffs-and-profiteroles.html

According to most of the websites I found, the same pastry dough is used for profiteroles as for "cream puffs" and éclairs.  It's just the shape, the filling, and the coating, that will be different.   Several sites said a "cream puff" is just the U.S. name for a "profiterole", but that doesn't seem to be true.  The cream puffs I've known were filled with sweetened whipped cream and dusted with powdered suger.  Profiteroles are filled with ice cream (right?) and drizzled with hot fudge sauce, which takes the prize as far as I'm concerned.

Chocolate éclairs have always been on my wish list.  Same pastry dough, but elongated in shape and filled with custard, then coated with chocolate sauce.

And I can't make any of them.  But, it is possible to buy nibble-sized éclairs and cream puffs in the frozen foods section of some grocery stores, if a person gets desperate.

otter (drooling all over her keyboard)

Wabbit

That looks just like what we call Cream Puffs ... only we put french vanilla pudding in them instead of ice cream.  Very easy to make if they are the same pastry.

Edited to say ... otter is way ahead of me again

crazy4carrots

I think chefs in North America add their own touch to profiteroles.  I've had them in France, and the filling was like a vanilla cream, drizzled with dark chocolate sauce.  I've had them here filled with whipped cream, and with ice cream, and with chocolate cream, and dipped in chocolate sauce.  My DH made a profiterole "tree" once (stacked up to resemble a Christmas tree) and the decoration was spun sugar!  A whole lot of work (the pastry, to begin with, and the spun sugar to end with) and the kitchen was a mess!  Thanks Julia Child!

Wabbit

Here is a recipe if anybody wants to try making Cream Puffs ...

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1 cup flour

4 eggs

Heat water and butter to rolling boil.  Stir in flour.  Stir over low heat about 1 minute or until mixture forms a ball.  Remove from heat.  Beat in eggs and continue beating until smooth.  Drop dough by scant 1/4 cupfuls 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.

Bake @ 400 for 35 -40 minutes until puffed and golden.  Cool.  Cut off tops.  Pull out inside soft dough filaments.  Fill with French Vanilla* pudding.  Replace tops and frost with melted chocolate icing.  Refrigerate leftovers.

* or substitute of your choice

They really are easy to make.  I haven't done it for a long time but you all reminded me of them so I might have to do that someday soon.

Edited to add ... this is not like the yeast donut kind of thing you get when you buy chocolate eclairs in the store.  It is a heavier, slightly crispy shell.

otter

"Refrigerate leftovers"?...  What leftovers?

otter

crazy4carrots

It's the constant stirring of the dough to incorporate the eggs that can rip your arm out of your shoulder socket!

Wabbit

If I remember correctly it makes quite a few puffs   Actually the recipe just says 'refrigerate'.  But I don't think any crust type thing is as good after it has been refrigerated so I chill just the filling for the first round.  Either works if you aren't going to eat them right away.

They are versatile little puffs ... I can think of lots of filling/topping options.  Strawberries and whipped cream.  Lemon filling (my weakness) and a powdered sugar glaze.

Enough of that ... I'm getting hungry and I don't need to be eating cream puffs tonight.  We had grilled barbecued chicken, green pepper and onions for dinner.  Was yummy and I'm full.  But it was about 100 degrees and 100% humidity outside and grilling was torture.

Linda ... it's been a while since I've made them ... maybe I forgot that part  

208sandy

Goodness, I am now starving for profiteroles (cream puffs) whatever, I grew up in Montreal - they were called profiteroles and filled with a vanilla cream (a little heavier than pudding) they were also drizzled with hot chocolate sauce - I have had great good luck making the pastry it is quite easy - the Christmas Tree puff thingy is a french invention too but doesn't have filling I don't think - Martha Stewart made it on one of her shows a long time ago and I think I have it in a book somewhere but am too lazy to look it up tonight - it is often the centrepiece at weddings.  If you add gruyere cheese to the dough you can make "bon bouches" then cut the tops off and fill them with chicken salad - they are awesome - serve them cold - also huge at wedding receptions in the 60s and 70s and at my Christmas Open Houses during the 70s and 80s (dh loved them).

Enjoyful it makes me crazy that you are eating boca burgers straight from the nuker - yikes. I ate one once with tons of mustard on it - that will be the last one I ever eat - they have a texture problem.

Isn't it nice to have a quiet Saturday for a change?

Sandy

Anonymous

Apple, YramAL - genius!  I never would have thought of either one.  No idea what a "personal bikini area trimmer" is - but I'm about to google and find out!  Oh, tha Pluck, pluck, pluck is driving me crazy and the long blond ones are SO hard to see, and I really do swear, they sprout overnight - since chemo & arimidex, even in my eyebrows!  the mind bogges - you are both genuises!!!!!

RetiredLibby

C-s, wait until they turn white and you have to FEEL for them rather than seeing them. The women in my family are cursed with "excess facial hair," as it is so delicately called. I feel like a circus freak sometimes. Pluck pluck for the beard, bzzz bzzz for the mustache. I used to use Nair when I was young, but it peeled the first layer of skin right off. I am too afraid of laser treatments because my skin is very thin and fair, and I have heard of and seen a lot of damage from them.



Profiteroles ... Had some at a Michelin one-star in Paris 25 years ago. They gave us the rest of the chocolate sauce after they poured it over the pastries. One of my nicest memories!



L

YramAL

Caerus-Sunflowers-you can get one at Walmart in the section with Nair, waxes, etc. Mine is about the size of a pen and it operates on 1 AAA battery. On the package, I think it shows the model shaving a balloon-I think to show how gentle it is. 

Mary 

rosemary-b

You can use the same kind of dough to make a pancake type of thing that you cook in the oven then shake powdered sugar on it. I have not had one since High School but they are good.

suzieq60

Profiteroles are very common here - custard filled - yumm. My daughter had a croquembouche for her wedding - all stuck together with toffee - also very popular here.

You can all be jealous of my visit to Paris - I am really going to pig out on pastries!!!

Been cleaning out my refrigerator - wow those glass shelves come up really well. Must be ages since I did it.

Chin plucking is easy in my house as we have a bathroom heater/light and if you turn it on it's so bright you can see everything - too much for me. I liked it better during chemo when the facial hair disappeared.

Sue

rosemary-b

My girls came over to clean before the baby shower tomorrow and they CLEANED my refrigerator-all the shelves out and scrubbed in the sink. I really just needed leftovers thrown out to make room for food for the party but trust me I am not complaining.

apple

cream puffs and the like, are my most common baked dessert.. I always have the ingredients at hand..

they also make great horsdoevers with smoked salmon and cream cheese, or something like that... and you can add 2 eggs at once it you want, as long as you thoroughly incorporate them.

suzieq60

Rosemary - I've got no one to come and help - lucky you. I figured I was sitting around watching my Sunday morning political shows, so I might as well be productive while I watched - I have a small tv in the kitchen - I call it the cooks privilege.

apple

rosemary... I didn't realize that was the same dough..   how do you do it.. in an iron pan with butter?

rosemary-b

Exactly apple but I have not made it in a loooong time. I had forgotten all about it.

jancie

Luckily my moustache hair is white so it isn't so visible.  Didn't have it before chemo.

I am been so scared to shave it as my sister who went through chemo, etc. ended up shaving hers and then her son (he was 7) told her that she was prickly.  I don't want nubs on my upper lips!

Had a pretty uneventful day - went and rode my horse, came home and showered and then had my hair done - that was nice being pampered for 2 hours.

DH is going to have to buy another laptop.  Thanks to his irresponsible kid - it broke tonight when it went crashing down to the tile floor.  His kid never puts anything up and he left the cord in place right in front of the doggie door so the dogs got tangled up in the power chord and the laptop went down.

Oh and get this --- DH, his son and another guy and his son went mountain bike riding.  The other guys son needed to shower so I told him to use the shower downstairs.  First off the guy is 6'7" and that is an oversized shower.  Dh's son didn't know I had told the guy to shower downstairs so he looks at me all worried asking "where is he taking a shower?"  Of course dh's son doesn't want anybody to see what a pig he is and doesn't want dh to find out that he didn't clean his tub three weeks ago when DH got on him.  So I just blurted out loud "Oh, don't worry he is not going to take a shower in your nasty gross bathroom - you know we discussed this three weeks ago"

I am so hoping that DH heard me say this so that dh will follow through and force his son to clean his tub that has not been cleaned for about 8 months now.

1Athena1

That greatnonprofits.org site is too much fun. It's such a rigged election.

I wonder if anyone who has contacted the site operators has heard back.

And a third thing: If you simply type "greatnonprofits.org" you will see, on their homepage, that they have an "Active topics" list, if you will. The BCO drama is prominently featured at times - along with all the other serious reviews by serious-minder people.  

suzieq60

Athena - I've written to them and never heard back. Maybe if they were bombarded with complaints they might remove the comments.