3rd Birthday American Style + Frenchies = ;-)

We were battling over whether to throw Little Man a 3rd birthday party or not.  And if we did who would we invite (friends from the neighborhood, English speaking friends or family and close friends)?

We have been really getting to know a lot of people lately.  Not just from Little Man's halte de garderie (part time daycare) but also through an English Group we are a part of.  It was hard to decide since SOME of the English Speakers aren't all French Speakers.  And I wasn't sure if the French Speaks could all speak English since I have only spoken French to them.   So we did not know if they would mix well.  We decided to go with just friends from the neighborhood!  So the Frenchies it is...

With a little help from Little Man we decided to throw a Robot Party ;-)

Here are pics of our invites we handmade!

I decided to do something VERY American and have cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies!

OH MY the cookies were to die for!

For the cupcakes I decided to be French Friendly and just do a dollop of frosting (homemade btw!)

Here is Little Man saying he is ''tree years old'' ;-)

All in all it was a good time and we got to bond a bit more with our neighborhood friends.  Who btw will mostly be in Little Man's Preschool (Maternelle) Class in the Fall!

Recipes:

Cupcakes - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/simple-white-cake/detail.aspx
Cookies - SOOOO GOOD! http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Frosting Recipe -  4 cups sifted confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
                              1/2 cup butter softened
                              1 teaspoon vanilla
                              3 tablespoons milk
                              food coloring optional
                              -in large bowl beat with an electric mixer

dorade en croute de sel

Last Sunday we decided (since it was so SUNNY HERE!) to check out the open air market near our place next to Bastille.  It was BUSY but great!  Since we were just talking about our trip to Guadeloupe we decided to get some lunch from a Guadeloupian/Martiniquian Creole stand.  It was great!  Then we bought some fresh veggies, fruits, sausage and some Dorade which is a white fish - which in English it's called Sea Bream (whatever that is!)

When we were in London at a French Bistro F had the best Dorade which was encrusted in salt...it looked like a pastry that covered it.  They do not serve it with the crust.  It was cooked to perfection.  So we decided we can do this!  So we bought the fish and headed home.

After doing some research online we noticed that it took A LOT of sea salt to cook two fish...1 kilogram of salt per fish (which is 2lbs of salt per fish)!!!  So we headed to a small epicere (convenience store) which are the only stores open on a Sunday evening.

We washed, gutted, scaled (which some recipes called for not doing this...next time we will not), took off all the fins.  With the 4lbs of sea salt we added two egg whites and enough water to make the salt a bit moist.  Then we laid a good 3/4 of an inch of salt down on a baking pan, laid the fish on top, and covered the remaining salt over the two fish.  Pics will show what it looked like.  They looked like big snow balls ;-)

Then we put it in the oven for 30 mins.  When the fish was done the salt mixture was as hard as a rock.  We had to hammer it out.  The skin unfortunately came off in the process but no biggie...this is why next time we will not scale the fish!

I thought with that much salt the fish might turn out too salty but it was perfect!  We rarely cook fish at home but this recipe was so simple I'm sure we will be eating fish at home more often ;-)

la chandeleur

La Chandeleur is celebrated on February 2nd (same day as Groundhogs Day in the US) and it's the day of Crepes for the French!

It is really a Catholic Holiday celebrating a feast to commemorate the presentation of baby Jesus.

I made the crepe batter this year, here is F's recipe:

250 grams (2 cups) Flour (all purpose)
300 ml (~10 ounces) Milk
200 ml (~6 ounces) Beer
Salt
1 tablespoon Vanilla Sugar (or regular sugar)
shot of Rum
3 eggs
1 tablespoon of Vegetable Oil

Put flour/salt/sugar mixture into a mixing bowl and put the eggs into the center.  Beat eggs and flour mixture until incorporated.  Then add remaining liquids slowly to avoid lumps.

Grease a hot non stick crepe pan (we got ours from Bed Bath and Beyond OR 10 inch non stick omelet pan) with vegetable oil (do this after ever crepe). And pour 3/4 of a ladle and move it all around to cover the entire pan. Wait till crepe is browned slightly and pulls up from the pan easily. Flip and brown the other side. Normally we make all crepes ahead of time and place them on a plate over boiling water until ready to eat (to keep warm). 



With this recipe you can make sweet crepes or salty ones!  For the salty crepes we usually fry an egg (on a separate pan) and place it on top of ham and cheese then fold the crepe!  For sweet crepes I prefer strawberries and cream.  While F's fav is just white sugar with lime juice ;-0  We also like nutella and bananas.

There is a good luck/fortune tradition with making crepes on La Chandeleur. While holding a coin in your right hand, when the crepe is ready to be flipped make sure you flip it 180 degrees without dropping it! It will mean a prosperous year for you and your family ;-)