nutella, en francais

 
I was first introduced to nutella in my sophomore French class. My teacher, Madame Meinhardt, let us have aptly-themed food parties once a semester. To this day, I credit her with my love for the language. She would turn on a custom-made "en francais" neon light in her classroom and for 20 minutes or so, would tell us a story all in French. Somehow, I was able to understand her and I came to love the sound of her voice. Although she was American, she was so chic in that perfect Parisian way.

So yes, nutella. It's delicious. My favorite way to eat it is spread on top of a good French baguette. I came across a recipe for the homemade version. I never even considered making it because I assumed it would be overly complicated. Well I'm here to tell you, it's not. In fact, I would classify this as very, very easy.

The hardest part about this recipe is getting the skins off the hazelnuts after you roast them. This is how I do it: spread the hazelnuts out evenly on a pan and roast at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until they appear golden and start to smell nutty. Let them cool for a few minutes and then rub the nuts between two clean towels. The friction of the towels will take the skins off. Discard the skins and set the nuts aside.

Nutella
Recipe from theKitchn
Makes about one cup.

1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and peeled (see above for instructions)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup powdered sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt
4 T canola oil

Put the hazelnuts into a food processor. Blend for about three minutes, or until the nuts form a semi-course butter. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth, stopping at least once to stir so that everything incorporates well. If refrigerated, the nutella will last at least two weeks. 

lessons from living away

It's April? Apparently I fell off the blogging wagon. Sorry about that. I wish I could say I've been really busy doing something important, but the truth is I've been busy doing nothing in particular.

I just returned from a surprise 48-hour trip home to Missouri. I bought my ticket about a week before and decided not to tell anyone I was coming - well ok, I told a few people. It's hard to pull off a surprise all by yourself. One of my best friends had a baby a few days before. It was the first time I wasn't at the hospital to support my friend and meet the newest addition to her life; and it was a fact of living away that was hard for me to accept. So, I booked the next reasonably-priced flight I could find.

Seeing my friend as a mama for the first time was priceless.  I got to spend an entire, uninterrupted day with my mom and my sister. It was the first relaxing trip I've had since we moved.

The distance is still hard. I love my new city so much; it would be even better if it were closer to home. I'm not great at balancing everything, but I've learned some lessons in the last nine months:

1. Sometimes you just have to show up. Huge life changes don't happen often and I'll never forget meeting little Clara for the first time. I remember meeting Stella #1, Stella #2, Thomas, Reese, and Dane like it was yesterday.
2. You can't be everything to everyone, although you can drive yourself crazy trying.
3. Living away means missing out on the day-to-day. But the lasting relationships in your life won't suffer that much because you pick up right where you left off.
4. I have two homes now, and that's not bad. It's like double the goodness.

Happy birthday, baby Clara.

for an impromptu dinner party

It was more than a year ago that I printed out a recipe for an apricot tart from my favorite food blog Orangette. I love making tarts because they're pretty and they look a lot harder than they are. Even so, I don't make them very often. When our friend Betsy came to visit us from Missouri, we ended up throwing an impromptu dinner party - the best kind - and I made a tart for dessert.

The recipe calls for apricots, but they're not in season now. I found some decent looking plums instead. You bake the tart for almost an hour, so the fruit gets soft and jammy. The amount of sugar is just right, and I added in some lemon juice to balance it out.

I love those evenings when you bring people together who don't know each other, but by the end of the night all your friends have become friends themselves. It's such a nice surprise when that happens.

Fruit tart
Recipe courtesy of Orangette. 
Use any kind of stone fruit; I used plums, but I'm looking forward to apricot season. Peaches would be very nice too.

Crust:
4 Tbsp. ice water, plus more as needed
¾ tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
¾ tsp. salt
9 Tbsp. (4 ½ oz.) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Filling:
5-6 ripe, good quality plums, halved and then quartered (8 pieces per plum)
1/3 cup sugar
3 pinches of salt
juice of 1/2 lemon

To make the dough:

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the ice water and cider vinegar.

In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Pulse to blend. Add the butter, and pulse until the mixture resembles the size of peas. With the motor running, slowly add the water-vinegar mixture, processing just until the dough comes together and moist clumps form. The dough should hold together if you pick up a handful. If the dough seems a bit dry, add more ice water by the teaspoon, pulsing to incorporate. If it seems to wet, add a tiny bit of flour.

Dump the dough out onto a wooden board or clean counter-top sprinkled with flour. Shape it into two balls, and then press each ball into disk about 1 1⁄2 inches thick. Smooth the edges with your hands. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, smoothing out any cracks with your hands and the pressure of the plastic. Refrigerate the wrapped dough for at least 2 hours. (Dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 1 month. Thaw it in refrigerator overnight before using.) Before rolling it out, allow the dough to soften slightly at room temperature for about 20 minutes. 

To assemble the tart:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a large, wide circle big enough to fit a 9-inch removable-bottom tart pan. Gently place the dough into the tart pan and press to fit, making sure the sides reach to the top. Put the pan with the dough into the freezer while you prepare the fruit.

In a large bowl, combine the halved-and-quartered plum wedges with the sugar, salt, and lemon juice. Toss well to combine. Remove pie crust from the freezer. Arrange the fruit into a concentric circle, starting from the outside and working your way in. Drizzle the remaining juices from the bowl over the fruit.

Bake on top of a cookie sheet for about 50 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. The filling will look very juicy, but will thicken as it cools.

Serve with fresh whipped cream.