Spring, As Definined By Laduree

Spring in Paris is beautiful, made even more so by some of the patisserie houses' spring collections of pastries. In particular, Laduree's two spring and summer flavors are definitely some of the most wonderful things about the warm-weather seasons!

Some excerpts from their press release:


"A Romantic Spring at Ladurée:
Ladurée is celebrating spring with a Château de Versailles theme. A romantic decoration made up of interlaced designs, medallions and flower bouquets with antiquated colours houses the new box of macaroons with various spring flavours and a definite boudoir feel."


"Ladurée is particularly fond of the month of May and pays homage to it each year by creating a limited edition of its famous, irresistibly-flavoured Lilly-of-the-valley macaroons.

. . .Fleeting and traditional at Ladurée, on the occasion of the first of May, this macaroon is filled with a light and creamy white cream,flavoured with a touch of Lilly-of-the-Valley.
- A Creation by Philippe Andrieu -"



"It is with the sun and summer in mind that Pastry Chef Philippe Andrieu devised the new Ladurée macaroon. Its radiant sun-yellow shell encloses an unctuous, Bergamot flavoured cream which is both sweet and bitter. Tangy and sun-drenched, this new flavour macaroon will make the perfect summer treat this year."


The lily-of-the-valley macaron was one of our very favorite flavors, one I describe as a "scentflavor", as they taste just like they smell. Indescribably delicious and unusual.

We so wish we were there to get to try the bergamot flavor! One our favorite teas is Earl Grey and it is the oil of bergamot that is used to give the tea its beautiful perfume-like scent and flavor.

Mademoiselle Moon Just for You

A new item I just posted to The Gossamer Tearoom Gift Shop (aka my Etsy site)!  Mademoiselle Moon awaits your visit in all her full-moon glory...

Blogs to Swoon Over

Good Morning to you, Dearest Friends,

I hope you have all swept up the last of the confetti from the Mermaids Tea Party (or not, because it looks pretty!)   Thank you so very much to all the nice fellow bloggers who visited!

I have added several blogs to my blogroll that I wanted to tell you about.  First, Fanciful Designs and French Blue, which are both just beautiful and so much fun to look through!  The image above of the very sweet & cheeky macaron pillow came from Fanciful Designs.  Aren't these perfect for the The Gossamer Tearoom?

Also, if you go to Claudia's exquisite Paris Apartment blog, you can walk in Paris right along with her, as she is there right now!  

Next, I wanted to let you know about my new blog friend LuLu's blog Coastal Sisters.  She was one of my Etsy customers and we started chatting.  It's been such fun!  Thank you, LuLu!   (And our conversations have been planting the seeds of a small idea I have for an essay I've toyed with for a while. . . more on that later.)

Betty

Tea with a Mermaid Princess

Please meet Anemone-Clotilde, Mermaid Dauphine of the Chateau Fleur de Sel. She lives in a beautiful castle, deep below the sea, off the northern coast of France. She is most pleased to meet you!


On the clearest of nights, if you were to look out from the top of the monestery at Mont St. Michel, you might see some lights faintly glowing in the water and mistake them for the reflection of stars or the light of our dear friend Mademoiselle Moon, but it would be the lights from the Dauphine’s home, shining in the darkest part of the ocean.


When the Dauphine entertains other Royal Mermaid Heads of State, this is the crown she wears. Isn’t it beautiful? Please notice the inside, her favorite color! It takes a great deal of concentration and grace to keep a crown of bubbles on your head!




Have you ever noticed how a crown can look just like a drop of milk, like the ones you might add to your tea? (Thank you Mr. Harold Edgerton for his iconic photograph.)






The Dauphine has made certain that all her favorite tea-time treats were prepared for you! Please have a sip of tea made of the rarest of blooms of sea heliotrope blossoms, lovely little sandwiches of smoked twinkle-fish and of course, a chocolat fleur de sel macaron!

Farewell to the Dauphine! She has been so pleased to have made your acquaintance!


Thank you to Moonfaires World (our wonderful hostess Lisa) and Asunder Ephemera for the images used in creating The Dauphine.

The Mermaid Tea Party

Dearest Friends,
Lisa Kettell, the Queen of Magic, will be hosting yet another very fun blog party this Saturday, April 18th! This one will be The Mermaids Tea Party! Honestly, I have not really thought that much about mermaids up to this point, but you know if it has "tea party" in the title, I have to be there!! Please click on Lisa's site Faerie Enchantment for more details and to leave a comment to tell her that you will be there too! And please be certain to visit The Gossamer Tearoom for my contribution to the festivities!

Marie

I am very happy to announce that Stampington's special edition Marie is currently on sale!

As I mentioned in my post of January 18, my collage entitled "In the Secret Dessert Garden-Thirty-ninth in an Imaginary Series from the Untold Secrets of Marie Antoinette" was selected for publication! When they contacted me to tell me that my work had been accepted, they asked me to write something about my inspiration for the piece. This is what I sent them:

Initially, I was inspired to create this collage after having seen the Sofia Coppola movie “Marie Antoinette” and read the book by Antonia Fraser on which the movie was based. In addition, I was fortunate enough to see the Marie Antoinette exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris in April 2008. But I was also inspired by visits to Ladurée and Pierre Hermé, two of the most famous patisseries in Paris and the sweetest tea salon across from the Luxembourg Gardens called Thé Cool. In these places, I found desserts almost too beautiful to eat and teas beyond what I could have ever imagined. In addition, I began to think about what we knew of the life of the last queen of France. I also began to ponder what we may not have known and my imagination began to run wild! We know that she loved her gardens and she loved her desserts. What if she had commissioned the royal horticulturist to develop a hybrid of flower whose fruit were desserts? Therefore, I named my collage, “In the Dessert Garden, Thirty-Ninth in an Imaginary Series from The Untold Secrets of Marie Antoinette.”

Here are some pictures:








I want to thank my husband Victor for his constant encouragement and for insisting that we visit the show at the Grand Palais and to Stampington for publishing my work!

Gratefully,

Betty

Le Jour de Macaron

This Friday, March 20th is Jour de Macaron (Macaron Day) in Paris! If we were all there, we could be standing in line, waiting for our treats together!

This news came in an e-mail from Pierre Hermé (I’ve translated the list of macaron flavors, so you can begin your drooling quicker!):

In a gourmet retrospective, this assortment of 24 macarons is an opportunity to discover or rediscover the original flavors designed by Pierre Hermé for 10 years.
Within this package, the presence of a red macaron shows support of the House of Pierre Hermé Paris for the Fédération des Maladies Orphelines, an organization which helps break the silence of 4 million people in France living with 8,000 rare and unknown diseases.

Pierre Hermé - Special Box of Macarons for Macaron Day - March 20 -
Chocolat et Foie Gras - macaron biscuit, chocolate ganache, foie gras jelly
Café - coffee macaron biscuit, coffee cream
Éden - macaron biscuit, peach cream with saffron, pieces of soft apricot
Azur - chocolate macaron biscuit, chocolate and yuzu ganache
Pistache - pistachio macaron biscuit, pistachio cream
Menthe Fraîche - mint macaron biscuit, fresh mint cream
Plaisirs Sucrés® (Sweet Pleasures) - macaron biscuit, milk choclate ganache, praline flakes
Inca - macaron biscuit, banana compote, chocolate ganache
Mogador - macaron biscuit, passionfruit and milk chocolate ganache
Rose - rose macaron biscuit, rose petal cream
Lemon - lemon macaron biscuit,lemon cream
Mosaïc - vanilla macaron biscuit, pistachio and cinnamon cream, bits of sour cherry
Huile d’Olive & Vanille - macaron biscuit, olive oil and vanilla bean cream
Chocolat au Lait & Thé Earl Grey - tea macaron biscuit, milk chocolate and Earl Grey Tea cream
Infiniment Vanille - vanilla macaron biscuit, vanilla cream
Arabesque - macaron biscuit, apricot cream and bits of soft apricot, crunchy pistachio praline
Églantine & Marron - macaron biscuit, rosehip cream, chestnut cream with bits of roasted chestnut
Caramel à la Fleur de Sel - caramel macaron biscuit and grains of salt, salted butter caramel cream
Americano Pamplemousse - macaron biscuit, Campari and grapefruit cream, bits of candied grapefruit
Plénitude - chocolate macaron biscuit, caramel/chocolate ganache, salted chocolate chips
Jasmin - (macaron biscuit, cream of jasmine flower and jasmine tea)
Porcelana (chocolate macaron biscuit, ganache of single origin Venezuela Porcelana chocolate)
Ocumare (chocolate macaron biscuit, ganache of single origin Venezuela Ocumare chocolate)
Cassis (macaron biscuit, ganache of black currant and black currant seeds)

A Ride for the Carnival Soiree

Thank you so much to my husband Victor for the photo of the rocket ride, the inspiration and support. And thank you to Lisa for hosting the extra magical Carnival Soiree!

Into the sky we shall go tonight! We shall ride the Teacup Rocket to the Moon! If you will join me, we will climb into the rocket ship, I’ll put my quarter into the slot and away we will go! Hold on tight as the back of the rocket goes all sparkly just like sparklers on the Fourth of July! Here we go!



Oooooh, look at the stars!



Look! The sign showing us which way to visit Mademoiselle Moon!



And look! There she is! See? They forgot to tell us that the surface of the moon is really made of flowers!



As we fly past, we see she has left a treat for us! Thank you, Mademoiselle Moon!



YAY! I have another quarter! Do you want to go again?

The Carnival Soiree

Dear Friends,
Lisa Kettell will be holding her "Carnival Soiree" on her blog "Faerie Enchantment" on March 14th! I am very excited because I just discovered Lisa recently through her Etsy site. She does CDs of wonderful vintage images and a magazine called "Piddlestix". She has also written a book which has just been published called "Altered Art Circus"! And now, she will be holding her first blog event! Here is what she has planned for us!:

-Carnival Tea (obviously, I can't wait for this!)
-Games
-Tokens
-Giveaways consisting of her collage cd: Circus Follies and an altered poker chip kit.
-Free Circus images/ephemera
-Carnival party pictures
-Circus projects
-Stories

It will be so much fun!
I'll definitely be posting more on Lisa soon!

UPDATE:  I have also added Lisa's Carnival Soiree blog to my blog list!

Very Happy Day of Love and Valentines!

(Images: Lisa Kettell of Moonfaires, Majik Design and Asunder Ephemera)

Also, thank you so much to Soul Journal for allowing me to participate in my first-ever blog party!


Dearest Friends,
Wishing you a very most happy day! May you have a day surrounded by beautiful valentines, wrapped in yards of organza and silk ribbons, wreathed in roses and indulging in delicious chocolates, pastries and of course, your favorite cup of tea!  Don't forget that if you are alone today, please treat yourself.  YOU are your Best Valentine Friend!

This is my playlist for the morning:
La Vie en Rose- Louis Armstrong, I'm In the Mood for Love - Bryan Ferry (I love all the violins in this!), Si Tu N'Es Pas La and Guilty - from the Amelie soundtrack, Les Barricades Mysterious and K. 213 - from the Marie Antoinette soundtrack (oooh, harpsichords!), and for the rest of the day, all four disks of Lullabies to Violaine by the Cocteau Twins!

So, in honor of this special day, here is my fantasy French pastry indulgence for our Heureux Saint-Valentin!:

The Rose Religieuse from Ladurée:

This is composed of a small and a large cream puff, the small is filled with pastry cream scented with rose water and the large is filled with the same rose cream and a small layer of raspberry puree.  The whole thing is covered in royal icing, also scented with rose and joined with buttercream.  

The next is on my wish list for our next trip to Paris.  This is the Coeur Infiniment Vanille (Infinite Vanilla Heart):

This is one of Pierre Hermé's beautiful cakes, made in a heart shape for this special day. Every part of this cake is made with vanilla from three sources: Mexico, Madagascar and Tahiti.

And finally, heart-shaped pâtes de fruits from Hediard:
Mr. V and I fell in love with pâtes de fruits from Pierre Hermé (his variety called "Celeste" made of layers of passionfruit, strawberry and rhubarb), but these were so beautiful we would have to try them too! Pâtes de fruits are made by cooking down large amounts of fresh fruit until it is a thick jelly consistancy (much more concentrated than jam or jelly) and then cutting into squares (or in this case hearts). They are the most perfect essence of the fruit captured for enjoyment long after the fruit has left the trees, bushes and brambles.

Wishing you a beautiful day!

Betty

Soul Journal Valentine Blog Party!

I will be participating in the Soul Journal Valentine Blog Party! Please check back here on Saturday, February 14th for my special Valentines post!

Tea Lust - Part Deux

Happiest of Sunday Evenings to you,

I made the most happy discovery today!  Kusmi tea now has a U.S. website from which their teas can be ordered!  I have been dying to try their caramel tea ever since I tasted it at Thé Cool on the Rue de Médici in Paris.  I may have no choice but to order some for myself (and Mr. V) as a birthday treat!

Tea Lust

Anyone who has been to Paris knows that standing in line is just part of being there.  But for me, standing in line for food is not the torture one might think!  In fact, I realized that I like a bit of a line when having to decide what to order (and how to say it in French!).  One day, Mr. V and I stood in line at the Pierre Hermé on Rue Bonaparte, waiting to buy some of his divine pastries and some gifts to bring home.  This tea was one treat that we brought back for ourselves!  It is one of Monsieur Hermé's signature teas and he calls it Jardin de Pierre (Pierre's Garden).  It is a black tea infused with the essences of citrus, jasmine, rose and violet!  We first drank it as an iced tea for our first anniversary tea.  It is deliciously surreal to drink (or eat) something tasting of the scentflavors of flowers (Yes, I know that scentflavor is not actually a word, but just eat or drink something like this and you will understand!).  But as I warned one of my friends later, do not add too much sugar or it is like drinking a liquid gardenia!  However, the small notes of citrus in the tea do go nicely with a very thin slice of lemon or lime.

On that rainy afternoon of our first anniversary, this was the menu of our tea:

tea sandwiches on thin slices of baguette-

cucumber with dill butter

egg salad with dill and mustard

smoked salmon with wasabi mayonnaise

proscuitto with cream cheese

mixed fresh fruit served in margarita glasses

homemade mini strawberry tarts

iced Jardin de Pierre tea with sugar and slices of lemon and lime

the final bottle of Dolce Stilnovo Rosso 2005 saved from our wedding

The Last Queen of France Lives On...

Thank you to Lauren of Marie Antoinette's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century
for the use of the image.

One of my favorite books last year was "The Scented Palace" by Elisabeth de Feydeau about the history of Marie Antoinette's perfumer, Jean-Louis Fargeon.  He created a special perfume for her based on tuberose, which became one of her favorite scents.  I was also very interested to learn that a French perfumery called Le Labo had also created a scent based on tuberose specifically for Kirsten Dunst when she portrayed Marie Antoinette.  Click here for a beautifully written review of Tubereuse 40 from the Scented Salamander and here to explore the other scents created by Le Labo.

And in another portrayal of the famous queen a bit closer to home, I have created a collage, called "In the Dessert Garden (Thirty-Ninth in an Imaginary Series from The Untold Secrets of Marie Antoinette)."  It will be published in April in a special edition inspired by Marie Antoinette.  I have just discovered that you can order advance copies (postage paid) by clicking here.  The special pre-order offer expires on February 25, 2009.  Stampington describes the publication this way:  

"Marie Antoinette is a historical icon whose decadent and beautiful way of life has inspired generations of artists.  The dresses...the crowns...the cakes...and more...are all what cause us to marvel at how one woman could lead the charge to live in the moment and with great attention to detail.  Driven by their fascination with Marie Antoinette, both through historical accounts and glamorized Hollywood perceptions two different artistic cohorts embarked on extraordinary collaborative book projects that were recently submitted to Stampington & Company.  Too large of a collaborative effort for just one article and far too beautiful to keep to ourselves, these stunning projects will be highlighted in a brand new special publication, entitled Marie."

I am grateful that my collage was accepted into this project and I will post pictures of the collage when it is published in April!

Tea and Sweets

Happiest of Evenings to you,

Please notice I have added a list of my favorite sites for exquisite desserts and decadent teas!

Epiphanie

Good Evening, dear friends,

Just one of many reasons that we should chuck it all in and just move to Paris!  As is traditional during the celebration of Epiphany, most patisseries make their version of the Galette de Rois.  Of course, Pierre Hermé is one of the most innovative creators of delectable desserts and his galettes are no exception.  His offerings include not only the traditional one with almond paste, but also two with his fetish flavors:  Satine (passionfruit) and Ispahan (rose, raspberry and litchi), which is pictured above.  For more information on these delicious wonders and all the rest of the wonderful things he makes, please look at his website here.

Next . . .

Happiest of full moon nights to you!

Next on the tour of the Tearoom, the antechamber. . .

Please have a seat.

(Can you smell the hot chocolate waiting for you in the samovar within?)

New item for The Gossamer Tearoom

Good Evening!  There is a new item for the Tearoom tonight, one of two new cards I have made for my Etsy site.  This one is called "Macaron Card".  Please visit the Etsy site (http://www.gossamer531.etsy.com) for more information.

Under the light of the silvery moon...

On this second day of 2009, I have added a very important widget.  I love the full moon, moonlight and most things bearing images of the moon.  The widget shows which phase the moon is currently in!  I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful for the planning of your moonbathing soirees!

The Beginning...

Happiest of New Years Nights to you,

As promised, I will be your guide to the Tearoom.

It begins with a door...