0 Leslie Caron, Jill Colonna & Tintin!

Yesterday I had a brief encounter with superb actress Leslie Caron in the Metro Etoile station... I saw an elegant French woman checking the metro map. Then I saw her little dog - out came the camera immediatement.
Remember Leslie Caron of Gi-Gi, Lily, American in Paris, Damages, Le Divorce, more recently Law and Order.

I saw the woman go off in one direction, turnaround and come back. Metro Etoile is a confusing station. I sensed she was lost.

I went up and said,

'Peux je vous aidez?'/ Can I help you?
Mm. C. said, 'bla bla bla' in French

Me, 'but I'm American'

Mm. C.responded in perfect English in her inimitable lilting voice,

'Isn't it funny an American helping a French person in the Metro?' and smiled graciously.

I helped her find ligne 8 and then asked if I could take a picture of her Shitzu.

'His name is Tea-Tea' (sp)

All I could think was her movie 'Gi-Gi'

Leslie Caron's book, Thank Heaven A Memoir came out two years ago. It's a classy tell-all of her life and loves in Hollywood and everywhere else. I'll be reading it as soon as I get home. Lovely interview here.

Everyone in London and Paris is talking about the new Spielberg Tintin movie coming out exactly the day I head home. AirFrance could you please show it in economy?

Yesterday I picked up Le Point to browse while enroute to my private macaron lesson with.

Jill Colonna of Mad About Macaron fame. Jill is quite determined I will conquer the elusive macaron secrets.

 Bear inspects egg whites put out that morning. And it was a misty, rainy day so everything should have gone wrong.

But Jill is a maitress de macaron. She whipped up these truly, deeply, madly lemony macs for me.

After class, Jill took me on a grand tour of Saint Germain-en-Laye's finest patisseries. M.O.F. Patisserie Osmont was irresistable.

The tarte citron meringuee beckoned...

Perfect for breakfast today! Little crunchy orbs of meringue sit atop a light lemon curd.

Inside a touch of framboise/raspberry surprise lurked.

Today I ate my crust. Chef Osmont won me over and I was very hungry. Leslie Caron said in this Guardian interview,

'I seldom eat pastry–maybe once a year. I never eat desserts and I don't drink'.

Oh Leslie, how can you?

Bonjour Leslie Caron, Jill Colonna & Tintin!

0 quelle désastre MACARONS!

SOS! EMI...911?

Calling Dr. Jill (of Mad About Macarons)

OK So I DID IT!

Yes, I tried to make macarons this morning enfin. After consulting an insane number of books in THREE languages and being up till 1 AM checking again every internet recipe bla bla bla

And I have an insane amount of equipment some of which I kept losing in the process.

Like I lost this special scaper I bought with Dr. Jill in Paris at Mora. Go figure?

Somehow I managed to measure out the 90 grams of egg whites on my new metric scale (which I haven't figured out yet - never mind). I even had a few squiggles of yolk mixed in - it didn't seem to hurt a bit. Who knew?

PS - I did NOT age my egg whites for 16 days on the kitchen counter but instead nuked em for 20 seconds - I think it worked fine - qui sait?

I got the almond flour from Amazon - 5 POUNDS of it! So this is an ongoing process till I figure these %$#@ macarons out.

Dr. Jill says to beat the Hell out of the egg whites...hmmm
Practice makes perfect - not there yet.
The 'Macaronage' - the dreaded infernal mixing of the egg whites and almond flour etc. was a bitch. Getting the stuff into the pastry bag was an even bigger bitch.
Sorry PBers. This post is 'R' rated.

My little babies did not come out so nice - c'est la vie

But they did form the appropriate skin on them to the touch after 30 minutes.

The Doc said it's all about knowing YOUR oven and to get an oven thermometer - I did as I was told.

LOOK!

I got 'FEET'!

kind of.

Malheureusement I did not cook them long enough.

And I used 'Superfine' sugar instead of the required GRANULATED.I don't want to think about the mess I made of the macaronage :(

MAD MAC meets Sad Sack.

Still I am NOT discouraged dear PBers.

Ever onward into the breach!I will be tackling chocolate macarons as soon as I post this.

Pray that there is some improvement dear friends.

Besides I have FIVE POUNDS of Almond Flour to get through.

My ganache mess.

They say you must be organized to make macarons...hmmm

I will say even though I failed with flying colors it was A LOT OF FUN!

BONJOUR QUELLE desastre MACARONS!