Buy Clotilde's latest book, The French Market Cookbook!

• We had snow! In Paris! It was so fun!

Sure, the city and transportation system aren’t really equipped to deal with it so it was chaotic on many levels. But Paris is so gorgeous in the snow that it brings Parisians together, all twinkly-eyed and twelve at heart.

If you’re on Instagram, you can check my account to see two pictures of the Sacré-Coeur on two subsequent days (including the sunny one above) and my “Snowy Paris” Story Highlight.

• One of my most uplifting YouTube videos is this one, showing friends skiing down the Sacré-Coeur gardens in 2013. The same team shot a fresh one this year.

• I announced the pre-order bonus for my new cookbook, TASTING PARIS: 100 Recipes to Eat Like a Local! It’s an audio walking tour in which I take you along my favorite market streets in Montmartre to do some food shopping together. We had a lot of fun recording it, the food vendors played along brilliantly, and it is my pleasure to share with you the unique soundscape of my neighborhood.

To get your pre-order bonus, all you need to do is place your pre-order through the platform of your choice, and then fill out this form to receive the audio file.

• I was a guest on The Earful Tower, a cool podcast about Paris hosted by Oliver Gee. Listen to my interview and don’t miss Oliver’s hilarious video on faking French.

(If you prefer not to fake it, I recommend the email-based French course Frantastique, which many C&Z readers have tried and enjoyed. Use this link to get a free 7-day trial.)

• I got some postcards printed with a drawing I did some months ago of typical Montmartre apartment buildings, which I pieced together from photos I had shot around my neighborhood. I plan to give them as a little thank-you to guests I have on my walking tours, or to people who help support the launch of my new cookbook.

If you like that illustration, check out the shirt you can buy in different colors, for men, women, and children, on Amazon. (I also created this one, which reads “Do you live in Paris?” “No, in Montmartre!”)

The post Best of February appeared first on Chocolate & Zucchini.

Pour over coffee – sometimes written as pourover – is a style of making coffee that coffee enthusiasts love. But you don’t have to be a coffee fanatic to give it a try because it’s just a simple way to make a good cup of coffee. Pour overs don’t require a machine, and you will only need a pour over dripper – which resembles the basket inside a traditional drip coffee maker – that can be placed on top of a cup or carafe to brew your java.

How to Brew a Pour Over Coffee Step by Step

• Step 1: Place a filter in a pour over dripper and fill it with your coffee grounds, then place it on top of a cup or carafe.
• Step 2: Bring 1 cup of water to a boil for each cup you intent to brew.
• Step 3: Remove water from heat and pour a small amount over the grounds to moisten them.
• Step 4: Slowly pour the rest of the hot water over your grounds, filling the filter and replenishing it as needed until the whole cup is brewed. You will likely need to refill the filter 2-3 times. Your fresh coffee will drip out into your cup in just a few minutes.

How Much Coffee Do You Need?

Pour overs use about the same amount of coffee:water as most drip coffee makers do. Coffee that is ground for a drip coffee maker will work fine unless your filters have other instructions on them.

On the packaging of your coffee, it will typically direct you to use 2 heaping spoonfuls of coffee per cup that you brew and a typical coffee spoon holds 2 tablespoonfuls. That said, a lot of drip coffee makers are calibrated for relatively small cups. I like to use 3 heaping spoonfuls of coffee grounds for every 8 oz or so of water that I use. I will adjust this slightly up or down depending on how dark my roast is.

If you want to get very technical, weigh out your coffee to ensure a consistent amount every cup. This option will always produce a good cup of coffee, but takes an extra minute.

Why Try Pour Over?

I enjoy making pour overs because the ritual of making the coffee is relaxing. It only takes a couple of minutes to prepare everything and brew the coffee – and that time is a nice little mental break from work in the mid-morning or mid-afternoon when you might want to clear your head. It is also a very convenient way to brew just one cup at a time when you don’t need a whole pot. Finally, it is an almost silent way to brew coffee, so you won’t wake up a snoozing partner (or kids) in the morning when you’re brewing it to get your day started.

The post What is Pour Over Coffee? appeared first on Baking Bites.

We had a thunderstorm yesterday. I know that doesn't sound super out of the norm but when you live in California, rain comes occasionally but I've only been through a handful of thunderstorms. I love spring thunderstorms and it's one of the things I miss about the midwest. This stew is my idea of a perfect thunderstorm meal. Have a delicious piece of bread and a glass of wine; it's the perfect, cozy meal. Read more and see the recipe.

The post Pinto Squash Stew with Chimichurri appeared first on Naturally Ella.

Thank you for all of the NEDA week support so far! I’ve been chatting about my ED recovery affirmations this week, which are as follows:

1. Keep it real
2. Take up space
3. Break your rules
4. Be love
5. Keep faith

Yesterday I wrote about what “keeping it real” means to me in the context of recovery. Today, I’m moving onto #2: take up space.

For a long time I took this affirmation literally, because weight gain was a part of my recovery process, and it was hard. As time went by, recovery became less physical, but the idea of taking up space continues to guide and challenge me.

Like many women, I was given the message very early on that I was too much: too big, too loud, too messy, too hungry, too unusual. I think a part of me always sensed that there was something wrong with this framing of my identity, but young people can’t help but be influenced by the narratives that are handed to them, and this one stayed with me. I can’t remember a time in my life, childhood included, when I didn’t think of myself as being ungainly and monstrous, or didn’t worry that my uninhibited self would alienate the people around me.

I haven’t come close to undoing this idea; it’s so old that it populates nearly all of my unconscious fears. But I’m aware of it now, and if recovery has taught me anything, it’s that this way of thinking is ruinous.

Recovery is all about learning how to take up space again, to stop hiding, to inhabit your body and the world around you. If you’ve come to believe that you are lovable only if you make yourself as inconspicuous as possible, this is really hard work.

For me, it began physically, with weight gain and filling out clothes. I learned to stop draping my body in baggy layers and tucking myself away behind folded arms and hunched shoulders. I struggled with these changes, but the real work lay ahead of me, which was learning how to take up space in other, intangible dimensions.

Recovery has given me the courage to use my voice, to take pride in my appetite, and to own the fact that I want things: food, experience, pleasure, and love. It’s pushed me to stop trying to sanitize and tone myself down. It challenges me to let go of the notion that people will like me more if I give them less of myself.

This isn’t a leg of the recovery journey on I’m very far along; actually, I think I might still be navigating my way around the gateway. There’s still a part of me that fears my own wholeness, regards it as being fundamentally unmanageable or undigestible. I recognize the fear for what it is—untrue, limiting, outdated—but it hangs around anyway.

When I was sitting down to write this post, I thought of a quote from Geneen Roth’s Women, Food, and God: “You are not a mistake. You are not a problem to be solved. But you won’t discover this until you are willing to stop banging your head against the wall of shaming and caging and fearing yourself.”

I don’t really know how to shake off my own sense of being problematic. I have a feeling the best thing I can do is to be aware of it and invite myself to see its falseness while also accepting the fact that the belief is still there.

In the meantime, I try to embody sensations of fullness and wholeness and fully-realized selfhood, trusting that the more I longer I do it, the easier it will be. Anorexia recovery is a good teacher here, because the process asked me to embody a certain kind of self-acceptance long before it felt completely real to me.

I hope that some of this will resonate with some of you today. Perhaps NEDA Week will encourage you to share yourself more freely than ever with the world around you, to give yourself permission to be full and whole and real, rather than shadowy and obscured. Everyone, including you, will be enriched by having access to your most boundless self. 

More tomorrow. Happy Tuesday.

xo

This week, I’m working with GoFundMe to raise money for the National Eating Disorder Association and the work it does for people with eating disorders and their families. Your contribution will help to keep NEDA’s helpline, referral system, and legislative advocacy going, and I’d be so grateful for any show of support that feels right to you. You can learn more and donate here. 

 

The post NEDA Week 2018: Take Up Space appeared first on The Full Helping.

I love coffee cake, but I take issue with the false promises it makes right from the start. It strikes me as disingenuous to lure in the under-caffeinated with such a title, only to deliver a cinnamon-infused experience. I’ve heard the old argument that it’s simply suggesting how well it pairs with a cup of Joe, but that sounds like a poor excuse for deceptive branding, like “juice” that’s never seen a fruit in its short squeezed life. Coffee cake was an evolution, not an invention, derived from many other styles of baked confections in the early days of sugar cravings all across Europe, which can partially explain the indistinct, ambiguous definition of the form.

Some coffee cakes had fruits, others nuts, some were fashioned as loaves while others rose into towering rings and bundts; the one common factor that united them was the uncanny ability to eat them during a coffee break. Bearing out that logic, there would be some fresh hell to pay if we started calling all types of cookies “snack biscuits.” Can you imagine the anger and confusion that would result from the hangry sweet-toothed eaters receiving dry wafers when they were expecting rich, decadent brownies? That’s not a world I want to live in, quite frankly.

Steering clear of the controversy all together, I much prefer more accurate headline. for my coffee complement: Crumb cake or struesel cake are equally appropriate. No one can deny that coarse, buttery topping, no matter the flavor nor format, for lack or abundance of additional mix-ins. The issue is far from black and white, contrary to this unconventional expression of the concept.

Inspired by the jar of black tahini remaining in my fridge after a fortuitous visit to the Living Tree Community Foods offices, this particular coffee-free spin on the classic fully embraces and celebrates the very best part of its namesake. Living up to its moniker, unlike so many cakes of yore, the struesel topping is thick, bold and unmistakable.

While we’re disrupting the usual routine anyway, why should cinnamon have all the crumb fun? A touch of cardamom and a hint of lemon complement the nutty notes of sesame throughout, subtle yet unmistakable nuances against the tender crumb.

A strong cup of spiced Turkish coffee would certainly be a welcome accompaniment, but as we’ve established, far from mandatory for maximum enjoyment. Whether you serve your slices with tea, lemonade, or nothing else at all, they will always make good on the promise of a delicious sweet treat.

Black and White Sesame Streusel Cake

Black Sesame Streusel:

1/2 Cup Black Sesame Tahini
2 Tablespoons Vegan Butter, Melted
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar, Firmly Packed
1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1/4 Cup Black Sesame Seeds
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

White Sesame Cake:

1/2 Cup Raw Sesame Tahini
1/4 Cup Vegan Butter, at Room Temperature
3/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 Cup Plain Vegan Yogurt
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cardamom
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1 Cup Plain Non-Dairy Milk
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a square 8 x 8-inch baking pan; set aside.

Begin by preparing the streusel topping. In a large bowl, stir together the black tahini, melted vegan butter, and brown sugar until smooth. Add in the flour, sesame seeds, and salt, mixing with a fork to create coarse, chunky crumbs. Set in the refrigerator to chill while focusing on the cake batter next.

Place the raw tahini, vegan butter, sugar, and yogurt into the bowl of your stand mixer and thoroughly cream everything together using the paddle attachment. Pause to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed, making sure that all the ingredients are incorporated into a homogeneous blend before proceeding.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom, and cinnamon together into a separate bowl, whisking to combine. In a small pitcher, stir the non-dairy milk, lemon juice, and vanilla together as well. Add about half of the dry goods into the stand mixer, blending until mostly incorporated. Introduce half of the liquids, continuing to mix at a low speed. Repeat the procedure until both are smoothly blended in. Be careful not to over-beat the batter though; a few errant lumps are perfectly fine.

Smooth the batter into your prepared baking dish. Break up the crumbs with a fork and sprinkle them evenly all over. It may seem like a lot, but you want full coverage here, so don’t hold back.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan before slicing and serving.

Makes 9 – 12 Servings

Printable Recipe