IRRESISTIBLE FOOD AND PHOTOGRAPHY

 

You open

WHAT KATIE ATE (http://www.whatkatieate.blogspot.com/) and you’re lost !

Lost in food, lost in irresistible flavours.

I really hope that for your sake you have a food market close by, because I’m pretty sure you’ll make a run for it to be able not only to watch those splendid photos but you’ll want to TRY to cook the bloody thing !

 

Have a look :

 

What Katie Ate

Garlic Butter Roast Chicken with Lemon, Macadamia Nut and Bacon Stuffing

 

 

Can you feel the pangs of envy ?

 

Have you ever seen such a composition of fatal attraction : wine, cheeses, hams and sausages, cake and sexy pomegranate ?

 

It’s all on What Katie Ate, straight from Australia !

 

Even parsnips look amazingly tempting.

 

Hand-made popsicle looks so photogenic !

What Katie Ate

AND WELCOME TO FALL !

 

Amber colours, all chesnuts and golden hues …

But it is also the month of delicious and all ripe goodies : plump plum figs,

 

 

fruity juicy pears,

 

and fatty purple plums

 

 

crackling walnuts to be stamped lightly in a little salt,

 

all bright chestnuts ,

and this gooie, tasty  recipe : caramelised aubergines with goat cheese, pears and figs on a piece of walnuts bread; stack it all in the oven for a few minutes and ENJOY !

With a strikingly good wine

 

NUTELLA AND THE FRENCH OR IS IT RATHER THE OTHER WAY AROUND ?

 

 

Know what  is that gooey blob ?

NUTELLA MERINGUE . Christ !!!!

You could only be French to eat that !!!

You know what : it’s simply an irreversible, no way out, no flight back delight.

You expected me to give you the recipe, I bet.

Was too good to be true ! Come on, put a little fantasy in your life and pick any meringue recipe, just add the whole chocolaty, nutty, sticky stuff in it and bake for a while.

Nutella is good any ways, even with oysters ! Kidding !

COUNTDOWN : 3....2....1

NEW YEARS EVE IS JUST A FEW HOURS  AWAY.... Scarry, right ?

Especially when you want to exceed your hosts expectations !

Rush first hour, meaning now, to the nearest florist and send a small bouquet of white flowers to each of your guests with a little white note :
" 9 p.m : your sidewalk "


What they don't know is that you have arranged for a white limousine to pick them up with a glass of champagne awaiting them in the car. That sweeping car will take them to your home where you'll greet your guests with another glass of champagne straight in the entrance hall of your home.

Your appartment will be only candle-lit ( have the firemen's number at hand ; not for a Chippendales number but in case of a fire starting ! Shit happens ! Happened to me on Xmas night ! So, you may believe me; I'm afraid !)
The chill lounge music playing it mildly for your guests to start to feel comfortable. You have asked you son's 20 year old friends to do the service : they are all clad in a white shirt and black slacks and they all look gorgeous, of course ! And fun !

Your table is set in white and silver and to make it easier,all the food comes from La Grande Epicerie : 1 stop and not the 14 stops I had for Xmas ! It's all there from sensational lobster to goose to foie gras and all the sweets you can ask for.



La Grande Epicerie de Paris

Easy as can be as you can even go on their "Boutique en ligne" and choose everything while staying nicely in bed !! Have a look at the bloggers's list too on the website.
http://www.lagrandeepiceriedeparis.fr/

HAVE A GREAT EVENING !

COUNT DOWN TO HALLOWEEN ! READY TO PARTY !

Count down to Halloween ! HALLOWEEN is this next Sunday 31st of October, whether you like it or not !
So yes, normally Halloween is all oranges and blacks.




Spooky too. Champagne glasses with a horrific writing  "poison", "caution", "warning"... Black and orange bottles and foam tombstones will do the trick.

However, this year I wanted to play it on the "chic" side. Let's have a try at it !

We'll skip the orange and stay close to blacks: rats, bats, spiders, black ravens.
Black tablecloths, white spider webs on windows, on your family frames, on book shelves, on doorways and you will re-use them next year. Build up your Halloween Collection !
Black bats of all sizes cut out from Canson paper that you glue in the most improbable places: just behing the toilet seat is awsome and very bed taste but so funny ! Black candle in the loo too... you won't stay long !


Believe me ; that's your ... stocking ! Glue it on glasses !
Black candles ! Every where; and when I say every where I mean it ! Out your hall way . Dash first to IKEA and buy everything you can in black. Big, medium and all sorts of candle holders and "photophores" in black.

Darkness will put you on the safe side. In your hall cobwebs on the lamps, paper spiders hanging from the "lustre". Find a eerie CD.



 

Black tulle bought at the Saint Pierre Market in Montmartre will be splendid !

And a cross in old wood found on the street curb with a white or black inscription somewhere half hidden with your name on it... fantastic ! Your're almost there !!!!

BLACK AND ORANGE HALLOWEEN PASTA from Epicurious.com



Courtesy of www.epicurious.com

Cooking by color might not be the surest way to devise holiday-appropriate recipes, but who can resist the lure of black linguine on Halloween?...

Ingredients :
2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 3/4-inch chunks

2 orange bell peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon thyme leaves

1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound black linguine or spaghetti (squid or cuttlefish ink pasta)

1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, chopped

Preparation :

Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in middle.

Toss squash and bell peppers with garlic, thyme, red pepper flakes, oil, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a 17- by 11-inch 4-sided sheet pan. Roast, stirring once, until vegetables are just tender and browned in spots, 25 to 35 minutes.

While vegetables finish roasting, cook linguine in a pasta pot of well-salted boiling water until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water, then drain pasta and return to pot.

Remove sheet pan from oven and pour reserved water over vegetables, stirring to loosen from pan. Stir in olives, then add vegetable mixture to pasta in pot and toss to combine.
http://www.epicurious.com/


DEVIL'S BLACK AND WHITE CAKE WITH SPIDER WEBS from http://www.epicurious.com/





I'll make a slight change as the recipe is far too long for me and for my tight schedule ( 7 kids, 2 moles, 3 rats, 9 guinea pigs running around my 75m2 apartment ) .

Hope Epîcurious won't mind .
Just make any black chocolate cake and work out the topping with a meringue topping :
3 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

6 tablespoons water

All elegance as in The Decorista below :



There's another setting for Halloween as seen on http://www.thedecorista.com/ ; great website !

Don't forget "Trick or treat" and do have home a whole wheelbarrow of candies; if you can find them all in orange and black; you're the devil itself !

Enjoy your HALLOWEEN !