« October…

This mulled wine, this soft softness of the light, when the sun is good only at four o’clock in the afternoon, that everything takes the oblong sweetness of pears fallen from the espalier ” (Le pull d’automne. La première gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs minuscules. Philippe Delerm)

 

Thanksgiving will be here soon. This feast that celebrates harvests and life in abundance.

For this post, we offer you a look book on our beautiful linen linens, in a palette chosen for the feast, in harmony with the season. And also, this recipe of tasty buns, taken from an old magazine, stained, used, and which has earned us so many good comments. Without forgetting the guests who can’t resist returning to the big generous plate. And that smell of good bread that makes the house so warm and welcoming.

Tasty buns

You will need :
6-7 cups of flour
1 ½ t. raisins (optional)
Cinnamon (optional)
Nuts (optional)
Brown sugar (optional)

Icing
Powdered sugar, a little cream to dilute and vanilla to taste.

Step A.
Prepare the yeast.
Use a large soup bowl. Add ½ cup. lukewarm water + 2 teaspoon sugar. Sprinkle yeast. Allow to swell.

Step B.
Prepare the liquid mixture.
½ cup sugar
½ cup fat (margarine)
2 teaspoon salt
1 cup boiling water
¾ cup cold water
Mix the ingredients well. Melt the fat. If boiling water was not enough, place in microwave for a few seconds.

Step C.
Break 3 eggs and beat them.

Preparation
Add yeast, beaten eggs and raisins to Mixture B. Then stir in about half of the flour. Mix well. Add the remaining flour. Mix well with a wooden spoon. Then, knead by hand and gradually add flour to make a smooth dough that does not stick to the sides of the bowl. Set the dough aside on parchment paper. Wash and grease the bowl. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with the parchment paper and let it rise for about 45 minutes. Use your fist to push the dough down.

Two ways to shape the buns.
Method 1: Shape into small balls and arrange them in rows of three or four in a 9 x 13 greased baking pan. Place the balls side by side, so that they touch each other. Fill the mould. Cover with greased parchment paper to prevent the dough from sticking to it. Leave the dough to rise for about an hour. Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes. Add the icing when the buns are still warm.

Method 2: Divide the dough into two balls, then each ball into two. You will have 4 balls of dough. Roll the dough from one of the balls to ¼ inch thick with a rolling pin. Brush with margarine, sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle raisins or nuts over the dough (in small amounts). Roll up like a sausage on the longest side. Cut slices to ½” thick. Cover as above. Let rise to double. Bake as above. Put icing if desired.

 

 

 

 

Autumn is upon us and with the pandemic still around, changing our daily lives and upsetting our routines, we might as well find a creative way to adapt to it. To find happiness in the simple pleasures we can create.

For this new article, I thought I would offer you my recipe for zucchini bread, my beautiful photos of zucchini bread, my zucchini poetry and also my tiny pleasures inspired by reading Philip Delerm’s book, The First Sip of Beer and other tiny pleasures. Or more simply, to create these because we really stop. This delicious little book gives us such a present look at the present, at the same time bringing up a past so simple that it seems to me the key to all happiness.

Zucchini poetry

With its large chunks of cut zucchini that show pretty squares in the dough, instead of grating the fruit, the appearance of this bread is very inviting. As soon as you put the knife on the crispy cookie that has become the crust because it took so long to bake and thus scented the whole house, you already enjoy it.  For a moment, you know that you will take a little moment for yourself, that you will pour the coffee which will add its aroma of pleasure and that you will put the pretty linen placemat, just to create a little cocoon of well-being. With a beautiful gingerbread color because of the cinnamon and the deep baking, this bread is just as delicious to look at as it is to taste. With this particular smell of cinnamon comes the memory of the children’s return from school. Right there on the gallery, their eyes glowed and they knew that the tasty snack indicating the end of their school day and the flavours of autumn would be served to them. They also knew that their mom was more than eager to create warm and beautiful moments. Those who make the connections. Those that strengthen the heart. The ones you never forget.

Tiny Pleasure #1: Cooking and enjoying the moment you are cooking this zucchini bread. Tiny pleasure no. 2: Take out the beautiful linen table linen and enjoy touching the linen, feeling its texture, smelling the material that retains that characteristic vegetable scent. See and appreciate the beautiful finishes. Tiny Pleasure no.3: Run the coffee, enjoy its aroma. Add a nice, creamy, white milk foam. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Tiny pleasure no.4: Knit a scarf, puncho, stocks or a sweater…And why not this wonderful Autumn sweater by Philip Delerm: “Then you need a new sweater. Wear the chestnuts, the pinkish red of the russules. Reflect the season in the softness of the wool… In shades of green? An Irish green, off-pea, foggy…But red? There are so many red in the season, ophelian hair, desire to taste like before, bread-butter-gingerbread…And beige, why not? A sweater with big stitches, with braces, as if someone still had time to knit for you…”

Tiny Pleasure #5: Read Boucar Diouf: For the love of my mother. “Mom, I wanted to tell the story of the exceptional woman that you are in these pages so that your spirit continues to live in the hearts of all the people who will read these lines. May they make your wisdom about family, solidarity, and well-being together their own. Through your story, which I tell in this little book, I salute in the same breath the work and love of all the mothers of the earth. Thank you for being what you are, mothers with open hearts, thank you for what we are and for what we will be”.

Pretend that everything becomes a small event and experience it for real. You will have created your tiny pleasures.

Recipe for zucchini bread

3 cups flour
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
Mix the dry ingredients

Beat the ingredients listed below with the mixer for a good minute.
1 cup oil
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar

Add 2 cups of chopped zucchini to the oil mixture and 1 cup of dried raisins and mix. Stir in the dry ingredients and mix just enough to moisten the dry ingredients.

Put the dough in a 9” x 5” loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes.  Cover the bread with aluminum foil and leave it in the oven for another 50 minutes at 325 degrees F (1h30 baking time and sometimes more) or until a skewer stick comes out clean.

(The books of Philip Delerm and Boucar Diouf are French works).