With a hint of French Vanilla

On a recent excursion to Hubble & Hudson, a local gourmet food retailer, cooking school and restaurant extraordinaire, I came across wonderful French simple syrup. For the past few months, I’ve been craving Vanilla Steamer beverages and my mission was to simplify the "make it from scratch" process.



I’ve been locally searching for vanilla bean simple syrup, so when I came across the Epicerie De Provence Vanille Sirop I was absolutely elated. Tonight, my husband and I enjoyed an aromatic cup of steamed milk enhanced with a vanilla bean infused vanilla simple syrup. Each drink was topped with whipped heavy cream with a dash of vanilla extract (This was left over from the blueberry crumbles I made last night.)


The recipe is quite simple:
1 cup of milk
1 tbls of Epicerie De Provence Vanille Sirop (or Vanilla Bean Simple Syrup)
Whipped Cream to garnish (optional)


Directions:
Pour milk in a microwave safe mug
Microwave milk for 45 seconds.  Remove from microwave
Add vanilla syrup and froth with a handheld frother
Return to microwave for another minute and frother one last time

With Whipped Cream

Upon frothing the heated beverage, you can see flecks of the vanilla bean. The best part of it all was no additional sweeter was required as the syrup was all encompassing. Although the price point of this delicacy can be a little steep at $12 to $16 per bottle, it is absolutely worth it!

Cravin' Crepes

Yes! I am back in California for a few days. As usual, I must try to dine on all the wonderful delicacies around the LA area. My first stop since landing last night is Cafe Crepe in Santa Monica.

My sister noticed the restaurant during a recent visit to the 3rd Street Promenade H & M. It looked tempting during her trip, so she recommended it for today's lunch. We restricted ourselves to crepes only as both of us are on a very tight budget. However, since their prices were quite reasonable we had the option of splurging on other items, if we wished. I chose a half Mixed Greens Organic Salad with Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar, and a crepe with strawberries and sugar.

The salad was extremely fresh and the simple blend on Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar was scrumptious. The mix greens were laid on a bed of fresh tomatoes slices creating a tangy combination.

But the grand finale was (drum roll please)... a delicious crepe stuffed with fresh strawberries and topped with a dash of sugar. I was simply amazed how tasty the crepe was without the strawberries. Normally, crepes are garnished with powdered sugar, whipped cream etc. to accent the crepes flavor. However, my sister and I both agree this crepe was absolutely divine by itself. The strawberries purely accented the crepe's delicious flavor.

My sister and I both agree we will be back!

Puerto Cacao, Paris, France

Blast my mother for not teaching me French as a child! I just found this amazing website dedicated to cacao and chocolate and I cannot read a thing! Puerto Cacao is a socially conscious chocolate shop in Paris, France, founded by Guillaume Hermitte. You can gloss the pages of this wonderful site to see the true essence of Puerto Cacao.

Of course, I had to find what was recommended for making hot chocolate. Puerto Cacao has Poudre de Cacao made with 100% cacao. I can only imagine the intense cacao flavor of this powder. Ah!

Puerto Cacao

53, rue de Tocqueville - 75017 Paris
Tél. : 01 42 67 28 51

Puerto Cacao Blog