bon vivant tuesday: yes, yes, YES

french women don't get fat...

(ok, sure some do but they aren't the ones making love to tortured artists in tiny parisian flats, reading poetry on the ponte vecchio and chain smoking gauloises at picturesque cafes)

not only that but they have babies and 2 weeks later can be found pushing a buggy down a cobble stone street in milf heels and the latest fashionable pant suit
...looking HOT. 

here....well.....have you taken a look at the "people of walmart" website?

so what's their secret?? 

according to mireille guiliano....the french eat sensuously. 

they have a relationship with their food like they do with their men. 

hot, intense, flavorful and sometimes...covered in chocolate.

and let's face it....there is just something innately more appealing about a woman lingering over one single buttery, flaky, croissant and espresso

than watching one scarf down a bacon egg and cheese and a grande, 1000 calorie frapachino...

 

hence today's bon vivant....savoring your food

so let the honey drip down your chin as you try a gooey piece of baklava

sip one glass of red...but make it a great one

visit the local bakery and linger over fresh, hot, homemade bread with butter

and tomorrow try a single madeleine with your morning coffee

history of the madeleine....

the madeleine was immortalized by proust in his autobiographical book, a la recherche du temps perdu (remembrance of things past), where a taste of the cake plunges the narrator back into his childhood. since then, proust's madeleine has become a metaphor in france for anything that creates a vivid memory.

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup milk

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

beat the eggs with the sugar, vanilla and half of the milk until thick and light yellow. add the flour and baking powder bit by bit and continue mixing until smooth. stir in the rest of the milk and the melted butter.

grease your madeleine tray and spoon about two tablespoons of batter into each mold. Bake for 15 minutes at 375°F. Cool on a rack.
~ makes 24 madeleines.

and next time you sit down to indulge, don't fake it....take the time to enjoy it thhhhhis much

ummmm~ mrs m