Gougères

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Have I ever waxed rhapsodic to you about gougères, those ethereal, light, French cheese-bread puffs that I can never stop eating? Basically, I like any kind of soft, warm, cheesed bread type of creation. In Louisiana, no cocktail party ever seemed complete without cheese straws: cayenne-spiced cheddar-flour dough piped onto a baking sheet and then cooked. They are just awesome. And my family is also big on cheese-and-sausage balls: cheddar and spicy sausage grated and ground and mixed with flour and rolled into balls and baked. A gougère is rather like a more elegant version of those:  it is a ball but more like a balloon; it is cheesy but in a breathy sort of way; and unlike the Louisiana delights, gougères seem almost weightless, lighter than air treats just touching the surface of a serving tray.

Here in DC, you can get solid gougères at Central, Michel Richard's non-hoity-toity joint. As an aside, Central makes insanely good buttermilk fried chicken and a mean homemade KitKat bar. But I digress.

I've never made gougères but have just found a recipe in my new Bon Appétit. It doesn't look difficult and uses a combo of Gruyère and Asiago that sounds lovely. Thyme is prominent too, but I'm going to make half with and half without as I'm a purist with gougères. So, sometime this weekend, you can expect pics and a review of my first attempt.

Coffee cake a hit, Contagion, throat coat, misc

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Well, the coffee cake is a hit. My mother-in-law and one of Tom's cousins came over, and we all gave it a terrific review. The pears are such a nice addition, and the coffee cake itself is a cross between coffee cake and cake. So, for moist-addicts like Tom, this really works. We're seeing Contagion this afternoon. I hope no one in the audience freaks out over my hacking. Heh. Has anyone else tried Throat Coat tea? I love it, and it really does make your throat feel comforted, like you've wrapped it in a cashmere shawl.

Looks like Jesus McBangBang is going down, just like crazy Michele, milquetoast T.Paw and all-around bigot Santorum. I wonder who the Repubs will dig up next because even with all these unqualified people dropping like flies, there still doesn't seem to be any interest in flip-flopper Romney.

I'm off to make another attempt at putting to-be-tried recipes in some sort of order. Hope you're all having a good day so far. A big shout-out to recent readers in Malawi and Indonesia- great to have you!