Muse of the Month

Romy Schneider

Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach (1938) into a family of actors in Nazi-era Vienna.

After establishing herself in Austria, she moved to Paris with her French actor fiancée, Alain Delon, in 1957.

She made a name for herself in France but made only a few appearances in American film. One of them being the comedy Good Neighbor Sam, with Jack Lemmon, and the other being from Woody Allen’s first screenplay (which he also co-starred in).

Her personal life was somewhat tragic. After ending her relationship with Delon in 1966, she married German director and actor Harry Meyen. They conceived a son David Christopher shortly before their divorce. Meyen committed suicide in Hamburg, Germany in 1979. In 1975, Schneider married her secretary, Daniel Biasini. They had a daughter several years later.

Her son David died at the age of 14 by puncturing his femoral artery trying to climb a spiked fence at his grandparents’ home. After her son’s death, she began to drink heavily. On May 29, 1982 she was found dead in her apartment in Paris. It was suspected she committed suicide by ingesting fatal amount of alcohol and sleeping pills. 

Augustus Gloop Apple Strudel

Augustus! Save some room for later!

Filling

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons apple juice

1/2 cup white wine

3 whole star anise

2 cinnamon sticks

1 vanilla bean pod, split lengthwise

1/3 cup (packed) dried bing cherries

1/3 cup (packed) pitted prunes or plums, halved

1 1/4 pounds Braeburn apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Strudel

2/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

3 tablespoons sugar

9 (17x12 inch) sheets fresh phyllo pastry or frozen, thawed

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

Combine 1 cup of juice, the wine, star anise, and cinnamon in a large saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add pod. Bring to simmer. Remove from heat. Cover; let stand 10 minutes. Add cherries and prunes/plums. Cover and simmer until fruit is plump, about 5 minutes. Discard star anise, cinnamon, and vanilla pod. Mix in apples and sugar; simmer until apples are tender but hold shape and liquid is reduced to 3 tablespoons, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes. 

Mix in cornstarch and 2 tablespoons apple juice. Add to filling; stir over medium-high heat until filling thickens and boils, about 3 minutes. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Cool slightly, cover, and chill.)

For the strudel:

Preheat oven to 375 F. Lightly butter heavy large baking sheet. Blend first 3 ingredients in processor until nuts are finely ground or pound in a plastic bag with mallet. Place 1 phyllo sheet on towel (cover remaining phyllo with plastic wrap and damp towel). Brush phyllo lightly with melted butter. Top with second phyllo sheet; brush with butter. Sprinkle with 3 or 4 tablespoons nut mixture. Continue with 6 more phyllo sheets, brushing each with butter and sprinkling with scant 3 or 4 tablespoons nut mixture. Top with remaining phyllo sheet. Brush with butter. Spoon filling atop phyllo stack in 12x3 inch log, starting 2 inches from 1 long side and 2 1/2 inches from each short side. Fold short edges over filling. Using towel as aid and beginning at edge close to filling, roll up strudel jelly-roll style. Place strudel, seam side down, on prepared baking sheet. Brush strudel with butter. 

Can be made 4 hours ahead. Chill. Pre-slice the roll two-thirds of the way through before putting it in the oven to make it easier to cut after baking.

Bake strudel uncovered until golden, about 45 minutes. Let cool at least 30 minutes. 

Lovely Weekend Mixtape

(click here)

artist: Wild Belle

title: Summer Tropical Show No. 1

I haven't blogged since April!

That is all about to change, baby.

Vladimir Nabokov

"It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight."

Eggactly Like That

Waffle Wednesday

Nutella Waffles with Peaches and Cream

(adapted from cakestudent)

Nutella Waffles

1 batch of waffle batter

1/3 cup nutella

Peaches and Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 super ripe peach

For the nutella waffles
Mix the nutella in the waffle batter. Make the waffles according to your waffle maker.

For peaches and cream
In an electronic mixer, using the whisk attachment, whip up the cream until soft peaks form. Add the brown sugar, whip for a few more seconds until stiff peaks form.

Serve with the nutella waffles.

You Know My Name

Look Up The Number

(click here)

The Beatles

song: You Know My Name

Woody Allen

"I'm not saying I didn't enjoy myself, but I didn't."

Patisserie

Patisserie No. 8

Laurent Duchêne

2, Rue Wurtz, 13th Arr.

I stumbled upon this place while walking to a park not too far from my apartment. The storefront had earthy, christmas colored goodies arranged in the window and thought it would be a sin not to give into the holiday spirit and buy a mini bûche de noël.

Patisserie Purchased: Bûche de Noël Marron Glacé

Cost: 4€80

For those who aren't hip to the cuisinier game, a bûche de noël is a spongey sheet cake that has been layered with a buttercream frosting, rolled up like a rug, and cut into pieces to shove in yo' mouf! 

And excusez-moi? Marrons glacés? Ya, those are chestnuts glazed and candied in sugar syrup. You will either love em or spit it out in the hand of the person who gave them to you. I just happen to like the heavy, gritty texture and earthy/nutty flavor of them candied. And thankfully I do, because this patisserie was jam packed with the stuff!

 These little bûches are the thicker, haute-couturer, French versions of the Twinkie. The cake casing was a tinge dry but the chestnut cream drizzled on top and and marron glacé paste filling compensated for it- leaving my mouth in a well balanced creamy chestnut nirvana. 

Scale from ONE to TEN:

SEVEN

Muse of the Month

Lana Turner

Born Julia Jean Turner on February 8, 1921 in Wallace, Idaho. Her family moved to San Francisco soon after Lana's birth.When Lana was 9, her father won some money playing a craps game, then tucked the money into his left sock and went back home. An hour or so later, he was found dead on a street corner with his left shoe and sock missing. The killer was never caught.

 After her father died in 1931, Lana and her mother moved to Los Angeles. When Lana was sixteen years old, she skipped a typing class while attending Hollywood High School and bought a Coca-Cola at the famous Top Hat Cafe down the street- she was spotted by William R. Wilkerson, the publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. Wilkerson referred her to actor/talent agent Zeppo Marx. His talent agency immediately signed her and casted her in her first film. 

Lana was married 7 times.

No. 1 Bandleader Artie Shaw (1940) They eloped on their first date and divorced 4 months later.

No. 2 Actor Joseph Stephan Crane (1942-1943, 1943-1944) Their first marriage was annulled after discovering Crane's previous divorce was not yet finalized. After a short separation, during which Crane attempted suicide, they re-married and conceived a daughter, Cheryl.

No. 3 Millionaire/Socialite Henry J. Topping Jr. (948-1952) Brother of Dan Topping, owner of the New York Yankees, and grandson of tin-plate magnate Daniel G. Reid, Henry proposed to Turner at the hip 21 Club in Los Angeles by dropping a diamond ring in her martini glass. 

No. 4 Actor Lex Barker (1953-1957) Lana divorced him after her daughter, Cheryl, claimed he repeatedly molested and raped her.

No. 5 Rancher Frederick May (1960-1962) Frederick was a member of the famous May Department-Store Family.

No. 6 Movie Producer Robert P. Eaton (1965-1969) Wrote a behind-the-scenes of Hollywood book, featuring a character based on Lana.

No. 7 Hypnotist/Con Artist Ronald Pellar (1969-1972) After Lana wrote him a $35,000 investment check, Pellar disappeared for days, using that money for personal purposes. He was later accused of stealing $100,000 worth of her jewelry. Pellar is known as one of the biggest American con artists. 

In 1957, Lana started dating Johnny Stompanato. After learning Stompanato was associated to the Los Angeles Mob, Lana quickly tried to break it off- however, he convinced her to stay. Their relationship turned violent and abusive. Later that year, Stompanato followed Lana to the set of her new movie with Sean Connery filmed in England. Stompanato stormed on set, waving his gun around, accusing Lana and Connery of having an affair. Connery punched Stompanato in the jaw and disarmed him. In 1958, Lana's 14 year old daughter, Cheryl, stabbed Stompanato to death in their Beverly Hills home. Fearing for her mother's life during a violent argument, Cheryl grabbed a kitchen knife and ran to Lana's defense.

Lana died in 1995, at the age of 74, at her home in Century City, Los Angeles, California due to throat cancer. In Lana's will, she left her daughter $50,000 and her her maid of 45 years, Carmen Cruz, $2.4 million.

Parisian Exploration

Shakespeare and Company

37 Rue de la Bûcherie, 5th Arr.

This bookstore was the mecca for Anglo-American writers in Paris during the 1920's. Writers such as Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce and later Henry Miller spent a fair amount of their time here. Shakespeare and Company is mentioned in a lot of their publishings due to the boutique's stature in the literary world at the time. 

Needing a swank (english) read while in Paris, I decided to take a gander at this famed bookstore situated just a few feet from the Seine. Cramped, constricted, and narrow, my roommate Emma and I shuffled our way through the entrance and started searching for books. Daniel told me Tropics of Cancer by Henry Miller was a novel worth checking out. The book is almost in journal-jotting form. Miller, a struggling writer from New York living in 1940's Paris describes all his sexual ventures with hookers and hardships as he wonders the City of Light. It goes without saying, I was down. As I went to the cashier to pay, the American woman at the counter branded the inside of my book with the legendary Shakespeare and Company stamp and bid me ourvoir. Tropics of Cancer is now one of my favorite tokens of Paris. 

Jane Birkin

"I'd rather live on my own 

than live with a face that looks at me with the wrong eyes."

Happy New Year, shnookems!

Here's to you 2012.