Chocolate 🍫 Christmas 🎄

 

Yesterday was my ‘get out of jail free’ day

After mailing 📮 out the Croissant 🥐 letters,

Mon Ours en Pelouche, musée des Arts Decoratifs

 

A certain someone 🧸 insisted we go to Opening day

Of the Teddy Bear 🧸 exhibit at Musee des Arts Decoratifs/MAD.

PFW, The Battle for Versailles, yesterday in Paris

 

It’s PFW/Paris Fashion Week. Yesterday I went out looking some style in the streets

Librairie Galignani on rue de Rivoli was having a book 📕 party/

Christmas Eve at Angelina, Sebastien Gaudard, Ritz Chalet de Noël

 

As requested more Paris Christmas🌲 I was headed to the Toy Museum in Poissy yesterday, after a dip 🏊🏽‍♀️in the pool. Going to a toy museum around Christmas is always a good idea, but there were perturbations on ligne RER A😧

Change of plans and back to Paris on ligne 1, getting off at Tuilleries.

Bear’s Paris Christmas Letter

Its one of those things. You can live with someone for 6 years and still not really know them until you have to draw them. Then all is revealed.

Both Bear and I were deeply, madly smitten with the Angelina Advent calendrier.

This is one advent calendar that did not get escape this year, even though the contents were a tad disappointing. No matter we forced ourselves to eat every last treat in 1sitting. The 24 treats are supposed to be eaten over the 24 days before Christmas, one a day...ahem.

The perfect inspiration for the December Paris letter, including portraits of Bear, friends and family.

Bear has been many times to Angelina in case you were wondering.

Galeries Lafayette is also bear-focused for their December holiday windows.

Even if they are Arctic polar bears.

All made of white paper created by Lorenzo Papace with painstaking detail and delicacy inside and through out the store. by

Inside the store a giant white ferris wheel turns with bears sitting in each compartment.

And the tree is white cutout paper as well. I think its paper..not sure, but a nice change from the usual glitz.

The Galeries Lafayette Montparnass branch has simply big bears and penguins. I was desperately looking for something to buy so I could take home their adorable Christmas bear bag.

You easily can get your name on the December Angelina letter or a friend's. Thanks for reading Parisbreakfast. If you like this post and want to support it, buy Paris letters and watercolors or forward to a friend.

Angelina Letter Trouble, Out of the Woods

What do they say, "90% perspiration, 10% inspiration". The perspiration was flying this week.

Everyone has their cafe in Paris. Mine is Angelina though I mostly browse. At least once a week I stop in for a look. Such a beautiful space. The exquisite pastries are inspiring.

When I go it's for breakfast before 9 am. The lines for tea time are daunting.

I decided November is perfect for chestnuts (marrons), Mont Blancs and of course Angelina.

One look at the histoire section of Angelina and it was a coup de foudre (love at 1st sight).

Why not draw Angelina for the November sketch letter art?

Why not include Coco Chanel and Marcel Proust, frequent Angelina habituées? Chanel always sat at table #10.

Let the drawing begin!

Many, many drawings later of Proust, Karl, Audrey, Pharrell, Katy, Taylor and Mont Blancs.

I began to tear out my hair. I'd bitten off more than I could chew.

A visit to Les Borgia exhibit at the Maillol museum to study crowd scenes near Angelina 108, rue du Bac was required.

Still, things were not falling into place.

The Mont Blancs were no problem. I ate quite a few to get the color right naturally. It was all those figures driving me nutz.

My theme song these past weeks: Taylor Wood's new OUT OF THE WOODS.

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the woods yet?

Are we out of the woods?

Are we in the clear yet?

Are we in the clear yet?

Are we in the clear yet?

Are we in the clear yet Girl?

Finally I got it.

Thanks to an airbrush teacher's best lesson,
"The fastest, easiest way is the best way"

I went back to the room photograph (near the top). Traced it.
Replaced the figures with celebrity sketches. Et voila.
Probably TMI (too much information), but THIS IS HOW WE DO(another theme song from Katy Perry that got me through. Especially the line

"IT'S NO BIG DEAL!"

A small dance for joy when the artwork was finished.
My reward? My own Angelina cup and saucer.

But no time for Champagne yet.
Envelopes must be filled, stamped, sealed, mailed out.
You can see the finished results over on ETSY.
Let me know what you think?
Did I do OK?

DIY Angelina Hot Chocolate

They were out strolling in the Tuileries one Saturday and stopped in for a takeaway cup of Angelina's chocolat chaud.

Why I've never gotten an Angelina takeaway hot chocolate I can't tell you but a seed was planted. Especially since hot choc is my daily morning drink of choice. I decided to drop in and get one. What's more I plotted to test Angelina's classic, classy brew versus my latest revised hot chock recipe.

I usually make my morning hot chocolate with quelle ordinaire mix from Monoprix (on the left 3€). I cut it with 1/3rd of Monop's house brand cacao (on the right 3€). Both are Fair trade and from Latin America so no trafficked children picked these beans FYI 

I always toss in two squares of chocolate, also plain old house brands from Monop, Franprix, Carrefour or Nestle. They all run around 1.40€ a bar. No couture tablettes in my home brew. What I really like about these bars is they have broken up feve de cacao/cocoa nibs which add a slightly nutty texture and flavor to the hot chocolate. Miam  

At the Salon de Chcolate I discovered Pierre Marcolini's caramelized eclat/flaked feve de cacao. OMG the best thing I ate at the whole chocolate Salon! But at 9.90€ sadly these have not become an addition to my hot chockie ;(

Still a girl can dream... Then I read on Huffington post that these little broken bits of cocoa bean are maybe the best thing you can eat since vitamin C was discovered. They have 9/NINE fabulous ingredients! PBers you gotta go and find these. I mean it.

'Magnesium: Cacao beans are one of the best dietary sources of magnesium — a mineral needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in our bodies — with 272 milligrams per 100 grams. It's important for muscle and nerve function and keeps the heart rhythm steady.

Fibre: You don't get any dietary fibre when you eat a chocolate bar, but you do get some when you snack on cacao nibs: one ounce has nine grams!

Iron: Iron, which is necessary for red blood cell production, is found in cacao nibs. An ounce of the raw nibs has six per cent of your recommended daily iron intake.

Antioxidants: Surely you've heard about the antioxidant power of dark chocolate — well, that goes even more for cacao beans, especially when eaten raw. Antioxidants are important for health because they absorb the free radicals that cause damage in the body.

Mood Improver: Neurotransmitters are the messengers in our brains that tell our bodies how to act, and that includes mood. Cacao's ability to act on those neurotransmitters is why it's known for its mood-enhancing skills. Chocolate and cacao stimulates the brain to release particular neurotransmitters that can trigger emotions — including good ones like euphoria. That's why some people say chocolate is better than sex!

Phenylethylamine (PEA): This is a chemical found in cacao, one that our bodies also make naturally. We produce PEA, an adrenal-related chemical, when we're excited — it causes the pulse to quicken, making us feel focused and alert.

Anandamide: Anandamide, a lipid found in cacao, is another compound tied to cacao's feel-good properties. This lipid has been called "the bliss molecule", because its natural molecular shape represents that of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Theobromine: Cacao beans do have a couple of controversial ingredients, though. One of them is theobromine, which makes up one to two per cent of the cacao bean and is a nervous system stimulant that dilates the blood vessels — much like caffeine. This ingredient is what makes cacao and chocolate unsafe for dogs, and some people find that it affects them the way caffeine might.

Oxalic Acid: Oxalic acid is a compound found in cacao that inhibits the absorption of calcium, a mineral that's also found in the food. So though there is calcium in cacao, it's not considered a good calcium source for this reason. The good news is that you're getting more of the calcium by eating cacao than you are if you eat processed chocolate, because the sugar found in chocolate takes calcium reserves from the body.

Other foods also contain oxalic acid, including rhubarb stalks, black pepper, and poppy seeds'.

I went looking at health chain Naturalia but all they had was raw whole beàns (10€) No good.

Then it hit me. Get it at G.Detou on 58, rue Tiquetonne

Yup, they had em for 3.30€ for 250 gr. This is a major steal.

Back to la cuisine. Lately I throw in a whole cinnamon stick(top sticks from Cinnamon Hill), to acts as a thickening agent/emulsifier. By chance I added a slice of crystalized ginger from Shanghai Tang (Cock Brand 1.50€) & it thickened even more. Always a stick of vanilla goes in. I reuse the vanilla bean and the cinnamon stick over and over. The ginger gets eaten every time. Voila, I'm ready to do hand-to-hand combat with favored winner Angelina (in the brown paper cup).

Here are some extras you can throw into your brew. Ground Bourbon vanilla bean. Why not a touch of chunk grains of salt for contrast?

Essential ingredients:

3 heaping TEASPOONS of any decent hot chocolate mix including some cocoa mixed into it.

1 cup of whole milk

1 vanilla bean

1 cinnamon stick

2 squares of dark chocolate with cocoa nibs

1 teaspoon of cocoa nibs

NO ADDED SUGAR (there's cane sugar in the mix).

A pinch of salt.

In this case a 'watched pot' never boils over.

Bear is on the job.

Too many times I've turned my back, walked away and come back to chocolate soup on the burners. I let it come to a rolling boil with an occasional stir now and then.

Ta da

This cooks fast. If you make it the night before and heat again in the morning it will be super, duper thick.

So we have the champ, Angelina in the left corner and our home brew on the right

Bear, our authentic resident Frenchie makes the taste test. Granted he knows which side his baguette is buttered on and tends to side with the home team. The home brew has a more complex flavor due to the added ginger and cinnamon stick. Plus the texture is pleasantly nutty(merci feves). Angelina, hands down, you can taste the cream but they both have a 'creamy' texture. Angie is also sweeter. And the WINNER IS?

Well you decide PBers.

Please give this simple recipe a try and let us know what you think.

cheers Bear et Carolg