Say Love With This Centerpiece

Usually around Valentine’s Day we see long-stemmed roses for celebration, but this simple centerpiece is just as striking and dramatic. I used an ivory rose, but with your own tablescaping you can make this centerpiece with any color of your choice—a soft lavender, perhaps a dusty pink, or the classic red rose.

Don’t forget to save out a rose for your loved ones to wear in a shirt pocket, lapel, or secured behind an ear.

Simple To Put Together

How To Assemble: Find fresh roses the color of your choice. Remove the outside petals of your roses. Have your waterproof vessel shape and choice on hand. Be sure to protect your buffet or table adequately from moisture. I confess I did this arrangement years ago, before it became clear not to use toxic floral foam. Instead of floral foam, great alternatives are molded chicken wire to your vessel shape, lattice style floral tape across your desired vessel, or even using a floral frog (vintage or new) secured on the bottom of your vessel with waterproof floral frog clay. All of these supplies generally can be found at craft stores, floral supply stores, or online. Cut your roses short on an angle to the desired height. Fill in foliage laterally from the garden with perhaps, juniper, boxwood, or rosemary clippings. Keep filling in foliage until you are satisfied. In time, your roses will open up further, meeting each other.

Add in the Foliage Until Little of Your Vessel Shows

I have more great Valentine’s Day tablescaping tips for you with these two short fantastic Instagram videos. Both of these videos remind you not to forget the candles, the music, chocolate, champagne and have fun!

Sarah Anderson, Founder of Chateau Sonoma, a fantastic Frenchie shop now located on the Sonoma Plaza in Sonoma. www.chateausonoma.com. Where in the world did Sarah find her champagne glasses.

Robyns_French Nest, Robyn Huff out of Florida, www.robynsfrenchnest.com, you will love her French passion for vintage. Robyn created her tablescape for about $10.00, some petite DIY, and a few vintage things she had. Amazing!

Valentine’s Day has been on my mind all month! Remember February is Love! It is just one of these years when you want to hold your loved ones close and embrace the love, and present moment that surrounds you. I will be making my Dark Chocolate Terrine with Orange Sauce.

Wishing you a Bon Weekend, and a very memorable Valentine’s Day filled with love……Blessings, Bonnie

Red Ranunculus

February is the month of love, and let this love carry you throughout this year. Surround yourself with those you love, and what you love. Even if you can’t see loved ones in person, you can still reach out to them. Friends and family will feel the love from your heart. Simple gestures go a long way, whether it is beautiful flowers, something chocolate, a sweet note, a sincere compliment, love quotes, a little humor, or even a kiss! Love makes the world go round.

Mom’s Brownies

This is one of my Mom’s recipes that I love, and have made for years. This recipe creates a soft, chewy, rich brownie which disappears fast! It calls for a scant 1/2 cup of sifted flour. Be sure and use quality bittersweet chocolate and vanilla extract. Be careful not to overbake the brownies. Thanks Mom!

Brownie Ingredients:

1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat you oven at 325 F. degrees. Grease an 8” x 8” x 2” pan. Sift flour with baking powder and salt in a small bowl. With an electric mixer beat butter with sugar until very light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until very light. Beat in melted chocolate and vanilla at low speed, blend in flour mixture, just until combined. Turn into pan, spread evenly. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely. Frost brownies.

Frosting Ingredients:

1 ounce bittersweet chocolate melted

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend together. Can add a dash of cream to make frosting smoother.

The Little Lion Cafe, Ocean Beach

Champagne, or maybe cappuccino?

A Table Set for Valentine’s Celebration

A few years ago I hosted some events around Valentine’s Day. I tried to create a special menu with the theme, “Love is Endlessly Delicious.” Many things I remember with fondness, but what I now associate Valentine’s Day with is Ina Garten’s Dark Chocolate Terrine with Orange Sauce the recipe I made for dessert. Wow, it is a show stopper!

This recipe is from Ina Garten Make it Ahead (2014) cookbook, which is one of my favorite cookbooks. The terrine can be prepared and made ahead, along with the orange sauce. Not a chocolate mousse, not a cake, it is like a decadent chocolate pâté. Garten channels two similar recipes, one from Thomas Keller’s French Laundry and the second, from the famous Taillevent restaurant in Paris, plus adding her Barefoot Contessa spin on it. Marvelous! It is a perfect dessert to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

Making the Dark Chocolate Terrine

Recipe Notes: Use the best chocolate you can find. Garten recommends Lindt bittersweet chocolate. I used Guittard bittersweet chocolate found at Sprouts, Cardiff Seaside Market, and other specialty grocery stores in our immediate area. Valrhona bittersweet chocolate is another great choice.

The dark chocolate terrine needs to chill for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight. Don’t forget the Orange Sauce made with a touch of Grand Marnier liqueur and cognac, which is a perfect complement to the flavor and presentation of the dark chocolate terrine. Lastly, sprinkle with some flaky sea salt. A hot, dry knife helps to make your slices easier. Run your knife over hot water, dry, and slice, repeat if necessary. Recipe makes 10 servings, perfect for sharing with loved ones.

Please share if you make something special for your loved ones on Valentine’s Day!

At Home with Isabelle Briens French Pastry Café Sunday Croissants

In the French language, “toute de suite” means right away or immediately. I couldn’t help but put my own spin on this phrase when I wanted to write about some of the new “Places to Know” Encinitas sweet spots. Please note: please call these businesses first for exact hours, with the pandemic, most are open for take out, or might be temporarily closed.

Isabelle Briens French Pastry Café, located in the Ralph’s Shopping Center on El Camino Real in Encinitas, has a loyal following, and has been pleasing customers for years with her flaky croissants, crepes, Bûche de Noël (Christmas Log), and much more. Dear friends recently told us Isabelle now has two “Route des Croissants” delivery routes on Sunday throughout Encinitas. See website for routes. My husband John, and I are able to make a Sunday morning walk in our neighborhood, stop on the route for croissants, and walk home to create a nice Sunday morning ritual.

L’atelier de Paris Café on El Camino Real, Encinitas

Two courageous Belgian fellows have opened up in a pandemic year their L’atelier de Paris on El Camino Real (TJ Maxx shopping center) in Encinitas. They are open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—and will be carrying a nice wine list. I stopped in for a croissant, but they have crepes, baguette sandwiches, an array of mouthwatering patisseries and much more. I wish them success, as it is nice to have a Parisian café close by, and maybe a chance to catch up on Belgium, as I have fond memories having lived there in high school.

L’atelier de Paris Patisserie Case

Broad Street Dough Company in Encinitas Lumberyard

A gourmet doughnut shop has opened up in the Encinitas Lumberyard on the 101 Coast Highway. With locations in New Jersey, Broad Street Dough Company has a first location in California. Kosher certified, and guaranteed to please, I have never seen doughnuts like this.

Broad Street Dough Company Doughnut Menu

In Encinitas, California, we have many more sweet spots to mention. All great, and in no particular order. This is a partial list, and I apologize in advance if I leave anyone out. Next time you want to treat yourself, your friends, and your family, you have no excuse but to go “toute de sweet.”

Champagne Bakery

St. Tropez Bistro

The French Corner

Prager Brothers Artisan Bread

VG Donuts

Please share if you have a favorite spot you like to frequent around Encinitas, or San Diego. Who knows, maybe these suggestions might be great for Valentine’s Day treats!

Sign up for my blog/newsletter and Instagram at www.bonniejomanion.com. Merci!

Bon Weekend!!

Garden Sorrel in My Potager

Sandwiched between my sage plant on the left and flourishing fava beans on the right is my bright green perennial sorrel plant in my potager. Sorrel is an herb that adds lemony flavor to salads, soups, and sauces. There are two types of sorrel: garden sorrel, Rumex acetosa, which I grow, and French sorrel, Rumex scutatus (or buckler sorrel). The two types are very different in appearance, but similar in flavor. Garden sorrel has large sword-like leaves and French sorrel has leaves almost shaped like that of an oak leaf and only reaches about 6'“ in height. If you have the room, try growing a patch in your garden. You can find sorrel in some specialty grocery stores and markets in the spring, but if you grow it in your garden in Southern California, it will thrive year-round.

Patricia Wells 1996 Cookbook with Sorrel Soup Recipe

Sorrel is such a sensational flavor, but there are two things to be aware of. When you cook, steam, or sauté sorrel leaves, it is like spinach, in that a huge amount of fresh leaves becomes a small wilted amount—so you need to use more initially than you might realize. Sorrel leaves when fresh are a bright happy green color, but can turn a sort of muddy green darker color when heated.

Patricia Wells has a great sorrel soup recipe below, where she shares a secret for retaining bright green sorrel color, from her friend, Chef Dieter Müller. Blend your pureed sorrel with room temperature butter first, and add it to the soup at the end of your cooking time. The soup retains its desirable green color. This elegant soup can be served hot or cold, and can be made with fresh watercress leaves as a nice substitute.

Amazing Sorrel Soup

Lovingly Adapted from Patricia Wells at Home in Provence

Ingredients:

3 ounces (90 grams) fresh sorrel leaves, stemmed, thoroughly washed, and dried

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 small onion, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

6 ounces (180 grams) starchy potatoes, peeled and diced

1 quart homemade Chicken or Vegetable Stock, or store bought

1 cup heavy cream

Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste.

Directions:

1) In a food processor, puree the sorrel, pulsing on and off for 30 to 45 seconds. Add the butter and puree. Transfer to a small bowl, cover, and set aside in a cool area of the kitchen. Do not refrigerate, or the sorrel butter is likely to be too cold to add to the soup at the end.

2) In a large saucepan, heat the oil until it is hot but not smoking. Add the onion and sweat them over low heat until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook over low heat until golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Remember not to cook over too high a heat, or they will burn instead of coloring a beautiful golden brown.

3) Add the stock and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fully cooked. Stir in the heavy cream. Using an immersion mixer, puree the soup directly in the stock pot. A food processor can also be used. Return the soup to the stockpot if using a food processor. The potatoes will give thickness and body to the soup without detracting from the sorrel. Taste for seasoning. Just before serving, whisk the sorrel butter into the hot soup, taking care to mix thoroughly and quickly. Makes 4-6 servings.

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Ina Garten’s Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

January is a time of hope and renewal. The year is young, filled with possibility. Make intentions, not resolutions, as resolutions require will power and often dissipate before you know it. Intentions are mighty seeds you sow out into the universe and let manifest, often returning back to you in a much grander way than you could ever imagine. Allow time for making your intentions, write them down, and look at them regularly.

Fireside conversations, reading, pouring over seed catalogs, and contemplating are perfect now. Brew a pot of tea, or make hot chocolate, and create a simple treat for yourself or share with a cherished companion.

A great time to think outside of your box and comfort zone. Wear something different from your closet or jewelry box, you don’t normally wear. Try and do one thing creative every day. Go “dry” on something for a month.

The garden is dormant and put to bed. It is a great time of year to see the structure of your garden, what you like, and what you might change. Plan that change. The winter sun is warming, and it is peaceful.

In the kitchen, citrus is in season, sweet, and colorful. Citrus is an acid. It adds brightness, and acid is one of the key foundations of cooking. Use citrus in salads, cakes, breads, marinades, tarts, as a juice, or snack. Good for you, and rich in Vitamin C. The citrus family generally includes citron, grapefruit, kumquat, lemon, lime, orange, pomelo, tangerine, and a few others. If you are able to grow citrus in your garden, it is a treat.

I recently made Ina Garten’s Lemon Poppy Seed Cake from her Make it Ahead Cookbook. This recipe is moist, flavorful, and calls for Meyer Lemons which are sweeter than traditional Eureka lemons. Natural lemon flavor is repeated in the body of the cake, as a syrup spooned over the finished cooled cake, and finally in the lemon glaze. My Recipe Notes & Loving Adaptations: Plan ahead, this recipe calls for soaking the poppy seeds in buttermilk for at least two hours first. My suggestion for the lemon syrup is to make tiny toothpick holes around the top of the cake, so the syrup will be able to soak in more. The tiny holes will be covered by the final lemon glaze. With a bundt cake pan, using the Pam for Baking with Flour, is a lifesaver and ensures your cake comes out easily from the pan with no heartaches.

Another great recipe using citrus is Sunset’s Spinach and Persimmon Salad. Remembering this salad was prompted by a dear friend recently giving me a jar of her homemade Orange Marmalade. The dressing is so simple, so fresh, using 1/4 cup rice vinegar, a couple tablespoons of orange marmalade, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, salt, and pepper to taste. Whisk together, and toss over fresh baby spinach greens, with sliced fresh persimmons and glazed pecans. It is delicious. My Recipe Notes & Loving Adaptations: This recipe is very adaptable to many substitutions. I didn’t have fresh persimmons, but I had dried persimmons from a farmers market in my pantry, and they were wonderful in the salad. You can use sweet segmented tangerines, ruby red grapefruit segments, or chopped pears in place of the persimmons. Another idea is to use other mixed winter greens, leave in or take out the pecans, and add fresh goat cheese.

This past fall, I mentioned I was more of recipe seeker, than a recipe developer. There is a story behind this Spinach and Persimmon Salad. I found it originally in the November 2008, Sunset magazine and saved it, when Sunset published their “Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes” broken down by categories. Sunset’s reader services department, their past and present food staff, and a special group of subscribers made up this highly elite foodie group, who were then called the Sunset Cooking Club. Believe it or not, these 20 friends met for a potluck meal made from the recipe pages of each current Sunset magazine every month for more than 25 years. That is more than 3,600 Sunset pooled recipes to whittle down for their 2008 “Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes.” This Spinach and Persimmon Salad recipe was classified as “Most Refreshing Bite” and originally dates back to a 2003 Sunset issue. This salad is seasonal through the winter, well after the holidays with lively citrus being in season. Once again, “simple is elegant!”

Winter Salad with Fresh Pear and Goat Cheese

What favorite activities do you like to do in January? What starts your year for you?

Happy Holidays to You!

Warm Season Greetings and Happy Holidays to You!

I wish for you blissful and relaxing holidays! I hope that your year has been filled with comfy “cocooning,” maybe some organizing, maybe some new projects, and maybe some new beginnings. One must really look for all the good that has come out of this unprecedented pandemic year.

Recently, I remembered a quote from the great 13th century soul-searching Persian poet, Rumi, who is currently the most popular poet in the United States. This is a very powerful quote that just might help you reflect on this past year in more depth.

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished.” —Rumi

An easy way to focus on this and gain clarity is jot down: 1) all that you accomplished this year—you might be surprised, 2) all the good and bad things that happened to you and how you dealt with it, 3) decisions that you would never have made, 4) list what you learned about yourself, 5) what become irrelevant and eliminated in your life, and most importantly 6) how do you want to live your life moving forward.

Lastly, as 2020 closes, I want to mention how grateful and thankful I am to all of my friends, family, and loyal readers of this blog! I love hearing your feedback, comments, and kind words. We are all connected. My hope is that you continue to be inspired and “wowed” with all that I share with you at Domaine de Manion. Merci beaucoup!

I wish for you patience, panache, and polish moving forward into 2021, and beyond……Bonnie

Happy Holidays to You!

A Chocolate Slice of Heaven

A Chocolate Lover’s Dream Cake! This is a perfect chocolate cake for the holidays. It is dense, dreamy, and dramatic! Reminiscent of European desserts, it is sweet, but not too sweet, and the rich elegant chocolate flavor is first and foremost. It is a very rich cake, so dainty slices go a long way, especially if you are serving additional desserts for your occasion.

Springform Pan Ready for the Oven

I originally blogged about this recipe back in 2010, Jim Dodge Chocolate Pecan Cake. I hadn’t made it for a couple of years, but remembered how delicious and easy it was to make. The original recipe has an optional 1/3 cup bourbon in it. Being bold this year I replaced the optional bourbon with 1/3 cup Grand Marnier, and added moist, sweet, dried orange slices as a finished top garnish. Wow! Another option you could try is replacing the 1/3 cup bourbon, with a teaspoon of dried Espresso coffee granules and 1/3 cup Kuhlúa.

Ready to Serve

Obviously, the chocolate in this recipe is very important. Use the best baking chocolate and unsweetened cocoa powder you can find. I used Guittard semi-sweet chocolate and Ghiradelli premium unsweetened cocoa powder for the body of the cake, and Guittard bittersweet chocolate for the glaze. You might be surprised to know that there is no flour in this recipe. Toasted pecans finely ground with a food processor replace the need for flour. Another surprise is the cake is immersed in a simmering water bath while baking. Enjoy!

Jim Dodge Chocolate Pecan Cake Recipe

Recipe Notes: The original recipe calls for coarsely chopped toasted pecans, but it is best to use a food processor to finely grind your pecans. You can add bourbon, Grand Marnier, and Kuhlúa as an option, or leave out entirely. Allow time to leave your cake in the springform pan overnight, after baking and before placing on your serving plate. Serve your cake at room temperature for optimum flavor.

Do you have a holiday dessert that is your family’s favorite? If you make this Jim Dodge Chocolate Pecan Cake, please comment and share!