Tea Party.. this year's Girge'an favors ..

photos from November Blog

Every Ramadan ( which we celebrated last month) families send favors to other relatives and friends during Gerge'an..

Originally Gerge'an is a 3 day celebration somewhat similar to Halloween , kids dress up , not in costumes but in traditional Kuwaiti costumes , and go door to door in the neighborhood asking for treats..

grown-ups , these days , have developed a new version of their Gerge'an.. making and sending favors and treats to family members and friends..

so this year was very special to me , as it was the first year my little girl gets to celebrate Gerge'an and dress up in traditional Kuwaiti costumes.. therefore , I have ordered the favors from a very elegant bakery here in Kuwait ..called The November Bakery. If you may recall , I have already written a previous post with some photos about this bakery.

I had one theme on mind , which was a Tea Party.. which we call in Kuwait Baroy.. with teacups , sweets such as biscuits and ghraybah ( a traditional kuwaiti cookie) .. sachets of loose tea , sugar .. November Bakery was the best in taking my concept and putting it into reality.

they created trays , of blue and rose.. each have compartments that hold a teacup, which was a delicate vintage design ..and sachets of the loose tea & sugar , sachets of cookies of many sorts and ghraybah.. all packaged up nicely , which a wonderful gift tag that says " Ghraybah o Ghareeb 3ala Chay o 7aleeb" which merely translates into "have your ghraybah ( cookie) with creamed tea " ..

thank you November for such a great presentation! I loved working with you and you definetly have put a smile on every reciever of this favor , Gerge'an!

Tea Party.. this year's Girge'an favors ..

Lenotre Classes: Les Macarons Noix..

mixing the macarons ingredients , adding colorants

checking the macarons from the oven.. firm and crispy

pouring water underneath the parchment paper to easily pull off the macarons without breakage..

making the chocolate ganache the french way ..

cooling and ready !

pistachio marzepan the best part was that we get to take all those delicious macarons home .. "see the gigantic ones .."

my lenotre macaron class

the second class i took was macarons class in Ecole Lenotre Paris..

will , I must admit that I really enjoyed this class .. I've never made macarons , or at least not the right way anyway.. so this was a challenge.. again , with the language constraints! ..

it was a 4 hour class , which covered nuts macarons , pistachio macarons and chocolate macarons..

mastering the art of making the macarons all the same size was a bit challenging too.. which explains why some of them turned gigantic , mostly suitable as burgers buns than macarons haha.. ah well..

Paris.. the city of love.. the city of lights.. I love this shot of the Tour Eiffel taken by my husband.. way to go!

macarons of many flavors in dreamy packages at LADUREE Paris.. my favs were Rose , Pistache and Framboise macarons..

a whole pistache macaron cake at LADUREE... oh honey!

Lenotre Classes: Les Macarons Noix..

more on Moulin Bregeon ..

part of the kitchen

loved these chairs!

the kitchen where we did most of our cooking - see the wooden cabinet on the right? its a FRIDGE!

the stairs up to our rooms and a hallway cabinet

I loved the antique framed ladies

the soaps - we even went to the soap factory Martin De Candre and bought lotsa lavender and honey soap for family as souvenirs

our bathroom - check out the floor tiles!!

all pics are from their website www.moulinbregeon.com as they are more beautifully & professionally photographed than mine..

more on Moulin Bregeon ..

Lenotre Classes: Pate en Patisserie

our Pates en Patisseries class

brioche

pate de choux in the oven

while I was in Paris , I took a class in Ecole Amateur Lenotre De Cuisine et De Patisserie , Lenotre is a world wide well known luxury resturant & their school at Champs Elysee is one of Paris' top pastry & cuisine schools , just like Ecole Ritz and Le Cordon Bleu , so I was one lucky gal to get into a couple of their all time full classes!

we made broiche , which I took with me home and my hubby & I ate for breakfast the next morning with some apricot jam ..YUMMM !

we made Pate Feuilletee , Pate a Choux , Pate Sablee and Pate Brisee ..

the funny thing is that the whole class was taught in french , and I had to work double hard in remembering some words and sentences of some very basic french that I was taught while in school.. pathetic as I was lost in the middle , the classmates were so sweet to help me with translation! Chef Francois Schmitt was also very calm and helpful.. trying his best to focus on me sometimes , especially when my face sends puzzled messages !

Lenotre Classes: Pate en Patisserie

Fresh Vegs & Great Friends!

the Moulin Bregeon

Bonjour ! I'm back from my very short trip to France in the French Country side .. and Paris.

all I can say is I was sent to heaven , ate there , played ,napped , made friends with french people , americans , made friends with goats , cows , horses , ducks and geese.. bathed in great savon , brought home memories and awsome vintage french flea market finds.. Oh La

we stayed at Le Moulin Bregeon , a former mill turned into luxurious guest house , sitting in a green country farm , the nearest village is 10 minutes drive , nearest small town is 30 minutes drive , so this was REALLY secluded and very tranquile.

The owners , Bernard & Pascal are both french and amazing chefs , they took us in tours and activities such as horse back riding , and we are not talking about the tourists kinda horses that lack energy or grace , we are talking about the professional way in an equastrian school ! and Saumur , where we went to horse ride , is France's National Training Equistrian Center!

Pascal in the dinning room

Bernard , if you are reading this , we love you so much! thank you for all the fun you brought into our days , thank you for the looong drives and you always made us happy !!

Pascal was great too , he took us with him for champignions , that is for finding fresh mushrooms in the wild!!! in the middle of the forest , like 20 minutes walk into a forest , while we come from Kuwait , forests are almost non-existant .. this was kinda overwhelming.. and we LOVED every minute of it.. we got HUGE GIGANTIC mushrooms , Pascal made them for dinner with some french butter and garlic and OH MY GOD .. HEAVEN!! ( I said that in a very high pitch )..

the huge mushrooms we found in the wild

Jonathan Robinson is a famous american artist , he is the founder of the Moulin Bregeon and owner too.. he took us to his art studio and we had amazing energetic talks about the art , architecture and the whole concept of fitting it into nature , or as its called " the commulitave aesthetic" .. more about this in a seperate post..

of course , I took some cooking and baking lessons with Pascal and Bernard.. which I will talk about later as this post is getting so huge!

the rooms , my oh my , filled with antiques and vintage stuff , vintage linens , mirrors , I took the photos but some of them are grabbed from their website as they look more pretty and professionally shot!

our suite was HUGE .. in the heart of the MILL.. you can see the MILL parts in the roof and in the whole room .. ah , love!

our bedroom in the mill house

the bathroom

more to come!

Fresh Vegs & Great Friends!

Au revoir my friends..

I will be taking a week off for travel.. guess where I'm heading?

Au revoir my friends..

See this ?Airy Country House ...

see this farmhouse? how pretty is it covered in sheer curtains ? but wait , lets look inside first!!
welcome to the living room. what can I say about it? such a chic space , very airy and light . I could definetly relax in there .. see the blue chairs ? they are covered in velvet & organza slipcovers.. how amazing is that? the dinning room , with its The Scandinavian tradition of painted floors the country style kitchen , my I would die for the space in this kitchen!

my favorite part: the vintage buffet!!

her girl's room..

an old church window brought in for a touch of scandanavian style

some treats she always have on the tables for guests , as she loves to throw parties and gatherings..

meet Carrie , who knows how to style her home in the way she & her family feel most comfortable in..

now , where do I start?

See this ?Airy Country House ...