Seven Snippets: Dominique Ansel Bakery

Since it was such an amazing experience our visit to the Dominique Ansel Bakery needed its own snippets.

 

1. My Foodie Friend Kathryn first told me about the bakery and I started following Dominique Ansel on instagram. He is the original creator of the cronut and his baking and theme that time is an ingredient makes me miss the days when I baked a lot and knew my stuff. We woke up at 4.30am to drive into the city so that we could park and be in line by 7:00. The bakery opens at 8:00, we were 7th in line and it felt so nice to know that we were in line for a cronut and would get a cronut not just a standby cronut coupon.

 

2. How sweetly amazing that while standing in line on a chilly morning friendly bakers walked through the line cheerfully handing out insanely delicious hot chocolate and sweet little lemony madelines.

 

I can still hear my friend squealing in delight and saying "it's still warm!!" as she bit into the cookie and I snapped the picture.

 

3. I think its a magical sight seeing all these beautiful and perfect pastries lined up in the display case. I understood why Kathryn urged me to go online and read about all the tasty treats so that we could be prepared to order. 

 

4. The Kouign Amann. In my opinion the best thing in the bakery. These little rows are layer and layers of flaky yet chewy goodness. the outsides are encrusted with a caramelized sugar layer that is divine. They are amazing! When you bite into the texture is light and a little crunchy but chewy and kind of flaky. They are a little sweet and buttery but nothing is overpowering. It is delightful. There is a place in Utah, Les Madelines that is rumored to have the best kouign amann outside of Europe, okay I added the outside of Europe part, but I will be trying it out next time I am there.

 

5. There is a lot going on on this Frozen Smore stick. A cube of ice cream dipped in chocolate that had such a unique and amazing texture, engulfed by house made marshmallow that is hot and toasty and gooey. It was awesome and we gobbled it right up.

 

6. Here we are with all our spoils. Two Cronuts each, 2 macarons, a cannelli, a frozen smore, a giant chocolate chip cookie and 4 kouign amanns. We sat in the bakery for nearly an hour savoring and studying our treats. We sat right across from the window that looked into the cronut making station and it was so fun to watch. This was an eating adventure I will always remember and I am so glad I was able to go and appreciate it all with Kathryn

 

7. Behold the cronut! A cronut is a donut made from croissant dough, after it is fried a pastry cream is piped inside filling all the flaky layers. Then it is rolled in sugar and topped with a fondant/ganache type icingThere is only one flavor each month. I was not excited about the March flavor but April was Strawberry Rhubarb with a Thyme ganache. It was so good, initially I thought the thyme was a little strong but when I ate the rest of it a few hours later the flavors were wonderful together.

I knew New York was going to be a food adventure and this was definitely one of the highlights of the whole trip!

New York Snippets

 

 

1. I am still dreaming about the days I ate my way through Manhattan. I don't know what to do about my French Pastry and cookie cravings because the Mexican pastries here in San Antonio just don't cut it. I had an instagram series #lindseystuffsherfaceinNYC with everything I ate but some of the places I am still craving are...

 

 

The Paris Baguette. Shelves and shelves of fresh breads and sweet pastries that were still warm when we got them! I wish I would have gotten some every morning it was soooo good. There is a place here in San Antonio called The French Sandwich; I know its not near the same but I am still going to check it out.

 

Street Vendor Hot Dogs. I don't know what those street vendors do to the hot dogs, but they are doing it right!

 

Katz Deli. I love me a good Reuben and this sandwich was phenomenal! We had a busy day before going to Katz and after going to Ground Zero and getting very emotional in the Tribute Museum we went to catch the Water Taxi and missed it, and the bus pass we had was hard to find and catch and I was feeling frustrated and I had forgotten my cord to connect my phone to the extra battery so we had to keep turning the phones off so we wouldn't waste battery, but we kept walking the wrong way trying to find Katz. I was sooooo hungry which made me very angry because there was too much to eat that I wasn't supposed to ever be hungry- I sound like a brat with first world problems- but I was hungry! We finally found Katz and waited in line for so long that we didn't have time to eat we had to rush back to the hotel to grab our charger and then hurry to make it to the top of the Rockefeller center. On the bus ride home we munched on soggy fries and I was worried that this place wouldn't live up to its reputation. But when we got into the hotel and I bit into the sandwich every part of me felt happy! 

 

Oh Levain Bakery. I may write a poem about this place someday, that's how good it is.

 

 

The Soup Man from the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld, I had to get the lobster bisque. It was awesome.

 

2. When we weren't eating we were sight seeing from early morning to late night. I really wished I would have bought a selfie stick that I had been making fun of only days earlier.

 

3. The day we almost saw Jimmy Fallon. We woke up at 5:00 and left the hotel just after 5:30, we got in line for standby tickets just before 6:00am and it was freezing!! We shivered our tooshies for over 3 hours and finally got our tickets, number 20 and 21. We had been told that with numbers under 25 we had a really good chance to get in! Yay! We were told to return before 3:00 to check in. So we went back to the hotel, took a little nap and warmed up, went to check into our new hotel, went to the Body Worlds exhibit and ate delicious pizza at Johns Pizza and we went to sign in. We were then told to come back at 4:00 exactly, so we waited around and then at 4 we got back in line with all our friends we had made that morning. After a bit they told us that anyone with a ticket over 23 would not have a seat. We cheered and high fived! We thought we were in! At almost 5:30 we were told they only had 17 tickets and we had barely missed it. Sad sad moment! To get over it we ate street food that was good at first then gross and then we went to the Max Brenner Chocolate Café which was so fun. Then we went to the Empire State building. 

Consolation Shirt

 

4. Time Square, we made it on a big ol screen, see us kissing in the top corner of the heart! We are cute. One night walking through Time Square some dude was shoving a cd into my chest so I took it, then they started harassing me for money and so I tried to give it back and they wouldn't take it. Then Kevin stepped up to the guy and I thought they were going to start fighting, but then Kevin scared them off.

 

5. One of my favorite adventures was taking the water taxi down the Hudson river past the Statue of Liberty and to the Brooklyn Bridge. New York is beautiful and I liked hearing stories and tips from tour guides on the busses and water taxi.

6. Central Park on a cold drizzly day after we went to the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim, and a bus tour through uptown Manhattan. After the park is when we got cookies from Levain and now as I'm off to bed all I can think about is chocolate chip walnut cookies the size of my fist.... 

Seven Sunday Snippets- On Monday- March 23

1. Maggie LOVES nail polish for her "peenernails" Her new love is painting my fingers and her toes all by herself. She actually does a really good job on my fingers. After she did her toes she told my she got just a little bit on her skin but it was okay.

 

2. We went to the zoo with some friends, I was hoping since it was the afternoon and a little drizzly it wouldn't be too crowded. I was a little surprised by how many people were still there. It ended up being more than a little drizzly and we chased these fluorescent dudes all over the place, they had a blast.

3. We are officially done with bottles, for at least a year! Maggie gave up the bottle just a few months ago, I was really bad letting her have it until she was three. I didn't want to make that mistake with Russ so the other day I decided to cut it off cold turkey. It was only bad for two nights and I am so glad to be done!

4. My friend had a birthday tea party this week and it really was so fun. We all put on fancy tea hats and tried different teas and tea snacks and had tea party conversations- mostly about Downton Abby and Jane Austin Books and Characters, both of which I know little about, but we still had a lovely time. I really like my ward and friends here.

5. For mutual on Wednesday we played Hungry Hippos. Everyone had a blast! We used furniture dollies and a long board and bowls and balls. It really was so fun. We practiced on Monday with the kids and some friends for FHE- should have gotten pics that night, it was cute- but the kids didn't let us adults have much of a turn. We may get sitters and have a couples date night and do this again, it was really fun!

6. Two weeks ago Kev started this bathroom faucet projects, it didn't go as smoothly as we hoped and the pipes stuck out and we haven't been able to use the shower. We will have to redo the surround, which we wanted to do at some point, only right now with our trip to New York and Kev's parents coming into town we didn't have time to do it. We talked about best quick fixes and this is what we came up with. Its a Frisbee, I think its awesome and it was easy and under $10.

7. Bedtime is the worst. Maggie often falls asleep around 5 and it's so hard to wake her up, especially because by that point I need a break from her. The bad thing is if she falls asleep during the day, even if its just 10 minutes it is so hard to get her to bed before 10, and the kids won't fall asleep without someone in their room. Lately I've just been putting her on the floor of our room. I do kinda love the way she sleeps.

Seven Sunday Snippets March 15

1.Last Sunday was cool and rainy and I was excited to put Russ in this jacket for the first and probably last time. I have a problem with baby clothes, I have so many things that I hold onto but never put on the kids. I loved this jacket on Cooper and though he only wore it once or twice I stored it for several years so that Russ could wear it and I will store it for a few more years with a bunch of other baby clothes that never get worn just in case another boy comes along. I'm becoming more of a hoarder every day.

2. This week was spring break. I am a spring break scrooge around here because all it means is that everywhere is going to be crowded. I was hesitant to go to parks, libraries, and movies and I wasn't even going to attempt Pump It Up, the Zoo or Sea World. We did go to the library for a very crowded story time. Cooper and Russ loved it. Maggie hated it. She gets very shy around kids in public which surprises me a little. Luckily it was cold on Wednesday so we went to the park and it wasn't too crowded. I love taking pictures of kids on swings.

3. Thursday was a gorgeous day! I took the kids to Lowes to buy a weeding tool and gardening gloves for everyone. While I tackled the front yard weeds Russ stole the cups of popcorn chicken from the other kids and stuffed as many as he could in his mouth and walked around the yard saying "Nom, Nom, Nom". Mean while Cooper was busy climbing out the sunroof and trying to climb on the house while the neighbors looked on and thought I was a horrible parent when instead of panicking and getting him down I took a picture and squirted him with the hose... then I made him get down. Every year at this time I devote days, weeks and sometimes months to fixing up the yard before it dries up and dies over the summer and then gets more and more weed infested for the following spring. It's the worst. I yearn for Utah grass.

4. Saturday was our Young Women's Pi Day Pi K Fundraiser. It was so fun! This was an event I'd wanted to do for years and with the most epic Pi Day of the century falling on a Saturday we were able to host a most epic run on Saturday 3-14-15 at 9:26:58 (Pi=3.141592658..) The run was 3.14 miles for runners or 3.14 Kilometers for walkers- just under 2 miles. At the one mile point we had water and you could get a squirt or "shot" of whip cream and that was where the walkers turned around, half mile later was more whipped cream shots and the turn around for runners. We made funny posters to put along the path that said things like I Believe I Can Pi, and Run for Your Pi's, and Keep Calm and Pi On, stuff like that. At the finish line we had pie slices for everyone. We had several pies in a Silent Auction and there were about 25 pies purchased for face pies. My friend Rachel bought 4 pies to throw in "unsuspecting" faces. I say unsuspecting because most people pied their family members. Rachel pied me, I agreed to it. She tried to pie a friend but our friend intercepted her arm and Rachel pied herself. She went to pie Kevin while he was holding Russ, Kev knocked the pie to the ground so she picked it up and pied his head. It made it fun and entertaining. It was hilarious when the Bishop's wife threw a pie at him and the Bishop ducked and the pie hit Rachel's 5 year old son who was sitting in the stroller behind the Bishop. The kid was so sad but it was hilarious. I am mean to laugh as hard as I did. I was so happy with the way everything went.

5. I feel like I lose my temper more and more with my kids lately, but I would never really want to throw them away, they are just too cute! This week I am hoping to be more patient. My hopes are that since New Beginnings and the Pi K are done I won't be as overwhelmed or stressed with them... this morning though was off too a rough start, I blame that on the house being overwhelmingly messy though,  tomorrow will be better!

6. I love that the kids dress themselves and love to dress up. This was not dress ups for Maggie though, this is her outfit she wanted to wear even after they were done playing in water. Also this is the pose I get when I say strike a pose! Cooper found my boots under my bed and is convinced they are fireman boots. He looks like those creepy Bratz Dolls.

7. Maggie told me these are glasses that make you look like a princess, she is right! Also last night we went for a night drive and got ice cream cones its hard to tell but she fell asleep while eating it and is covered in ice cream. She didn't even wake up while I cleaned her up.

 

Seven Sunday Snippets

 1. Last Sunday Kevin turned 33. He is amazing and I am so lucky to have him. He had to work a few hours in the morning. He came home and entertained the kids while I got ready for church. I came out and this was happening. He is awesome. He asked me not to put it on social media but I couldn't resist, it's too cute. We celebrated that night with a few friends and lots of food and ice cream raspberry brownie cake.

 2. Cooper had a homework assignment to make an egg drop container for pre-school. We rocked it.

 3. Russ is my cutie pie and biggest stinker, which makes it hard because he is always into trouble climbing on the table, dumping things out, teasing Maggie and wrecking Cooper and Maggie's play time scenarios, but every time I get frustrated he starts being so dang cute. He just dumped out all the tiny battleship pieces, but after hands me one and says "guh" and I melt. I am such a sucker. He is a cuddler and he adores Cooper.

 4. Wednesday was New Beginnings. Our theme was Embark on Your Journey, we had a Bon Voyage party and served pina coladas in souvenir bottles that we had used etching cream to etch in "Embark D&C 4:2" Then we had a welcome buffet with foods from around the world and had a program to introduce the Journey through Young Womens. Each girl shared her favorite value and a some favorites and advice of their own Journeys. Then we showed the spiritual passport video and I spoke for a few minutes. It was a fun night and turned out great.

 5. My friend came over to learn how to cut her kids hair. Cutting two boys hair at the same time seemed like a great idea. It was chaotic.

 6. Maggie is so funny and soooo dramatic. This week as I was driving I told her we needed to get home because Mama Bear was hungry. In a loud dramatic almost screaming voice she began listing reasons I was not a bear... "you live in a house and drive a car, you are not a bear! You wear clothes and shoes and sleep in a bed, you are not a bear! You wear make up and eat food and cook and don't eat honey, you are not a bear!" The list went on and on but the honey part was my favorite especially when I told her I love to eat honey...

7. Yesterday afternoon Kevin took on a project to redo the pipes in the shower so we can install a nice faucet that wont keep breaking and leaking. This house is only compatible with one faucet, the cheap generic one it came with it. I think we have switched it out 7-8 times and each times it breaks faster and leaks more. Unfortunately it wasn't going smoothly and we have been without water for nearly 20 hours which is hard. We hate to do house projects on Sunday but with Kev being on call and working a lot this weekend and having to go back Monday we need to get this fixed asap so we have water and flushing toilets!! I just tried to get Maggie to put on a diaper- she wasn't having it.

 

 This isn't a snippet, just a suggestion, make this for dinner this week. It is the Naan from Costco with hummus, chicken, cucumbers, pepperoncini's, kalamata olives and feta and its amazing.