Saturday, August 30, 2008

A Claire - One Woman Named Claire...and Paying It Forward Give Away


A Claire - One woman named Claire.
Eclair - A yummy pastry, typically filled with a custard type cream and topped with chocolate.
If a Claire came over I would share my eclairs with her, instead it was my sweet neighbor Sarah.

This months Daring Bakers challenge was fun because it only took about 2 hours instead of 12 hours or whatever the last 2 took. And I had all the ingredients already. The directions were open to interpretation which means caramel or vanilla or pistachio or almond or orange or strawberry or licorice, okay ewww. But it is fun to have room for personal addictions and preferences. Make the Pate a Choux as stated, then pastry cream and glaze, and one of the last 2 must be chocolate. Easy enough. Yeah right. Those little suckers are hard to bake...bake, switch, water, spoon, open, steam, poke, tap, bake. But, and this but is giving me a big butt, chocolate pastry cream...well all I can say is maybe a baking group is the wrong place for me. Maybe I need to join a pastry cream/custard/filling group instead. I like the baked stuff because it has creamy stuff in it.


I went with the chocolate pastry cream because I love love love chocolate, and I found really nice rasberries. You just can not beat those two together, unless you maybe added butter. I had to share. Had to. Otherwise Amber (me) would eat them all.

Yes, there is one missing, and it was worth it even if it messed up the photo.

And now for the fun part...


I was so fortunate to have been chosen by pretty Dana from Vanilla Basil for a 'Paying It Forward' prize. You can click on her link on the right in my 'Tasty Things' list. This give away seems to have come from the crafting bloggers and ended up with us lucky and happily fed food bloggers. It is based off the movie 'Pay It Forward' with Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osmet. If you haven't seen the movie...DO, and then live the attitude. It is hope and goodness, and isn't that really what life should be about among other things? Make sure and check out Danas blog also, it is one of my favorites. She is a very busy, intelligent and talented young woman.

Dana sent me a wonderful package full of lots and lots of yummy stuff. Part of the fun is trying to guess what you will recieve. It had everything I could imagine, including a new wooden spoon which thrilled me because mine are always chopped up from my blender. There were dried mushrooms and chilies, pesto and soup, candy, balsamic glaze and tom yam paste, maple popcorn and punjabi snack mix, spices, tea and zinger drink mix, smoked tomatoes and wasabiko, did I mention candy? All I could think was YUM. There was nothing that I had in my cupboards already, okay except the spoon but this one is new and pretty. I get to try lots of new food ideas in the next few weeks.

Now it is my turn to Pay It Forward to one lucky person. I will love to send a package of local and favorite foods and maybe a little surprise or two. All you need to do is to leave a comment on any of my posts during this period and I will, in a super secret decoder ring style, choose from among you. Sucking up is allowed but it will not help you to get chosen. The last day to leave a comment for entry is Sunday, September 7, 2008, and I will announce the winner on the following day. Best of luck to everyone.

There is only one requirement of you. That you happily 'Pay It Forward' in the same manner to another lucky food lover. Remember, go visit Dana and leave her a sweet comment.

Sophie was pretty excited because she likes food a lot.

20 comments:

Sherry Trifle - Lovely Cats said...

What a great idea - chocolate pastry cream and raspberries! Your eclairs look wonderful; I would certainly have eaten more than one!

Cristine said...

Beautiful eclairs!!!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

So beautiful and scrumptious looking! Great job!

Cheers,

Rosa

Kirstynn Evans said...

The eclaires look FAB-U-LOUS! (Not sucking up either!) And the Pay it forward is one thing I would LOVE to do! I enter blog giveaways all the time, and one of these times I will win, but this one sounds like the one that is WORTH winning! If I do win, I will be in Disney World the week you announce, so if you don't hear from me, don't count me out! Great, fun, and lovely blog! (A little sucking up.)

Anonymous said...

Raspberries lovely Raspberries and chocolate what a combination love those pictures. How nice to win a prize.

Anonymous said...

Mmm... chocolate and raspberries. Always a winning combination! The eclairs look scrumptious!

ingegerd said...

looks so yummy!!

Dragon said...

I love the addition of berries to your elcairs. Gorgeous.

Sherry Trifle - Lovely Cats said...

Lovely eclairs! I'll bet you enjoyed that "missing" eclair. About the "Eclair" pan - I checked out the websites and find that what I bought (at NY Cake on 52 W. 22nd St) is actually a "Ladyfinger Pan." Fantes(http://www.fantes.com/charlotte.html) has them and they are only a few bucks. I checked out some other sites but the pans look like twinkie pans - stupid and expensive.

3:28:00 PM

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

What could be better than raspberries in eclairs?

Leslie said...

Amber..Thanks for all of your lovely comments on my site. Yes that whole blog thing a a MESS. I guess my whole Kill em with kindness approach didnt work! Hmmm,thats a first for me! Oh well they are a bunch of meanies!!!!
Love the fruit in your eclires.
I could have ate all of mine as well..if only there was more butter in them!LOL..Oh how I do love my butter! That is the one thing I WILL NOT GIVE UP!
Anyways..thanks for the visit..stop back by anytime, there is usually no drama..I tend to have a very happy blog!!:)

Helene said...

You did a fabulous job on the eclairs! The raspberries make them very stylish!

Helene said...

Not stalking you:)
To answer your question, I found you through the Daring Bakers blogroll while I was starting to read some posts.
Chris from Mele Cotte (host on July) brought me the napkins when she came to visit and she found them at Sur La Table.

PAM said...

Oh I love your puppy. Is that a Maltese? I had a maltese but had to say goodbye after 16 wonderful years of love.
Your eclairs look yummy, I love the chocolate raspberry combo.

Ruth said...

Your eclairs look fantastic. I love seeing the rasberries peaking out

test it comm said...

Your eclairs look good! I like the raspberries in them!

Steph said...

I like how you added raspberries to your eclairs.. they always go well with chocolate! What am I saying.. everything goes well with chocolate!! Honestly, I didn't think that choux pastry on its own was so addicting and that's why I couldn't even help myself from grabbing the collasped ones and eating them plain too.

At least you had a yummy dinner.. that was my dinner too.

Leslie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Leslie said...

Amber...thanks for your comment on my Crock Pot meal! It was yummy..you can even make a cake in a crock pot!!

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful gift with so many goodies!