Wednesday, September 9

I went for a run this afternoon down 6th Avenue to 12th street and back, then picked up Winnie and went back out for a cool-down run to Fort Greene Park. Winnie ran like a champ the whole way there, then we sat in the grass and watched people play tennis for awhile. In the 5 seconds when I wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing, Winnie found a dead bird.

On the walk home from the park, I stopped to check out some books on a stoop on S. Portland street and picked up these four:
Michael Chabon, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain
Deepak Chopra, Life After Death (succinctly described in the first quote on the back as "A must read for everyone who will die.")
Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity!
I can't wait to read these books! I spent the rest of the walk home marveling at what a fantastic book collection those people must have if these are the rejects!

The other day on a break at work I picked up a vacuum sealed pack of 6 frozen croissants from Ceci Cela patisserie on Spring Street (which were amazingly cheap - I think they were $5). It wasn't until I got them home that I realized that they came with absolutely no instructions on how to turn these unasumming lumps of frozen dough into the crisp golden wonders that I saw in their display case. I googled "croissant bake frozen" and low and behold, one of the first hits that came up was on a website that sells the Ceci Cela frozen croissants (which are apparently world-famous - who knew?) and has an elaborate photo essay from the pastry chef Laurent Dupal detailing what to do with them once you got them home.

I am almost done with the first phase of letting them rise on the counter for 6-8 hours. There are two whole sections of the tutorial devoted to properly covering and then uncovering the rising croissants with plastic wrap. Once I've successfully crossed this hurtle, I will brush egg yolk onto the tops of the croissants (not too much - as Dupal advises, "There is no need to paint every nook and cranny. Work fast and do not overdo it."). The egg yolk will give them their "beautiful and appetizing shiny golden color." I cannot WAIT!