Raspberry Pate de Fruit

Whenever I'm down on M Street in Georgetown, I always enjoy strolling through Dean & Deluca to admire all the lovely and decadent chocolates, marzipan animals, macarons and pate de fruit. The pate de fruits are always luscious looking yet so expensive and I thought they can't be too difficult to make. 

The holidays seemed like a perfect time to try making them myself. I tried raspberry for a nice deep red color and raspberries have to be one of my favorite flavors too. I used this Food & Wine recipe by Jacque Pepin. 

It held together quite nicely after the gelatin set.

I cut several small pieces and found it easiest to wet the knife in hot water in between.

I rolled each piece in sugar and put them on a tray.  While they turned out quite nice, they were a bit too moist to package and give as little gifts. However, we enjoyed them with blue cheese and wine and it was a fabulous combination. 

Culinary Delights in Columbus

On our recent trip to Columbus with family I no doubt enjoyed the science museum, park and zoo, but a few of my highlights were trips to two great foodie hot spots in the Columbus area - Jeni's Ice Cream and Pistacia Vera.

Jeni's Ice Cream

This place is just so fun - the bright colors of both their ice cream and the design of the shop were vivid and cheery.  The ice cream flavors were unlike any others you find and I wanted to try all of them.  I did sample a few and settled on my favorite. One of their taglines is "Handpicked Ice Creams" Sounds cheesy, but they really do taste amazingly fresh.

They had lots of fun ice cream sandwiches and sundaes too. I was so overtaken with all the fabulous ice cream flavors that I barely looked at these menus!  I loved the colored flag decorations hanging everywhere.  It just reminds you of a fun summer party. 

I tried a scoop of honey pistachio, but my favorite was the goat cheese with roasted red cherries.  It sounds like a strange combination, but it really works and tastes far more refined than any cheesecake ice cream you'd ever taste. I'm coveting a pint (ok two) in my freezer right now. 

Pistacia Vera
My friend from culinary school suggested this pastry shop and it was a fun diversion for some afternoon treats.  It was a little upscale for all the kids, but they had fun picking things out and tasting with us.

They had lots of different pate de fruits, which is basically a grown up and much more fresh Fruit Roll Up in a cube.  The flavors were great and I tasted part of a raspberry one with Audrey before she reminded me it was hers.

They were really known for their French macarons and they were gorgeous!  We tried Nutella and vanilla and the kids had raspberry (of course, since it's pink!). 

They did some very fun things on their cakes and tortes with the macarons like this one with them lining the sides.

I thought this was a very pretty modern design for a cake too and such pretty colors.

These were much larger versions of the palmiers that I made a few months ago. I got one to try later and it was perfect.

They had lots of pretty gift packages of their treats.

This was our collection of goodies after we perused their selection. 

We picked a few tables to sit and enjoy.  I love their marble topped cafe tables!

Audrey sure enjoyed her treats!  She was covered in chocolate and I was too after she gave me a big hug and used me as her napkin!