TC has been working on his home made pasta skills for a while now and he’s doing very well. One of the “little things” I gave him for christmas was this set of ravioli presses. 
So, putting them to good use, TC made us ravioli with coquilles Saint-Jacques (scallops) and feta with a sage butter sauce and a baked vegetable stack, with parmesan crisps. 
The pasta was very nice, not quite sure about the scallop combination with the sage butter though. Something just wasn’t quite right. Still definitely edible but just something not quite there. Top points for trying though TC, since he did ask what I felt like and since I mentioned scallops and feta, he tried his best to please me!
However, the baked vegetable stack and parmesan crisps did hit the mark. 
The vegetable stack consisted of sweet potato, red onion rings with feta inside, zucchini, aubergine and red capsicum. He used a round mould to cut all the pieces then held them together with a toothpick while they baked. The parmesan crisps are made by simply spreading grated parmesan in a layer inside a round mould (eg eggrings will do) on a baking sheet and baking at 200C for about 15-20min. Let them cool and they will firm up into crisps.
Incidentally, we learned that technique a couple of years ago when we both attended a morning’s cooking class at the Ritz Escoffier, in the Ritz hotel in Paris. THAT was a fun activity! Unfortunately they are closed until 2014 as they are doing major renovations, but if you get the chance when in Paris in the future, I highly recommend it.
Next up is sweet things. After a cold afternoon walk around the village we decided we needed some treats, just because. So we called into one of the boulangerie/pattiseries that we don’t normally visit and found that they had a selection of mini gateaux. Perfect – we love a café gourmand for dessert when we eat out, so we made our own from a selection of 4 mini treats. 
These are three of the delicious morsels we had (already cut in half)… and there there was this little petite souris: 
I know it seems a shame but we still had to share him…. 
Which all made for a delicious, home-made café gourmand. For those who know France you will know about the state of coffee here. Lets just say our Italian stove-top coffee pot is always on in our house! 
cupcaketravels 