Morning Visitors and More Sweets

 

A huge moose was visiting our place again!

     When we sat down at our PC desk in the morning on March 14th,
I noticed something big was outside and again it was a huge moose!
After taking a couple of pictures of it, the moose was just running away towards the woods behind our house.
     On the same day, we saw a ruffed grouse was eating some left-over seeds under our bird feeders.  That was our first time to see a grouse coming to eat at our bird feeder.  Our usual visitors are chickadees, red poles nowadays, so it was a great surprise.
     I made another Mille Crêpe and I made some eclairs with fresh fruit at the coffee shop.
The strawberries we can get here in the U.S. is not as sweet as some of the ones you can get in Japan, but they have nice fragrance and tart flavor, which go well with the sweetness of crème pâtissière.

また大きなムースが家の前に木の芽を食みにやってきました。
同じ日には、エリマキライチョウも遊びに来ました。
冬の間、野鳥に餌を与えているのですが、その家の餌場で見かけたのは、これが初めてです。
働いているお店では、また新商品を作らせてもらいました。
  

 

The moose was running away through our property.

The building behind is our shed. 

家の小屋の前を通り抜け、森へと去っていきました。

 

See you again!

 

Bonasa umbellus (Ruffed Grouse, Erimaki-Raichou in Japanese).

 

Bonasa umbellus (Ruffed Grouse, Erimaki-Raichou in Japanese).

It has a cool haircut like David Beckham, 

which was a kind of fad in the early 2000s in Japan and called "Soft Mohican".

 

Bonasa umbellus (Ruffed Grouse, Erimaki-Raichou in Japanese).

ひと昔、流行ったソフモヒな頭の羽毛が可愛いです。

 

Bonasa umbellus (Ruffed Grouse, Erimaki-Raichou in Japanese).

 

Bonasa umbellus (Ruffed Grouse, Erimaki-Raichou in Japanese).

 

Blood orange I found at Walmart.

The inside was amazingly dark purple, practically black.

It tastes a little bitter, but the zest has strong fragrance.

こちらはウォルマートで見つけたブラッド・オレンジの一種、モロ・オレンジ。

果肉が尋常じゃなくアントシアニン色です。

果汁を絞ってスイーツに使おうと思ったけど、あまりにも個性的な味なので、

それそのもので味わうことにしました。

でも、皮はとてもいい香りだったので、ミルクレープのトッピングに採用！

 

Orange Mille Crêpe.

The composition:  Navel orange sauce with Grand Marnier,

Navel orange flavored whipped cream,

Navel orange flavored crème pâtissière,

Navel orange, Moro orange zests on top.  

 

I used a different recipe for the crepe itself this time, 

so that I can make the crepe thinner and more delicate than before.

I love to add Grand Marnier flavor to my dessert.

 

Eclair with fresh fruit and crème diplomat.

 Crème diplomat is the mixture of 

crème pâtissière (pastry cream) and

 crème chantilly (sweetened whipped cream).

I add some crème pâtissière at the bottom of the fruits,

so it has the richness of the crème pâtissière

and also has the lightness of crème diplomat.  

This crème pâtissière contains abundant amount of real vanilla beans.

I ate one by myself and it tastes really good!

こういうフルーツを入れたシュークリームとかエクレアって、

日本ではよく見かけるけど、こっちでは見たことがないって言う人が多かったです。

売れ行きも上々でうれしかったのはもちろん、

何よりカラフルで、作ってて楽しい。