Thursday, January 6, 2011

Lagnaippe -- a story










I have never posted twice in the same day but this is a story which does relate to Epiphany, la galette des rois, and fèves. Do you remember the cake from Christmas Day with the petite manger scene on top (fèves anciens)? Here are photos of the characters and the original cake...




The Story:

Sunday when I was taking down all of Christmas and cleaning and throwing, etc., I got ready to toss the rest of the Jesus' Birthday cake and was missing a few pieces. Joseph had run away on the camel and left Mary, the angel and the little baby Jesus!!!! I asked DH about them, what did he do with the top of the cake that night he had some in the kitchen. He could not remember. Probably, he either threw it in the trash or down the disposal. I thought about it and figured that I would consider going through the garbage although I could not be sure which day all that cake eating had transpired...

Fortunately there was only one white garbage bag in the big trashcan... So, I sat down on the ground in the driveway and started moving the garbage to another fresh bag. I found...

• coffee filters with grounds x 2
• two pieces of mutilated pomegranate with lots of loose pomegranate seeds mixed in with the coffee grounds (yum)
• two diapers (fortunately no poop)
• the remains of whatever Mexican thing Son-in-Law ate
• the rinds of stinky cheese, French bien sûr
• lots of beer bottles (recycling?)
• two Champagne corks and wire
• lots of gooey cake and icing
• the stems from asparagus
• half-empty yogurt bottles
• empty orange juice carton
• wet newspapers and paper products
Joseph and the camel! And they had taken the cow with them too!!!

Yay, me! I rescued all three although the camel will need a head re-attachment!

Moral to this story: If you are making pastries with treasured old fèves, do not leave them in/on the pastry beyond the presentation.

Footnote: Although I did not name the son-in-law, I have already shown his socks and underwear in an early post on my blog, so I am not sure that anonymity matters.





21 comments:

James said...

Congrats on a successful rescue! Sounds like something I've done before.

Malyss said...

Haha! Funny!! (and lucky!!)
Yes we had a galette today. And already an other one yesterday, and will have one more on sunday...:)
Do you collect "fèves"? (what is the english word for this?..) I do, and keep them every year, to use them in many ways (decoration, toys, etc..)

Genie -- Paris and Beyond said...

James -- This post is off from my regular (proper) posting but it was too funny not to share, especially since all were rescued!

Malyss -- We always have galette des rois (or many) as Mardi Gras is a celebration in Mobile (with its French heritage) that is not just the one day but pretty much the whole time between now and March 8th (this year). The bakery "king cakes" here are a poor substitute for those in France and the fève is a plastic baby which is poked into the "basic sticky bun with green, gold, and purple icing" -- Yes, I do collect (hoard) fèves and found a very old collection on one of my Paris trips. I know that the translation is "bean" but have always called them fèves. Merci, mon amie!

Pepe Le Pew said...

I like to think that Joseph would have found his way back. He seems to be a pretty good guy.

Kellie Collis said...

What an adventure! And all that trouble to save Joseph and the camel. So cute! Have a lovely day, Kellie xx

Virginia said...

I love this story and I thank you for sharing some of your precious feves with me! I promise mine will behave!

Loree said...

Thank goodness you found them. I do not think I would have been brave enough to go through the trash.

Virginia said...

The Word of the Day is PANNE SECHE, running out of gas. We have officially done that . Bonne Nuit!

Genie -- Paris and Beyond said...

Pepe -- Well, Joseph might have made a run for it but he had some human help and was having trouble getting back. I agree with you, he is a great guy. Glad that the cow was hanging close as I had not missed him/her yet!

Kellie -- Had the fèves not been the old ones I had bought from a sweet woman (now a friend, of course) in Paris, I might have let them go. I did not expect to find them and I am very glad that the garbage was not worse than it was. There was a major scrubbing of fèves and my hands after the recovery operation!

Virginia -- Merci! Thinking about you and Mary in the apt... Have fun, mes amies!

Gunn said...

I want to go to PARIS just now......
Thanks for sharing all these nice and interesting places/ friends with us...

Genie -- Paris and Beyond said...

Loree -- Yeah, and the only reason I did was so that I didn't wonder later if I could have rescued them!

Virginia -- I just looked at the time of your last post and thought that it was time for you guys to put your jet-lagged selves to bed. Bonne nuit!

Cezar and Léia said...

Ce gateau est tres beau! :)
God bless you!
Cezar

Unknown said...

Too funny, Genie! I haven't had to dig through the trash in awhile, I'm sure my time is coming! XX!

Alexa said...

Joseph will now be even more precious to you after his adventure and what you went through to rescue him!
Very funny—and touching. (Last thing I rescued from the garbage was a silver bracelet from Tiffany—whew!)

Genie -- Paris and Beyond said...

Cezar -- Merci, mon ami

Shari -- I was grateful that there was only one bag to plunder and that it was not the heat of the summer after crabs and shrimp -- ewwwww!

Alexa -- Yes, and I promise to take better care of my personal property (sounds like a talk I used to have with my girls) -- glad that you rescued that bracelet!

Randy said...

Lesson learned by this post. So happy that you found these treasured pieces Genie. Have a happy Friday!

Halcyon said...

I am glad you found the feves! I have never been a fan of the traditional frangipane cake they serve on epiphany with the feve inside. I used to make special epiphany brownies when I lived in France. Those were the days... :)

Louis la Vache said...

Whew! «Louis» is happy to read you found them all - especially la vache.
;-D

La fête de l'épiphanie l'année dernière Chez la Vache.

Genie -- Paris and Beyond said...

Randy -- It was a happy story and only worried what the neighbors might think if they had seen me making faces and going through the garbage, meticulously mashing pieces of cake in my hands looking for that camel's head!

Halcyon -- I think that I would like to try Pierre Hermé's frangipane avec pistache, miam-miam. I bet that the brownies were excellent and the memories remain so

Louis -- I wondered if you would notice la vache, mais bien sûr!

M said...

Genie, I am so glad you found those precious feves! You are a brave soul to dig through the garbage -- been there done that -- I think my last hunt was for a retainer (daughter #2) :-)

hollyb said...

bwahhaaa! Still a funny story (and darn glad it wasn't me eating the cake and getting accused of throwing them away!). So glad that you found them all, including the head.

Reminds me that I forgot to tell you the story of the manger scene advent calendar, Brooks, & the heating vent.....yeah, similar theme of search & rescue but this time with the wise men, camel, and angel...