Posted by Loulou on Feb 5, 2014 | 0 comments

What’s that heavenly smell?

Does anyone even remember that phrase?  I’ve been hearing it ever since mama discovered that I get a wistful look on my muzzle when papa eats fruit yogurt after dinner to balance out the French chocolates and Armagnac that have a little stronger pull…

Papa is beautiful and kind to others and has a generous heart and mama thinks he should bathe in melted Valrhona if he so desires. But frankly, I’m glad for the yogurt because he leaves just a fingerful for me in the bottom and that’s my sugar ration for the day.

Sugar is a funny thing.  Some say it’s addicting, some recoil at anything sweet and some just like the taste and sense of treating onself well when spooning chocolate mousse into one’s bucal area (that’s mouth, to you). Mama, for example, would rather have a radish spread with sweet butter than a hot fudge sundae! Okay, okay, she’s nuts.

But mama says there are lots of ways to satisfy a sweet tooth other than with a towering dessert or bowl of four ice creams with Chantilly on the top.  I was actually awakened a minute ago by that seductive, beloved-by-all smell of cinnamon unleashing its perfume in a saucepan of sliced winter apples, Pink Lady to be precise.  Mama didn’t even peel them because they’re mostly organic around here and she likes the texture. And just a pinch of cinnamon will do.

She cooks four apples sliced thin with a tiny piece of sweet butter, a squeeze of lemon,  and a coffee spoon each of Daddy sugar, which is the name of a popular brand of sugar here in France.  Is that hilarious or what? DADDY SUGAR!  I just love that.  They cook for about 20 minutes with a lid on but even so, that cinnamon smell just curls up the stairway and knocks me silly.

So now papa has another possible for after-dinner treats (just like me with my teeth kibble, except his aren’t so great for the old fangs), but there is just one glitch in this low-fat, low calorie, low sugar delight:  Mama makes praline and then grinds it to a nice sprinkling consistency and papa puts a spoon of that over the apples.  I’m telling you, it’s STILL low on everything when you think about the outlandish desserts some people eat.

Even if sugar is sugar is sugar, a little substitution of fruit every now and then can be pretty satisfying, especially when so many, like me, are trying to drop a few grams.

Now here’s the question:  There are anthros born with a sweet tooth and anthros born with a salty tooth and then there’s me, Loulou.

I have a couple of pretty nice teeth there in the front of my little mouth, but I can’t figure out for the life of me which is salty and which is sweet!

I guess if they get out the yogurt tonight, I’ll go with the sweet one…

NUM, NUM…

Easy praline:

1/2 cup sugar , 2 tablespoons water. Cook over low heat until the syrup “spins” a thread when you dip a spoon into it and lift it out of the mixture. Or until a few drops in cold water make a soft ball. On a buttered surface (marble, granite, a cookie sheet), pour the syrup over a large handful of toasted pecans (or almonds).  When cool, crush the praline with a rolling pin or grind in a food processor.