Frangipane

I am making a pear frangipane tart as I type this. Currently the tart crust is cooking. Frangipane seems to have several possible sources. Literally it means broken bread in Italian but it was also a name of an Italian perfumer who used plumeria blossoms, which were renamed frangipani,  in his concoctions. There was a fictional cafe in Paris called Cafe Frangipane whose best  treat was pear almond tart.

Here it is an hour later. I am supposed to put an apricot glaze on it

So it is generally a mixture of ground almond, sugar and eggs. I love almonds. It pairs well with pears. My biggest challenge so far was finding ground almonds. I ground them myself, which resulted in almond butter. Hope it turns out OK.

On the second day my friend and I were in Paris 10 years, we stopped at a bakery near the Eiffel Tower and had this. Yum.

The plumeria tree is also host to those hideous hawk moth larvae we came across in San Juan. They were about a half inch thick and 6 inches long and brightly colored.  The frangipani flower is used for leis in Hawaii.

The air has changed and not in a good way. It is cold, cloudy and windy. We took a drive out in the country to see the pretty fall colors against the gray sky and stopped at a farm market. We lunched at a fondue place trying to choose between artichoke-spinach-fontina versus cheddar ale. Both would not be served in Switzerland but tasty nonetheless.

The ArtPrize votes are in. The Elephants, which I voted for, were 1st place. Second place goes to the carousel of fluttering bats synched to lights and an aria.