Good Thursday morning. It’s theoretically a short workweek, but somehow it is stretching on endlessly. Maybe it’s just me?
When things start to drag on/pile up in this manner, I try to give myself little treats throughout the day as motivation. Like: If you can make it through the next five tasks on your to-do list, you can go for a brief walk outside. Or maybe have a snack.
Somehow, I missed National Doughnut Day. It falls on the first Friday in June. That was June 2 this year, which was 20 whole days ago. I’m not sure how this one slipped by me unrecognized. Why did no one call me out on this obvious transgression? Clearly, no one is actually reading this and I”m just screaming into the void.
However that happened, I am going to more than make up for it today. What’s better than doughnuts (IMHO, anyway)? Pastry. Yeah, give me a well-made, light and airy pastry over a heavy, dumpy doughnut any day. Come at me. I can take it.
Maybe I have this particular preference because of the year I spent living in France. The French have a definite way with pastry, particularly anything made with pate a choux – a classic dough used to make everything from cream puffs to éclairs to gougères.
It’s a pretty basic dough made from a combination of flour, water, butter, salt, and eggs.
But, unlike many other doughs, it starts on the stove, and then, thanks to the miracle of steam transforms during the baking process, puffing and expanding into a deliciousness – crunchy and crispy on the outside and airy on the inside.
Because of that airiness, pastries made from pate a choux lend themselves very well to fillings – including pastry cream, which is where eclairs come in.
An aside: An eclair is NOT a cream puff, though they are both made from pate a choux, the difference lies in their shape – the first is long and rectangular and the second is more of a cabbage shape (“choux” is French for cabbage, BTW), and in how you fill them.
As mentioned, an eclair is traditionally filled with a custard (officially, it’s crème pâtissière, and some versions have been filled with ice cream, but this isn’t traditional, as far as I can tell).
It’s usually topped with chocolate fondant or some other frosting-type substance, while a cream puff is round and filled with Chantilly Cream (a fancy name for sweetened whipped cream that is usually flavored with vanilla).
The word “éclair” in English is a French word that chiefly means “lightning” or “flash of lightning.” I’m not entirely clear on how this pastry came to be named as such, unless it has something to do with the way you feel when you bite into a really good one?
This particular pastry used to be called a “petite duchesse”, and the name “éclair” first appeared in connection with this confection in the 1860s. Origin story: Maybe it was created by the French chef Antonin Carême, who also has other pastries, including the Charlotte and Napolean (also known as a mille-feuille) to his name.
The word “eclair” first appeared in English in an article in Vanity Fair in 1861, and then in Boston Cooking School Cook Book in 1884. If you really want to go down the rabbit hole on this one, click here.
Today is National Chocolate Eclair Day, and I’m having some difficulty determining how that came to be, though it is a happy development for those of us who are pastry fans.
You might need a nice pastry to comfort yourself given the situation with the weather. Another unseasonable cool day is on tap, with temperatures in the low 70s, overcast skies, and the slight chance of a rain shower.
In the news…
Speaker Kevin McCarthy reportedly urged House Republicans to vote against the resolution brought forward by GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado forcing a vote to impeach President Joe Biden this week, arguing now is not the right time.
Far-right Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene reportedly has said that impeaching Biden is her price after she steadfastly supported McCarthy throughout the current Congress.
The rush to impeachment votes comes after first-term Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) found success on her second try at forcing the House to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for his lead role in investigating former President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
In a de-escalation of internal GOP tensions, House Republicans are now aiming to refer a Biden impeachment resolution to two committees instead of holding an immediate vote on impeaching the president.
Biden welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House yesterday, hosting Modi for a private dinner ahead of a much larger state dinner scheduled for today.
Modi of India, on a three-day visit to the US, kicked off a group yoga session for international diplomats on the lawn of the United Nations in Manhattan, stressing the nondenominational aspect of the practice that has roots in Hindu spirituality.
Senior U.S. officials were caught off guard when Biden described Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator” — just 24 hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing and appeared to reach a breakthrough in tense relations between the countries.
The White House is not backing down from the president’s comment, saying in a statement: “It should come as no surprise that the president speaks candidly about China and the differences that we have – we are certainly not alone in that.”
China quickly hit back at the remarks, branding them “extremely absurd and irresponsible.”
In interviews with more than a dozen bundlers and donors across the country recently, as well as late-arriving pleas reviewed by West Wing Playbook, people have expressed nervousness that Biden’s early fundraisers aren’t delivering as they’d hoped.
A federal judge set a court date of July 26 for Hunter Biden to make his initial court appearance related to the plea deal he agreed to Tuesday, following a five-year Justice Department investigation.
The case will be heard by U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, a Trump appointee who had the support of Delaware’s two Democratic senators and was confirmed by a voice vote in 2018.
Democrats see the outcome of the Hunter Biden investigation as proof that the judicial system is fair and independent: Not even a president’s son can escape the consequences of criminal behavior.
Within two weeks, the Supreme Court justices should break for their summer recess. And yet there’s been no ruling on President Biden’s sweeping student loan forgiveness plan. For many borrowers, it’s been an anxious wait.
The House yesterday failed to undo Biden’s veto of Republican-led legislation that would have repealed his plan to cancel up to $20,000 of student debt for tens of millions of Americans.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito reportedly took an undisclosed luxury vacation at an Alaska fishing lodge and flew on a private plane that was paid for by a GOP mega donor who was later had cases before the top court.
In an opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal, the justice disputed a ProPublica report, saying he was not required to disclose the trip or recuse himself from his benefactor’s cases.
His response comes as the justices face mounting scrutiny over their ethical obligations to report gifts and to recuse themselves from cases involving their benefactors.
For anyone to defeat former President Trump in the Republican primary, they are going to have to overcome the significant advantages he has with key pillar GOP voter groups, the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds.
The search for the missing Titan submersible is now in a critical stage, as rescue teams race overnight to locate the vessel before oxygen supplies run out.
The submersible begins each trip with 96 hours of life support and has been missing since Sunday, setting up this morning as a key target for finding the vessel and those on board.
Three more vessels arrived yesterday to join the international effort to find the missing submersible. The Coast Guard said it was looking for the source of noises it detected.
Questions are mounting about the constitutionality of a bill awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature that aims to legally protect New York medical providers using telemedicine to prescribe abortion medication to out-of-state patients.
Critics said the end-of-session turmoil punctuated multiple missteps that eroded the Democratic governor’s political capital after gaining extraordinary goodwill when she succeeded scandal-scarred Andrew Cuomo in August 2021.
Yellow taxi drivers and owners gathered across from Hochul’s Manhattan office yestersday to demand a full exemption from the New York City congestion pricing plan.
Executive measures to address housing in New York state will be coming soon from Hochul after she and state lawmakers failed to reach agreements for wide-ranging measures to address the issue, she said.
New York will make it easier for a defendant to challenge a wrongful conviction even in cases where they have already pleaded guilty — if Hochul signs a newly passed bill into law.
The state Assembly returned to the state Capitol this week for a short special session to wrap up some “unfinished business” but is leaving Albany without taking action on the Seneca gaming compact, according to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.
Heastie was on track to guide his Democratic supermajority through the end of the 2023 session without holding divisive votes on some controversial bills during a two-day legislative session convened after the chamber blew past an original June 8 deadline.
The state Assembly approved a bill that would ban “wildlife killing contests” in which participants compete in private events — often for cash and prizes awarded to those who kill the most, the heaviest or the largest animals.
The Planned Offshore Wind Transmission Act, a controversial bill that would clear the way for an offshore wind power development 14 watery miles from Jones Beach State Park, sailed to passage in the Assembly despite intense GOP headwinds.
The state Department of Labor dropped the ball during the pandemic, when in dealing with a flood of unemployment insurance claims another program designed to help people find new jobs fell through the cracks, an audit by the state Comptroller found.
New York emptied prisons at a faster rate than any other state between 2019 and 2022 except for New Jersey, West Virginia, and Washington.
Mayor Eric Adams, reacting to a deadly spate of city e-bike fires this year, promised a crackdown on sketchy vendors and a faster response to New Yorkers’ complaints about their businesses.
Adams declared that there’s a coordinated effort to relegate him to one-term mayor status, but he declined to specify exactly who he believes is involved in that push.
New York City’s emergency management chief came out guns blazing yesterday against a City Council bill focused on improving conditions in migrant shelters, blasting the measure as “performative” and even “dangerous.”
A City Council oversight hearing on facilities housing asylum seekers grew visibly tense when an official in Adams’ administration revealed that some sites lack even showers, requiring migrants to travel offsite for their bathing needs.
New York City is recruiting private lawyers to help tens of thousands of migrants flooding the Big Apple fill out asylum applications, while data shows there’s a massive backlog and most asylum claims are denied.
Five days into early voting, Adams is stopping short of encouraging voters to take full advantage of the city’s ranked-choice voting system in deciding primary races for City Council.
Running afoul of New York City’s alternate-side-parking rules could soon result in steeper fines under a bill Councilman Lincoln Restler plans to introduce today.
For the second year in a row, millions of New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments will face new rent hikes after the board tasked with setting rates approved increases during a raucous meeting last night.
The 5-4 decision from the Rent Guidelines Board, which was lambasted by tenant advocates and landlords alike, allows building owners to increase monthly payments by up to 3% for a one year lease.
The Department of Buildings granted an upscale Brooklyn hotel permission to keep operating last month despite a judge ruling its zoning improper after the hotel’s owner lobbied a top aide to Adams and hired his former chief of staff to argue its case in court.
The City of Troy is prepared to approve an $850,000 settlement for a worker who fell off a ladder during preparations for the demolition of the former Leonard Hospital. But the contractor’s insurance carrier agreed to indemnify the city, a city official said.
A development including warehouses and office space is taking shape at what years ago was a rail yard and a steel plant in Colonie.
The South Shore Marina project on Saratoga Lake was dealt a blow by the Saratoga County Planning Board, which delayed approval of the 85-condo complex until it receives a current summer traffic study and renderings of how the lake viewshed would change.
More fallout from the Hollywood writers’ strike could be on the horizon: a postponed Emmy Awards.
The median age in the United States reached a record high of 38.9 in 2022, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau.
The Agriculture Department approved the production and sale of laboratory-grown meat for the first time yesterday, clearing the way for two California companies to sell chicken produced from animal cells.
