Jessica: Swans & Birthdays

Swans and birthday: Cindy and I grew up going to the same French pastry shop (DeNoels’) in St. Augustine, Florida, where they made they best cream-filled swans. We’ve often laughed about how we probably saw each other in there as kids but never realized it. In 2005 we finally went to the shop together for the first time - and ordered swans, of course. And when Jeremy and I visited Cindy and Matt in Pittsburgh in 2017, we spent a good two days following a recipe from the Bouchon Bakery cookbook to recreate the swans. They turned out amazing! On that same trip to Pittsburgh, Cindy and I cooked the lobster mac and cheese recipe from the French Laundry cookbook for Jeremy’s birthday dinner, and Jeremy posed with Cindy, wearing Cindy’s balloon creation on his head. It was a wonderful few days of baking and cooking and just having fun.