Christmas at Easter?

That's right....I said Christmas at Easter. My friend/mentor suggested that I take next year's Christmas class. I immediately said, NO......That is not my forte. After a restful sleep, and a UPS delivery from Amazon, I decided to say, Maybe!
I found a very interesting recipe that had a very interesting pastry dough that I thought I should try. 'My boys', of course, are formidable guinea pigs and can always give me a great 'review' without too much malarkey. My menu today wasn't just Holiday fare, we did have some spectacular spring veggies to start, along with a Sauce Gribich.

Below you'll find the beef and spinach/cilantro/parsley pesto wrapped around a Creme Fraiche pastry. I was really excited to find this recipe. The original recipe had Sour Cream, I had to substitute with Creme Fraiche, I really thought it might hold up well in the dough and yup.....it did!

Above, is the meat all wrapped and scored, it must 'relax' in the fridge for about an hour before it gets an 'oven shock'! A bit like my passion, Puff Pastry.

On Friday, I decided to give my old oven a work-out. I dug up the instructions to try the self-clean function. It cleaned a treat, but then....that was all she wrote. DEAD! D.O.A. We rent our place here in France, it is Easter weekend. We took the high road to emergency and found our way to Darty to buy a new oven late last night. Hence, the photo above. New oven in action! Since the oven is a very important tool in my life, we decided to just buy the darn thing and find out if The Landlord will reimburse us later. I have a Moroccan Tajine class coming up and both of my ovens will be put to use.

Finished result.....pesto=delicious, pastry=magnificent....the beef, well......back to the drawing board. It was so chewy. I've got to find another cut to make this work. The good news.....I have between now and next December to figure it out!