The curse is over. I finally managed to cook a Tarte Tatin without alerting the fire department. It tastes very good too!

Tonight, Melissa and I participated for the first time in the Scarboro dinner club. Scarboro is the name of our Calgarian neighborhood. Couples get together once a month and while hosts prepare an entrée (a great BBQ salmon tonight) guests bring salad, appetizer, and dessert.

Couples rotates every month and you never dine with the same persons twice for the duration of the program. I was impressed by all well travelled all the individuals at the table were. We talked about Egypt, Germany, Tanzania, Russia, Poland, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, France, Panama, and many others country that I don’t recall.

I was tasked with the dessert and not wanting to repeat my springform pan experience, I decided to got with another burnt dessert. Here is the recipe for your enjoyment.

For four servings:

• 1½ cup of heavy whipping cream
• 1 tea spoon of pure vanilla extract
• ½ tea spoon of orange extract
• 4 egg yolks
• ¼ cup of granulated sugar
• ¼ cup of brown sugar

1. Bring the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and orange extract to a boil. Let it rest
2. Beat the egg yolks with the granulated sugar
3. Pour the whipping cream into the egg yolks and mix well
4. Pour the custard in four individual dishes
5. Put the individual dishes in a pan and pour water between the dishes so they barely float in the pan
6. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes at 350F until custard is set
7. Let rest at room temperature for four hours
8. Sprinkle with brown sugar and broil (using the oven) for a couple of minutes. Make sure you keep you eyes while it broils or you going to burn more than the cream! In my case, I keep the fire extinguisher at hand but this may not be necessary in your case.

Serve cold.

Last Saturday, Melissa and I had guests and I wanted to impression them with my highly developed culinary skills that come from a long French lineage and a so exquisite French tradition.

Anyway, in addition of the Bœuf Bourguignon, and the Gratin Dauphinois, I decided to cook two Tartes Tatin.

Having sold most of our pans in a garage sale last month, I went to buy some new ones on Saturday afternoon but since I was not sure which one to use and given my tardiness and available choices, I picked two very nice springform pans.

I started to melt sugar and butter on the stove and noticed a small leak at the bottom of the pan. This was not a big deal, the stove is actually easy to clean.

I peeled and sliced twenty apples and stacked them in the pans. I then covered the pans with fresh made crust and shove them in the oven at 400F.

There was more caramel leaking at the bottom and some smoke. This was not a big deal. the oven is actually easy to clean.

The smoke detector went off in the foyer. This was not a big deal, the fire alarm is connected to the burglar alarm and it was not a big deal to silence it on the wall panel.

Six o’clock arrives and one of my guest calls to tell me he is in the neighborhood looking for the house.

I hear sirens in the distance. This was not a big deal, must be some firefighters late for tea.

It turned out that the fire alarm is in fact monitored and the alarm company called the fire department. My guests arrived on one end of the street while the three fire trucks (a full box in their jargon) arrived at the other end of the street. Everybody stopped at our house and for some reasons, our guests were hesitant to come in.

The two firefighters were not so hesitant and they kindly checked that everything was ok before going on their merry way.

Our kind landlord was surprised to receive a phone call from the Alarm Agency.

No tarte tatin that evening but we had a nice chocolate cake brought by one of the guest and I need to buy the proper pans. Springform pans are evil…