Happy 14 Juillet – it’s a Fête Friday!

Salut et Joyeux 14 Juillet! Oui, I know it’s not the 14th yet, but its the Friday before so time to start celebrating! I have had my own little fête each year for Bastille Day for years now. If it falls on a work day, my friend Amy and I will decorate our desks with french flags and Eiffel Tower pictures and bring in french snacks. It’s very sad that even if I won the lottery tonight, I wouldn’t be allowed to fly to Paris and celebrate there. So, let’s talk about how we can celebrate right here at home. Happy 14 Juillet – it’s a Fête Friday!

le matin

Of course most of my day is going to involve celebrating with french food. Let’s start off the day with french pastries! The perfect excuse to brake out the Trader Joe’s Chocolate Croissants that I have in the freezer, mais non? Add a little café au lait and you have the perfect, festive Parisian morning.

l’après-midi

Put on some french music for the afternoon and to carry you into the evening. Maybe a live radio station from Paris? I like Oui fm and NRJ for a little Paris pop rock. According to Wikipedia, NRJ is the most popular radio station in France. I have a great playlist on Pandora called St. Germain des-Pres Café radio. There are always great playlists on Spotify too.

Time to catch up on all your French email subscriptions. The Earful Tower, David Lebovitz, Do It In Paris, Paris Zig Zag, My Little Paris, LeFooding, just to name a few that I subscribe to. Now you see why I said catch up. Go to Le Figaro to read the latest news. Go online and buy yourself a french book. The New Paris by Lindsey Tramuta, or her new book The New Parisienne. Any of David Lebovitz books. Or maybe a cookbook? Here’s an idea – let’s learn Le Marseillaise!

And don’t forget about dejeuner! A croque madam or maybe crêpes? Tough decision. Orangina would be the perfect accompaniment – merci soeur for my special delivery! 😘

le soir

Now the real fête begins. Make sure to tune in to a live Eiffel Tower webcam at 11 pm Paris time or 5 pm eastern to watch the July 14 fireworks! Earthcam, Skyline Webcams or Worldcams are good ones to bookmark. This is also the time crack open the champagne! When the fireworks are finished go outside for fun game of Boules, also known as Pétanque. Playaboule doesn’t have the silver set I purchased anymore, but they do have glow in the dark ones! You can find a silver set with a simple google search.

Do a french cheese plate for dinner! I had one all planned out from Murrays Cheese – it was even going to be red, white and blue (or should I say bleu, blanc, rouge)! But they were overloaded with orders for the weekend and I wouldn’t have been able to get it on time ☹ So I will have to find some french cheese locally. With a baguette, maybe some raspberry preserves, some fruit and veggies and a good french wine -parfait. Along with your cheese plate watch a french movie. My pick is always Paris When It Sizzles – it takes place on Bastille Day. One year we even duplicated the meal that Gaby and Rick order on the terrace of the Chalet de la Grande Cascade in the Bois de Boulogne/irl to his hotel room.

So what do you think? Happy 14 Juillet – it’s a Fête Friday! Sounds fun, non? I’ll leave you with great spicy Pizza Friday recipe to blast off your weekend with. Have a great one, enjoy every minute, I know I will! À bientôt!

Print Recipe

Smoked Mozzarella Jalapeno Pizza

A delicious spicy, smoky, vegetarian pizza to spice up your Pizza Friday.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Pizza

Servings: 2 10 inch pies

Ingredients

• 1 my pizza dough recipe
• 15 oz can of San Marzano whole tomatoes * or use your favorite pizza sauce
• ½ ball fresh mozzarella
• 6 oz smoked mozzarella, shredded
• 1 jalapeno, sliced
• ¼ cup pickled jalapenos, drained * or more if you prefer
• fresh basil

Instructions

• Bring pizza dough to room temp, if refrigerated. Cut into two balls, form into as thin of a crust as you can manage. Let rest for a few minutes. Here is an video/article that I follow to stretch out the dough.

  Place pizza stones in oven and preheat oven to 475 F (if you don’t have pizza stones, use upside down sheet pans but don’t preheat them).

  Put the drained can of tomatoes in a bowl and use an immersion blender to blend (or blitz in a food processor, or finely chop and mush a little with flat edge of knife). Drain tomatoes of extra water. Add salt and pepper to taste. Or use your favorite canned tomato sauce.

  If baking on an upside down sheet pan, put dough on pans sprinkled with cornmeal first. If using a pizza peel, sprinkle with cornmeal and place dough on peel before adding toppings. Top each pizza lightly with tomato sauce. Add shredded smoked mozzarella. Add torn or sliced fresh mozzarella. Top with sliced jalapenos and pickled jalapenos. Slide pizza in oven onto pizza stones, or place pans in oven.

  Bake about 10 minutes, or until brown and bubbling. Remove from oven, place on cutting board. Top with fresh basil, slice and enjoy!