Chocolate Raspberry Croissant Bread Pudding

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup Chambord raspberry liqueur
12 croissants
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup raspberry bittersweet chocolate baking bits , ( @Nuts.com)
½ cup dried raspberries ( @Nuts. Com)

Directions:
For the chocolate raspberry croissant bread pudding: Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a food processor, combine butter and sugar process until well blended. Add cinnamon, and vanilla, and pulse to combine.
While the processor is running crack 5 eggs into the mixture. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides. Add the heavy cream and pulse to combine. Add 1/4 cup Chambourd

Lightly butter a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Break up the croissants into 1-inch pieces and layer in the pan. Scatter the raspberries and bittersweet raspberry chocolate baking bits over the top, and gently mix to incorporate. Pour the egg mixture over the croissants; soak for 8 to 10 minutes. You will need to push croissants pieces down during this time to ensure even coverage by egg mixture.

Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for additional 10 minutes to brown the top. The croissant bread pudding is done when the custard is set, but still soft. Allow to cool..

Recipe courtesy Michael Chiarello modified by Jerry wendt
I serve this with Silk dark chocolate milk with a shot of Chambourd mixed in. This last time I increased the raspberries to 3/4 cup and substituted chopped dried Peaches for raisins as two of our group don’t like raisins. The recipe says serves 6, but as a dessert it’s more like 12.  -Jerry

Mayakovsky

Mayakovsky

By Frank O'Hara

1

My heart’s aflutter!

I am standing in the bath tub

crying. Mother, mother

who am I? If he

will just come back once

and kiss me on the face

his coarse hair brush

my temple, it’s throbbing!

then I can put on my clothes

I guess, and walk the streets.

2

I love you. I love you,

but I’m turning to my verses

and my heart is closing

like a fist.

Words! be

sick as I am sick, swoon,

roll back your eyes, a pool,

and I’ll stare down

at my wounded beauty

which at best is only a talent

for poetry.

Cannot please, cannot charm or win

what a poet!

and the clear water is thick

with bloody blows on its head.

I embrace a cloud,

but when I soared

it rained.

3

That’s funny! there’s blood on my chest

oh yes, I’ve been carrying bricks

what a funny place to rupture!

and now it is raining on the ailanthus

as I step out onto the window ledge

the tracks below me are smoky and

glistening with a passion for running

I leap into the leaves, green like the sea

4

Now I am quietly waiting for

the catastrophe of my personality

to seem beautiful again,

and interesting, and modern.

The country is grey and

brown and white in trees,

snows and skies of laughter

always diminishing, less funny

not just darker, not just grey.

It may be the coldest day of

the year, what does he think of

that? I mean, what do I? And if I do,

perhaps I am myself again.

Frank O'Hara 1926-1966 was a poet and writer as well as gay icon. He was curator of The Museum of Modern Art in New York.  His great sociability made him a darling of the New York arts scene  He had many relationships through his life with notable people. O'Hara was killed on Fire Island being struck by a beach Jeep in 1966 at only 40 years of age. His friend , painter Alfred Leslie immortalized the event with his painting "The Accident" in 1969 - part of a series he did under title " The Killing Cycle"   

"The Accident"  - Alfred Leslie