Cooking Fun in France

On Thursday I got to enjoy a fun day of good food here in France. I met Janine Springall of l'Assiette de Paris (www.cookinparis.eu) during ASP's Living Skills Workshop - something the school puts on 2x a year to help people new to France and ASP. Janine does a great talk at the workshop about grocery shopping, food, etc. that really helps people get oriented to their new lives here in Paris. Things sure are different! She also teaches cooking classes at her home, and they can be really fun, informative and delicious.

I went with my friend Julie to Janine's house for a class based on fall flavors. There were 2 other women there - an Australian (who has lived in the US amongst many overseas assignments) and a South African. I always love meeting other people at Janine's classes from all over the world - we share good food, wine, and stories of times in France. The four of us sat at the horseshoe counter while Janine worked behind it - her classes aren't hands-on, but I really enjoy them partly for that reason. I'm a pretty decent cook on my own, and doing all the chopping and prep work are my least favorite part of cooking. I really enjoy sitting back, soaking up her expertise and getting answers to any questions we may ask. Janine's kitchen is quite amazing for France (where the kitchens are usually small), and we learned that she bought her kitchen first and then built her house around it. A woman after my own heart! I really loved each and every dish we made this day - it was one of my favorites so far.

Janine lives further out West in the country and the view is always beautiful on the long-ish drive to Janine's house.

Janine has all sorts of beautiful dishes and serving sets as she is also a caterer

Our first dish was a Root Vegetable Salad with Crème Fraiche Vinaigrette. I don't normally eat beets, but I actually enjoyed them in this dish!

Next was Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, Dried Cranberries, Toasted Hazelnuts and Brown Butter Sage Sauce. I think this was definitely a favorite of everyone's, it was so flavorful. This would be a great Thanksgiving dish as it contains many of our traditional Thanksgiving foods in one dish.

This Chestnut-Apple Soup was very rich, smooth and again, full of flavor. I had leftovers for lunch today and it was just as good the second time around - though I missed the pumpkin seed garnish.

The main dish was Seared Duck Breast, Pumpkin Purée, and Fennel Crisps with Madeira Jus. I haven't eaten duck very often - I think only once in the US, but I've been trying to eat more since I moved here. France knows how to do duck well! Fennel is another thing I'm not super fond of, but these fried crisps were yummy.

To finish it all off we enjoyed a Pumpkin Bread Pudding. I was so full I thought I would just have a bite and take the rest home, but once I started I just couldn't stop until it was all gone.

Of course you aren't meant to serve all of these things at the same time if you were cooking dinner, but it gave a great view of all the different ways you can use winter/root veggies. These were all so good, I wouldn't hesitate to cook them again. And lots of the prep work can be done ahead of time, so it isn't too overwhelming in terms of effort.

La Rentrée!

Paris is all abuzz with la rentrée – the return of everyone from vacation and back to school. We started school a week ahead of the French schools, so that gave us time to adjust. Not looking forward to the return of traffic, but I am looking forward to the return of my favorite local bakeries and restaurants. It’s amazing how Paris empties out in August. We were away for most of it, but could still sense the quieter, calmer scene when we returned.

We had a great time in California this summer. I can’t believe we were there for 1 month. That seemed like such a long time when we first planned our trip, but man did it fly by. Before we left, we had 4 sets of friends visit us here in France - starting in May and ending in July. We had a great time with everyone and hope they had fun also. We headed to the US a couple of days after our last visitors left, going first to visit my family in Pasadena. I miss my family so much while I’m in France, it was just so great to see them. We also lucked out with amazing weather for our whole trip – it was sunny and warm without being too hot.

My dad, Barbara, my oldest friend Mary, me and my sister

Always gotta go to Houston's in Pasadena for the best ribs!

Favorite family pastime: Mexican Train and Bailey's!

After a great time in Pasadena, we went to stay at Hermosa Beach for a week enjoying some SoCal beach time. It was incredibly beautiful. We splurged for a house right on the Strand, and we just loved seeing the ocean through all our windows. Big sandy, empty (!) beaches and the gorgeous Pacific Ocean with plenty of dolphins – I never wanted to leave. I still feel in my heart that I’m meant to live at the beach somewhere. Some day…

Hermosa Beach view out my bedroom window

Wet burrito and Racer 5 = heaven!

Beautiful sunset seen while sitting on our front porch area

Thank goodness the ice cream man came by so I could indulge in my favorite - Sno Cone!

The girls stuck with Bomb Pops - another fave

Can never get too much time playing in the sand

Next on the agenda was to take Rach & Claire to sleep-away camp in Santa Cruz. We spent 1 night in Santa Cruz, dropped them at camp and then Sean & I headed to Burlingame. From there Sean went off to Japan on a business trip, and I stayed with friends. While S was in Japan that week, I took the chance to get up to Sonoma County with friends for some relaxation and tasting of delicious California wines. Yes, I do enjoy French wines, but I also really love my California wines! I wish I could have brought a bunch of bottles back to France with me, but we managed to drink all the ones I bought before we headed back!

None of my shots turned out but it was fun going over the Golden Gate Bridge again

The peaceful beauty of Sonoma

Sean was able to get a little time off work so we spent another week in Burlingame seeing friends, running errands, eating foods we’ve missed and shopping. Getting in the last bits of California before we had to head back to France. It was amazing to us how easy everything is in California – you forget after being here in France for a while. Laundry only takes 1 ½ hours! How is that possible? Stores are open every day, often all night long. Service people are eager to help you. We could get spice in our food! :-)

New haircuts all around

Yes, burgers and sweet potato fries are on our list of things we miss!

 

It was sad to say goodbye once again to our family and friends, but it was time to head back to our French lives. We came back 1 week before school started to make sure we had time to get over our jet lag and adjust beforehand. The girls were also eager to see their friends, find out their classes – as was I. It was almost like starting over here again – this time being here at the beginning of the school year! I’ve got more volunteer work with the school this year, so will be kept very busy. I’ve already had so much fun with my friends here in France, that I do think this will be a better year. If we had to do it all over again, I don’t think I would have moved mid-year. I think I would have sucked it up & waited until this fall. But c’est la vie – what’s done is done. La rentrée is also like New Year’s Eve – a time to start anew. We are doing our best to embrace our life here as we recognize how fortunate we are to have this opportunity. We will still miss home and all our friends and family, but our lives here can be pretty darn amazing. Time to enjoy la vie à la française!

Back in Paris with friends from school

Deb

The Louvre and BBQ

Last Saturday (May 5^th, 2012) we enjoyed a very fun and special day in Paris. My friend L had contacted a woman who arranges scavenger hunts at the Louvre (thatLOU.com) and asked if she could do one for a group of families. We all met at the museum, divided into teams of adults and kids (separating some family members to mix things up), were given maps of the museum, rules, and our package of items to find. Each item was worth a certain number of points, information/history about each piece of art was also given to educate, and sometimes teams could get extra points by doing something special (ie getting all 4 corners of a very large painting in the photo). We agreed on a finish time and place, and we were off. This was our first visit to the Louvre since moving to France (though we have been other times we’ve visited), and it was an interesting way to see it. Trying to find where the items were was challenging, as was keeping the kids interested. It was fun, though tiring racing around, looking for items and viewing amazing art on the way. I forgot how hot the Louvre always is! I probably saw different art than I would have on my own as I got to parts of the museum I may have never visited. It was a great experience and a lot of fun.

 Since we were in Paris, why not go to dinner? It was Cinco de Mayo and I had planned on dinner at Fajitas – a good Mexican restaurant in the 6e. But when we checked on adding more people, we soon realized there was not going to be room for all who wanted to join. So we went to a Texas BBQ joint instead where we proceeded to take over the entire restaurant. Luckily we were on the earlier side, so we weren’t inconveniencing any French people (they would arrive for dinner at the normal late hour after we had already left).

We all took the metro together from the museum to the restaurant. On the way we were treated to a metro station performance by an entire orchestra - they music was wonderful and the kids loved it!

 The restaurant is called Blues Bar-B-Q (www.bluesbarbq.fr) and is located in the 11e. We were happily surprised with the taste and quality of the food, and loved that there were pitchers of beer and even margaritas available. We squeezed in around all the tables and managed to squeeze (& I mean squeeze!) most of the adults (13 total) around a bunch of tables that we lined up, and left the kids (21 total) to the booths & other tables. The 5^th grade girls quickly decided they were too cool and went to sit outside at the sidewalk tables on their own. 5^th grade boys soon followed (separate table of course!). They didn’t seem to mind that it was raining out. The gal running the restaurant wisely brought the kids their food first, though we worried what would happen when they were done & we were still eating!

As the noise level grew louder in the restaurant (as more beer was consumed by the adults), more & more kids starting heading out to the sidewalk when they were done eating. At this point the rain was coming down harder and all the kids were having a blast playing in it. The adults were having a blast staying warm, drinking beer and enjoying ribs, sausage, brisket, cornbread, Mac & cheese, Texas beans, etc. The food tasted delicious and the company was great. Add in the fact that there were no French people around to be appalled at the way our crazy American children (& dads) were acting, and we were in foreigner heaven…

On our way to catch the metro home, we all had a blast running in the rain, searching for shelter. I have to say that was one of the best times in the rain I’ve had as an adult. It was just so much fun to see everyone laughing & enjoying themselves. A truly successful day/night. Thank you for organizing L!

Trip to Burgundy (Bourgogne) Day 1 Feb 25, 2012 (looooong)

We had a great day today. Had to get up at waaaaay too early to get the girls to school to catch their bus to the train station - we got them to ASP at 5:15am! They had a high-speed train from Paris to Anzére Switzerland to catch - so happy that we just had to get them to ASP (5 minute drive) versus trying to get them to the train station in Paris at that hour! They seemed fine & happy to board the bus. Very weird that they are so far away from us with no real contact. We haven't gotten them phones over here yet, so we don't have a way to get a hold of them directly. Just have to count on it all going well. One of the teachers on the trip is posting photos and I have emailed him so I know they are alive and well. In fact, he told me that they got moved up today to the top skiing group - guess all those years in Tahoe paid off! I still can't believe they are off in Switzerland on their own. Way too cool...

This is the chalet where the girls are staying

S & I headed back home after dropping the girls off at ASP - I was planning on going back to sleep, and he was going to get some work done until the park opened at 7:30 so the dogs could get a walk/run before we headed out. But I got a text from a friend of mine at 6am saying the highway was already full of traffic heading down in the direction we would be driving, so we decided to try to get out earlier. We had been so busy packing for the girls that we didn't get a chance to pack ourselves yet, so it took awhile to get ourselves and the dogs organized. I think we finally left our house around 8:00am.

I printed out a route from viamichelin.com, we pulled the route up on the maps on our phones, AND we plugged it into our GPS - then we were off. I'm happy to report that we only got lost once on the way down, and thanks to my friend's text, we weren't stuck in traffic for as long as we could have been. She told me about another route to take to get us off the congested highway. Thank goodness! We were stuck on the crowded highway for probably 1/2 hour and even that little amount was almost enough to make us cranky. Almost, because we agreed before we left to try and just take the trip as it would come - getting lost, traffic, etc. Just go with it and try not to get frustrated.

After 2+ hours of driving, we got off the highway out of the traffic jam (most people were probably heading to Switzerland to go skiing) to head towards Auxerre. We decided to stop there to take a break, let the dogs out to stretch their legs and go to the bathroom, and see the gothic church there. The Cathédrale Saint-Étienne d’Auxerre is known for its massive stained glass windows and most of it was built between 1215 – 1233. The church was really cool (literally almost freezing inside!) and Auxerre is a really cute French town. 

We walked around the town with the dogs for quite awhile exploring, and then decided it was time for some lunch. We put the dogs back in the car to hang out while we went & ate. We found a promising looking place that had a wood-burning pizza oven, and since we are always on the lookout for good pizza for our friend Brad and all the folks at PizzaQuest.com we decided to give it a try. We knew we would be eating plenty of typical French food over the next few days so we were excited for some tasty pizza. It's always a risk in France to get pizza - while you can find it everywhere, it is often very disappointing. Too doughy, too saucy, undercooked, weird toppings you don't recognize that shouldn't be on pizza, etc.

Chez Carlotta was cute on the inside and smelled delicious, but only 1 other table had customers. We never know if that is truly a bad sign as we always seem to get the timing of our meals off - we eat too early! We got seated at a tiny table way at the back of the restaurant where it felt nice and cozy. The menu featured lots of salads and pizzas, and an offer of Lasagna Bolognese. They also had daily specials on the board as almost all restaurants do. S was very intrigued by the Lasagna Bolognese, and I chose the pizza of the day that featured egg (cooked like an omelet), potatoes, tomato sauce and ham (jambon blanc). Why this was called the Pizza Tortilla I'm not entirely sure other than it could have been a variation of a Spanish Omelet with the egg being the tortilla? I got it without the ham as I'm still just not a huge ham fan. We had salads to start and they were very good. So often the lettuce here is just so amazingly fresh and delicious that we love to get salads. Plus the true "French dressing" apparently is NOT the stuff bottled in American, but a mustard-type vinaigrette. It is almost the same dressing everywhere - luckily we like it. We ordered 1/2 bottle of chianti to go with our meal (since we still had to drive). I just love how easy it is to get 1/2 bottles of decent wine in France - I wish America had them on menus more often.

S's lasagna arrived hot & bubbling - he even took a video of it sizzling away. The pizza looked very promising when it landed on our table - thin crust, and slightly burned from the wood oven. When I bit into it I was very happy - it was just as I hoped. Good crust tasting of quality flour, not soggy under the toppings, not too much pizza sauce - just freshly smashed tomatoes - not overwhelmingly cheesy, and the egg and potato were tasty additions. Overall we were very pleased and happy with our find. The only flaw was the dessert. We ordered the chocolate cake with crème anglaise, and unfortunately it was rather dry and uninspired - kind of tasted like a strange brownie. The crème anglaise was tasty so we tried to roll each bite of cake in the sauce to make it a bit more moist and tasty. Another pleasant discovery - things are much cheaper here “in the country” than where we live next to Paris! The lasagna was 8 euros, the pizza was 10 euros, the cake was 3.50 - such a small price compared to Paris. All in all, a good restaurant we would return to and bring friends with us.

After lunch, we got back in the car and headed off again. I had additional sites planned for us to see before hitting our final destination. Next up on the list was the village of Vézelay to see the Basilique Ste-Madeleine - the largest Romanesque church in France. It also claimed in the past to guard the relics of St. Mary Magdalene, and if you go down into the crypt there is a display that supposedly contains a relic of Mary Magdalene. The church was very beautiful and full of light – again freezing cold inside. The medieval town of Vézelay looked very charming as we drove up the narrow streets to visit the Basilique – full of character and interesting buildings. Like many of the other towns we would visit on this trip, it seemed surprisingly empty. I guess February is not a busy time in Burgundy! We drove through many villages on our trip and would rarely see even one person. Very quiet and peaceful, but a little strange also. Behind the church was a beautiful area where you could enjoy views out over the valleys and hills of Vézelay.

Even Zoe likes the view

Next we drove to Époisses – home of the famous stinky but delicious cheese, as well as a châteaux. I had planned to stop and visit the châteaux and a fromagére, but the châteaux was closed and we didn’t see the fromagére as we were driving. It was getting late and we wanted to get to our rental house before it go to dark, so we just drove through and headed to Semur-en-Auxois where we were staying.

Semur-en-Auxois is another amazing medieval city set up on a hill surrounded by stone ramparts. We rented a house outside of the ramparts down on the River Armançon where we had space for the dogs. Thanks to all our maps we found the house with no problems, and got there before dark It was a very charming and interesting house called Le Moulin Vert (though we saw no windmill) set behind another larger house and right on the river. The dogs were very tempted to go into the river and get the ducks, but since neither of them are big swimmers, they only went in a tiny bit, thank goodness as I was worried they would be swept away.

 The house was very interesting, a bit funky, and freezing cold when we got there. We quickly turned up the heat, searched and found some space heaters and tried to warm things up. We decided to walk up into town to explore, grab a drink and find somewhere for dinner – somewhere warmer than the house! I had done some research on restaurants, but we weren’t sure where they were located or what was open. We found a path down the street from our house that consisted of a bunch of steps going up the hill, through the ramparts and into the city. We walked along the ramparts and looked out over the area of Semur that was outside the city “walls” and then headed inside the city towards the church – Eglise Notre-Dame. Often the heart of the city, we figured the church would hopefully be where we would find more people, stores and places to eat - the area where we entered Semur was very quiet with nobody around. We could hear the church bells and followed the sound until we found civilization. 

Semur-en-Auxois

 We walked from one end of the town to the other, and found the main entrance to the village proper – I guess we came in the back way. It was much more lively in this location with plenty to look at. You walk along a lovely cobbled street, pass through a medieval gateway (Porte Guillier) and are on a pedestrian street with shops and cafes. We stopped into a bar after awhile to enjoy a beer and warm up by the fire. How is it that Burgundy, which lies South of Paris, is colder than Paris? It got quite chilly after the sun went down. When we finished our beers we decided it was time to find somewhere to have dinner. We paid up (only 5 Euros for 2 beers!) and headed back to the church where one of the recommended restaurants was located. We stopped in to have dinner, but they informed us that they were fully booked – even though almost all of the tables were empty. But again, we were a tad bit on the early side – before 8:00pm – as most people seem to have dinner much later in France. We continued on down the street towards another restaurant we had seen and luckily they had a table for us. Again we were worried as it seemed like we were the only people there, but very quickly after 8:00 the restaurant started to fill up.

Enter the village through this "gate"

S enjoying the cheapest beer we've had in France!

Le Saint Vernier was a Burgundian restaurant that served local fare – though they had a couscous special that night that everyone else seemed to enjoy. It was full of random meat that we just weren’t ready for that night, and I wanted to try some of the regional specialties. I ordered Oeufs Pôche Chablaisienne to start, S ordered a salad, then I ordered the chicken sautéed in époisses cheese and S got Boeuf Bourguignon. Everything was tasty, but nothing outstanding. I enjoyed the egg dish a lot – especially soaking up the sauce with extra bread – but everything else was good, not great. The beef was a little fatty, the sauce could have been more rich, and my chicken could have been more tender. Both dishes were served with the same 2 sides – potatoes and a pickled eggplant/carrot/cauliflower salad - that again were fine, but nothing I needed to finish eating. We shared a dessert of 3 crème brûlées that were a little too watery to be true crème brûlées in my book. I can’t remember what the flavors were – must not have been too memorable. I think one may have been strawberry, one regular and I’m not sure about the last one. They tasted ok, but the texture was so runny it was hard to get past. Not at all what I expected.

OK, I thought those other things in the bowl were mushrooms. But looking at this pic it looks suspiciously like a snail!

This sauce was made with the famous stinky cheese

The trio of crème brûlées - see all the liquid?

After dinner we wandered back home and to bed – the day had started much too early and we were exhausted. I’m surprised I made it through the whole day without a nap, but I guess with so many beautiful things to look at and enjoy, you get energized. We had a great first day and still had 3 more to look forward to.

zzzzz D