Not quite a birthday weekend in Paris, but it sounds a lot better than, working remotely from France for one week and I happen to be in Paris for my birthday. Fortunately, or unfortunately, with the internet/WiFi/VPN one is able to work anywhere.
So, yes, I am managing to work, what makes it difficult is a clingy-jet lagged child. Finally, after 4-5 days, she’s not so clingy and is playing well with her cousins. She’s looking up to her cousine, wanting to do things like her. For example, this morning, her cousine was granted a spoonful of nutella post-brekkies. Next thing I know, Mads wants “like cousine”. Ugh. A spoonful of nutella isn’t what I had in mind for her brekkies, since she only had hot chocolate. I suppose anything goes chez grandparents.
an assortment of saucisson...
Friday evening, I managed to take the RER from Le Pecq to the 7th to meet S, family & friends for dinner at Chez L’Ami Jean. L’ami Jean is a tiny Basque restaurant in Paris’ 7th arrondissement and definitely not a place for vegetarians.
We started with plenty of saucisson, two small casseroles of pate campagne, some jambon, and a jug, yes, a jug, of cornichons. There were so many options on the menu, S & I made it easy on ourselves and ordered the menu for two: cote du veau. For some reason, I had scalloppine on my mind, so I was a bit overwhelmed when a small cow was presented on our platter. Our meat was accompanied by sauteed spring veggies and the most sinful mashed pureed potatoes I’ve ever had! Unfortunately, I’m not one to say non to dessert, so I opted for strawberries, but I did get to try the drinking chocolate that someone ordered and regretted not getting one of my own.
Chez L’Ami Jean
27 rue Malar
75007 Paris
Dinner was followed by a lovely walk from the 7th to Opera – passing such sights as Pont Alexandre III, Place de la Concorde, Place Vendome, Longchamps, John Galliano, Cartier, Hotel Costes, Buddha Bar and the like and a late RER train ride home.
Come Saturday evening, I was too tired to make the trek for a Parisien birthday dinner, so we opted for dinner in Saint-Germain-en-Laye at La Feuillantine. It was a small restaurant, charming and chic at the same time and food was SO good! Turns out Saturday was a popular night for birthday celebrations – 3 other people were celebrating their birthday, too! I guess, La Feuillantine is the place to go for your birthday. We started with an amuse buche of pureed lentils and chorizo (yum!). Followed was foie gras cooked in a vanilla-mushroom cream sauce for S and a feuillantine (puff pastry) with green & white asparagus, grapefruit, and prawns, with, of course, a citrus cream sauce for me. It was here that I noticed this was the second resto to serve us non-white flour bread – which was nice, seeing that I probably met my carb intake for the year in the past couple days. Our entrees were just as tasty – yes, there’s more! – lamb shank (I think) with couscous and fish baked in parchment with baby spinach, proscuitto, fresh goat cheese and a (salty, for me) thyme au jus. To finish, an Ile flottante on green matcha and a chocolate-raspberry dessert. (Sorry, no pictures of the food here!)
What a wonderful start to my thirty-something-th year!
Alice Waters And Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee
My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
A fabulous insight to one of the most celebrated restaurants in the nation and the woman who is responsible for bringing Laura Chenel goat cheese to the masses!
As a somewhat foodie, I appreciated very much the history/beginnings of some of the Bay Area’s food stars: Jeremiah Tower (Stars), Steve Sullivan (Acme Bread) and Judy Rogers (Zuni Cafe) to name a few.
It does not get into the business side of things – which would have been an entirely separate book on its own – but rather details the slow food movement and the growth of the “buy local, buy organic” movement. The success/popularity of farmer’s markets today is all thanks to Ms. Waters.
This book will leave you craving a lovely french snack of crusty baguette and artisanal brie as well as a meal at the famous Chez Panisse.
strong voices
A few weeks ago, a dear friend of mine asked me to snap some photos for an advocacy training she was organizing.
She is a part of the staff of amazing women and men that work for an amazing group, Breast Cancer Fund. Their mission is to identify and advocate the elimination of environmental & preventable causes of breast cancer.
Though I was there to “photograph” the event, I learned a thing or two – which is always a good thing. I learned which plastics are “bad” (even though they are recyclable) and I’m starting to double check the labels on all our cosmetics – especially the ones Mads uses.
I know, I know, you’re probably thinking, I grew up without all these precautions, I turned out just fine. I’m sure you did. But, I can attest to the effects of hazardous chemicals on the human body.
So, I’m being more cautious about using plastic anything – which is difficult for me since I find joy in the versatility of plastic ziploc bags. (I use them for everything and anything!)
I’ve gone back to covering food with paper towels when reheating them in the microwave, rather than using the plastic cover. (I’m waiting to make my move to throw it out, S might be lost without it.)
I am definitely not reusing the plastic water bottles – either recycling them as soon as I am finished or I depend on my handy dandy camelbak BPA-free water bottle.
Lastly, I’ve started to look up all the cosmetics we use in the cosmetic safety database and making notes on what and what not to buy next time I’m at the store.
And of course, I had to take photos of the food:
get your jam on!
yummy, healthy brekkies
potato & green salad
turkey sammies, vietnamese style
makes enough for a small army
photo courtesy of Cookie
While it’s not the most substantive parenting magazine out there – Cookie is hip, stylish and offers great recipes from time to time. My favorite section of the magazine is the Smart Cookie – Food feature of the magazine. You start with one main ingredient (in this case, ground turkey) and depending on what’s in your freezer or pantry, you have the choice of 3 wonderfully delicious meals! (It’s kinda like those choose your own adventure books! Remember those?)
So with our abundance of potatoes (both from the store and the farm), I decided that Turkey Goulash it would be! (Though it has potatoes, I served it over buttered orzo. It would be great with brown rice, too!) And it was wonderful! The recipe didn’t tell us readers that it would yield a jillion servings – so you can guess what we’ll be eating the rest of the week!
Luckily, when I looked in the fridge we had enough eggs to make an omelet for dinner.
went a bit nuts with the cheese
Despite all the cheese I loaded on and the mere fact that it was made with eggs, Mads only had one bite. Having her eat most of her dinner has been challenging lately. But, when S breaks out the brie and bread, she’s all over it. Hmm…oh, well, that just means green chard & sausage omelet for another day.
Green Chard & Sausage Omelet
2 – 4 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 yellow onion, chopped, 1/2 pound uncooked chicken sausage,
1 bunch green chard (or other leafy green vegetable, I think I’ll try kale next time), stems removed, chopped, 6 eggs, Salt & Pepper, to taste, 1/2 – 3/4 cup shredded cheese (I used a mix of parmesan & mozzarella, but cheddar, jack or swiss would be tasty, too!)
Preheat the broiler. Saute the onions in half the olive oil until cooked, crumble the sausage into the pan and saute until cooked. Add the chopped greens and saute until the greens are cooked. (The chard will turn dark green.)
While the greens are cooking, whisk the eggs with salt & pepper. Once the greens are cooked, add the greens to the egg mixture.
Heat the rest of the olive oil in a small, oven-safe, non-stick pan on med-high. Add the egg mixture to the pan and reduce heat to low. Push the egg away from the edges of the pan and at the same time tipping the pan so that the uncooked egg will flow over and cook. Once the eggs look mostly cooked and not too runny, sprinkle the cheese on top and place the pan under the broiler until the cheese is slightly browned.
Let sit for a few minutes to cool and serve with french bread and a simple green salad.
Base recipe from M. Canner, SF
So, this week we received some yummy things from the farm:
Cranberries I think I’ll freeze these for later use. I make a mean upside down cranberry spice cake that my uncle requests every holiday season.
Sweet Potatoes Hmm, sweet potatoes. Homemade sweet potato fries? Possibly.
Pink Lady Apples We’ll leave the apples for snackin’. Mads is starting to really enjoy apples and even biting into them. She leaves cute little bite marks behind.
Green Chard A recipe for a greens omelet accompanied our fruits and veggies, so I think I’ll make that for dinner this week. It includes loads of cheese, so I am pretty sure that Mads will eat it.
Broccoli Am not quite sure what to do with the broccoli just yet. Maybe a broccoli-cheddar quiche? Oh wait, no we’re doing the chard omelet. A broccoli gratin, perhaps?
Thoughts? Ideas?
We set out a bit early as we had a long drive ahead of us to Vejer de la Frontera. About an hour outside of Granada we stopped for gas, as S was paying for gas, a package of cookies caught my eye:
I always knew we were tasty
Oh man! You just know I had to buy them and bring some home. For the record, they are quite tasty. A perfect treat for afternoon tea.
We knew we were getting to close to Gibraltar when signs to Gibraltar disappeared (Spain is apparently in no business to promote its location) and we started to see signs in Arabic (surreal) advertising ferry trips to Tanger. We’re driving, driving, driving and then all of a sudden we see this HUGE rock. That must be Gibraltar.
Unintentionally, we drove our rental car into the UK and decided to stop here for a few hours. It was in Gibraltar that we remembered to buy a music CD for the car – flamenco guitar, of course – and stopped for a late lunch of fish n’ chips. We made our way to the cable car/gondola that would take us to the top of the Rock. As we departed, there was a tail-less ape sitting on the cable structure, scoping out food I’m sure. We were greeted by more apes at the top. They were sitting in front of a sign that said something to the effect of “These apes equate all plastic bags with food. Please be sure to secure your belongings.” They weren’t kidding either. These apes just blended in with all us tourists. We took our requisite, this-is-as-close-as-we-got-to-Morocco pictures and high tailed it out of humid Gibraltar. That’s when we hit a snag, driving back into Spain. So, as I mentioned earlier, there were no passport people in the Sevilla airport to stamp my passport, so there was no indication that I could legally be in the country. Luckily, I still had our boarding passes accessible and was instructed to keep them with me at all times. We also had to explain that we were married since my passport is still in my maiden name and had to point out the amendment on the last page of my passport. Oy! This guy was much stricter than most US customs officers – really!
Within a few hours we arrived in Vejer de la Frontera, just before we burned up the transmission. You see, the quickest and most direct way into this hill town is to cross and gnarly intersection and drive a steep and narrow-for two-cars road where your option is to either roll down the steep hill or roll down the steep ditch. Luckily our poor little Corsa made it through the intersection and up the hill and delivered us safely to our hotel.
Unbeknownst to us, Vejer was in the midst of music festival. Our first night was flamenco. We had dinner at an amazing restaurant on the Plaza de Espana and walked around town as we waited for the flamenco show to start at…11pm! (At this point, I realized I could never live in Spain. Forced siestas. Evening events starting at 11pm or later. How do they do it?)
Before we headed out to a pueblo blanco, we managed to snag one of the last reservations at our hotels’ restaurant. Arcos de la Frontera is about an hour drive from Vejer. Again, S maneuvered the Corsa through the way too narrow streets and before we knew it, we had driven right out of town. So back again, we parked at a garage and walked.
The Parador provided air conditioned refuge and icy coca-colas before we made a quick walk through town. We passed on the ice cream this time around since we were still full from breakfast.
We read and lounged at the pool and walked about town a little more the remainder of the afternoon before our dinner reservation. About 45m before our reservation, we were both hungry and got a bite to eat at the Jardin del Califa express. OMG! Probably the best hummus we had ever had. S spoke with the guy working there once we realized he spoke French – counting out the change, “…cuatro, cinq, seis…”
Dinner at El Jardin del Califa was amazing! One of the better meals on this vacation. We started out with a typical mezze platter: hummus, feta, babagannoush, dolmas, falafel, tabbouleh – yum! S + I both had the couscous, served in real tagines. Sadly, I was already full after the hummus & pita and mezze platter that I couldn’t finish my couscous. But, as there is always room for dessert, we finished off our meal with bakalava and Morroccan mint tea – green tea infused with fresh mint and sweetened with rosewater.
Delicious mint tea
Inspired by our friend, LP, we decided to sign up for a bi-weekly delivery of a small box of farm fresh goodies. Below are the contents from our box a few weeks ago:
Bell peppers, heirloom tomatoes, corn, carrots, mushrooms, nectarines, onions – all from local farms, to boot! I’m guilty of never buying enough fresh veggies at the store and this is what I love about this delivery service – we’re guaranteed fresh veggies every other week and supplements nicely the veggies and fruits that I do actually buy at the store. (It also serves as a guide as to what’s in season.)
This week we received (sorry, no pic): summer squash, basil, flame grapes, gypsy peppers, heirloom tomatoes, rose potatoes and 1 head of lettuce.
A Day Off
A few weeks ago, I took a much needed day off. Mads was threatening to crash the party by getting sick, but lucky for me, she held off until the following Monday to get sick. After I dropped her off at day care, I dropped off my dry cleaning and headed downtown for my mani/pedi at Bliss.
My 90 minutes of pampering was followed by lunch at the SFMOMA cafe (the food wasn’t too bad, actually), with plenty of time to explore before my allotted time slot for the Frida Kahlo exhibit. The Kahlo exhibit was just okay (imho) – I was more interested in the display of Frida’s personal photos they had on exhibit. In my pre-Kahlo visit, I came across a very pretty floral curtain.
I think that the artist spent a summer disassembling silk flowers with his family only to reassemble it into a large curtain.
The exhibit that I did enjoy was a photo exhibit by Lee Miller, model & photographer. The exhibit showcased some of her “model” photos, and most her photos from WWII. There was an amazing photo of an explosion outside of Mont Saint Michel, I believe.
At the end of the day, I realized that I need more days off. I was relaxed and refreshed for the next week. What a difference a day makes.
Instead of storming the Bastille, I was working from home with Miss Mads, who was running a slight fever. (Really, I tried very hard to work from home, despite being constantly beckoned to color and draw. I was able to knock back doc reviews while she was napping.)
We made a quick trip to the grocery store and I knew full well, that I should really try to prepare a french dinner, Monday being a french national holiday and all. Instead, we had something that couldn’t be more American – seasoned hamburgers on toasted sesame buns (sans frites). I felt bad, I couldn’t even remember to buy some exotic french cheese or delectable dessert. Hamburgers.
It wasn’t until I stumbled upon this article in the NY Times that I felt vindicated.
Vive le hamburger!
I believe that this dish is British in origin. It’s nowhere to be found in Julia’s repertoire.
S had made it for me a while ago…and it was good, but I wanted to get away from using mayonnaise – as some online recipes have called for.
What you’ll need:
- one prepared pie shell – I use organic whole wheat crusts
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 leek – white, yellow and light green parts only, sliced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Olive oil
- 1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
- 1 can tuna packed in spring water, well-drained and flaked
- salt & fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Melt the butter with some olive oil in a pan over medium heat, add the leeks and saute until softened and cooked down, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, cream and salt and pepper until combined. Add cooled leeks, tuna and goat cheese. Stir to combine.
Pour mixture into prepared and cooled pie crust. Bake at 375F for about 35-40 minutes until the top is golden brown. Let the quiche cool slightly and serve with a green salad.
As this was a create as you go quiche, it worked out well (and tasted quite good) for S’ low-key b-day dinner. I served it with a spinach & romaine salad with organic grape tomatoes, english cucumber and a red wine vinaigrette. For dessert, makeshift strawberry shortcakes.