Black Bean Cakes with Orange Basil Salsa

For a long time I disliked sweet-savory combinations and would never have considered a dish like this, as fruit salsas fell into this category. How much food fun I missed out on!

I have never made bean cakes in my life, but I found this recipe for Black Bean Cakes with Orange Basil Salsa on a healthy-cooking site and since I'm trying to eat healthy and up the fiber for E I thought I'd give this a go, so I defrosted some black beans that were leftover from when I'd made chili.

It wasn't a fast recipe (I'm not really quick with all the chopping up) but it was fairly easy. Other than the bean cakes turning out too dry (need to play with the recipe sometime) it was FABULOUS. The bean cakes were really tasty and meaty and the salsa was just the perfect complement. I added some Greek yogurt to sub in for sour cream, and that was a good fit, adding moisture and richness.

E wasn't here for the recipe but I went ahead and made it anyway as the beans wouldn't hold for another 3 days, but I think he'd have really liked it - and I'll like having it again.

Klute

My memories of Jane Fonda are mainly about leg warmers and 80's aerobics videos (my mom was a devotee of the latter) and the somewhat frivolous (but quite entertaining) 9 to 5. I remember On Golden Pond with fairness, and I always thought the media coverage of her when married to Ted Turner seemed mean. Other

E bought Klute not too long ago (meaning it wasn't yet put away amongst 100's of DVDs) and so it had made it into the 'narrowed down' list a week ago. When looking for a film last night I suggested we stick with last week's runners-up, and we quickly agreed on Klute.

I really enjoyed the film, and in particular the acting of both Jane Fonda and also Donald Sutherland (who often barely moves a muscle in his face yet communicates so much).

Kefta and zucchini kabobs

What to do with a package of ground beef? That was the question I asked myself yesterday, and asked Google to help me answer. After a lot of looking around, I came across this recipe for Kefta and zucchini kabobs - and I was set. I still had the eggplant salad leftover and thought I could pull off making a full Middle-Eastern dinner for E and I.

It was a bit of work - there is the sauce, marinade for the zucchini, and then the meatballs themselves to make, but it was really good, and really authentic tasting. I added breadcrumbs without thinking and this was a mistake - they soaked up the moisture in the egg and the meatballs were crumbly (I'd also used extra-lean beef, so unfortunately they tended towards dry). Next time I'll use regular ground beef (or lamb if I can find it). I also found out that allspice in French is "quatre epices" but I didn't have any so I added a small amount of nutmeg and clove. In the future I'll have the right spices, and maybe even dial them up a notch - I held back and shouldn't have.

I also whipped up some hummus and bought pita bread, and the whole meal was really good. And healthy for all of us.

Lebanese Eggplant Salad (Salatit El Batinjan)

Two weeks back my husband E came home with take-out Lebanese food for dinner from Noura. Noura always has good food, but the choices he made were outstanding, and everything really tasted great that day. Among the new dishes was an eggplant salad that had peppers in it and was very different from baba ghanoush. I looked up recipes for a while on the internet until I came across one that seemed to have roughly the same ingredients.

This recipe for Lebanese Eggplant Salad turned out excellent. I don't have a good enough memory of the specifics of the dish from Noura to be certain that it's the same salad, nor to compare the two, but I am sure that this one is REALLY good and I'm pretty sure that my version is healthier (eggplant absorbs oil like nobody's business!). It was pretty easy to make but did require some time (roasting the eggplants, which I did a few days ago). I did modify it - the salad from Noura did not have tomatoes in it, so I omitted them, and I also played w the spices a bit, adding cumin and used some smoked salt to give it a richer flavor. I also used more eggplant than the recipe said (I had smallish ones, but even then easily equivalent to 2 mediums).

I was hoping to have a lot leftover to share w E, but I'm not sure that's going to work out!

Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami

I have been listening to this audiobook for ages it seems. I only listened to it while walking for exercise, and since I stopped doing that for several months the audiobook sat unplayed for quite a while.

The good thing about today was not only did I walk for a long time, but I also reached the end of the book (okay, I admit, I listened to the final 5 minutes upon arriving home!).

I liked the story and the characters, but I think my next audiobook for exercise will need to be more of a page-turner. Long winding novels are not well adapted to my exercise resistance...

In the Country of Last Things - Paul Auster

I was looking for a good, quick book a bit more complete than a series of short stories and I lucked out by choosing this Paul Auster book.

I'm relatively new to Paul Auster but have enjoyed what I've read from him, and although this was dark it was good. To me it didn't have the same depth as Blindness or The Road, but had a similar tone and 'world gone out of control' context. Somehow, however, it didn't feel as hopeless as The Road to me.

Le scaphandre et le papillon

My mom recommended this movie to me last year but it took a while to find it (it had already finished in cinemas here) and then several months until it got selected from the big piles of DVDs to actually be watched.

Le scaphandre et le papillon (The diving bell and the butterfly) was a wonderful, sad, thoughtful, beautiful film. Directed by artist Julian Schnabel, the visual aspects of the film were wonderful, but it's the story that was so touching.

We both really liked it, and we'd now like to see the other Schnabel films someday.

Dan in Real Life

My first iTunes movie rental was Dan in Real Life, which I chose because I'd been wanting to see one of the Judd Apatow movies and this is what I found.

The movie was about to expire so I watched it in batches during the day. It was a sentimental family film, a real classic chick-flick.

I was mildly amused and I did shed a tear (I've always been a sucker for chick flicks). Still, since I haven't seen a junky movie in a long time I'm pretty out of the habit of appreciating them, and this one left me feeling like I'd eaten a bunch of empty sugar calories...

A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters - Julian Barnes

I enjoyed the original and amusing stories contained in this Julian Barnes book. It was a perfect book for reading in the metro, as each story was compact and entertaining, but easy to get in and out of.

I wouldn't consider it a masterpiece, but it was good, and it did make me think about reading another book by this author in the future. I liked the combination of clever, funny and original, without being pretentious.

Here the ambition to be creative and innovative was great, not all the chapters were able to be at the same level, but those that were really were amusing.

Lentil Tacos

I made lentil tacos a bit by chance, but they will become a regular addition to our menus, because they were FABULOUS.

My wonderful husband E had made a huge pot of not-so-wonderful lentils as a side dish for dinner on Friday night. No flavoring, nothing, just plain boiled lentils. They weren't a big hit, but they weren't bad either, just bland (and perfectly cooked). I put the leftovers in the fridge and when looking online for recipes using lentils on Saturday before lunch came across several for tacos.

Since all things Mexican are a-ok for me, I jumped on it and read 3 or so recipes and then improvised. I personally think they tasted just as good as the beef ones I make from time to time, but the sauce wasn't quite as good as I usually make it. The boys felt it was good but not quite as good as usual, probably because they knew it was vegetarian... next time I'll add some meat and fib about the proportions, and go back to my normal seasonings too.

The worst part of tacos here in Paris remains the taco shells - just horrible stale industrial stuff, we're better off w the soft flour tortillas for soft tacos or biting the bullet and frying the corn ones (but ugh, what a mess and time consuming process...)

Anniversary Weekend - Champagne France

We had a WONDERFUL anniversary weekend in the Champagne region of France. We went to a champagne tasting at Françoise Bedel et Fils on Saturday which was incredible - we discovered a complexity level in champagne that I didn't even know existed. (We also heard all about bio-dynamic agriculture which seems partly interesting but mainly strange!).

We had a lot of wonderful meals, most especially at the wonderful Chateau Les Crayères where we came for our wedding night a year ago. Like last year, we were blown away by the excellence of the cuisine (and this year I was really able to appreciate it). I am still re-living the various lobster dishes, the incredible stuffed vegetables from last night, an amazing raspberry dessert, and at least 4 types of champagne, of which the Cristal from Roederer will probably forever sing in my heart. Pure perfection.

Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee

I read this book over our anniversary weekend, which was not a mood very well adapted to a book of this type, but it was incredibly well written and I guess you could say it makes you appreciate the strengths in your own relationships.

Winner of the 1999 Booker Prize, along w the first of this Nobel-winner's works I have read, it made a powerful impression upon me (no surprise, as I picked it up in London under a display marked "books that will change your life").

Extremely well-crafted and well-written, this story was compact and hard-hitting, talking about both disgrace and true human grace as well - and various definitions and incarnations we might find in that.

Six Sick Hipsters - Rayo Casablanca

Well, the reading pace picked up when I switched genres.

I read 6 Sick Hipsters in just a few days, which was helped by the fact that the book is a mystery and there were tons of fun cultural references (most of which I didn't get, but I enjoyed the ones I did). I particularly liked that the main bad guy came from the town where I lived before moving to Paris...

I liked the pace and the story, although I felt the end kind of fell apart as the author raced to tie the ends together - it didn't quite work for me.

The Autograph Man - Zadie Smith

I've been reading The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith since I finished Tender is the Night. Between the two of them I dramatically slowed down my reading because I didn't really like either book, and I found them both rather plodding to get through. I read a lot of magazines in between...

I finally finished The Autograph Man last night, and although the last 100 pages were better than most of the rest of the book, it was the weakest of the Zadie Smith books I've read, and I found neither the story nor the characters very compelling.

My next book is written by my brother in law and is a thriller, on the first 20 pages on the Metro this morning there was already a death, so I'm guessing this will go faster!

Torn Curtain

We watched this Alfred Hitchcock movie in 2 parts over 2 nights (a welcome change from Law & Order).

It was not one of Hitchcock's best, but it was amusing and certain elements were interesting. A young and cute Paul Newman was a highlight.

Fontainebleu

We went to Fontainebleu forest this weekend to do a little light hiking. The weather was beautiful despite the threat of rain, and we had a nice time.

It was a quick trip, as it's not that far from Paris, and we spent the night in a hotel in nearby Barbizon.

Next time I'd like the time to do some longer hikes.