Empire Falls - Richard Russo

When I started reading Empire Falls I realized I had already read it but I kept reading anyway. I'm glad I did, the characters are human and interesting, and the book is really interesting and well-written (although I though the ending was weak vs the rest of the book).

It was a good book to have with me while my DH was in the hospital, because it was easy to come in and out of, and yet the story kept my mind occupied.

Roti de boeuf and mashed potatoes

I made this super-simple meal for my DH the night before he entered the hospital for surgery on his gut. He was on a "low residue" diet which meant no fruits or veggies basically.

I am rarely the one who makes meat in our house, but I did this time, and it turned out well although the meat itself was strong-flavored (probably had aged at the butcher).

The mashed potatoes were made from scratch w milk butter and some leftover beaufort cheese. A bit too rich, but yummy for a few bites.

Suite Française - Irène Némirovsky

I've been reading Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky for the past few weeks and found it interesting but not to count among the best books ever.  I liked the treatment of some of the characters and it was well adapted to reading it in short bursts.

Tostada Dinner

I made a big tostada dinner for my team, full of American foods like guacamole, homemade tostadas and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. It was a big success and I was less stressed knowing I knew how to make everything. I even made refried beans myself since it drives me nuts to pay 7.50 euros a can (about 10$) and I have to go across town to find them. They turned out really well, and I will make them again.

My guacamole was excellent and stayed green for 2 days.

The other nice surprise of the day was finding that the chili peppers sold for North African cuisine are about the right spiciness for me and I made a really great pico de gallo the next day for my leftovers. It was simple to make and so much better than jarred salsa, and these chilis are available year-round, so it was a nice find!

The chocolate chip cookies were a big success and I drafted help in the kitchen to make them. Everyone went home with a baggie and I had none leftover.

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

I made soup today with Jerusalem artichokes that I bought several weeks ago and then didn't know what to do with... During this week I came across a soup recipe for the little tubers when flipping through magazines in a doctor's office. I didn't write down the recipe because it seemed pretty simple - a litre of milk, a pound of Jerusalem artichokes, a potato or two. I started with a sauteed leek, added the milk and Jerusalem artichokes, 20 min later added the potato and some chicken boullion and there you go. A quick spin with the hand mixer and it was delicious and fast and I now have soup for the week!

The Lady From Shanghai

We watched this classic Orson Welles movie tonight after a nice dinner of beef fondue. The pace was a bit slow but the characters were interesting and the cinematography was really interesting. I agree with the reviews that said it is a good but not great film.

Juno

I saw Juno, a movie that looked fun and American on posters but I though I'd probably miss, because I miss most movies like that here...

But circumstances played out well, and I was at the theatre just a few minutes before it started so I grabbed the opportunity.

I liked it - very well acted, sweet, touching and entertaining. Not a GREAT movie but pretty good and better than the average stuff these days.

Heros

We wanted to see the Eros collection from the BNF (National Library of France) but the line was over an hour long so we tucked in to Heros where there was almost nobody instead.

It was a quick but fun expo, walking through heroic figures in history, culture, legend etc from ancient times today.

Paris : St Germain, Place Vendome, autour de Madeleine

My DH and I spent the day together exploring Paris- it was wonderful. We started with brunch at the Cafe de Flore in the very-calm upstairs dining room (which has beautiful flowers all around the windows). We'd stopped in a bookstore on our way over and we read and sipped tea and ate for over an hour.

We then headed to Charvet at the Place Vendome and before going in for my DH's late x-mas gift we spent a bit of time window-shopping at the very high-end jewelery boutiques clustered there. The main thing we saw was the complete lack of correlation between cost and elegance...

After Charvet I expected my DH to go to his office for a while, but as we passed Habitat I told him I'd get out there so I could look in the store and to my surprise he suggested we park and go together. So we went shopping in the Madeleine area for a few hours, had a drink at Bertie, and ended with Fauchon.

Afterwards we went to see the expo Eros from the Enfer collection at the Bibliotheque Nationale site Mitterand, but the line was too long so we saw Heros instead. Then went to check out movies, but other than Juno the timing wasn't good and my DH didn't want to see Juno so he proposed I stay and see it and he go home. Which made everyone happy.

A quiet dinner at home and then a classic DVD to end our impromptu day together - it was really nice.

Tarte au fromage blanc

I made this tart with fromage blanc - white cheese - for dinner. This had been my back-up plan for the clementine tart which actually turned out really well. Since my DH is sick and on a "low residue" diet this recipe was perfect - just pie crust, egg, cheese, cream & sugar. It whipped up really quick but was a bit too eggy for me. I'd make it again playing around with the proportions - more cheese, less egg, and maybe adding vanilla bean.

In the recipe book the author suggested that it could stand in as a light supper instead of as a dessert, and that's what we did.

I like that I just whipped up a tart for dinner in a few minutes in the evening. I'm getting the hang of regular cooking.

Walk around Paris : Pere Lachaise Cemetery

My friend Peter came to Paris for work and had some free time on Sunday so I met up with him and spent several hours wandering around Pere Lachaise Cemetery with him. He had a guide book that had listed about 30 graves of the famous to see, and we basically were able to catch up and talk for a few hours while wandering around looking for them and Peter taking pictures.

It was a nice way to spend the afternoon, especially as the weather was beautiful. This cemetery is very famous and I had only visited it once, back when I was 16 and visited Paris briefly, so it was nice to see it now that I live here.

Clementine Tart

I made this Clementine Tart for dessert for Saturday night. I'd seen the pretty picture of the same recipe (this is the variant) in a new cookbook. The original recipe was for Grapefruit but that seemed so odd, we had lots of leftover clementines so I did that. It was basically a flan with fruit juice topped with candied slices of the fruit. It probably would be good with grapefruit, I'll give that a go another time. It was more work than most of my tarts are, but turned out well and was very pretty.

Tostadas and Guacamole

We had a friend over for dinner and I made guacamole (not spiced and somewhat blah) and tostadas (fried the corn tortillas, made seasoned taco meat, tomatoes, salsa, lettuce and even found a way to make refried beans (finally, I found "pink beans" at the portuguese stand at the market). Yummy and good, and fun to make. It was my test round for making this for my team on Feb 22nd...

Polenta Forestiere

I made this again for dinner Friday night. This time I made the polenta myself, and it was less-than-great. Next time I need to use stock and cook it much longer. The forestiere part was great though, and the whole thing was appreciated by my DH.

No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

I read No Country For Old Men over the past few days. I'd read Corm McCarthy's The Road last year and really liked it, so I thought this would be worth reading before I was the movie (since the movie is nominated for so many awards & it's the Coen brothers...).

This book was very different from The Road - much more mystery and action and extremely violent. I'm not sure I'll be able to stomach a Coen-brothers treatment of the violence in the book...

It was a good fast read though.

The Man Without a Past

Tonight I watched a Finnish film, The Man Without a Past, in native language with French subtitles - that always requires a bit of effort.

The movie is by Aki Kaurismäki.

My DH recommended it as I was home alone wanting to watch something, and he'd seen it fairly recently.

Stir Fry Veggies

I used to make stir-fried veggies all the time, and then I stopped. I don't really know why I stopped, because I always liked it, and was good at varying the veggies based on what was on hand and what kind of mood I was in. For a long time I made the veggies in chicken broth and some cayenne pepper - nothing Asian at all. Tonight I went a bit more Asian - soy sauce, a dash of sesame oil, a bit of that spicy red sauce... very yummy and easy. I need to put this back into regular rotation...

Modern Art Collection New Hanging - Centre Pompidou

After seeing Giacometti we passed through half of the Modern Art Collection at Beauborg, seeing the years 1905-1960 on the 5th floor. It's the re-hanging of the permanent collection, with huge impressive showings of Matisse, Delaunay, Leger, Picasso, Mondrian and so many others. There was a whole room of Fauves other than Matisse which I really appreciated too.

I was really happy to discover a painter I didn't know, Kupka, who had 2 magnificant paintings on display.

L'Atelier de Giacometti - Centre Pompidou

I went to the Giacometti expo at Beaubourg today with 2 friends. It was really great, jam-packed with sculpture and his fantastically haunting paintings. I bought the book of the expo and hope to get back again before it closes, although no guarantees...

Applesauce

Making applesauce has become one of my standards. I tend to make it at least once a month - whenever my DH and I haven't coordinated well on our shopping and both of us come home with kilos of apples, or when I notice more than 2 old and wrinkly apples in the fruit bowl.

It's really simple and always yummy.

Rabbit is Rich - John Updike

I've been reading John Updike's Rabbit is Rich for the past few weeks. I've been working my way through this amazing series since last Spring, and it's an amazing series of books. I love the human qualities of Harry and his family who have tons of imperfections but are likeable anyway. It's really impressive to see a series that is created where each book is so powerful, and it's clear to see why these books have won the Pulitzer and so many other prizes.

Ferdinand Hodler @ Musee d'Orsay

I went to see the Ferdinand Hodler expo at the Musee d'Orsay today, cutting it close (as the exhibit ends tomorrow) but pleased I actually got one of the Parisian art things I want to see accomplished.

Ferdinand Hodler is the Swiss impressionist-period painter who never had much success in France, but is hugely respected in Switzerland. I really liked his portraits, the works he did on working people (woodcutters and the like) and most especially the landscapes. His work is very different from Georgia O'Keefe but I found a lot of the same power and grandeur and boldness to it.

Crêpes

I made crepes this morning for breakfast. My DSS told me last night that Feb 2nd was crepe day - I have no idea for what reason, but he wanted them and I'd found a recipe a few weeks back and I'd been wanting to try making them, so I didn't need much pushing.

The recipe was pretty easy - 2 eggs, 150g flour, 250ml milk, pinch of salt, spoonful of rum. Butter on the crepe pan and away you go... The hardest part is getting the pan hot enough to cook but not burn, and moving the batter around fast enough to make a thin crepe right away. I ate mine with sugar sprinked on, my DH had sugar and whipped cream, and the DSS had caramel spread on his...

They were good, everyone was happy, and I'd make them again!

Top Gun

This one is embarrassing, but my excuse is the DSS... I thought he'd like the movie since it's action and Tom Cruise (he really liked Mission Impossible).

It was less action than I'd remembered and the plot and acting were weak... Plus the music, hairstyles, clothes... totally 80's. Almost a trip down memory lane, but we watched w the French soundtrack, not English, so there wasn't even that pleasure...