Four Course Meal

In France, when you have someone over for dinner. It's a four course meal.

You start with your appetizers. Something simple like olives or beans mixed with a good olive oil/fresh herbs with baguette, or a simple dip with crackers. No need to break the bank or spend more than 5 minutes on it.

Then, you have your main course. It usually has a protein (meat/fish), starch and an optional vegetables.

Optional - 5th course would be a salad between the main meal and cheese plate. But if we're talking about 4 course meal, this would be skipped.

After the main meal, it's cheese time. Of course...mostly raw milk cheeses from Androuet. OF COURSE. :)

Then, dessert. Sometimes I make a cake, but more often, the boulangerie puts my guests' minds at ease by keeping me out of baking. It's not my forte. I like to think it's because I don't own a kitchen timer, but I think I am just bad at it.

I like this. I like the 3 hour meal. I like the bounty of food. I like that dinner is not over in 30 minutes.

That's it. Just missing this. And a good olive oil. Anyone know of a good olive oil here in the states?!?! I have a bottle of Maille olive oil coming from France. But in the mean time (and for after)...I would like to have a good olive oil.

Also...

Any opinions on buying a new construction house vs. a resale house? Just need a general discussion.

We are weighing options!! It is horrible to be so grown up.

Love,
P

Eats

OH! ONE MORE THING! My friend, Kim, has a great recipe blog. She gets inspired by recipes from TV and life...and well, she goes in the kitchen and makes up these great dishes:

http://kropkafamilyeats.blogspot.com/

Been really impressed with it so far! Most of her stuff is super easy to make and it's really good. Uses normal ingredients and tastes delicious. I've made her Green Chile Enchiladas, Green Chile cheesy rice, and Butternut squash pasta sauce. ALL delicious! Can't wait to read more. HINT KIM!!! I'm making your Asian salad next which I think is as Asian as your French chicken dumplings are French. But I think it sounds delicious so I'm making it! :)

I Miss Paris. A>LOT

Very ridiculous post. Skip if you have much better things to do. I am sure you do.

So I knew I would miss Paris...but I never knew how much. TO think I might not ever go back there to live. In my head, I still say, "Next time we're back in Paris, I need to get ______."

Like we're going back soon.

And now, I see French stuff everywhere. An article in Martha Stewart Living deconstructing Cassoulet. Yes, it deserves a capital C. And oh how I miss my French ingredients. My cooking is not the same.

SO I am in constant search of my "french life." The other day, I bought cucumbers from Costco because they were from England and the most like the gigantic cucumbers I used to eat in France.

I buy my yogurt from Trader Joe's because it's the most like the French yogurt. Yoplait just tastes like something manufactured instead of food.

I think along the way, I am going to post random posts about things I miss that I didn't expect. I had a moment the other day and now I can't remember what it was. It was something small.

Like...I miss walking up Avenue des Gobelins towards Rue Mouffetard on a Sunday to go to church, buy things for market, and walking back home. And now I can post about it because we don't live there anymore.

I love the Chinese rotisserie chicken guy who seasoned his chicken with Chinese 5 spice so it was as good as getting Chinese barbeque.

I miss getting all bundled up with a sweater, scarf, coat, gloves, hat, etc for the cold because we'd be walking. Now, I just wear a coat, run to my car, and then run to the store.

I miss walking.

I miss walking around with crumbs down my clothes all the time because I was always eating a pastry or a baguette.

I miss my vacation in the Southwest of France. I think that was my favorite one. People ask me all the time about my favorite vacation...and I usually list about 3. But I think I have a winner now.

I apparently don't want to go to bed if I am blogging about this at 12:14am.

I REALLY miss the Senko bakery on the street that runs to the right of the American church. They make an AMAZING ratatouille that I need to start working on to recreate it.

I think that's the thing I miss the most. The food. More than anything else. The vacations and the food. I am constantly wondering where I'll find the ingredients I need and what they will taste like.

Ok, that's enough. I need to go to bed.
P

New Year, New Post, New Blog Title, New Place

GOSH! What HASN'T changed since my last blog post?!?!

Well, let's finish up our last moments in Paris.



First up, Brian's work party for the kiddos at Christmas. They turned Michael into a tiger:

Then, we'll fast fwd to moving day, Thursday, December 17th. We woke up to this:

Snow and slush! JOY! Actually, it was really great to see Paris blanketed in white one last time.
The movers came and Michael and I ran downstairs to play with the snow on our street:

Then we went to starbucks to get coffee and breakfast for us! We ate on the floor of our kitchen and got crumbs all over the place from our pastries from Boulangere du Monge.

On our last day in Paris, Saturday I believe it was, we started by going to see the big Christmas tree at Notre Dame. I thought Michael would be interested, but he was too cold and buried himself in his Dad's jacket the whole way.

Dang this camera...could have used some fill flash. But we at least have a family picture in front of Notre Dame! Our 1st one on our last day in Paris

Then, we walked the 30 minutes home just in time to catch this Parisian attempting to parallel park using what plastic bumpers are designed to do:

Then, we visited with our building family friends, Les Salles and visited with Chrystelle, Thomas, Benjamin and Francois (after lunch) one last time. They really advanced my French and also were great company! :)

THEN, one last look at our empty apartment and a family picture there. Still brings tears to my eyes to realize it's finally over. And I mean tears of sadness, not of joy:

And I just love this one of Michael and Brian. What a funny relationship they have together:

Afterwards, lunch at our favorite restaurant, Au Petit Marguery...this time with Michael. He enjoyed a nice lunch of fish, sauteed vegetables, fois gras/pates, mushrooms, cornichons...gosh, so proud of my little gourmand. Our favorite waiter was there and we were sad to say good bye.
And then we rounded the night out with dinner at PICARD! :) Don't ask me why, but I just had to have blanquette de poulet for my last meal. FROZEN FOOD at that! But it was SO good and we had a nice meal for lunch already.

So now...new chapter, new place. No longer the Besancon Life in Paris. What should I name my blog now?

Suggestions? Ideas? Post them in Comments!

Love,
P