Dear Blog

Noon- Rest After Work

Vincent Van Gogh 1890

Dear Blog,

I have been writing thank you notes and you most definitely deserve one this fine December Sunday morning.  You have been my faithful companion since 2008.  You have given me a creative outlet and you never once have been critical of my thoughts, my split infinitives or my misplaced commas. You do not make me feel guilty, even when I neglect you for days and sometimes weeks.  I am the one who heaps on the remorse and I chastise myself for not paying more attention to you.  I am sorry. I could come up with a thousand excuses...

• Wow!  I haven't written anything for the past few weeks because I have been working on that book I told you I was going to write.  Not true.  I haven't written anything since the 1:00 am writing episode a couple of months back.  I can honestly say that I have been sleeping well with no sentences running through my head in the middle of the night...
• I have been working out!  Finally getting back into decent shape so that walking up the steps of the Arc de Triomphe won't kill me in March or embarrass me in front of my 22 students who will be practically running up them.  Nope.  I have walked a few times with the BFF and I have indeed lost weight, but I am basically a slug.  However, if I must go any time soon, I would rather it be in Paris...
• 'Tis the season!  I've been busy decorating, shopping, baking... I can't even go any further on that one.  I have a wreath on the door, a stack of addressed envelopes for Christmas cards and a list.  Does that count?
• I've been cooking my way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking!  Oops. Sorry, Julie Powell.  I know, I know, you've been there and done that.  Not by moi.  I did manage to bake the Thanksgiving turkey for the Ex-Ex, Son #2 and myself without burning it or drying it out.  I've probably only baked four turkeys in my 57 years on this earth.  And I did sneak a couple of bites to Sam, the best pup in the world, without getting caught.
• Enough.  Even I am not a good enough liar to keep it up.

So, if I have not been doing all of those things, what have I been up to?

• Brainwashing children to make them think that coming to French class is the best part of their day.  I sigh every time the bell rings because the class period goes by so quickly.  I've embarked on an idiom-a-day to begin class and they seem to enjoy trying to figure it out.  I found a great book--

• Some of my 8th graders and I did a Sunday afternoon painting class at Bull City Burger and Brewery with two fun young ladies from Wine and Design Durham.  I chose La Tour Eiffel, of course.  And in the wake of the horrific events of November 13, that was very à propos.  Wine and Design makes even me feel just a bit like an artiste.  We were not wining, by the way, just designing.

Annie's amazing chef d'oeuvre

Mr. P's tribute to Paris

• I was interviewed for our weekly News and Notes.  I felt like a rock star when the interview was published.  You can read about me and my love affair with France and French here.  KP, the author of the piece, and I have been friends and colleagues for many years.  She makes me sound much more interesting than I really am!

• And the really big deal in our family was the Ex-Ex's induction into the Durham Academy Sports Hall of Fame on December 4.  He is part of the second class of inductees.  He came to DA in 1981, starting out as a P.E. teacher, coaching 7th grade girls basketball and JV baseball. He has been our Director of Athletics for 25 years.  He no longer coaches, but he spent several years coaching varsity boys basketball and varsity softball.  He is only the second full-time AD at our school.  Son #1 drove down from Asheville and gave the introduction for his dad.  Proud doesn't even begin to describe how I felt that night.  I did have the presence of mind to video most of his introduction.  

So, dear blog, in conclusion, I have not forgotten about you.  I still love you and am so grateful for you.  I promise to pay more attention to you, even though you never ask for or demand my time.  I am always amazed and thrilled that there are readers every day.  I hope they enjoy the tried and true recipes and good stories that you faithfully give them.  You provide a forum for the ramblings of an ordinary woman who has extraordinary luck.

Bisous,

The Sabbatical Chef

                      Chef Érick Vedel, Arles 2009

For my 50th birthday, Érick invited friends over for dinner and made this cake for me.  A millefeuille cake with crème pâtissière between the layers.

After the kids and I painted the Eiffels, we decided to have an art exhibit, complete with treats, and invite the faculty and staff, as well as their classmates to view our canvases.  I decided to make financiers.  (Click for Dorie Greenspan's recipe on a blogpost from March 2013)



When I was finished, I had a bunch of egg yolks left over and couldn't bear to pour them down the drain.  I decided to make the crème pâtissière (also known as crème anglaise-- it is just basically vanilla custard) but to add a different twist to it.  I had a little container of lavender sugar in the my spice cabinet.  I took the custard to school for the 8th graders in my French club to sample and then left it in the faculty lounge.  I got quite a few compliments and some surprised tasters who didn't know that you can eat lavender.  I usually buy a bag of it at the market in Arles when I am there in the spring.
Click here for the recipe (as well as my ramblings from April 2009)  for the millefeuille cake and crème pâtissière minus the lavender.  I added perhaps a half teaspoon of the crushed florets.  I didn't think to take a photo... I was too busy licking the bowl.

Bon appétit, my dear blog and faithful readers!  Keep cooking and eating!

Random Sunday Update

This post is long overdue.  I should be rechecking and editing my mid-term exams.  I should be cleaning the downstairs floors.  Or folding laundry. Or emptying the dishwasher.  Or even taking a shower.  But I need to send some tender loving care to The Sabbatical Chef.  Hopefully my faithful readers haven't deserted me.

The Christmas tree is up and my downstairs smells of pine.  My favorite wintertime smell (well, right up there with sugar cookies baking in the oven...).  The crèche made up of tiny figurines given to me by La Brune is in the kitchen window.  I put it there so that I can look at it when I am washing dishes and cooking.  My kitchen sink gets a lot of use.  The figurines come baked into la galette des rois or King's Cake and La Brune has been collecting them her whole life.  They are now one of my prized possessions.

I really do not do much decorating other than the tree and a few random Santas placed around the house.  I did put lights outside on our porch and I hung a wreath that the Best Mother-in-Law gave us. I love this little tableau, too, that is on our mantle.  The Lovefest candles make it Christmas-y.  My Arles lady (me in a former life), her goat, and the lavender she loves.  Sam the Dog has been added.  The Ex-Ex bought it.  He has stopped calling Sam The Damn Dog, so early Christmas miracles do happen, Virginia.

Son #2 is home from his next to last semester of undergraduate work.  But, hey, who is counting? More home cooking is happening.  Yesterday I made beef stew.  In my beautiful blue Dutch oven that I gave myself for an early Christmas gift.  Stove top or oven ready for soups and stews.

I used the last of my Beaujolais Nouveau to make the stew.  Big sigh.

I stopped in at our newest grocery store, Fresh Market.  It just opened this past week and yesterday was my first chance to go in and wander around.  It won't be my everyday store, but I love it.  I could spend some serious money in there.  I treated myself to a couple of things yesterday.

A ridiculously expensive coffee tin-- yes, there is coffee in it.  David Lebovitz posted this past week about making treats and putting them in the tins he has collected this year.  So, I will blame him.  I, however, will not be giving mine away.

French demi-sel butter.  I will make some bread just so I can spread this butter on it and close my eyes and pretend I am back in Arles, eating the last of a baguette as I clean the table from breakfast. If only I had some of Érick's home made confiture...  He makes the best apricot jam ever.

I also bought America's Test Kitchen's Best-Ever Christmas Cookies Special Collector's Edition magazine.  I love Cook's Illustrated.  It is hands down the very best for recipes that I might be reluctant to try otherwise.  They have tested and tested and re-tested their recipes until they are fool-proof.  I look forward to adding a couple of new cookie recipes to my repertoire.  Palmiers and Pistachio-Raspberry Financiers are included this year.  One of the 8th grade girlies made blueberry financiers for her classmates this past week.

According to America's Test Kitchen:

Technically cakes, financiers are the name for the French bankers who frequented the bakery where they were invented.  They are traditionally made with almond flour and baked in small rectangular molds that resemble gold bars.

La Brune sent me my very own mold so I make them sometimes, too.  They are so good.  And the 8th Grade Girlie did an excellent baking job.

I've done a bit of shopping and found a cute Paris jar at TJ Maxx.  I filled it with Lindt chocolates as a gift for a young lady I tutor every Sunday.

In an attempt to French-ify my Sunday morning breakfast, I put my sausage on sliced sourdough bread and added some Dijon mustard.  It tasted much better eaten off my Mikasa Parisian Scenes plate, of course.

I know, I know... I am hopeless.  Does everything have to be French?  In my life, oui.

However, once in a while my true roots show.  Not my hair.  I am over that since I have returned to my natural hair color (or the absence of that natural color for half of my head).  My small town mountain roots.  The music I am listening to --  Balsam Range.  Sister Moo and I heard Buddy Melton sing at a BBQ festival in Asheville a few years back.  We were hooked.  What a voice. Bluegrass music at its finest, folks.  Moo has seen Balsam Range live several times since then around Spruce Pine and Burnsville, but she fears those days are over as they have hit the big time. They are playing at Best of Our State at the Grove Park Inn in January.

Listen in--



Go ahead and tap your toes.  Get up and dance if the spirit moves you.  Makes me want to clog.

I was reading through blogs one day last week and came across a post from Stephanie at Plain Chicken.  White Trash.  Doesn't necessarily sound very politically correct, does it?  I wouldn't want anyone to describe me or my family that way, but I can do it if I want to since it's my family.  Right?  Right.  I stopped at Harris Teeter grocery store on the way home from school and bought the necessary ingredients and whipped up a batch.  I took little plastic baggies of it to school to my buddies the next day.  And to a couple of upper schoolers whom I tutor in French 3 and 4.  Pretty yummy.  Nice combination of sweet and salty.

White Trash Mix
from www.plainchicken.com

3 cups corn Chex cereal
3 cups rice Chex cereal
3 1/2 cups Cheerios cereal
2 1/2 cups mixed nuts
1-12 oz. bag of M&M's
1 package of pretzel Goldfish crackers
3- 12 oz. packages of white chocolate chips

In a large bowl, toss together cereals, nuts, M&M's and pretzels.

Melt white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl on high for 1 minute.  Stir.  Continue heating chocolate in 30-second intervals until melted, stirring in between.

Pour melted white chocolate over cereal mixture.  Toss until fully coated.  Pour coated mixture on foil, parchment or waxed paper.  Allow chocolate to cool and set up.  Break mixture into pieces.

Bon appétit!  Happy shopping, happy baking, happy toe-tapping, happy decorating, happy getting ready for the holidays to all!

The writing continues... day 4

It is Day 4 and I am still writing.  I am up to 7913 words.  Inspiration comes from the wonderful world of iPhoto.  My photos bring the places I've visited back to me.  My fingers move across the keyboard attempting to bring these experiences back to life.  I am up to Arles 2006.  The Arles 6 (plus 1 in Paris!)  has returned.  I love these people.

Unadulterated joy and living in the moment.  That's what this is about.
The story has its fair share of angst and anguish as I examine and relive my past.  But if life hadn't taken me where it did, I would never have met these people (except for Arles Lucy/Sunflower Child).
I have put other projects on hold.  The Ex-Ex is eating his fair share of soup and egg salad sandwiches.  I have Dorie Greenspan's new book, Baking Chez Moi, sitting on my counter, but I haven't even opened it yet.

(photo from Dorie's website, cited above)

Financiers and French Apple Tarts will have to wait a few days until I am sure that I am going to finish this writing project by the deadline that I have taken on.

Wish me luck, mes amis.  Here's a post from the archives so you can get a feel for what I am trying to get down on "paper."

Sort of ...  A tribute to Chef Érick

Bon appétit to all writers and readers!

Double Nickels

The sun rose beautifully on my birthday last week.  I was very proud of myself for getting up in time to see the sight from the roof deck of the house we rented at Sunset Beach.  It was check out day and we were hoping to beat most of the other families off the island and avoid the traffic jams around Wilmington.  We accomplished that and celebrated with a biscuit at Bojangle's.  Yoo hoo!  My first biscuit of the summer and it was really good.

A package from Mme P had been patiently waiting at home for me for over a week with the instructions Ne Pas Ouvrir Avant le 27 Juillet.  So I did not ouvrir before July 27.  Can't risk making my dear Frenchie friend mad at me.  And she is a middle school teacher with beautiful, piercing blue eyes that see everything, even across the Atlantic Ocean.  Trust me on that.

I promptly got out the butter and went to work making financiers with my new moule and Dorie Greenspan's recipe.

The Ex-Ex and I went to dinner at Pizzeria Toro, one of my favorite spots.  I chose Orange County potatoes, bagna cauda (I had to ask... it is a sauce made with garlic and anchovies), and pecorino.

The Ex-Ex needed his meat so he chose House pepperoni, vidalia onions, and Rustico B.P. (the cheese, I am assuming).

With a red Italian Montepulciano.

I can spend hours there just watching the guys operate the pizza oven and watching the kitchen staff put it all together.

We then ventured up the street to Bull City Burger and Brewery.  The BFF was on duty, managing a crowd that was practically lined up out the door.  But she took the time to bring me birthday ice cream with a candle!

My first ice cream of the summer, too.  Double yoo hoo!

My gift from the BFF came the next day.  BCBB closed its doors to the public Sunday evening for a Hog and Beer Dinner.  The BFF invited me, Arles Lucy, and Ironwoman for the five course, plus amuse bouche, plus dessert dinner.  (I invited the Ex-Ex to go with me but he didn't think that he could eat some of the offerings so I took back the invite.  I hold to my Arles pledge to try anything that is offered to me by a chef I trust.  Seth Gross and his staff definitely deserve my trust.  The Ex-Ex was just fine with that.  He enjoys a break from my food adventures and photo-taking, I think.)

Amuse-bouche:  Pork Belly "Corn Dog" paired with Bryant Bridge Gateway Golden Ale.

It did indeed tickle my mouth.

First Course:  "Skin on Skin or Piel con Piel" Crispy Pork Skins- Chicharron, Pickled Pork Skin- Cueritos paired with Viola Weiss.

Very spicy delight.

Second Course:  "Head and Hash"  Pig Head Torchon breaded and deep fried, South Carolina Pork Hash paired with Parrish Street Pale Ale

(No photos taken... too busy eating, I guess.  I was very curious about this one.  The BFF texted me late one night a few days before the dinner to say she had just helped prepare it.  Yes, she did.  She has come a long way in the past couple of years...)

Third Course: "Kimchee vs. Kraut"  Weisswürst with our House Sauerkraut, Asian Five Spice Sausage with House Kimchee paired with Malbourne Maiboch.

I had been warned that the kimchee was spicy, but it was no where near the heat level of the first course which had left my lips tingling.

Fourth Course: (We were warned at the beginning by Seth, Grandé Burger Flipper,  to eat small portions... I listened because I knew this course was coming!):  "Of Course there's Salad"  Pork Rillettes with House Croutons, Local Greens Salad with Lardon, Hard Boiled Farm Fresh Eggs and Bacon Vinaigrette accompanied by Bull's IPA.

Oh mon dieu.  I could have dined on this course alone and been a very satisfied woman.  I am a big rillettes fan (a kind of pork paté).  The little toasts were perfect... crunchy yet chewy.  I ate two, I confess.  If I could've stashed the little pot of leftovers in my purse, I would have.  Trust me on that one.

The salad was perfect.  The vinaigrette delicious.

Scroll back up and take a look at the BFF's candle creation.  A mason jar filled with water and fresh mint with a floating candle.  I was very impressed!  The perfect touch.

Fifth Course:  "You've got the whole pork in your hand"  Pulled Pork Carnitas with House Made Tortillas, Cilantro, Red Onion, Salsa Verde and Lime paired with Pigmeat Markham Smoked Rye.

Since I had eaten two rillettes, I only had room for one of these.  But I wanted a second one.

Dessert:  House Made Vanilla Ice Cream with Bacon, Caramelized Sugar, and NC Peanuts with Bacon Tuile paired with HsaWaknoW (try spelling Wonka Wash backwards-- not easy) made with cacao nibs.  No kidding.  Very, very good.  Before dinner started, I was asked by the girls if I knew what tuile meant (we tend to zero in on dessert pretty quickly) and the only translation I know for the word is tile, like the lovely red tiles on roofs in the south of France.

Eager to impress Seth, I shared that little fact with him.  He grinned and told me that they had taught him that in culinary school.  So much for showing off.  The man knows everything.

It was a lovely evening and I enjoyed every minute (and bite).

Thank you, BFF!

I have such good friends who know me well.  Arles Lucy found beautiful sticky notes and wrapped them in a box with the Eiffel Tower on it.  My Sabbatical Chef photo notecards have already filled it up. (More about those one of these days.)

Ironwoman found Eiffel Tower goodies, too.  Cookie cutters that I have been coveting for a while--

Mildred the Mixer and I made cookies yesterday using a recipe for rolled sugar cookies that I have had for many years.  Oui, mine are pink, bien sûr!

Ironwoman also found Eiffel Tower chocolate molds, so I made some chocolate lollipops, too.  (The Ex-Ex is the taste-tester...)

Trop mignonnes, ces sucettes, n'est-ce pas?

She also found lavender infused balsamic vinaigrette at Blue Sky Oil and Vinegar.  We are lucky enough to have two of these stores near by.  One in Durham and one in Chapel Hill.

Another envelope arrived France, from French Frog.  He is very thoughtful, too, and has helped me grow my library of books about Provence. 

This one is full of photos, recipes, and decorating ideas, among other Provence specialities.  Such as this pot made from broken dishes--

Could we do this, Arles Lucy?

I treated myself to a bottle of my favorite French perfume.

Mme M gave me my first bottle quite a while back, when Cacharel first introduced it.  It is not available in stores in the U.S. (as far as I know), but I ordered it from Perfume Spot.  I had stopped wearing it for several years, but I missed it.  I hope they never stop making it.

It was a lovely birthday.  I received many happy wishes from friends on Facebook.  I am known to stretch the celebration out as long as I can, but now that it is August, it is time to call it a year.  I have moved on to "Double Nickels" as the guy who helped with the financing for our new car called it.  I was in total denial, thinking that I would be 54... until he and the Ex-Ex made me do the math.  Oh well.  (This post will be followed by an article I found that puts age in perspective.)  As Tommy Bell was fond of saying "It beats the alternative."  Very true.  Thanks for the advice, Daddy.  Sister Moo Moo has been teasing me with pictures of earrings that she bought for me, but I don't get them until I get up to Spruce Pine to see her.  I'm coming, I promise.  In time for a swim in the cement pond.

Bon appétit et merci to all my family and friends who helped make it a great day (and year!).