La Tour d'Argent

(http://photoartistiqueparis.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/tourdargent.jpg)

Isn't this photo lovely?  Doesn't it make you want to cruise along the Seine?  If you've ever taken the bateau ride you've passed by the famous restaurant La Tour d'Argent whether you knew it or not.  It's the tallestl building pictured here, all lit up.  The view from the restaurant is of the back of Notre Dame cathedral on the Ile de la Cité (check out their website -http://www.tourdargent.com/).  It's been in the news of late because a wine auction was held this week, selling off 18,000 bottles from their 450,000 bottle cellar.  A 1788 bottle of cognac sold for 25,000 euros, about $37,000, these days and times.  The proceeds of that bottle went to a children's charity, Association Petits Princes.  A London-based French entrepreneur bought it.  Collectors and investors from France, Japan, the U.S. and Russia bought up the bottles, spending approximately 1.54 million euros (about 2.3 million dollars).  Evidently, room is needed for new bottles and money is needed to redo the kitchen in order to try to earn back the lost Michelin stars.  I am quite sure that I will never grace the dining room of La Tour d'Argent, but I will continue to admire it from the Seine on my annual cruise down the river.  I am equally as sure that my taste buds would not know the difference between a $37,000 dollar bottle of cognac and, say, one that cost $30 (I do not think I've ever bought a bottle... I've sampled it, though).

Note:  I did some research after first posting this-- I asked Seth at Wine Authorities what one should expect to pay for a "decent" bottle of cognac.  He came back with $200.  Okay then.  Next, I asked the bartender at Nantucket Grill at Sutton Station where I was sipping a glass of Pinot Noir and he said to  never go under $30, $50-$60 is more like it, but that there are bottles of the stuff that go for about $3000.  Evidently they are in beautiful crystal bottles that are collectors' items.

Did you know that the restaurant in the movie Ratatouille is based on La Tour d'Argent?  Now you do!  I love that movie-- the scene when the rats are on the roof roasting their cheese and they get hit by lightening is too funny.

It is Friday.  I do not have after school study hall duty so I am able to leave school at the "normal" time, around 3:30.  I think a civilized celebration is in order.  A celebration of another good week, chilly weather signaling the approach of Christmas, the fact that one of my all-time favorite students (I know, I know, I am not supposed to have favorites) is home from his tour in Afghanistan safe and sound, the ASU Mountaineers are in the play-offs, traveling to Montana to play tomorrow on their way to another possible national championship, Durham Academy's varsity basketball teams traveling to Charlotte to play two games (the boys' team won in overtime against Hickory Grove), and the Guilford College men's JV basketball team will play in the Dean Dome Saturday afternoon.

Anyway, here is what a civilized afternoon looks like...

 Tomorrow I am taking a group of my students and the BFF to the Saturday afternoon performance of "Phantom of the Opera" at the DPAC, Durham's fabulous new performing arts facility.  I cannot wait.  I've never seen the stage production.  I've watched the 1943 film version with Claude Rains several times, though, because my son was obsessed with it when he was around 8 or 9 years old.

Hmmm, as for dinner, a nice warm pot of ratatouille would taste good tonight, n'est-ce pas?  I don't know if they serve this at La Tour d'Argent or not.  Pressed duck is their speciality.  They even have a farm where they raise their own ducks and when you order one, you receive a card with its number.  At least that's what I read.

Ratatouille

(from My French Kitchen by Joanne Harris - author of Chocolat- & Fran Warde)

Serves 6

9 Tbsp. olive oil

2 red onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3 red bell peppers, seeded and cut into chunks

2 eggplants, cut into chunks

4 zucchini, cut into chunks

3 (14 1/2 oz) cans chopped tomatoes in juice, or 2 lbs ripe fresh tomatoes, peeled

Bunch of oregano, chopped

Bunch of marjoram, chopped

Bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat 3 Tbsp of the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add the onions and garlic, and sauté for 3 minutes.  Add the peppers, eggplants, and zucchini; mix well and cook for 5 minutes or until the vegetables have gained a little color.  The add the tomatoes, 1 2/3 cups water, the oregano, marjoram, parsley, salt and pepper; mix well and simmer gently over medium-low heat for 1 hour, stirring from time to time.  Stir in the remaining 6 Tbsp olive oil and check the seasoning.  Serve hot or at room temperature.

For variations, try using red wine instead of water, or chilies for extra bite.

Anouchka's Chile Garlic Bread

Serves 6

1 medium-hot fresh red chile, such as jalapeno or red cherry

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 sprig thyme

1 tsp coarse sea salt

12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 baguette

Heat the oven to 375F.

Cut the chile in half lengthways, remove the seeds, and dice the flesh.  (Keep the seeds in if you like the heat.)  Put the chile, garlic, thyme leaves (stripped from the stalks), and salt in a mortar and pestle, and pound until it forms a paste.  Put the butter in a bowl, add the paste, and mix well.

Slice the bread almost to the bottow every 1 1/4 inches or so, then put some of the butter into each incision, spreading it over the inner surfaces.  Put the bread on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Serve hot.

(If the strength of the garlic seems a little overpowering to you, roast it in the over for a sweeter, more delicate taste before blending it with the other ingredients in a mortar and pestle.)

Bon appétit et bon weekend, Paris!

Le shopping

Oui,  Pinky and I are always ready to go back to Paris.  If I were in Paris right now, though, I would not be shopping.  (Well, maybe for les petits cadeaux de Noël-- Christmas gifts.)  I do not like to shop.  At least not in the way that most people do or should I say not in the way that we women have a reputation for doing.  I do like looking.  As Carol of Paris Breakfasts fame posted today, the French saying is faire du lèche-vitrine- window-shopping or licking the windows.  The French do up their windows right.  They are works of art.

 

(See, I only have photos of food shops...)

Once in a while, I ask myself if I think I would enjoy shopping if I had an unlimited budget, could just breeze into a store, pick up what I want/need, pay for it and then breeze right out.  Good question. 

I am not really into fashion.  I tend to wear the same type of clothes-- for school, a black skirt or pants, a white shirt of some sort and a sweater, preferably pink.  I love jeans.  Since the stretch material became popular, I am really happy.  And comfortable, I might add.  I love scarves, though.  That's about as trendy as I get.  Boring?  Peut-être.

But I do not spend much money on my clothes.  I can't remember the last time I paid full, non-sale price for some piece of clothing for myself.  In Arles, I discovered that on Wednesday mornings there was a section of the market devoted to secondhand clothing and I was in heaven.  I found several sweaters there to keep me warm when the weather turned chilly in October.  One in cashmere even.  For 2 euros each- about $3 at the current exchange rate.  So, I confess right here that I am a thrift store shopper.

My last adventure out and about to see what I could find delivered two treasures.  My new favorite  sweater, pale pink, of course, never-been-worn-before-because-it-still-has-the-tags-on-it Talbot's-- here's a sleeve.

I just love it.  All cotton, too, and quite warm today.

And my other treasure--

A beautifully framed drawing of the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris.  It is named the Brand New Bridge although it is the oldest standing bridge crossing the Seine.  It was brand new in 1607,  inaugurated by King Henri IV (1553-1610).  It links the Right Bank to the Left Bank, but even more importantly, it spans the Ile de la Cité, the medieval heart of Paris.  There is a lovely statue of Henri on the bridge, too.   It was commissioned by his widow, Marie de Médecis in 1614, destroyed in 1792 during the French Revolution and rebuilt in 1818.  This chef d'oeuvre of it now hangs on my wall.  A very big merci to whomever donated it to Goodwill so that it could find its way to me, lover of all things French and Parisian.

I look forward to my trip up to Spruce Pine to see my family at Christmas and to hunting for bargains with my little sister.  She loves thrift shopping, too.

Looking at the cheese shop window made me think of an egg dish from Ben and Noah of Fickle Creek Farm.  So, here you are!  A quick dinner... add a warm baguette, some bacon or sausage, a nice glass of - well, I am not sure what would be totally proper with this-- I usually have a bottle of young red Côtes du Rhône on hand, so that is my go-to wine.  Some help here?

The BEST Quick Eggs

6 eggs

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 oz arugula

4 oz feta cheese

Sauté arugula (yes, use leaf stems) in oil.  Crack eggs into arugula and soft scramble.  Place into serving dish.  Crumble cheese on top.

Makes 2-3 servings.

Bon appétit, les pulls roses!

Bon anniversaire à la Tour Eiffel

In French class today, we paid homage to La Tour Eiffel.  She is 120 years old this year.  We made a display, some students colored pictures I gave them or found their own.  And of course, a party just isn't a party without cakes and cookies, n'est-ce pas?  I took photos --one young darling asked me "Do you always take pictures of your food, madame??" Eh, oui...  My little Canon PowerShot is always nearby with an extra battery all charged and ready to go.  (The BFF just got a really nice shiny new camera- un appareil-photo- an early Christmas gift and I admit to being a little bit green with envy.)

So here is what was lovingly prepared by some of my students in honor of La Tour Eiffel--

A lovely pink Tour!  My favorite color!  Merci, Christen!

Cookies with sparkly yellow icing for the lights at night!  Merci, Celia!

A cookie cake decorated and colored blue in honor of my visit last November (they've seen loads of my photos, of course)!  Merci, Tim!

A yummy sugar cookie cut out in the appropriate shape being guarded by my pink flamingo!  Merci, Bonnie!

And the pièce de la résistance... this is a cake put together and decorated with fondant and then decorated with piped icing.  Merci, Maggie (and Sydney who doesn't even take French)!

There were also cupcakes, chocolate truffles and donuts with sprinkles consumed today in her honor.  We watched a keynote presentation put together by one of my 7th graders and learned quite a bit of trivia.  Don't we all just love that kind of stuff?  How many tons of metal, rivets, steps, visitors, light bulbs, gallons of paint, suicide attempts and daredevil feats?  I take my students to the top every year.  This coming March we will have lunch in the newly opened Restaurant 58 on the first level.  The writer Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) supposedly ate lunch at one of the restaurants there every day although he claimed to hate la Tour Eiffel.  He said it was the only place in Paris where he could eat and not have to look at it.  I am not sure I believe that story.

And I even decided to bring in my "leaning Tower of Eiffel" for the classroom shrine.  I will not be giving up my day job any time soon to pursue a career in painting.

Marshmallow Fondant Icing

(http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm) 

I haven't tried this yet, but Maggie used this recipe to make the fondant for her cake.  It looks like a lot of fun, so I will give it a whirl soon. (I did taste it and it's really good... but how can you go wrong with marshmallows and powdered sugar??  Impossible!)

Bon anniversaire, La Tour Eiffel!

Noël en France

 Arles, Place de la République, December 2008

As usual, I should be doing something constructive.  I honestly started out that way this morning.  Really I did.  I made coffee, read the ever-shrinking Durham Herald-Sun and started on some school work.  Grading the last of my 7th graders' Paris Projects.  And that's where the trouble started.  I googled (oui, my favorite internet invention) Paris black and white photos so that I could add one to the evaluation sheet I decided to use and well, I stumbled upon this photo by Peter, one of my cyber blog pals--

http://peter-pho2.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I love his blog and his wonderful photos.  Well, that lead to looking at his most recent posts, one of which is about the Paris department stores Le Printemps and Galeries Lafayette and how they've decked out their windows this year for Christmas or Le Noël.  Next thing I know, I am wandering down memory lane, remembering last November and December and the decorations I saw before leaving France.  So, off I went to iPhoto and started wading through the 20,135 pictures I have downloaded on this lovely little MacBook Pro.  I did zero in on Paris in November and Arles in December, just to give myself a little bit of credit.

This is what one of the windows of Galeries Lafayette looked like last year.  The theme was les flamants roses, pink flamingoes.  I sincerely believe that they did that just for moi.  I love these birds and cannot wait to get back to the Camargue for another close up of them.  They put little steps in front of the windows so that the little ones can get a better view.

Visit Peter's blog to see what they look like this year http://peter-pho2.blogspot.com/

This is a view of the beautiful ceiling of Galeries Lafayette with a bit of the huge tree they put up under the dome every year.

One of the last things I did before leaving Arles last December was to wander around town and check out the Christmas window displays.  I was desperately trying to see it all just one more time and take pictures so that I could do exactly what I have been doing this morning-- look at the pictures and bring it back one year later.

I loved this one in a shop that sells Provence souvenirs in Arles... the crèche scene and the animals.   My students and I are going to try to make our own santons or crèche figures before the break by using sculpey clay (which I sincerely hope is on sale at Michael's or A.C. Moore this week).  I am not at all artistic, but my students are very creative so I am excited about this project.  On va voir.  I will take photos, bien sûr.  You can count on that.

This was the decoration hanging across street just outside the Arles house on Rue Pierre Euzeby.  I feel certain he is sitting there again this year, looking out at the Rhône.  Maybe Père Noël arrives by boat in Arles?

And this is the wreath I bought at Leo and Jonas' school Christmas fair.  The parents and students make all kinds of crafts, invite local artisans and have a Saturday fair so that everyone can do their Christmas shopping.  We spent an entire morning there last year, shopping and even having lunch in the school cafeteria.  Chef Érick gave the boys money to shop for their gifts and off they went.  Leo gave me a pair of earrings.  I brought home some gifts for friends.  This wreath was my favorite.  At first I thought it was for the door, American-style.  After we got it back to the house, Chef Érick found a candle and showed me that it is for the table.   I plan to have one similar to this on my table soon.  The smell of a frasher fir (voted the #1 Christmas tree, named for Scot botanist John Fraser who explored my home, the southern Appalachian Mountains, in the late 1700's; it has excellent needle retention, not a small factor according to the un-ex-- the top three factors in choosing a Christmas tree according to him are shape, scent and needle retention)... that's the smell of home for me (Spruce Pine!), as well as Christmas.

This cookie recipe came to me about 25 years ago from my friend Jean Sartain.  I make them every Christmas.  Just looking at the stained recipe card makes me smile.

Molasses Crinkles

(makes 4 dozen cookies)

3/4 c. butter

1 c. brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 c. molasses

2 1/4 c. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Granulated sugar

Cream butter and sugar together.  Add egg and molasses and beat until well-blended.  Combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture and mix thoroughly.  Chill dough for at least one hour.  Shape the dough in one-inch balls (rolling it between your hands works really well if the dough is well chilled).  Roll balls in granulated sugar and place two inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake at 350 F for 10-12 minutes.  Adjust baking times to the style of cookie you prefer-- I like mine soft so I bake them for about 9 minutes.  Baking them longer makes them more like ginger snaps.

Bon appétit, Noël en France!

Mon petit chèvre

 In my last post, I wrote about my little goat santon, but I didn't include him in the photo.  He sits on my mantle year round.  He doesn't have to spend the non-Christmas months put away in a box with all the other holiday decorations.  I like to admire him.  He reminds me of the Provence festival in Arles where I bought him. 

 

In July 2007, Chef Érick and I were invited to be part of Collectif Prouvènço, a celebration of Provençal culture held every other year in the Jardins d'Été in Arles.  We put on a cooking demonstration featuring Fricot des barques, a dish that was popular with sailors on the Rhône many years ago.  It was served in the local inns.  We "aproned" up and while Chef Érick demonstrated how to make the dish and talked into the microphone, I fetched and just generally assisted.  We had made the dish in advance and put together another just to show everyone how to do it.  I passed out samples to the crowd and Chef Érick answered questions.  The only question I remember was the one that brought about the lengthy discussion of which wine one should serve with the dish.  I do not remember the consensus of the crowd or Chef Érick's recommendation, but I would go with a nice Côtes du Rhône red, bien sûr.

At this festival, there was music and dance perfomances and vendors selling books about the history and language of Provence and crafts, most notably the traditional santons.  It was a typically beautiful summer day in Provence, with Roman soldiers and gladiators roaming around town... nothing out of the ordinary.

 

Chef Érick's friend Mireille Chérubini who owns Taberna Romana, a restaurant in St. Rémy de Provence overlooking the site of Glanum, a Roman city that is under excavation, had set up a café there also.  We would take clients there sometimes for lunch if we were out and about near St. Rémy.  Mireille serves only traditional Roman dishes, using ingredients found locally, just as the Romans did. 

 

This is her website:

http://www.taberna-romana.com/index.php

Chef Érick Vedel's Fricot des barques - Fricot di barco

(Mixture of the barges)

For 4:

1 kg / 2.2 lbs. beef rear shank cut (you can also use beef ribs, if you wish)

6 salted anchovy fillets, be careful that bones are removed

3 garlic cloves

3 onions

3 Tbsp capers

6 bay leaves crumbled

1 bunch of parsley

3 Tbsp olive oil

Pepper from a mill

Slice the beef in thin slices.  Chop all the rest of the ingredients finely and mix them together. 

In a heavy bottomed casserole dish, pour in olive oil to cover the bottom.  Lay one layer of the meat slices on the bottom, cover with the chopped mixture, follow with another layer of meat and another layer of the chopped mixture, and so on until all is used up, ending with the chopped layer.  Cover and cook for 3 hours over a low flame or in a medium hot over.  If steam escapes, then add a bit of water from time to time.

This is very good served with fresh pasta or with rice.

Bon appétit, la Provence!

Almost December...

 

As hard as it is to believe, November is fading fast and December is right around the corner.  Now that Thanksgiving has passed, I am willing to concede that Christmas is less than a month away.  Okay, friends and neighbors, go ahead and put up your trees and lights now.  I just do not like to mix my holidays.  Let me fully enjoy one at a time.  Then I am ready to move on.

I was reminded how Thanksgiving 2008 was spent by an email from Betty of the Arles 6.  She and her handsome men came to visit me in Arles.  We shopped at the open air market in Arles for our meal,

 

 tasted wine in Châteauneuf-du-Pape,

 

 ate pieds et paquets (well, David ate that- "les chaussures n'ont pas le choix..." David tried to say something about the heat in the café but instead he told us that shoes have no choice...) and made wonderful meals together.

 

We drove around the countryside, spotting a field of lambs running around playing,

 

we saw olives being pressed in Les Baux, went to see Van Gogh paintings projected onto stone walls while listening to stirring classical music at La Cathédrale d'Images.  We visited Claudine and tasted her chèvre.  We went to the Carpentras truffle market where we had scrambled eggs with truffles and red Côtes du Ventoux wine.

 

We brought home our own truffes and made fresh pasta with a walnut sauce to have with them.  We opened a bottle of Châteauneuf red to accompany this delicacy.

Betty and I also went to Provence Prestige, a huge Christmas market held in the Palais des Congrès in Arles.  I had read all about it in La Provence, the local newspaper, and couldn't wait to see it for myself.  We walked from the B&B, passing through town and across the bridge to the other side of Arles, near the Musée Départemental de l'Arles Antique.  We roamed around tasting olive oil, chocolates, nougat (one of the 13 traditional Provence Christmas desserts) and fougasse, a Provence pastry that can be sweet or savory.  We even sat down at one point for a cup of tea and a lovely slice of tarte.  We looked at hundreds of santons, the manger or crêche figurines made in Provence.  Silly me, I only came home with a little goat figure.  Oh well.  I bought a book with recipes for the thirteen desserts, a lovely tin of herbes de Provence, a keeper for my sel de Camargue or Camargue salt and a beautiful scarf from a vendor who sells traditional clothing for the lovely Arlésiennes, the legendary beautiful ladies of Arles and the gardiens, the cowboys of the Camargue.  We also tasted (and bought!) an orange colored candy.  My best guess is that it was orange white chocolate with almonds in it.  Oh my, I would love to have some of it right now...  Hmmm, wonder if one of my Provence friends would send me some for Noël?  Or maybe Santa could pick some up on his way over Provence and put it under the tree for moi?

Provence Prestige is November 26-30, 2009, with 150 vendors.  There are so many beautiful things for sale that I cannot even begin to list them. 

Check it out at www.provenceprestige.com.  The website is a feast for a Provence-lover's eyes.

These cookie bars have nothing to do with Christmas or December even, but they are popular around my house.  The recipe came to me from the mom of one of my advisees from last school year.  She said she found it in the 2001 Carolina Thyme cookbook published by the Junior League of Durham and Orange Counties.  I made some for my boys and the BFF's boys for Thanksgiving.

 

Carmelitas

Makes 2 dozen small bars

1 14oz. bag caramels, unwrapped

5 Tbsp half and half

1 c. flour

1 c. oatmeal

3/4 c. packed light brown sugar

3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) melted butter

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/3 c. semisweet chocolate chips

Heat the caramels and the half and half in a saucepan over medium heat until the caramels are melted, stirring frequently; set aside.  Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, butter, baking soda and salt in a bowl.  Press half the crumb mixture into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.  Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes.  Spread the caramel mixture over the hot crust.  Try not to spread it to the edges of the crust- it will be really hard to remove from the pan if it touches the edges and cools.  Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the caramel layer and then top with the remaining crumb mixture.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.  Refrigerate for one hour before cutting into bars.

Note:  These bars freeze well.  Also note that you can use more than 1/2 of the crumb mixture for the bottom and not as much on the top.  I also use less chocolate chips than the recipe calls for so that we can have more of the caramel flavor.

Bon appétit, Décembre!

Turkey Day 2009

Can you see the Eiffel Tower peaking out from under the sliced turkey?

Another Thanksgiving, my 51st one, has come and gone.  The relatives have departed, leftovers are stacked in the refrigerator, most of my college-age son's clothes are washed, and we even braved the Black Friday shopping at the mall for an hour or so this afternoon.  Birthday boy asked for a new pair of jeans from American Eagle and we actually found a parking place without circling the mall a dozen times and getting aggravated.  The Christmas decorations are up and Santa was in place, waiting for the little ones (and not so little ones) to come sit on his lap and have their photos taken.  I must admit that we never took the boys to the mall for a photo with Santa.  They admired him from afar but wanted nothing to do with him up close.  Okay with me.
I am quite proud to say that my first turkey was a success.  I was a bit nervous about whether or not it would thaw in time and if I could manage to get it done enough but not too done.  We've all had dry turkey and while it will not make you ill the way undercooked turkey will, you do feel as if you will choke on it trying to get it down, n'est-ce pas?  I kept my eye on the "doo-dad" (a technical term, you know) and used my brand new kitchen thermometer.

We started our repast (from the French word for meal- repas) with shrimp sauteed in butter with garlic, crudités or and dip, chèvre from Elodie Farms (the Durham Farmers' Market was open Tuesday afternoon), and onion tart.  We toasted with a lovely bottle of champagne my sister-in-law gave us a few months ago.  My father-in-law fell in love with Dave's fig and honey goat cheese spread.  I even made the ultimate sacrifice and sent him home with the little bit left over...  Every time I said I'd love to have a little farm and a goat, he and his bride of 53 years laughed.  They have been there and done that way up in the northwest corner of Nebraska and know that it is not quite the romantic idea that I think it is.  That's okay, though, and when I have my little farm in the south of France they can still come visit and milk my goat if they become nostalgic for the old days.  Our nephew only had one carrot-- he insisted that he was saving himself for the big meal.  I did admire his will power in the face of the garlic shrimp that smelled divine.

My sister-in-law brought a sweet potato apple dish, cranberry-orange relish and rolls.  Our nephew added cupcakes he had made himself.  My mother-in-law brought pumpkin pies, homemade fudge, cherry cheesecake and the fixings for stuffing (she also brought homemade cinnamon buns that we consumed for breakfast with coffee from the new Mr. Coffee coffee maker).

I made a cranberry apple dish (recipe handed down by the BFF's mom), mashed potatoes and green beans (the weakest part of the meal- just not green bean season).  My mother-in-law makes awesome gravy so I left her to that after the turkey came out of the oven.  My sister-in-law and I had vowed that we were going to pay careful attention and learn how to make it ourselves, but we failed miserably.  I know it involved corn starch and pan drippings and that's it.  Oh well.  I chose the bottle of Le Garrigon, a red Côtes du Rhône the BFF had given me (from The Wine Authorities), to accompany the onion tart, but it turned out that only my brother-in-law and I were drinking red so it also accompanied my turkey.  My mother-in-law is a white wine drinker so I opened a bottle of Paul D. 2008 Grüner Veltliner, also from WA, for her. 
I was disappointed that neither of my sons would even try the onion tart.  I thought that the just-turned 22 year old would at least take one bite.  But he just couldn't seem to grasp the concept of a savory tart.  Pie, in his mind, should be sweet, involving cherries or pumpkin.  I tried, really I did.  I promised myself that I would not give up on him-- yet. 
After dinner, I talked several of them into playing Bananagram with me.  I discovered this game last week and love it.  It involves words and I am a self-proclaimed word-nerd.  I love crossword puzzles, spelling bees and Wheel of Fortune.  It is a really cool game, kind of like Scrabble. Stocking-stuffer idea if you have any word-nerds on your list...
We entertained our out-of-town guests with a visit to downtown Durham and a stroll around the American Tobacco Campus.  We are very proud of our city and love showing it off.  The day had started off very foggy, but by the time we drove downtown, the fog had burned off and the skies were blue.  The day after Thanksgiving, we went to the Nasher Museum at Duke to see two exhibits, Picasso and the Allure of Language (my third visit, but by far the most thorough) and Andy Warhol's Polaroids.  Our post-Thanksgiving lunch involved calling Brian and locating the OnlyBurger truck.  My nephew, who is in grad school at Carolina, had read my latest article in the Herald-Sun about OB and wanted to try it out.  Fortunately, we found them on our side of town and brought home bags of burgers and fries. No one was disappointed, I am thrilled to report.  Everything, down to the last fry, was consumed.  Thank you, Brian and OnlyBurger, for a little break from leftovers.
It was another beautiful, sunny day.  I have so much to be thankful for. It is now quiet, there are no dirty dishes waiting to be washed, Duke is beating UConn in basketball, Nebraska is beating Colorado in football, my boys are upstairs, and my un-ex and I are downstairs content in the satisfaction of a couple of days spent laughing with family members and our first Thanksgiving together in five years.  Oui, la vie est tellement bonne...  Life is indeed good.

My Caramelized Onion-Chèvre Tart

One pastry shell (I buy the refrigerated store brand that rolls out), see recipe for blueberry tart if you wish to make your own
3 onions, sliced
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
Thyme
Soft, fresh goat cheese, 3-4 ounces
Honey-Fig goat cheese spread, if desired

Spread the pastry shell into a 9 or 10 inch pan.
Caramelize the onions by melting the butter, adding the olive oil and then adding the onions.  Lower the flame to med-low, add the thyme, to taste,  and be patient, stirring the onions occasionally.  This will take 30 minutes or so.  When they are golden brown, remove them from the heat.
Crumble the goat cheese into the bottom of the pastry.  Spread the onions on top of the cheese.  Sprinkle the honey-fig goat cheese spread  on top, if you wish.
Bake for about 20 minutes at 425F or until the crust is browned.

Helen's Cranberry Apple Dish

3 c. tart apples (I use Granny Smith), peeled and diced
2 c. whole cranberries
1 c. granulated sugar
Mix together and put in a 10 x 13 pan.

Topping:
1 c. chopped pecans
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. melted butter
Mix together.  Put on top of cranberry-apple mixture.

Bake at 325F for one hour.

Serve hot or cold.

Bon appétit, Thanksgiving!