This Little Piggy Went to Market

Its been two years since I've been to Paris, But because of my acute sensitivity to food--I haven't forgotten a thing! As usual-Paris does not disappoint.

My sister joined me on this trip for her first visit to Paris in 47 years.. Since we both have the same childhood memories of food it was easy to spend most of the trip eating and reminiscing.

In one little pastry shop in Montparnasse (which we traveled to by metro specifically) we bought 5 pastries and ate them for breakfast/lunch. YUMMY!!!! One was this delectable puff type pastry that had been caramelized with a slightly perhaps lemony flavor-but nothing that would override the incredible butter taste that had permeated the entire roll. Another was an almond egg/cream type mixture that delighted with texture differences between the crackly pastry layers, the nutty soft but not gushy filling, and the sliced almonds on top. Spectacular. We looked everywhere for the caramelized butter pastry but never found it again. This is why I travel to that little shop.

We went to Angelina's, frequently. It is one of Paris's premier pastry shops. We were fortunate enough that it was two blocks from our hotel and our hotel room faced the entrance. I say fortunate because the lines start early and stay for most of the day. We could look out the window and see if there was no line and quickly scoot down to buy some delectable little morsel to munch on. After all-wouldn't want to get faint from lack of pastry for a couple of hours!

I had not been to the Paris markets in quite some time. Usually when I am in Paris the person with me is more interested in Notre dame and the Eiffel Tower than in pain au chocolat and beignet's. So I was delighted to spend time pursuing the markets and looking at food with someone who also remembered it as I did--delicious beyond compare, real and beautiful.

It is difficult to describe the french connection to food and their respect for everything that they put in their mouth. But a trip to the market or a walk along the street where there are food markets will tell the story.

Their vegetables are huge and beautiful and REAL. I bought 1/2 lb of strawberries and was amazed and delighted at their flavor and texture. Not even straight from the farmers market at home do they taste like this. Their produce and street food is never cheap or manufactured.

The white asparagus is a common fixture at all the markets. It is about an inch in diameter and absolutely gorgeous. The fennel heads are the size of grapefruits and the cauliflower is the size of a basketball.. everything is in perfect condition and beautifully ripe.

The French buy their food almost every day so they would not tolerate under ripe produce sitting in the store for a week or more just ripening or rotting. Because the food delivery system in the US must accommodate 300 million people it will be vastly different than if we were the size of Texas.

Nonetheless, the difference is astonishing and one could only hope to have the same quality at home. But I doubt we will ever see that. Even at the farmers markets in the US the food quality is not as good as in France. Our farming methods, soil and climate do not produce the same quality produce. And our standards, due to years of indifference and lack of quality, are much lower.

Our one disappointment was that as little girls we regaled on what we called Beignet's. They looked like dunkin donuts munchkins-but the taste, texture and smell are vastly different. We walked the market but could only find beignet's that looked like American donuts that were filled with apple and creme and other things. Not what we were looking for-- so we didn't taste them. Sadly, we never found our memory of a beignet. Although we are told by the locals they do still exist. But not to despair-we were able to buy several pastries and eat all of them as we strolled the food orgy before us.

I have taken some pictures of the produce and as you can see I am not lying (however since all the produce is out sized it is difficult to see in the pictures the magnitude of their beauty and size--take my word for it-HUGE!).

Be prepared for the next blog entry which will have some graphic pictures of real meat that you may feel "grossed out" by. However once again-their respect for the food and the animal is paramount. If you are going to eat chicken, or pork or rabbit-or whatever it is--you should know where it comes from, what it looks like outside the little cellophane wrapper at the grocery store, and you should have respect for its life and use all possible parts--enjoy the vegetable shots and prepare yourself for the others....

Oh, and sorry about no pastry shots from the little pastry shop in Montparnasse. We were so busy stuffing them in our little mouths like Little piggies that we didn't take the time to snap pictures. Ce la Vie! On a bien Manger!

Everyday Food

What to have for dinner. The biggest dilemma in America on a daily basis. Unless you happen to live in the white house and have a personal chef--this is a daily ritual that we can all relate too.

Why is it so difficult? If you have children I can imagine it is tough to be creative every day. But even beyond that-there is something within us that screams for something colorful, tasty, filling and exciting. Then we open the fridge and see pickle relish, mustard and milk. Yeah-not exactly the makings of Haute cuisine in there.

I keep a few things on hand that allow me to make something good a lot of the time. I'm not going to lie and say every night is like a french bistro--but I do usually have something tasty and healthy most every night. Even if that is french bread and good cheese.

So I took a picture of my salads tonight. One was for dinner and the other was for Lunch the next day on the train. Far superior to train food!

I always keep really good pitted olives, hard boiled eggs, pickled onions, pickled sweet peppers, cheese, lettuce on hand. For these salads I also had some steak and chicken pieces that I had taken home from my friend Janis's Kentucky derby party. The salads were very yummy. Oh I had some fresh pineapple so I added a little of that chopped up as well.

The salad dressing in the background is from trader Joe's. I make my own for company-but just for me I use this stuff which is low cal and you fat and VERY tasty.

It took about ten minutes to make both salads.

So many things can go into a salad. In a couple of weeks I am going to have one of the Diva ladies over who eats salad every day -0but has been eating the same salad for about a year. We are going to have a lesson on salad variety. both the type of lettuce and the things you use in it. And then maybe even the dressings.

Last week we had dinner for my friend Paula's birthday. We made a fabulous salad with all the things I mentioned above plus some thinly sliced fennel. It was just delicious. We had that with some of my homemade sweet onion dressing.

On the menu that night was the salad as well as these really tasty mussels we made with a tomato cilantro hot pepper sauce and some nice crusty french bread--toasted with garlic scraped across the top. A couple of fresh artichokes with a nice dipping sauce and Viola! a fabulous meal.

Of course I forgot to take pictures of that-but it was colorful and inviting--trust me.

OK-Paris next!

POP POP POP!

That is what all the flowers are doing. Yesterday my peony tree went from bud to flower in ten minutes! Oh what a beauty it is too.

The Primroses are passing by but they are still so colorful and happy. Since they are shade plants they really light up a shade garden. The Lamium with them is gorgeous as well-but that blooms most of the summer. Pink, White and dark pink. Lovely.

The wisteria, scotch broom and lilacs are in full bloom as well.

No disasters in the garden since I gave myself a concussion with the hammer. But today I go out and get the garden ready for my two week absence so I am sure to do something klutzy. I'll keep you posted. :).

Yes, two week absence. I will be in London, Paris and Geneva. SO guess what? when I am in Paris I will have lots of postings. My sister is coming with me and she has not been in Paris since we were children (when we used to live there). She wants to visit all of our old houses. This should be an experience.

I went to my grandmothers house in Clamart a few years ago. Her neighbor was still alive. He immediately knew who I was-and i swear he had not changed in 30 years!

Paris is such a foodie's heaven. I will be in my glory sucking up all the chocolate croissants I can get my hands on. And butter-I just mainline the butter-why try to eat it on something-that is so time consuming. :).

SO stay tuned-and enjoy the garden shots from above. There will be no garden shots for a while now-just lots of FOOD!!! French Food. YUM!!

Babes in Toy land

OK-I can't exactly call my sister and I "babes". but we were definitely in toy land at my friend Ellen's house this week. Ellen is a master gardener and probably a master at most things. She's been my friend for 30 years and together we have shared a love of food, gardening, shopping, clothes, shoes and all things girly.

She lives in Greensboro close enough to my mom that one of us visits the other when I am there. This time it was my turn to do the drive. And happily so.

We arrived just in time for lunch (of course we planned that!) Ellen has an amazing vegetable garden and the lettuce was just up enough to make a fabulous salad. We also had a delicious mix of sausage and potatoes and peppers. But the real treat was dessert!

Ellen made us these delicious macaroons. Knowing I am allergic to coconut-she kindly made two types: almond and coconut. The almond ones were scrumptious. I hear the coconut ones were better. alas I will never know...:(.

We then went out in to the garden and looked at all her fruit trees laden with fruit which will ripen through the summer, gorgeous flowers everywhere (she has a 10 acre property so a lot of planting and naturalization), and unusual garden elements that catch the eye.

I photographed our treats as well as a beautiful weeping conifer along the drive that she is training around a metal railing she found. The conifer is spectacular. The other shot is a view looking down the driveway. the first picture is her cutting garden just before it goes into full spectacular bloom.

Big girls playground.

The Real McCoy

Frequently when people visit my house they are stunned to find out I do 90% of my own gardening. I must admit I do have help with some of the more mundane tasks of replanting or mulching or clean up. Although even then I am right there helping.

I have heard people claim to be their own gardener-however they are never working in the garden and they know nothing about there plants. So I am always suspicious.

For those of us who do slave for hours every week (happily of course) we take great pride in our ability to do everything ourselves.

SO how do you tell if you are dealing with a real gardener or an impostor? If you have had your doubts about your catty friends comments about her yard versus yours and her gardening ability-here's a sure fire way to know if she or he are the real gardeners.

Check the kitchen sink. It has recently come t0 my attention that every true gardening Friend that I know has a nail brush by the kitchen sink. The absence of the nail brush signals-AN IMPOSTOR! you can rat them out if you want because in my book this is proof positive!

Oh the tell tail signs....:).

Premature Florigation

This is when all the flowers in your garden bloom at once and then turn green-leaving you feeling empty and used.

The cause: Over exuberance at seeing pretty blooming beauties.

The fix: Restraint.

Common Scenario:
First week of spring you look out into the yard and think "THIS is the year I am going to have a gorgeous garden!" SO you race to the local nursery (or closest big Box store) and come back with a car full of plants. You plant them all, fertilize them and are in awe at your handiwork. For about a month. then slowly you are left feeling empty and sad as the whole garden devolves into green leaves or worse yet, brown sticks.

STOP THE INSANITY! Do not-I repeat DO NOT go buy everything you can get your hands on the first week of spring. Perennials bloom but once a year for a short period of time (2-3 weeks). They come back every year - but they only bloom once a year. The only way to have flowers all year with a perennial garden is to plan.

This is called Succession Gardening. Of course most of you are not going to spend hours researching which plant blooms when. I suspect you have your hands full just tyring to figure out when to fertilize and when to deadhead.

SO what's an aspiring gardener to do? It's very simple. Go to the nursery every three weeks. Their stock will change as the growing season changes because the only things that sell are things with blooms on them. So if you go and buy a few plants every three weeks- you will have a lovely garden next year that blooms all season!

How simple was that? And all it took was a little restraint.

Hammered

Today was one of my usual obsessive compulsive days in the garden. Nothing new. Today's obsession was the greenhouse for the fig tree.

Since the fig tree already has fig buds (see previous post) I was quite concerned to get it under wraps in preparation for what I am sure will be at least one more frost before summer is ushered in.

So there I was, standing on a ladder, pounding the heck out of the frame of this portable green house, when all of a sudden the hammer flew out of my hand and hit me square between the eyes. BAM!

I saw stars and momentarily started to fall off the ladder. But I managed to keep it together and utter a few curse words as I walked around the garden trying to act like nothing had happened. I made the mistake of touching the area. OUCH! Wow did that hurt.

Ok, 30 seconds have gone by. I can now ignore it and get back on the ladder and finish.

Hours later I am incredibly sleepy but not allowing myself to rest. I had to give that little 15 minute speech on garden design at the garden club tonight so I couldn't go to sleep. What if I didn't wake up in time?? No, had to tough it out. Just keep moving, everything will be fine.

As the time approached to head over to the garden club meeting I was really feeling tired, but i got in the car and proceeded to go to the meeting. Well at least I proceeded somewhere-but it wasn't the garden club meeting. After going the wrong way for about 10 minutes I realized something was amiss. Oh dear-not a good sign.

Got there, unpacked my things, sat down and just wanted to fall asleep. Thank goodness the speakers were interesting-it really kept me alert.

Time for the presentation. Turned on the lap top and the projector. OK-how do I move my cursor? Honestly-I could not remember how to move the cursor on my laptop. My lap top was staring back at me like a tablet with Hieroglyphics. Nothing looked familiar.

Somehow I managed to get through the technical panic and did the presentation. The flowers I can talk about in my sleep-so at least I was able to sound coherent even though my mind was mostly absent.

Currently I am trying to stay awake till 10:30. The nurses in the Garden Club are all worried I have a concussion. I know what that means-don't sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. So I will set my alarm for 2:30 and then Liz has promised to wake me at 5:30 as this is the hideous hour she gets up for work.

Yes, gardening is a dangerous sport. I skied all winter with nary a bump or a scratch-but set me loose in the garden and I manage to get a concussion. this leads me to believe that perhaps I should be wearing the helmet to garden instead of to ski. This would be particularly attractive when I am gardening in my PJ's. You Tube anyone?

I'll sign in tomorrow so everyone knows I made it through the night. I know you will be on pins and needles...
Bon soir.