The Food, or Why My Pants Don't Fit

I'm going to shock all of my readers (you are legion) when I say that I really like food. I know, I know. Take a moment to compose yourselves. But given that the very first post on this blog mentioned at least a dozen kinds of food, I figure it's time to share some of our culinary experiences in France so far.

French food is really good. Another shock! I hope you were sitting! But what I really mean is that American food is really bad. Not all of it, of course, but if I go into a restaurant chosen at random in the U.S.A., I will expect that the vegetables will be mediocre and out of season, the proteins are frozen, and at least one item will have been pre-made and poured out of a packet. In France, choose any random restaurant in any little village and you can expect the following:

• the produce is fresh and in season
• the bread was made this morning at a local bakery
• all of the meat and dairy is fresh
• the sauces are made in-house, from scratch
• 80% of the products being served are local.

All of this means smaller menus (generally) and more similarity among dishes from place to place. It also means that if you order a salad, it will be fresh, filling, and delicious. 

Chèvre chaud from our local brasserie - hot goat's cheese, honey, and walnuts

Duck salad with warm potatoes, in the tiny village of Murol

Salmon carpaccio salad from a chain restaurant in downtown Clermont-Ferrand - the only place that was open on a Sunday. This was my first meal in France!

Kids' menus are more popular than I imagined they would be! Unfortunately, the 'menu enfant' tends to mimic its American cousins - lots of fried foods, few vegetables, ketchup abounds. It's nice for Lincoln and Sylvia to have some familiar options, but often we'll encourage them to share an adult meal instead. "Le burger en partage pour les enfants, s'il vous plaît, avec les haricots verts." Here are a couple examples of kids' meals in France.

Calamari "beignets" with fries. That was a weird one!

Pastries, of course. Always pastries.

We do eat at home a lot, too! But I'm still adjusting to the French style of housekeeping and cooking. Our refrigerator is about 1/3 the size of the one we had at home, and the freezer is about the volume of a shoebox. One walks to the outdoor market on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings to buy fresh produce, cheese, meat, bread, and other necessities. Small supermarkets exist about every fourth block and contain small packages of everyday necessities - including excellent bottles of wine for 3-5 Euros apiece. 

All of this means that I'm shopping constantly, and still learning to resist the temptation to buy one of every single gorgeous vegetable on market day - there'll be another one in a couple of days! Fruits and vegetables rot within two days, too, which really grosses me out when I think about how long it lasts in the United States. Clearly it's been treated with some kind of preserving agents, and that's distressing. 

Making our favorites from home is a challenge. I don't have a transformer for my KitchenAid yet, so I can't make bread or some of my favorite baked goods. I tried pizza the other day, and it was alright, but shredded mozzarella and pepperoni are impossible to find. I did locate "for pizza" cheese in a Carrefour store, but it was 30% Emmental. Evidently in this region, Emmental cheese is for everything. It's shredded, sliced, and ubiquitous - and it tastes weird on pizza. I can find fresh mozzarella easily, but it's not what I wanted for pizza, either. Still, yum.

The one on the left was the best - and it had the cheese "for pasta." Still contained Emmental.

Ben and Jerry's is here too, but we haven't indulged yet.

 Now let's talk about the local specialities. First among them: TRUFFADE.

If your mouth isn't watering, I don't know you.

Sliced potatoes, cantal cheese, garlic, and salt. Cooked in a cast-iron skillet and served with salad, bread, and jambon - another ubiquitous food in Auvergne! It is heavenly, and it's available everywhere, even in the hot summer. Next up: les entrees.

Foreground - garlic butter escargots (snails) served en croute with a beautiful sauce underneath. Background - charcuterie plate with foie gras.

Entrees in French are appetizers. This was at a place in Place de Jaude, the tourism and commercial center of Clermont. As always, everything is seasoned perfectly - and Lincoln even liked the escargots!

Another local specialty - aligot. Mashed potatoes with melted cheese whipped in. 

Last Friday night, we went out to dinner with our good friends the Priors, and unfortunately fell victim to the French habit of eating dinner late. This would be fine for the adults, but the kids have been going to bed at 8:00, and on that night, dinner started at 8. At Josh's suggestion, we tried Le Kitchen - and it was wonderful. I didn't get a picture of our gorgeous salads, but the menu enfant had truffade for Lincoln, and beef stew with green lentils for Sylvia. Josh's and my food was even more impressive.

A very happy man, with a very rich dish containing foie gras.

Mashed potatoes, summer vegetables, and duck breast roasted with a 'yakitori' style soy glaze. Heaven.

The mademoiselle with her coufidou. The tenderest piece of beef I've had in France was inside that beautiful bowl!

We paid the price for keeping the kids up too late, and I wound up carrying a very tired Sylvia home on a bus rather than walking back to where we'd parked the car. Josh brought our desserts home and we had them for breakfast the next morning, which I foresee happening again in the future! 

The food in France is just as delicious as you'd imagine, and I'm off to go eat some more of it. If only I could include fresh bread, pastries, and unpasteurized cheese in a care package, I would! Since that won't work, you'll just have to come and visit.

Our Own Personal Volcano

Puy-de-Dôme! The geographical highlight and namesake of our prefecture, which is like a county or state, is just a fifteen minute drive from our apartment in Chamalières, and its sight is a beautiful constant as we walk around Clermont-Ferrand. The mountain hosts a climate research laboratory with a giant spire that is visible for miles - and in good weather, tourists and locals hang glide alone or in tandem for hours, looking like tiny, rainbow-colored butterflies circling the mountaintop.

This past weekend Lincoln had a tummy bug, and no one slept great, so our plans for exploring were dashed on Saturday. It was a little frustrating, finally having gotten car insurance and registration sorted and not being able to use it! But look at this little guy. Poor thing.

Fortunately, by Sunday morning he was feeling much better and anxious to leave the house. So we took a long, scenic walk to Place de Salins, which has one of the only Sunday markets in town. The homes in Clermont are so beautiful - this one looks like it was picked up out of Ireland or Scotland and dropped here. 

Well, it does to someone who's never been to Ireland or Scotland, anyway. The market has typical French farmer's market stands - fruits and vegetables, local cheese, sausages - and also a large and vibrant flea market. We were on the hunt for antiques and came up empty, but the booths were fascinating and fun. It reminded me of being a little girl in Pennsylvania, scouring the flea markets at gas engine shows with my dad and grandparents. 

After the market we had a little lunch at home and then headed to the mountains. The drive was easy, if a little queasy for me. Damn motion sickness ruins everything! But the cool air helped a lot, and the views were incredible. We bought our tickets and boarded the new tram, installed just a couple years ago, to the summit.

Daddy and Lincoln love!

Mommy and Sylvie snuggles too - and repping for Maine!

If I ever have sheep, I'm going to keep them in a bowl-shaped pasture on a volcano too.

We reached the top and it was breathtaking. They call it "Panoramique des Dômes," and for good reason - each view of the mountains is more beautiful than the one before it! 

We quickly learned, though, that two under-rested kids who've never seen heights like this before are not very pleasant traveling companions. Getting a nice photo was impossible because one kid or the other was afraid of the heights, or hungry, or tired, or all of the above at each attempt. Lincoln cheered up enough to take a shot of Josh and me (and the oh-so-helpful fence behind us, at ankle level - safety!) near the top. 

Once again, my delicate constitution left me a little queasy, due to the altitude this time. But we walked up to the weather lab and the recently reconstructed Temple of Mercury. We've only scratched the surface of the incredible history of this place, and I can't wait to learn more.

Indoors is a little museum of sorts, with lots of interactive exhibits about the mountain and its history. The kids got to touch thousands of years old artifacts, and feel the difference between volcanic rock, marble, and other ancient building materials. Of course they gravitated to the screens, but everything being in French means they lose interest pretty quickly!

Then it was back outside to finish the last bit of gorgeous sightseeing. Despite my altitude sickness and the kids' general fussiness, it was magnificent.

All those farms, providing fresh food year-round. 

The flowers reminded me of home!

At last we climbed down some stairs and headed into the little cafe for coffee and crêpes - both of which were, alas, not very good. But the snack revived the kids a bit, and the coffee had the same effect on the adults, so all attitudes improved after that. We stopped in the crowded gift shop without finding much of interest, until Lincoln spotted these vending machines in the hall! We miss our Nana so much, and her beautiful crystals and stones.

Then after a few hours, 15,000 steps apiece, and more than 15 flights of stairs-worth of climbing, we headed back to the tram station to begin the journey home. And look, we finally got a smiley picture! Everyone except Josh, haha.

Puy-de-Dôme is a national treasure of France, and it's basically in our back yard. This first trip was a mixed bag, but I foresee a lot of great hikes - and maybe even a little hang gliding! - in our future.

A Few Surprising Facts About France

It's hard to believe we've been in France for nearly three weeks, but here we are! Still no cable or wifi in our apartment (nor a working shower or bathtub, but that's a post for another day), but it's such a beautiful place that we don't mind too much. And mobile data here is virtually free, which is how I'm writing this post! So I'll have a lot more to share in coming days and weeks - especially now that we can drive. But for now, here are a couple of things that I really, really wasn't expecting. I'm sure there will be more where these came from!

1. Portions are enormous
You know how everyone says that American portion sizes are too big, and we need to eat more like the French? Well, they're half right. Eating like the French, at least the bit we're experiencing, means having a tiny breakfast, no snacks, then an enormous lunch and dinner. Most meals include a starter, entree, side dish, and a salad. Bread comes to the table with the main dish - but no butter or oil. Dessert is always offered, and often indulged in with an espresso - which also comes with sugar cubes and a tiny cookie of some sort. And the sizes of the plates are unbelievable! We almost always have food leftover, which we can only bring home thanks to a 2013 law that requires restaurants to provide doggie bags.

2. So. Much. Sugar.
You try telling my kids that they can't have a lollipop. Or an éclair, or a pain au chocolat, or a lemonade with lunch. Even when I do tell them that, 8/10 times the server or shop attendant will give them a little sweet for free anyway. Every cereal in the grocery stores is half sugar, and "all-fruit" jam is not a thing that exists on this side of the Atlantic. Sugar for DAYS.

3. Tout le monde vous aide.
Everyone wants to help you. If you're making an effort with the language, the people around you will appreciate it and will try to communicate. I've had strangers on the bus walk me to a museum, then point me to a better one around the corner that is more geared to kids. Shopkeepers slow down and listen to me, and find a way to ask me a question such that I'll understand and be able to answer. The myth of the rude French person must have been invented by some very unlucky travelers! Of course, I am also an average-looking, able-bodied white person with adorable children, so most people assume I am harmless and deserving of assistance.

4. NOTHING IS SAFE
Seriously, I have windows the size of a Volkswagen with no screens, no bars, nothing. Road work with heavy machinery is done exactly adjacent to the sidewalk - it almost seems silly that the workers are wearing hardhats, given that those of us three inches away on the sidewalk don't have them! My kids, I have learned, have no survival instinct whatsoever. I'm hoping that will change with time.

5. The smoking
I know, I knew this coming in, but it still surprises me how ubiquitous the smoking is. And it kinda makes me want to start up. I won't! But it's very attractive.

6. Expats will save you
Last time I moved overseas, I had the benefit of enlisted Navy families serving as our sponsors and helpers. Here we have the same thing, except that people volunteer and just fill those roles without being asked. I wouldn't be anywhere near this calm if not for well-timed assistance from a bunch of different people. Thank goodness.

7. Everything tastes incredible
Ok, this one's not a surprise. :) But it's true - everything tastes so great. We have a farmer's market three days a week, five minutes' walk from home, and the produce is unbelievable. I could eat a peach three times a day!

That's all for today. I'll get back into the swing of this blog plan soon! A bientôt et au revoir!

Chicken salad with guacamole and the world's ugliest squash dish

Well, I managed to screw up Mark Bittman's delicious squash recipe tonight. I'm so mad at myself - I peeled, seeded, and diced a huge local butternut squash during the kid's first nap this morning, so I braised and glazed a big handful in the afternoon for his (early) dinner. Practicing the dinner recipe = guaranteed dinner success, right? Not so much.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. For dinner last night, we turned to Rick Bayless for

Grilled Chicken Salad with Rustic Guacamole, Romaine, and Queso Anejo

For the dressing
1/2 c vegetable oil, plus a little
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
Fresh hot green chiles to taste (Bayless recommends 2 serranos or 1 jalepeno, I used a dried chile de arbol because we didn't have fresh)
1/2 c fresh lime juice (or a little less, or fill it out with bottled lemon juice)
3/4 c loosely packed cilantro (Bayless says roughly chopped, I didn't chop it)
1/4 t ground pepper
salt

For the salads
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 medium onion, cut into 1/2 inch slices
2 ripe avocadoes
2 medium romaine hearts, sliced into 1/2 inch ribbons (about 8 cups)
1/3 c grated queso anejo or another garnishing cheese

Heat oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and chiles; cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft and lightly browned (usually 1 to 2 minutes). Pour oil, garlic and chiles into blender jar or food processor. Add lime juice, cilantro, 1 scant teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Process until smooth.

Pour 1/3 of dressing over chicken breasts, spreading it evenly over all sides.

Heat a grill pan or gas grill to medium to medium-high heat (or start a charcoal fire and let it burn until coals are medium hot and covered with white ash). Lightly brush or spray onion slices with oil; sprinkle with salt. Lay chicken and onion on grill pan or grill. Cook until chicken is just cooked through and onion is well browned (3 to 4 minutes on each side). Chop onion into small pieces and scoop into bowl.

Pit and peel avocados, scooping flesh into bowl with onion. Add another 1/3 of dressing, then coarsely mash everything together with old-fashioned potato masher, large fork or back of spoon. Taste and season with salt (usually about ½ teaspoon).

Scoop the sliced romaine into large bowl. Drizzle on remaining 1/3 of dressing and toss to combine. Divide between 4 dinner plates. Scoop a portion of guacamole into center of each plate. Cut each breast into cubes and arrange over guacamole. Sprinkle each plate with garnishing cheese. Serve.

As you can see from my notes in the ingredients section, I didn't make this entirely according to the recipe. In fact, neither Josh nor I felt like dragging out the grill despite the fact that it's been in the 50s, in the Midwest, in January, so we cooked the marinated chicken breasts and the onions under the broiler and it worked beautifully. We didn't add cheese either, since I hadn't thought to buy any over the weekend.

Still, this remains one of our favorite salads. The dressing is flavorful and tart, the chicken stayed moist despite the broiler, and the roasted-onion guacamole adds a richness and sweetness that makes this salad feel like a great main course. Yum.

Now, back to the Braised and Glazed Butternut Squash with Pesto (click for the recipe). This recipe is genius. You simply cook a butternut squash, cut into cubes, in a little simmering stock in a skillet, then turn up the heat, remove the lid, and let the heat and the little bit of oil you used in the beginning turn that sweet squash into crispy, browned, lovely little bites of winter. Adding pesto, I thought, would bring enough complexity to the squash that we wouldn't feel glum having just a vegetable as a main course without much fanfare. The baby's version, sans pesto, was EXCELLENT, and I couldn't wait to show off for my husband.

So I got cocky. "I'll put the baby to bed, dear, just keep an eye on the stove and turn off the heat if the squash is fork-tender." I added too much stock, stayed away too long, and by the time I came downstairs a wet pan of overdone cubes awaited me.

It still tasted great! But imagine adding half a cup of pesto to the skillet I just described. The finished product looked, well, looked like it had already been to the digestion rodeo. Notice there are no pictures again? You'd be angry if I had posted any.

Accompanying dinner tonight was a pan of roasted broccoli and one of roasted zucchini coins, each cooked at 375 with a little olive oil and seasoning until finished. I threw a couple Spanish olives on the plate to bring some salty punch to the squash and Josh and I agreed that it was delicious - but this recipe is coming back, and I'm going to do it right next time.

Pork tenderloin review and a bonus green bean recipe!

I'm out of the habit of taking pictures while I cook, so you'll have to trust me that last night's Pork Tenderloin a la Mexicana was delicious and beautiful. Rick Bayless has done it again, and you should go buy his book right now. Mean it.

As you can see at the recipe link (or in your new copy of Mexican Everyday that you just bought), the pork tenderloin is cut into one-inch cubes, browned, and then set aside while you build a sauce of roasted poblano pepper strips, canned tomatoes, garlic, broth, and a couple herbs. It's a very simple, quick dish, as are most in this book, and it doesn't taste like much until the pork and the cilantro go in at the end. The meat was tender, the sauce was warm and satisfying, and it was all so lean and healthy that I didn't mind helping myself to seconds.

But even given all that, the real star of last night's meal was the garlicky green beans we had as a side dish. I struggle with green beans sometimes - we like them roasted, but that gets boring and I didn't want to turn on the oven. Spicy in a skillet is good but I really want fresh garlic, and it always burns. Plus my skillets are too small for a couple pounds, which we'll easily eat in a day or two. My solution was to brown thin garlic slices in oil with crushed red pepper flakes, remove all that from the oil and add two(ish) pounds of beans to the hot pot, and then just stir them around over high heat while the rest of dinner cooked.

It was amazing. So here's my first recipe of the revamped blog. Probably not original, but it's

Our New Favorite Green Beans

Cooking oil
2 lbs. trimmed and washed green beans
4 large cloves garlic
sprinkle of crushed red pepper
salt

Heat a wok or pot (like this one) over medium-high. When it's hot, add a big drizzle of cooking oil - not extra virgin olive here because of the high temps. Slice your garlic thinly and add it to the hot oil, along with crushed red pepper to your desired heat. I used about 1/4 tsp. Stir the garlic around constantly until it's pretty uniformly brown, and then remove it with a slotted spoon.

Add the green beans to the still-hot oil, turn the heat to medium, and stir or toss them every few minutes or so while your main dish cooks. Color is good here - the little ones at the bottom of the pot were almost black, and they tasted great. Once everything else is ready, just salt your beans to taste, toss in the garlic chips, and serve. Bon appetit!

This week's meal plan

In an attempt to stick with meal planning and sensible eating, and to return to blogging, I've decided to publish this week's meal plan and give you updates during the week. Please comment on this format and let me know what you'd like to see!

Following the typical holiday indulgences and a renewed focus on sensible budgeting, Josh and I are eating differently these days. More vegetarian meals are in the plan (to help with weight loss and savings), but simple carbs and processed foods are out. This includes bacon, which is a loss we mourn. Here's the plan for this week:

Sunday: Pork Tenderloin a la Mexicana, from Rick Bayless' "Mexican Everyday." This is my #1 go-to cookbook, and this recipe finds pork tenderloin cut into chunks and sauteed with roasted poblano strips (which I've got in the freezer) and canned tomatoes. Serving with garlicky green beans in the skillet.

Monday: Cilantro chicken salads with guacamole, also from Mexican Everyday. Yum!

Tuesday: Braised and Glazed Butternut Squash with pesto, from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian." Here's my go-to cookbook for vegetarian inspiration, as well as for condiment recipes. I love his hummus and homemade ketchups, but this recipe will be a new one for us. Cubed squash is browned in a skillet, braised in broth, then glazed in the pan. I'll toss in a half cup of homemade walnut pesto, also from the freezer, during the glazing stage. Serving with roasted zucchini.

Wednesday: Braised Kale with Black Beans and Tomatoes, from food.com. We made this on a whim last week and loved it! Trim, tear, and wash your kale during a quiet daytime moment and keep it in the fridge in a mesh bag, and this recipe is a breeze. Serving over a cauliflower and celeriac puree - that last part is new, but celeriac was on sale at the farmer's market, so why not?

Thursday: Pea and Tofu Curry with parsnips, from Bittman's Vegetarian again. This is a total whim, and I'll use curry paste instead of powder. Wish me luck. One-pot meal, although I'd add rice if we weren't off carbs.

Friday: Crock-pot chili, a recipe I'll likely make up on the spot, with grass-fed beef from the grocery store and home-cooked beans. Yum.

Saturday: Fresh from the farmer's market again, we'll make the usual rosemary-roasted pork shoulder and rosemary-roasted potatoes, with a vegetable to be determined by what's fresh and gorgeous. This pork recipe is a winner if there are grapes at the store, but a lot will depend on what Joe and Maggie feel like eating.

So that's week one! I'll publish some more updates as we go, and please let me know if you start following along!

Heads up!

I can't believe it. My son is more than two months old now, and everything has changed.Wait, what? Let's try that again.There we go. Look at that! Lincoln has gotten so strong in the past few weeks. He's holding his head up 90 degrees during tummy time now, seeing toys, and babbling like crazy. And one day this week, he did something incredible.
MY BABY CAN ROLL OVER. It was a revelation! It's, like, the first thing he's ever done! He just leads with that big head of his, kicks a leg a bit, and over he goes! Clearly he is gifted.

And speaking of BIG. Lincoln had his two month pediatrician appointment last week, and of course he impressed everyone. He is quite literally off the growth charts, at 100% for weight and height and 95% for head circumference. At first the doc's eyes bugged out a bit, but once he examined him he declared Lincoln to be just perfect. "Keep doing what you're doing," he told me, which was lucky because I don't know what else we could do!

And then came The Shots. As far as I'm concerned there is no question about vaccinating infants and children: herd immunity doesn't protect a kid when their classmate's parents bring mumps back from an overseas vacation, and there is absolutely no evidence that vaccines cause neurological problems other than in extremely rare cases or when a fever gets out of control. So at the end of Lincoln's appointment two nurses came in, asked me to look in his eyes and hold his arms, and at once they each plunged a needle into one of his thighs.

And he SCREAMED. He stared into my eyes, beet red, shocked, and in pain, and screamed like I'd never heard before. My heart broke for him and I understood why the nurses bolted from the room, because I wasn't feeling very friendly toward them at that point. Fortunately it was only a few minutes before Lincoln was calm enough to leave, and he fell asleep in the car on the way home.

The evening was a blur. He was just fine when we got home, playful and happy. He never developed a fever, thank God, but by dinner time he was just distraught. I know now he was overstimulated, exhausted, and in a little pain at the injection sites, but at the time I was sure he was in terrible agony and would never recover. For the first time since the birth, I asked Josh to take care of Lincoln overnight while I slept alone in my room. I just couldn't take it! Even though he was sleeping peacefully long before I went to bed, the emotion of the day was just too much.

The next day, everybody woke up refreshed and recovered. (Lincoln and I at 6, Josh at 10:00. He deserved some extra rest). And since then he's been just awesome, sleeping in his crib now and smiling and cooing more every day. What a crazy ride these first two months have been! Thank goodness there will be more exciting milestones than there will be innoculations.