Hola!

We're back!

Lisbon was lovely, we had a fantastic time and wish we could have stayed longer. The weather was very cooperative, and we were able to enjoy some beautiful sunny days. We ate some delicious food, saw some amazing sights, and just had a nice relaxing time together.

Glad to be back in Paris, and I'll post more details and pictures soon. Karina and I are taking a cooking class tomorrow, Italian food, it should be fun!

Ciao!

Just a Regular Sunday Afternoon

Today we headed out to the Parc Floral to check out another wine show, this time it was Vins deTerroir. I was feeling pretty special because we received free tickets in the mail from a winemaker that we visited at the last show, until we realized that the tickets were available free on the internet. No problem, it didn't affect our enjoyment this afternoon, which began with a walk through the beautiful Parc Floral to get to the salon that was housing all the wine.

I hear it's snowing in Canada? We have the beginnings of spring flowers here. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and the daffodils were sprouting.




We had a picnic in this exact spot last summer, now it's planted with geranium bulbs.


A lonely peacock


Where's the wine?


Ready to start tasting!

Highlights of the show (aside from the free wine) included the winemaker who told us that you can't learn to appreciate wine, it's part of your (French) culture. All us Kiwis and Canadians are just faking it, apparently. He also complained extensively at the difficulties and costs associated with trying to get into the Canadian wine market, something that we heard frequently at the last show we attended.


Inside the hall


Anja checks out the cheese


Two happy tasters


The haul.


Our impromptu picnic


Impromptu picnics call for make-shift utensils, such as a credit card cheese cutter....


And keys to push the cork into a bottle of freshly purchase wine.


It was a lovely afternoon.

Update on the Crepes:

Alison claimed that mine were better than the one that she had on the street! Hah! Maybe I'm just a little bit French after all!

Alison's Visit

My good friend Alison (you may remember her from her role as 'maid of honor' at Erik and Torie's wedding) was here visiting for four very short days this week.

It was great to see her, and catch up with her, as I don't think we'd actually seen each other since the wedding. She arrived on Sunday, and her stop here was a four day layover en route to Bangladesh where she is now doing some internship for med school. Anyway, she was a good sport, and we made the most of Sunday by heading up to Montmartre. It was a beautiful sunny day, and although it kept raining in spurts, it didn't detract from any of our favorite sights. We went up to Sacre Coeur and enjoyed the views, both inside and out. We wandered through Place du Tertre, and along rue des Abesses before stopping for a drink. We waited in line for bread at my all time favorite bakery, and bought wine and an apricot tart from other favorites stores (such a great neighbourhood!) before heading home for a much needed nap.

That evening we opened another bottle of Champagne, and Erik cooked up his amazing gigot d'agneau (recipe from the Barefoot Contessa), and we had the tart for dessert. Then Alison and I headed out for another walk down the the Eiffel tower, and having stupidly forgotten our umbrellas, got soaking wet. Alison did get some great pictures though, and I think she took great pride in trying to embarrass me by taking as many pictures as possible. Unfortunately, being the fabulous host that I am, excessive picture taking no longer bothers me at all. :)

On Monday, Alison and I got up relatively early and headed out to the Hotel de Ville to see the Doisneau photography exhibit. Erik and I have been meaning to see this exhibit for months, but there is always a ridiculously long line up by the time we get there. Luckily the line wasn't too bad, and the exhibit was certainly worth the wait. The exhibit was comprised of photos that Doisneau had taken in Paris over the years, all in black and white. The photographs were wonderful, and it was a nice insight into Parisian life, from the 30s through to the 90s.

Any trip to the Hotel de Ville, or anything else in that neighbourhood warrants a trip to L'As de Falafel for lunch, and we headed straight there, for some of the 'best' falafel in the city. While we ate, we wandered around the Marais, did some window shopping, and impulse purchasing, before stopping for dessert at Amorino's. It's always fun to have a visitor who enjoys eating as much as I do!

Then we made our way to the Champs Elysee, to do some shopping. We walked all the way there, and shopped all the way there, visiting every single Minelli store on the way (I believe there were five), in search of a particular pair of shoes (which we didn't find). By the time we got the the Champs Elysee, we were exhausted. Not too tired to check out Sephora, though, and I was surprised to hear that Ottawa doesn't have one yet (or a Zara, or H and M. So sad). We sniffed almost all the perfumes, in search of a wedding scent for Alison, who also got her make up done. We strolled the rest of the way up to see the Arc de Triomphe before heading home. It was a great day. We polished it off with dinner at the Raspail Vert before calling it a night.

After that it was back to work for me, and although we did manage to check out the GrandeEpicerie on Wednesday night, the rest of the visit was pretty quiet. I was sad to see her go, but maybe she and James will consider Paris for their honeymoon. Apparently it's tres romantique!

This is your husband on Lumirelax

Other than the excitement of crepes, our weekend has been pretty quiet, and for Erik, pretty painful.

He has hurt his back.

No, he didn't do it playing rugby, and it wasn't from the gym.

He is claiming it is a result of both cleaning the shower, and lifting a box at work.

He finally decided it was bad on Friday morning (the box lifting happened Thursday morning) when it took him 20 minutes to put on his socks. And when regular strength Advil, and ibuprofen gel-rub didn't work, he went to the doctor (yay for being able to make same day appointments, boo for my incompetent doctor that Erik went to see). And the doctor prescribed a whole cocktail of drugs for Erik to enjoy for the next eight or so days. When he's supposed to go back. Which he won't, because the doctor is incompetent, and it costs between 20-35 euros every time you set foot in the office. Hmm...that might be some of my frustration with her coming out. Seriously, finding a new doctor is high on my 'to do' list.

He's also supposed to finish the entire regime. We were both confused by this instruction, as we always thought that recommendation was just for antibiotics, and I guess with painkillers, wouldn't you just stop when the pain goes away? So you don't get addicted? Cause Erik is pretty doped up right now (for him, falling asleep during a rugby game qualifies as 'dopey').

Anyway, as you can see from the picture, Erik is now on three different kinds of muscle relaxants and pain killers, some that must be taken with food, some without, and all of which are not to be taken with alcohol. And I'm not sure if Erik is bothered more by the pain, or the fact that he has to watch rugby tomorrow without beer.

Crepes, please!

Why haven't I made these sooner? SO EASY!

I was inspired by Alex's apparent ease with this recipe, and the 3 euro crepe pan that I impulse bought a month ago. Knowing my own extreme lack of willpower, I needed a reason greater than just Erik and I to whip up a batch of these delicious, fantastic, super yummy snacks, otherwise, I probably wouldn't have any trouble polishing off all of them. And lucky for us, Alison arrives tomorrow morning, and I thought they would be a nice treat when we get back from the airport. So whip them up I did, tonight after our dinner of take-out sushi. The non-stick pan actually worked better without extra butter in the bottom, and the trick was to pour off the excess batter and cook them until the edges pull away from the sides of the pan (I was a bit impatient with the first couple, and they are all ragged). And of course, our filling of choice was Nutella, and I thought I share a couple of pictures to show the progress we're making on our 1.5 kg bottle of the stuff. Not too shabby for two people!

Back in the Good Books

Well, we got some good news today, in the form of a letter from EasyJet.

In case you've forgotten, we got stranded at the Milan Malpensa airport after our EasyJet flight was cancelled. The only thing they offered us at the time was a flight four days later. No hotel, or food. Needless to say, we were pretty peeved, and Erik wrote up a great 'unhappy customer' letter asking to be reimbursed for the flights that we had to take with Air France the following day.

Well, today they responded, and apparently they will be refunding the total cost of the tickets we bought from Air France. What a relief! I feel like we've won the lottery or something.

So, I will now consider flying EasyJet again, and it's always nice to know that companies care about their customers. 'Cause I'm one happy customer right now!

Stomach Pains

Last night we had Alex, Anja and one of Alex's friends over for dinner. On the menu was lasagne, using up the last of the noodles we had bought in Italy. Erik and I had made this lasagne recipe a couple of weeks ago, and thought it was fantastic, even without all the mozzarella cheese that we had forgotten to buy. This time we had the cheese, and we also made a vegetarian version using white beans in place of the beef and sausage. It was to die for!

Best Ever Lasagne

SAUCE:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup finely chopped peeled carrots
2 tablespoons minced garlic
8 ounces (225 grams) lean ground beef
6 ounces (170 grams) spicy Italian sausages, casings removed
1 28-ounce (793 gram) can crushed tomatoes with added puree
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon golden brown sugar
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

LASAGNE
15 lasagna noodles (about 12 ounces)--we used fresh egg noodles, each lasagne used about 7 large noodles

2 15-ounce (425 gram) containers part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
1 10-ounce (285 gram) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, squeezed dry
2 large eggs

4 3/4 cups grated mozzarella cheese (about 1 1/4 pounds)

FOR SAUCE:

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, carrots and garlic; sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add beef and sausages to pan; sauté until cooked through, breaking up meat with back of spoon, about 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer until flavors blend and sauce measures about 5 cups, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Cool.

FOR LASAGNE:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cook noodles in large pot of boiling salted water until almost tender, about 7 minutes. Drain; cover with cold water. **if using egg noodles, skip this step. Use the noodles directly out of the package.

Combine ricotta and 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese in medium bowl. Mix in spinach. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in eggs.

Drain pasta and pat dry. Spread 1/2 cup sauce over bottom of 13x9-inch glass baking dish. Place 5 noodles over sauce, overlapping to fit. Spread half of ricotta-spinach mixture evenly over noodles. Sprinkle 2 cups mozzarella cheese evenly over ricotta-spinach mixture. Spoon 1 1/2 cups sauce over cheese, spreading with spatula to cover (sauce will be thick). Repeat layering with 5 noodles, remaining ricotta-spinach mixture, 2 cups mozzarella and 1 1/2 cups sauce. Arrange remaining 5 noodles over sauce. Spread remaining sauce over noodles. Sprinkle remaining 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese evenly over lasagne. (Can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate.) Cover baking dish with aluminum foil. Bake lasagna 40 minutes; uncover and bake until hot and bubbly, about 40 minutes. Let lasagne stand 15 minutes before serving. **our cooking times were significantly different, only taking about 30 minutes covered, and another 10-15 uncovered. This is probably partly due to our teeny tiny oven, but the noodles also cook much faster than regular pasta.

Serves 8.

Because I'm crazy, and also because we have recenly acquired a hand held mixer (impulse buy at the Inno--it was onlyl 14 euros!), I also made dessert.

Banana Caramel Cake

For the cake:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3 large eggs
• 1-1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1-3/4 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 3 oz. chocolate (use the good stuff, no bakers chocolate please), broken into small pieces (size of chips)
• 3 ripe bananas, diced

For the caramel:

• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. whole milk
• 4 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1. Butter and flour a tube pan or a bundt pan that can hold 12 cups.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt and baking soda).
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs, oil and sugar. With the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that the sugar has been incorporated.
6. Add the vanilla extract and mix for another 30 seconds.
7. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients a bit at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl every now and then to ensure everything is incorporated.
8. Once the dry ingredients have been added, remove the bowl from the stand mixer and add the pecans, chocolate and bananas. Gently fold them in with a spatula or a wooden spoon. Don't over mix.
9. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes and then test the cake to see if it's done by poking a toothpick or cake tester into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done. If not, bake the cake for another 5 to 10 minutes. In my oven, this cake took 55 minutes.
10. About 5 to 10 minutes before the cake is done, make the caramel by combining all the ingredients in a small pan. Bring to the boil and stir occasionally to ensure that it doesn't burn. Let it boil for about 5 minutes and then turn off the heat.
11. Once the cake is out of the oven, poke holes all over the cake with a skewer. Immediately pour the caramel over the cake, stopping every now and then to let the caramel sink in. If the caramel pools in spots, poke more holes to allow it to sink in.
12. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack. Once it's cool, loosen the cake from the sides of the pan and then unmold it onto a plate.
13. Enjoy!

I ran out of time, so the caramel sauce never got made. That's not a problem though when you have a huge jar of Nutella and a resourceful friend who suggests using it as icing. The cake was fabulous, and was a nice, not too sweet end to a delicious meal.

Unfortunately, between the pasta, the cheese course and dessert, we all managed to overindulge a bit and Erik and I complained of full stomachs of the Italian variety all evening. It was completely worth it though!

Bon apetito!

Erik's email was just read on the BBC's World Have Your Say radio program.

Here's the email, in response the the five minute demonstration of solidarity in recognizing the human cause of climate change. Obviously, we didn't turn out lights off, and yes, the Eiffel Tower was dark.

Subject: Shutting off the lights
Although I think the gesture of shutting of the lights for five minutes is touching, I worry about the grid when all these well-meaning people suddenly turn their lights on at 7. We may all get an extended taste of darkness.
If you are really concerned about climate change, don't fly.

He's not just an NHL hockey player, he's a nerd too.

Erik Does Dinner

I know, I'm a pretty lucky girl. I have a fantastic husband, who not only does the dishes without being reminded, but also volunteers to make dinner during the week.

Which is why I have time to write this blog entry, while Erik whips up some Aroy-D green curry, one of our purchases from Freres Tang.

Anyway, it's been another slow week. On Monday, we went to see the Departed with Alex, at the movie theatre around the corner from our house. Enjoyed the movie, and also appreciated the subtitles, as I'm embarrassed to say that I found it hard to understand some of the Boston English. It's also always interesting to see how things are translated, especially all the swearing. I just don't equate the French merde with the way the f-word was thrown around in that movie.

And, Steve has informed us that we are no longer allowed to complain about the cold because (his words): once you are wearing a tuque indoors, a hooded sweatshirt to bed (hood up!) and must strategically plan ahead and dress for (yellow bath robe over hooded sweat shirt, both hood up) any adventure outside of the warm safety of the tatami room, then maybe...MAYBE you will have a blog entry more popular than mine. Yeah, we know, we're babies.

So, not much else to share...we're looking forward to Karina's visit, and have bought our tickets to Portugal! We're off to Lisbon for four days at the end of February, and are looking forward to sun, custard tarts, port and well, more sun. We also have a visit from my friend Alison coming up in a week, and two other friends in April, so looks like hotel Johnson will be hopping for awhile. Hope everyone likes air mattresses!

That's it for now.