Dinner with Pat and Victor

Of course there's a picture, Joan! :)

On Tuesday night we had dinner with Pat and Victor, friends of Joan and Howard's who were in Paris visiting.

Not having seen them since our wedding, it was nice to catch up with them, and hear about their adventures in Dublin, London and finally Paris. We had a lovely meal at Le Cerisaie, one of our favorite restaurants, just around the tower from us.

Getting Cultured

Yesterday morning we decided to take a field trip to the Musee duQuai Branly to see an exhibit on Japanese design, l'Esprit Mingei au Japon.


It was an interesting exhibit, highlighting Japanese design of everyday objects, created by unknown artists, and using traditional techniques. On display were many pieces of pottery, handmade textiles from Okinawa made using palm fibers, and many pieces created using bamboo.

For the Love of Pumpkin

How one can of pumpkin can become two delicious, delicious treats.

First up was this scrumptious pumpkin cake with Jack Daniels soaked raisins and spiked whipped cream. Erik was particularly excited to get to the grocery store and discover that Jack Daniels was on the grocery list, and the feat of him whipping cream with a wire whisk has brought me a little bit closer to my ultimate goal of one day bringing home a stand mixer. Who needs to go to the gym when there is cream to be whipped? :) We had Alex and Marie over for dinner last Saturday, and we had this cake for dessert, but unfortunately we didn't finish it. Which meant that there was lots left over for me to eat with lunch for the next three days.

Luckily the pumpkin cake only called for one cup of pumpkin, and not wanting to let the remaining cup go to waste, I whipped up these pumpkin cookies this morning. I replaced the currants with bourbon soaked golden raisins (yes, I am same girl who used to pick all the raisins out of the cinnamon buns that mom made. Apparently the trick is to soak them in booze.....) and eliminated the pumpkin seeds. I now have a ton of cookies sitting in the kitchen, and the only thing preventing me from eating them all right now is the fact that I'm typing.

Make These Now!

Possibly the easiest cookies I've ever made, and by far the best results I've gotten from cookies baked in our 'not really an oven' oven. Oh, and they taste awesome also!

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup super chunky peanut butter
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (about 6 ounces)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Mix in chocolate chips. Using moistened hands, form generous 1 tablespoon dough for each cookie into ball. Arrange on 2 ungreased baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until puffed, golden on bottom and still soft to touch in center, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to racks; cool completely.

Blindness rewarded?

I went to the eye doctor this morning to get a prescription for new contacts. The last time I bought contacts here I learned that if I had had a prescription, I could have been reimbursed by my private insurance. So off I went to my friendly neighbourhood opthamologist, where I learned that in France, if your eyes are bad enough, you get a special prescription, on a special paper, which allows you to be reimbursed partially by the social security. Apparently if you are myopic enough, it's considered a sort of illness.

I certainly don't consider my poor eyesight to be much of an illness, but I'm not going to complain if two different health insurance plans want to give me money because of it.

I celebrated by buying new boots.

Eating Japan

Trees (Jardin des Plantes)

Cherry Blossoms

Dinner at L'Escarbille

Last night we had a very delicious dinner at the one star restaurant in Meudon, L'Escarbille.

On the menu: Entrees of veloute de cresson avec beignets d'huitres (watercress soup with fried oysters) and salade de lentilles avec filet de rouget (lentil salad with rouget filet). Main course was pigeon for Erik (quite tasty!) and lamb for me. For dessert I had a fig tart with amaretto ice cream, and Erik had his all time favorite of tiramisu.


After dinner we went back to Julia and Thomas' apartment for an all important course of digestifs.

Then we came home way too late, and I got up way too early to go to work. Thank goodness for afternoon naps.