Advice on crepes from a real french chef

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Thankful

So, tomorrow is the big ol' Day of Turkey in the U.S. and of course, in France they don't celebrate that holiday, so I almost had forgotten it was so soon!  Usually, I would be in Sarasota, Florida with my family and helping my mom in the kitchen prepare for the eating festivities.  In years past, she would have to beg me to help with anything ("please help me peel the potatoes at least!?").  But then I wasn't interested in cooking and baking, but would usually try to escape the craziness in the kitchen and go out for Margaritas with my dad on our boat.  But, now I have morphed into a tyranical little chef once I enter into a kitchen.  (actually, this only occurs when I am with my mother in a kitchen.)  I begin commanding my poor mom around, like it was me that was putting out these fantastic Thanksgiving dinners for the last 27 years.  I, for some bizarre reason, think I have been reincarnated as Julia Child and need to give these crazy people around me some proper cooking lessons.  But my mom is one maja' good chefette and she does not need me to help her cook any meal ever; especially her amazing Turkey Day one.  

I remember how much I always adored her Crispy Green Beans, as I lovingly called them.   I thought from the time I was little that my mom had invented the most amazing Thanksgiving side dish.  To me, those Crispy Beans were perfection and I imagined it must have taken her at least 2 days of planning and preparing to make them.  Well, as my mom was cooking one Thanksgiving I was in the other room watching tv.  And on comes this commercial for Frenchy's Fried Onions (the ones in a can...) and here's what goes on in this commercial:

A family is having people over for a Thanksgiving dinner.  The doorbell rings, and the hostess answers the door to a guest holding a baking dish full of steaming hot Crispy Green Beans!! 

                   

                                         {{Holy shit!, I'm thinking at this point... }}

Seconds later, there is another knock at the door and another and another and ALL the guests are arriving with the same damn thing!  My mom's Crispy Beans!  

"Mom!! "I yell, as I run into the kitchen..."Turn on channel 8; they stole your recipe!  The secret is out and everyone is making your Crispy Beans!"  And she's like, "Well, yeah, Heather, the recipe is on the back of the Campbells's Cream of Mushroom soup can. "  

I was crushed. 

Another change to our Thanksgiving menu came one year when my mom was short on time.  Normally, her stuffing is all homemade.  No mixes or ingredients from a can.  For her it was, buy the bread, tear it up into little pieces, chop up all your apples, walnuts, celery, chuck in some raisins, and add whatever other goodness she put in there.  Yeah, as I kid I liked it.  I liked all the food on the Thanksgiving table, with the exception of the Sweet Potato dish.  (My grandma Esther was obsessed with these sweet potatoes and every year she would be in utter disbelief as to how a child could not like any potatoes that "taste like candy!".) Ok, back to the stuffing... So, the stuffing one year was replaced in top-secret by my mother, who thought no one would notice the change from her original recipe to a box of Turkey flavored Stove Top Stuffing.  

As, everyone piles up their plates and begins eating, the conversation turns to the fact that somethings different about the stuffing this year.  Yes, we all agreed; yes, something was very strange and different about it. My mom began squirming around in her chair looking nervous, hers eyes darting around to all her guest's faces. "Did they see the Stove Top box in the trash can outside?", she thought to herself.  This stuffing, we decided, was strange and different in an amazing, please-never-go-back-to-your-old-stuffing-recipe-again kind of way.  And as the truth came out of her mouth, we were all surprised and shocked (in a good way) that something from a stupid box could be so delicious and yet so time efficient.  So, Stove Top Stuffing is now a part of our family's Thanksgiving tradition.  Hey, why take the hard and time consuming route when we all enjoy the cheap, preserative-filled stuff much better?

Yes, I will miss Thanksgiving this year, but I have so many great memories to think back on, it will be ok.  I have the greatest memories of my Grandma and Grandpa Plass there, along with my aunts & uncle and brother and my dad (always at the head of the table and always dribbling gravey on his shirt).  Normally, it was this same group every year, and now the years have gone by, and the some of those beloved faces aren't with us anymore.  But what I am Thankful for this year, is that we did have so may precious years together as a family.  Laughing around the table, listening to each other tell the same stories over and over again, but no one really getting sick of hearing them.  Cuddling with my dad and watching a football game after dinner.  Playing with Sugarbear & Snowball, our 2 dogs growing up, on the carpet in front of the fireplace.  And having exciting thoughts about how close Christmas was!

I am Thankful this year for so many reasons.  My life has really changed so much in the last year and a half.  I met the love of my life and got married.  I am so incredibly thankful for this man, who is the one who completes me and makes me so very happy.  I could have never dreamed of a more perfect person for me to spend my life with.  So, I thank God for sending Yann to me.  

I am Thankful for the chance to live in a foreign country.  There have been so many good things about living here, but I cannot lie; there are some very annoying parts too.  Please, don't think my life here in Marseille is a perfect, 'living in France' fairytale.  There are lots of things that I am NOT thankful about this city I live in, but since it's a day of giving thanks I will really try to see all the beauty that is in this crazy, massive, one-of-a-kind city.  

I am thankful that the people of our country saw the need for Change in America!  I am so excited for this new year and this new beginning.  I am thankful that the United States has made history and elected our first black president.  I am thankful for Barack Obama and I really believe in him and that he will lead our country in a positive direction.  I am thankful for being American and now that I have lived in another country, I can say I am even more thankful for how our country works and for the rights that its' citizens have.

Finally, I am so so so so so thankful for my dear family and friends.  I don't know what to even say about it, other than you all have been such a rock and a support for me always.  I think I must have been blessed with the best friends and family a person could ever have.  When I'm feeling bad, instead of only having one or two people to call and talk to, I have many wonderful, loving people in my life I can call on.  My hope is that everyone is blessed with such a strong, and true group of people around them, a family.  I am thankful most for a gracious God, who has given me so much strength through the tough times and one that is always with me and with those that call on Him.  

So, whew!  I feel like I just gave my acceptance speech at the Oscars! Ha!  I know, I'm getting all soft and touchy-feely in my late 20's!  I kid, I kid...but I think it's important for me to share that with all you guys!  And in conclusion...Happy Cooking, Happy Eating, and Happy Thanksgiving from France!

Paimpol trip!

Oh! I am having major blog guilt!  I am sorry I haven't written a blog for so long!  Hopefully, that won't happen again, but no promises...

Anyways, above are some pictures from our trip to Paimpol last weekend.  We went to visit Yann's dad, who had a minor stroke while vacationing in Brazil.  He is going to be fine but he is seeing double out of one eye and his voice is all scratchy.  But we got the news today that he will be well enough to travel to Florida for Christmas, so our 2 families will all be able to be together.  We are going to be home in 23 days!  Wow, time is really flying by...

We had a great visit to Paimpol and did some great hiking by the sea and as always, we ate some amazing Brittany seafood, caught by our personal fisherman, Yann's dad.  Even a stroke cannot keep that guy away from his fishing boat! 

Ok, well Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm missin' that pumpkin pie and cranberries right about now!!  

elections...

Hey, can you believe it's already close to election time?! How exciting is that? I am really looking forwar to seeing the results of this election.  I can tell you, in my English classes, a lot of the discussions have been based around the upcoming election and the two candidates.  French people are very interested in this election as it has a big effect on their life too.  America is so tied to many other countries in the world and sometimes as Americans we forget how much influence our politics really have.  However, living in a foreign country I am aware of this impact as I see tons of U.S. election coverage on French news everyday.  I can tell you overall who French want to see as the next President of the US and that man's name rhymes with Mama, llama, and Mamba.  I have been watching, thanks to You Tube, all the election debates, Obama's 30 minute commericial, and reading news from the States.  It's weird to not be in my country for this important Presidential race, however, I did already vote.  And that is the most crucial action to take in this whole thing.  Just go out and vote and get your voice heard, no matter who you are voting for.  

The more Americans that vote, the more our voice is heard.  The government will see who the majority of Americans want as President after this election, thus they will see more clearly the desires of the American people.  I have my own strong beliefs about this election as most people now have, and of course I really hope the guy I voted for wins!  (I won't reveal, but maybe some already know.)  Maybe after the election I will post to tell if I am happy or not about the election results.  We'll see, America....

And on to the yucky weather we are having here in Marseille...It's been cold, overcast & rainy for days and it is going to continue through the weekend. Yann is upset because he has 16 days off and he can't go kite boarding. The weather is too bad.  He will kite in the cold wind and rain, that's not the problem.  It's that, when it's too cloudy the wind dies, and no kite boarding for anyone.  Oh well, hopefully things will turn up soon.

Happy Halloween from France!  No one really celebrates it here so I'm not expecting to have any Trick-or-Treaters knock on our door.  But maybe there will be one or two odd French people that dress up and bum around the bars on the Vieux Port.  The section for Halloween in the grocery store consists of some old, tangled up black wigs and some dusty bags of candy.  There is also an absence of carved pumpkins glowing on front porches and of signs for Haunted Houses at the local church or mall.  There are no invitations for Halloween parties in our mailbox and no one will be toilet-papering the neighbour's lawn.  Oh, well...C'est la vie...

I am missing the commercial American holidays of the Fall, as well as the changing leaves, which we don't have here.  I am also missing hiking with my dog, which is what my parents are doing right now in North Carolina.  

Last thing:  Yann and I are having our 1 year anniversary tonight!! (Not of marriage, of course, but of meeting eachother for the first time.)  One year ago tonight, Yann & I locked eyes at the noisy, smokey bar that is called S.K.O.B (Siesta Key Oyster Bar), it was love at first sight. and the days keep getting sweeter & sweeter.   Happy Anniversary, Yannou! xo

Have you seen this movie? (it's good)

I just came home from my first cinema experience in France.  It's not all that much different than going to see a movie in the States.  Except in France the theatre is still faintly perfumed with body odor and old-cheese smell, as Mark so eloquently pointed out. (My dates were Mark & Laila)  So, we saw the movie, Vicky Christina Barcelona, a Woody Allen film and here is my mini review:

I was entertained the whole time; at no point was I annoyed with the film.  I loved the development of the characters, two recently graduated college students, who decide to travel together to Spain to stay with relatives for the summer.  Scarlette Johansson plays the passionate and naive dreamer who falls in lust quickly with a Spanish abstract painter, played by Javier Bardem.  He is a persuasive, smooth talking, lover-taking divorced artist and upon his first meeting with the two women proposes a 'rendezvous a tois', if you catch me here.  The girls end up agreeing to travel with him to his home village of Olviedo.  'Sensible' Vivky, played by Rebecca Hall, is engaged to a man in NYC and is reluctant to go on this mini-journey, but does end up going to keep on eye on her friend, Christina.  

Affairs begin left and right, engagements are nearly called off, hearts ache.  It's a typical Woody Allen exploration into LOVE.  The idea of what love really is, what are the rules of a relationship, what does it mean to stay in a realtionship when the fire of passion has died.  It examines the possibility of being in love with one person and in lust with another at the same time.  It also touches on some necessary emotions if you are making a film about love, which Allen was: jealously, revenge, and forgiveness.  

Enter into the story my favorite, Penelope Cruz, who plays Maria Elena, Bardem's unstable and manic ex-wife, an artist herself, who enters into the movie about half way through.  Penelope makes this movie.  I mean, I know that like Scarlette J. is Woody Allen's muse or something, but really I can't see why.  If you're a person looking for a muse why look to anyone but Penelope Cruz?  She is so beautiful in this movie (as she is in all her movies) and she brings the rage into her arguing scenes.  It must be that hot Spanish blood...(ps: Have you all seen Volver with Penelope Cruz, that came out in 2006? OMG; if you haven't please go out and rent it this weekend, great movie.)  Anyways,  I won't give away too much of her role in Vicky Christina Barcelona.  

A summary= great movie. It was funny, sexy, serious, but not too serious.  Filmed in a beautiful location (in & around Barcelona) and it incorporated Gaudi's architecture into the story so you get to see a lot of that.  The characters in the movie were constantly eating food and drinking tons of good looking wine.  The dialogue was, thankfully, a toned down version of a usual Woody Allen script.  You got the biggest hint of 'typical' Allen in the character Vicky, who plays an uptight-ish college graduate with a dull fiance in New York, whom she is really not sure she is in love with.  Every decision she makes is belabored by lots of groveling and bantering back and forth.  She never seems to work things out and just ends up frustrated.  She can't ever be content with a choice and ends up looking like a person who lives life filled with regrets.   

I assume, Woody Allen's muses are happy to see he's changed his normal routine of filming in NYC, and switching it up to Espana.  Go see it, hope you enjoy it too and I hope you were somewhat amused with my first little attempt at playing a "film critic".

Bon Weekend!

This post is void of pictures and I'm sorry for that

So, I am extremely happy it is Friday, because when a person goes from not working for 5 months straight, to working a full  two weeks teaching english, one gets really knackered.  (To use a cool new word I learned from my British friends)  Thankfully, this Saturday I'm not on the schedule, but I was last week.  Plus, as a teacher it's important to always be energetic and  'present'.  The adults I teach are all professional business people.  Usually, CEO's, engineers, and HR people but also every one in between:  Secretaries, technicians, sales people, ect.  So, they are smart cookies and they mostly have already studied English in school.  Plus, French people are very knowledgeable about grammer particulars.  So, the English teacher better know her verb tenses and have on-point explanations for when to use them.  Whew, I admit, I had to review that stuff when I first was hired.  Luckily, my French husband helped me out by explaining it all to me.  

Anyways, yesterday was a rough day......I had a 'charter out' at 8am, which means I go to the client in their office building.  Usually, the teachers can take public transport to get there, but this time I had to drive the truck because it was pretty far outside the city.  So, I have my directions and my little rolling suitcase with my portable cd player and books and I leave an hour early from my house to get there.  It is only about a 15-20 min. drive so I had brought a book to read in the parking lot, if I was early.  Well, I got off at the right exit but completely missed the street and i couldn't turn around because it was a one way street.  So, I ended up getting back on the highway heading back the direction I came from so I could do the exit again.  Well, long, horrible story short I couldn't find the turn around exit and I ended up all the way back basically at my apartment.  I looked at my watch; 30 minutes to the start of the class.  OK.  So, I get back on the highway, except now there is gridlock traffic.  Finally, I get off at the correct exit, take the correct street, totally miss the address and end up in some entire other area.  Holy crap, now I only have like 15 min. to get there.  

I go into a Tabac to ask directions and the nice man draws me a little map even, still I think he was sending me the wrong way.  The only way I can figure out how to get there is to take this twisty, steep road that is very narrow.  Well, that turns out to be a one way street and even though I am getting dirty looks I plunge down the road anyways.  I get to the business exactly on time, one minute early, in fact and the lessons go off without a hitch.  The students had no idea that 10 minutes prior I had been in my car cursing the French highway gods at the top of my lungs.  

Later that day, I got a 35 Euro parking ticket, stepped in dog poop, and missed an important appointment with an electrician that was going to fix something in our apartment. 

On to Topic #2:

So, we have a little problem in our house.  Apparently, my husband is a Nutella fiend.  The guy can polish off an entire 750 gram jar of the chocolatly-hazelnutty breakfast spread in 2 days flat.  That is roughly 1 lb. 10.5 ounces of pure delight and gooey goodness.  So, here's what's not fair:  I want to make myself a toasted baguette sandwich in the morning before work and smear it with nutritious and energizing butter and Nutella and....all that is left in the bottom of the jar is dried up old crusty chunks of the stuff.  It's such an anti-climax to my morning ritual.  Gettin' all excited for my breakfast as I'm shampooing in the shower, thinking about the toasty heat of the baugette melting the butter with the chocolate into this unbelievable rich and sinful goo.  

And then I realize upon opening the jar that there has been yet another strike by the Nutella Thief of Marseille.  I caught him one day last week, guys, he had a massive soup spoon in one hand, the jar in the other, and a shit-eating grin on his face.  Yet, this wasn't shit smeared on his lower lip; it was Nutella.  And when he really has a stressful day, you know what he does?, (and I'm not lying about this), AND he will kill me when he sees I've written this for the world to see.......he takes a spoon and the jar of Nutella into the shower with him, turns the water on super hot and sits on the floor of the tub and eats Nutella.  Oh my gosh, I love him so much.  

The End.