dissonance

A startling confession and a new start

I was talking to Angie this past weekend on our way to town (reminds me, IOU another Paris post) and I came to a rather liberating realization:

I am not a jeans kind of girl.

Ahh!  It feels so good to just admit it out loud! In cyberspace...

Remember when jeans were like all.the.rage?  They still are. But I remember being completely obsessed with finding the perfect pair of Citizens of Humanity, or Seven for All Mankind, or Joe's, or Blue Cults or whatever $150+ range that Gwenyth Paltrow was strutting down SoHo with.

But you know what? I'm too short. I'm too short and too curvy and they just don't feel good to me.  They're cold in the mornings, nip me in all the wrong places, you can't see my cute shoes and let me tell you nothing makes you feel fatter faster than seam lines running down your thighs.

I almost feel like a traitor to fashion, particularly with my shopping roots from SoCal, but I just don't need that kind of... attitude from a pair of pants.

So there you go.  This weekend I am having a Jeans Exodus and all but three pairs are going in the donation box.  Yes, I'm still holding onto 3 because I'm not living like a caveman with pelts and I admit some jeans have their place in the wardrobe. Jeans will now operate on a "one in, one out" system.

Everything else is getting chucked. I'm too ashamed to tell you the number of other pairs that have been suffering from years of languishing in the closet but let's just say I am potentially making a small sorority of thrifty fashionistas very happy.

So what kind of girl am I then?  Pretty much anything else! Dresses and skirts and trousers and shorts and leggings, oooh yeah leggings! Just not jeans.

It's all like whatever - Bread salad

I haven't done a food post in ages but now that summer's here I thought I'd share this super easy recipe that's perfect for warm evenings. It's a bit of chopping in the beginning but then it's all like whatever for the rest of it.

 

Bread salad with Roasted vegetables

Ingredients:

- A stale baguette (I roughly tore it to thirds and left it on top of the bread bin for like two days.)
- Vegetables: Go with any veggies that roast well.  Suggestions - bell peppers (anything but green) red onions, yellow onions, zucchini or other squash, asparagus, even a bit of finely minced chili pepper will be good.  Amounts depend on how many people you feed.  I ended up with about 4 full cups of chopped veg and the two of us ate like pigs.
- A couple cloves of garlic minced
- Cubed pancetta
- Italian parsley ("flat leafed")
- Some balsamic vinegar
- Some red wine vinegar (optional)
- Some olive oil
- Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Turn on the grill in your oven. Move the rack to the top or as near as possible where you can fit a roasting pan underneath it.
2. Roughly tear up your bread into bit sized pieces.
3. Put the bread pieces into the roasting pan and put under the grill.  You want to toast them. Let them get light brown and then mix them around so they get evenly browned.
4. Transfer the toasted pieces to a bowl. It's ok if there's crumbs left in the roasting pan, yum!
5. Chop up all your veg to about 1-2 inch pieces, basically bite sized.
6. Throw the veg, pancetta, and minced garlic into the roasting pan and lightly coat with with olive oil. Drizzle half as much balsamic vinegar (you can add more later).  Salt and Pepper.  Mix around with your hands and pop it under the grill.
7. Let the veggies well, roast.  You might want to pull it out occasionally to mix the veg around so that it cooks evenly.  You want them to get browned but not burned.  Obviously.
8. Take the roasting pan out of the oven and add the reserved bread pieces.
9. Add chopped parsley and mix it all about.  Add some drops of red wine vinegar if you got it.
10. Enjoy while basking in the evening sun.

Optional variations:
- Tablespoon or so of capers will add a tangy kick, add them to the roasting veg for the last 2 mins
- Grated parmesan on top right before serving is always welcome
- Also great as a side with creamy soup, like carrot or tomato

School looks cool again

This weekend I started looking into courses offered at the local adult learning centre (which turns out to be a 10 minute walk from home) and man I wish I thought of this sooner! I always thought they just had classes like ESL or The Internet for Beginners.  I mean, they have those too but so much more!

I've missed out on the Spring semester but I've totally got my eye on these for the fall semester starting in September:

• Easy Indian Cookery
• Calligraphy (for invitations!)
• Scottish Country Dancing All Abilities (should be handy for the wedding)
• Flowers on a Budget for a Wedding
• Bouquets for Bridesmaids (amazing how many wedding focused classes they have)
• Garment Making All Levels
• Good Food on a Shoestring
• Pattern Cutting and Sewing for Beginners
• Upholstery All Abilities
• Dance Fitness Fusion
• Pilates
• Cookery for Men (Craig might find this fun)
• Mediterranean Wine Cruise (seriously, why haven't I found this centre sooner?)

I hope my interest lasts til registration starts up again.

Hot in herre, therre, everywherre, ugh.

England has been going through something of a warm spell recently.  It's been unreasonably hot in the bedroom and we've kept a window open for the last few weeks.  Last night Craig even opened TWO windows, a controversial move.  As a person with a uh, significant wool collection it is highly controversial to be inviting moths into the house and just emphasizes how desperately hot it's been.

The thing is, it's not THAT hot.  If I think this is hot, I would probably just give up living if I were somewhere like South Africa or India.  I think I've just become a total wimp when it comes to heat.  I was never much of a fan  of hot sunny days (yes, I lived in San Diego for over 8 years) and now that I've been living in an area notorious for lack of sunshine I've built this intolerance.

It's not just in my head either.  I've actually begun to totally break out in a rash if I stay out in the sun too long or if it's too hot.  I know, there goes any chance of becoming a swimsuit model in Bali.

It's even melting my brain.  I just remembered I'm supposed to be writing a Paris Part Deux write up. Oops.  I guess I'll do that tomorrow or is it enough if I told you it was tres spectacular?

Paris part une: nom nom nom

This weekend I had a bit of a rendezvous with sassy friend Angie.  Location: Paris!

We had lived in Paris for a month about 10 years ago during a summer language course.  I didn't learn much French and I accumulated a debt that took YEARS to recover from, but damn it was awesome.  It was my first taste of living in a foreign country and I am truly grateful for the experience.

Flash forward many many years and Angie's doing a bit of a tour of Europe and we thought since England is only about a 2 hour train ride from Paris, why don't we have a sort of reunion?!

Sometimes I forget what I lucky bitch I am.

This first write up will concentrate on the food consumed. Oh the food!

I left after work Friday and by 10pm I was greeted by Angie at Gare du Nord.  We hopped on the Metro and went to the little studio apartment that Angie found for the weekend (surprisingly cheap compared to a hotel and Angie treated me for my birthday anyways, thanks darling!)  Then we had dinner at Chez Denise.

A few things to note as I didn't take any pictures (Angie has them on her camera):

1. We sat down to eat at midnight.  We didn't make reservations and when we arrived we were almost turned away. Now, I thought it was because they were almost closing but:
2. We finished our meal at around 2AM and the place was BUMPIN'.  Midnight was when the dinner service really picked UP and we were fortunate they let us sit even though we had to share our table with another party (not a problem, they were lovely to share with).
3. We had the cote de boeuf which is a shared platter and it comes with steak, fries, and roasted marrow.
4. When they set down a plate of steak we both thought: "Oh that's the perfect portion for us to share this late at night," and then they plunked down ANOTHER plate with an equally big steak in front of me.  It was divinely cooked (England usually overcooks their steaks).
5. The fries were magnificent. Every fry was perfectly seasoned.  Every. single. fry.
6. I'd never had roast marrow before and I'll be honest, the texture takes getting used to.  But it was great!!

On Saturday we had our first meal of the day at a creperie and we both had Crepes Complete which are savory crepes filled with ham, cheese and an egg. Yes, an egg. I love eggs.  The set menu we got also included a dessert crepe which is simply dressed with a sprinkling of sugar and a pat of butter.  Hopefully a picture forthcoming from Angie's camera.

It was a gorgeous day which was a perfect backdrop in search of the perfect ice cream from Berthillon.  I had never heard of it but Angie assured me it is world famous and it has been on her list of places to go "for years".  And dudes, the stuff is amazing.  I had a scoop of apricot and a scoop of grapefruit and Angie had banana and caramel.  They taste exactly like what you expect those flavors to taste like except fresher and more intense.  Honestly a-m-a-z-i-n-g and if you're ever in Paris it is well worth hunting this place down!

For dinner we had made reservations at Itineraire and at this one I was able to take some discreet snaps on my phone.

Our entrees:

Angie had a mackerel starter which included some mussels.  Isn't it so pretty??



My starter was a carpaccio (ie very thinly sliced) mushrooms with clams (I now know what clams are supposed to be like) and shaved fennel with a very simple seasoning that made all the ingredients come brilliantly together.  I would have licked the plate if I was not in a restaurant.



Our plates:

Angie's main course was salmon, courgettes, beans with a parmesan sauce. Again the presentation was beautiful.



I had cod with on a bed of cooked vegetables.  I can't make it sound fancier than that and there isn't any need to because that's what it was and it was brilliant.  It tasted so fresh and vibrant, simplicity was the perfect choice to let the main ingredients shine.



We split the dessert which was some kind of cheese (I wouldn't be surprised if it was homemade or at least locally made) and it had a very very subtle goat cheese taste.  I was especially impressed with the olive oil drizzled on top, Angie and I first mistook it for honey.



Much to our lament we were so full by this time we couldn't finish the cheese (we really really tried).

Before I left for home the next morning I had just enough time to grab a couple of pain au chocolats aux amonds to share with Craig (the poor man was left in the home alone studying for his PM certificate) (well he also went to a bbq, watched the FA cup final and went to a few pubs so he wasn't suffering too bad from my absence).  They were really greasy but still delicious with a hot mug of tea and a perfect way to wind down my Parisian excursion.