Finding Christmas

So what do the wives do when their hard-working husbands work 12+ hour days? The work day here goes into the night....and the night comes early up here in the higher latitudes (around 4:30 pm).  So the days are short and the nights are long.  Many of us combat home-sickness  at this special time of year.  The week before Christmas was not filled with office parties, nor  frenzied shopping trips, nor wrapping presents.  It was more of a quiet Christmas time, watching the way the French do it.  No carols to speak of on the radio, no Christmas commercials on TV enticing you to buy what you don't need.  Neighborhood streets are lit up overhead, but rarely do you see apartment buildings and windows with lights.  No, it is a different scene here.....private, I guess.  There are no pre-Christmas sales, either.  Those sales come in January, so it is hard to want to spend precious euros when nothing is on sale.

But I kept busy.  Ordering presents over the internet, baking some cookies, going to the Galeries Lafayette to see the Christmas windows.  Lyle works....I play.  It doesn't seem fair, does it?

The huge tree at the Galeries Lafayette

Our little tree

Enjoying great desserts with my International Club

Singing Christmas carols with the Coffee group from Church

Walking along the Seine to see.....

..."The Sound of Music" (in English even) at the Chatelet Theater with.....

 my friend Amy and our French teacher, Michelle

We learned the ins and outs of getting "cheap seat" tickets from Michelle, getting 20 euro tickets and then moving up to better seats during intermission!

 

Seeing the Russian Christmas exhibit at the Madeleine Church with the Friday Tour Group....

 

Gawking at tacky Christmas trees on the street....

Passing out gift bags at the women's shelter....

Roaming the "Marche de Noel"......

.....and of course, the wonderful Christmas concert at church

This is how I spent the week before Christmas, filling my days so that I am not thinking so much of what I am missing with kids and grandkids.  We have learned to embrace the day, receiving the blessings that we are given, and anticipate the next year with all that we will experience when that comes to us.

Baking time

I have to confess that I have not baked anything "homemade" since coming here (except for one pumpkin pie last year).  I know, it's awful, but with all of the tempting delights at the patisserie, how can I compare?  But when invited to a few Christmas get-togethers, and a call to bring home-baked goodies, I thought I better give it a try.

Baking cookies is not the easiest thing here.  Honestly. There is the hunt for specific ingredients not so available in France, as well as the right cooking utensils.   And when you live in a furnished apartment, you have to take what is there or go out on a hunt for it.

For example, I wanted to make my mother's delicate sugar cookies, the thin kind that melt in your mouth.  I have so many good memories of making them with her when I was young, and even did it a few years ago with my mom and  Ava, our first granddaughter.  I was actually surprised I had brought the recipe here from home, but also disappointed when I remembered I had to roll out the dough.....THIN....that is the secret to these cookies.  We don't have a rolling pin and when I looked at the Monoprix yesterday, there were none to be found there.  I suppose I could have gone on a hunt, but I decided to make my  mom's molasses-ginger cookies instead. But that was a recipe I didn't have, so after searching on the internet, I settled for one that sounded similar (and was rated 5 stars!)

  Of course, that meant hunting for molasses.  That is not something sold in the neighborhood grocery store, nor the market.  After asking some friends, I was directed to the giant epicerie (grocery goods) at the downtown department store, Galleries Lafayette.  After searching the aisles, I did find it, although it was the British version called "Lyle's Black Treacle".  How would anyone know that is molasses? When I opened the can, it was very thick and rich, a bit different from American molasses. But it would work, I hoped.

The flour is another crazy thing here.  It is numbered, certain flours for certain things.  I happened to have #55, which is for bread, cakes, and pie crust.  You are supposed to use #45 for cookies.  Oh well, I was not going to buy another sack and drag it home, so #55 would have to do.

And then there is baking soda.  That is something you get at the Pharmacie.  I thought I needed baking powder, which is single acting here and not double-acting, but was glad that this recipe didn't call for it.. 

My three questionable ingredients.....

But, for all the trouble to get it all assembled, I have to say the cookies turned out great....just like I remembered them.  Of course, why wouldn't they, with the freshest ingredients (real butter and had to grind my cloves).

So those are for tomorrow.  Today I am bringing my grandmother's rice pudding.  That is another story, but briefly.....I had to research about rice because the recipe calls for short grain rice.  They mostly sell long-grain rice here, so I thought I would have to settle for that.  However, I discovered that I had bought some "round grain rice" which I had not used for a long time because it was always goopy.  Ha...that is the kind you are supposed to use for pudding!

After boiling the rice in whole milk in a make-shift double boiler,  the rest of it was easy.  I even had a pot that I could put it in to brown the meringue, which I had brought back from Strasbourg.  It is now cooling in the fridge, and the next challenge I have is how to bring it without spilling when I walk to my friends' get-together this afternoon, about 10 blocks away. 

A visit from Steve and Christa

We both looked forward to having family here for Thanksgiving; Christa and Steve left their little ones, Anna and Emmett, in the willing hands of their other grandparents.....and came to spend a week with us!  November isn't an ideal time to visit Paris, as the weather can be questionable,  but none of us could complain.  They got plenty of walking in, as we were able to share this beautiful city with them.  We spent the first few days visiting the Eiffel, of course, along with Notre Dame, cafes, and markets.

 

Many of our visitors have also wanted to visit the Normandy beaches....and so did Steve and Christa.  So we headed north in a rental car, stopped for lunch at the famous resort area of Deauville, and headed to the American Cemetery and Omaha Beaches.  By then, the weather was turning a bit sour with horizontal rain, so we headed to our favorite B&B, an old mill turned into a beautiful "gite".  It was my third time there, but I love the countryside! The rain cut our visit a little short, so we headed back to Paris the next afternoon.

 

One of the highlights when we returned to Paris was going to see an opera!  We all headed to the modern Opera Bastille to see "La Boheme", which was a first for all of us.  Sung in Italian, it did have French subtitles electronically above the stage.  I was surprised that I could actually understand most of it (yes, I can read French much better than speak it!).  We all prepped beforehand and read the words in English, downloaded from the internet.

 

 

The night before Thanksgiving, we went to the Champs-Elysee to see the Christmas lights and visit the annual 

Christmas markets, the Marche de Noel.  These markets are all over Europe and sell handcrafted items from around the world.  They couldn't resist taking a ride on the huge ferris wheel on the Place de la Concorde, something that we did last year and loved the views!

 

 

Having a map in hand, Steve and Christa visited the Louvre, the Orsay,  and Montmarte on their own, while I started putting together a Thanksgiving dinner.  That can be quite the ordeal here, as finding turkeys before Christmas can be quite a challenge (the French traditionally eat lots of turkey at Christmas).  My friend, Amy, did order one from her favorite butcher at the market, picked it up the day before, and brought it over in her little cart, via the bus!  This was a BIG dinde, about 16 pounds.  But it DID fit in my oven.  Turkeys are not cheap here....and even with a "sale", it was over $5.00 a pound! But it was FRESH, free-range of course, and delicious!

Besides the four of us, we were joined by our friends Amy and Ken, and Steven and Francis, plus our cute and very Parisien French teacher Michelle who loves American Thanksgivings!  We enjoyed all the traditional American dishes, including stuffing and pumpkin pie!  It ALMOST felt like home, although we missed the little grandchildren.   NEXT YEAR!

 

 

Thank you, Steve and Christa, for coming and making our holiday special!

Vienna

Last New Years Day, we watched a concert in a spectacular concert hall on our French TV.  Lyle told me then....."Find out where that is and let's go!"  Well, after googling it, I discovered it was the Golden Hall in the Musikverein concert hall in Vienna.  It's an annual thing and tickets are well over 2000 euros...if you can get one! After researching some quick get-aways to Vienna, we spent 4 days there last weekend, NOT New Years!

  We arrived on a crisp, sunny day, took the train into the city, marvelling at their shiny efficient subway and train system.  Problem was, we somehow got on the express train and didn't have the correct tickets.  Oh well...the conductor just asked for 20 euros and went on his way.....

Vienna is the musical capital of Europe....full of concert halls, opera houses, and musical events everywhere.  We spent one evening at the famous Musikverein and looked forward to a Haydn concert.  The problem was....it was an opera...in Italian...translated into German.  But it was a pleasant surprise, and we throroughly enjoyed it.   Sitting next to us were two friendly women who were both opera stars and tried to tell us what was going on, but conversation wasn't welcomed well into the play.  We just sat back and enjoyed the Concentus Musicus playing "L'infildelta delusa", whatever that was......We were where we wanted to be and the evening was wonderful!

Earlier that day we walked around central Vienna on a walking tour, learning about the Hapsburgs, Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Maria Theresa, and the confusing Franz Josephs and Joseph Franz's.  I was just starting to understand a little of the French monarchs...but now this?  All I could relate to was that Marie Antoinette was one of Maria Theresa's 13 kids who were all married off to further the Austrian empire.

We visited Marie's winter home and summer home.....Hofburg in central Vienna

.....and a short train trip out to the country side on a beautiful Sunday to Schonbrunn, similar to Versailles....

Besides serious concerts, Vienna has plenty of "touristy" shows with music and waltzes from Strauss and Mozart.  Lyle gave in to my longing to do that too, since I didn't totally understand the concert the night before.  We got some tickets off the street for another enjoyable concert in a small "salon" and were entertained with more classical music and dances.  I loved it!

It was a relaxing weekend of  music, walking, and just relaxing in coffee shops, which Vienna is famous for.  But we couldn't believe the food portions (I guess we are used to the French sizes?).  Our weiner schnitzel covered the entire plate, the bratwurts were huge, and the breakfasts were full of carbs!  And we had to bring home the famous sachertorte from Demel's.

 

 

 

 

Julia Child I am not

I have been enjoying reading "My Life in France" about Julia Child and her husband, living as ex-pats in Paris in the late 40s to 50s.  I know where she lived and the streets that she walked, but the identifying with her ends there.  She was a newly-married wife who plunged herself into Parisian life, learning the language quickly, and adored the shopping and French meals.

I am not there.

My speaking French still sucks, even after 18 months of working on it.  I shy away from the fresh markets because the overwhelming selection of fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, and cheese totally intimidate me.  I have a hard time asking for what I want, and am embarrassed about my child-like French.  I am not sure whether I am getting a bargain, or just getting "taken".  I know that not speaking French is the main problem.  I can't communicate what I want very well.

So, I'm afraid that much of my shopping is at the small little grocer's around the corner, or the bigger "Carrfour City" a few blocks away.  Neither are huge supermarkets, but the selections are clear and I can load up my bag with just enough to carry home.

I need to take a cooking class.  I have tried recipes from a French cookbook written in English, and have found some good ones that I can handle.  But when I sampled some "potimarron" soup (kind of like a pumpkin) and boeuf bourguignon at our last Bloom workshop, I wanted to try these recipes at home. Peeling the pumpkin was a bit of a challenge, especially with our dull knives, but it turned out well. By the way, all of their soups are started in the food processor.  No clear soups here!

Promising to make the "B.B" for Lyle, I went to the boucherie down the street and told the butcher, in French, that I needed 1 kilogram of beef for the B.B.  He smiled and brought out a beautiful chunk of beef from the refrigerator, cut it up, asked if I wanted a bone too (sure, why not...maybe that's the bacon part I am supposed to get?).  Price: 15 euros.....yikes!  Then headed over to my little store to buy some cognac and Burgundy wine (another 12 euros).  Add to that the mushrooms, veal stock, carrots, onions....well, that wasn't very much....but it was adding up.  All this for the two of us?  We needed to ask someone over to share it.  Frances and Steve could come Sunday evening.

The recipe actually was fairly simple.  I was a little hesitant about lighting the cognac, though, and told Lyle that was his part.  He did it with a match, as I did not want to spend another 10 euros for one of those torches.  Cheap and Cheaper were cooking!  Well, the fire from the cognac was tame, not flaming 3 feet high into our kitchen, just a little blue flame in the pot...

Mission accomplished....

It turned out great, except a little salty (did I really put in 2 tablespoons of salt in it, or was that my imagination?).  Lyle told me he would love eating it every week!

Not.

So, yesterday I thought I would try fish.  I found an easy recipe to follow, using leeks as a sauce, so I headed to the poisonnerie on Rue Cler.  I needed sea bass, which is "loup de mer" in French.  Looking over all of the fresh fish on ice, I didn't see any, so had to ask the fish man.  He pointed to a whole fish, which I wasn't expecting.  Nor did I want to cut off the head and fillet it.   Julia Child would have known what to do with that whole fish.  But my seventh grade cooking teacher  never taught me how to fillet fish, even though my mother did it often (my other cooking teacher).  I bought some salmon instead.

So.....I am a bit disgusted with myself that I haven't embraced this wonderful part of French life.  I guess I need to take the plunge and actually take a few classes before I go home.