Spring Radishes Served with Butter and Salt
May 11th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
An easy starter or aperitif commonly served in France is radishes with salt and butter. This is casually served as cleaned prepared radishes, a lump of butter and bit of sea salt. Using a knife, slice your radish length with about half way down, slide a sliver of butter through the slit and lightly dab it in some sea salt. The sea salt can of course be omitted if served with sea salt butter.
The result is a delicious expression of radish crunch into soft butter both flavors delicately enhanced by the salt. It is the Oreo of radishes! It goes without saying that the butter should be of high quality, preferably tasty grass-fed butter.
* These radishes we picked in a friends garden last weekend. Radishes are very easy to grow and great to plant. They are great to plant if you have small impatient children, because they yield quickly and grow level to the ground surface so you can practically watch them grow!
How to Visit a Museum with Small Kids
April 30th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Every time we take a trip to the countryside or the beach our kids ask us, “Why can’t we live here???!” My dream of living in the city, and in Paris is not shared by my kids. They would prefer a yard, beach, trees, dog and house.
My husband and I have explained to the kids that our jobs are here in the city and that the city is so great and full of things to do, but the kids just don’t buy it. So to keep everyone happy we take the kids out to the forest and countryside on most weekends and organize our vacations around outdoor sports.
I also try to encourage the kids to enjoy what is great about living in the city… like having the wealth of so many incredible museums at our fingertips!
Here are my tips for enjoying a museum with small children. Most of these tips might even make your trip more interesting too.
1) Plan your visit to be brief. 1 hour (+15 mins maybe) If planned right, I find that the kids can even do an hour, stop for a long lunch and play time, then visit for another hour. The older the kid the longer you can go. But even as an adult, my honest maximum absorption time is no longer than increments of 2 hours.
3) Don’t offer them snacks during the visit. Snacks will only capture their attention more that the exhibit. Plan the visit before meal time with the promise of a meal after the visit. Use the meal time to stop, eat, talk and reflect after about what you saw.
2) You don’t have to be limited to visiting ‘kid’ museums. You can get your kid interested in an adult museums if you show your interest and explain to them what they are going to see, why it interests you, what is its historical context, why is it so famous.
3) Check out your chosen museum’s website to see if they have information to print out to make your trip more informative. Some museums have great preplanned paths arranged around a particular story. Even without kids, these information packets are interesting!
4) Treasure Hunt!! We often do this. Print out images of what you know you will see and make your visit a treasure hunt for the kids to find the pictures, sculptures, etc on the list. If the kids find everything on the list then they get a postcard souvenir.
5) Let your kids have the camera and take pictures of what they like.
6) If your child is old enough, get them the audio guide
Sometimes it is great to just walk through a museum and be awed by historical works, but it is usually alway more interesting when what you are looking at a story that you can understand. Any visit to a museum, even for adults, is so much more interesting when put into context.
(The above picture was taken by my 5-year-old son in the Musee Carnavalet. He thought that this picture was so funny and took a bunch of pictures in it… the little devil!)
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White Asparagus
April 19th, 2012 § 1 Comment
I grew up eating delicately thin green asparagus in California. My favorite way to cook them is in the oven, grilled to snap with a softy nutty taste on the inside (recipe here). It was not until I moved to France that I discovered white asparagus. These creamy white stems range from the size of a green asparagus to thick stalks. I love green asparagus, and given their short season, I would have probably never ventured buying white asparagus if it had not been that they are more common and (at the organic coop) often half the price of their green sisters.
My first attempt at cooking white asparagus was a disaster. They turned out tough and bitter. So I ignored their pearly hue until I learned how the locals enjoy them!
So in case you have purchased some white asparagus, and are planning your attack, or perhaps you have been dissuaded in the past due to a similar experience… I share with you the secret to turning these tough stalks into asparagus butter! The simple trick is that white asparagus needs to have its tough outer skin peeled away before being boiled, steamed, or preferably boiled in a special asparagus basket that allows the asparagus to stand up with their feet in the water and their heads gently engulfed in steam.
Simple White Asparagus recipe
1) Bring a large pot of salted boiled water to boil.
2) Snip off the dirty bottom of each asparagus.
3) Using a vegetable peeler, glide from the bottom to the top of the spear. You really only need to peel 3/4 of the way, the top of the asparagus skin tender enough.
3) Rinse the asparagus in water.
4) Once the water is boiling toss in the asparagus and cook for about 20 minutes. They are cooked when you can easily stick them through with a knife.
Drain and enjoy warm or at room temperature. If the skin is still a bit tough, do not hesitate to pickup your asparagus with your fingers and bit and pull out the soft inside!
Serve with homemade vinaigrette dressing or homemade mayonnaise and enjoy while they last!
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Fava Bean Salad with Herbs and Smoked Paprika (or use edamame!)
April 3rd, 2012 § 2 Comments
About every year we organize a spring BBQ to catch up with old friends and get to know new ones. It is always a great party with lots of delicious food. In the spirit of living by what I preach, I always prepare plenty of fresh seasonal salads. A few years ago I decided to make a fava bean salad. I had appreciated fave bean dishes and wanted to try making one on my own. What I did not realize, until I was ankle deep in fava bean skins, is how laborious it is to prepare fava beans for consumption. Fava bean preparation is a 2x shelling process: first they must be shelled from the pod, then after boiling, each bean must be removed from its skin. It is not the job that you want to be tackling the morning a crowd of 50 is showing up for lunch. Thankfully, the first guests who arrived at the party helped me finish peeling!
Now I only go through this process for our family or a small group of guests. I buy freshly frozen shelled favas for large groups!
This salad is a great addition to any meal. You can serve it as a side or on top of rice for a main dish.
Fava Bean Salad with Herbs and Smoked Paprika
4 cups of prepared fava beans (edamame would also work in this recipe)
3 TBS olive oil
1 TBS lemon juice
Handful of chopped herbs (I used chervil and parsley in the above picture)
Dusting of smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Smoked paprika is amazing! Its smell is intoxicating and I highly recommend looking for this delicious ingredient for your own kitchen. You can use normal paprika too.
Boil the beans for about 5 minutes. Drain and let cool. Peel off the skins if you are not using frozen beans.
Put into a salad bowl and add olive oil, lemon, herbs and paprika and salt and pepper. Mix and serve!
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Great Websites for Kids: Poisson Rouge
February 1st, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Finding balance between not letting your kids become hypnotized by technology, and yet teaching them to be media savvy, is very tricky. So much of what is out there is either too noisy, plain ugly or just totally not kid friendly.
…Which is why I would like to bring to your attention the website Poisson Rouge!
Poisson Rouge, is a website of free interactive games for kids. Some of the games are obviously educational, working with ABCs and 123s, while all of the games are intellectually stimulating, like in the way of puzzles or building with blocks. The cheerful simple design of the site is fun and attractive. Your kids, and you, will love the poetic imagery and playful songs and sounds.
The best part of Poisson Rouge, however, is that its creators seem to understand how spontaneity is important to play! The games are not overly complicated. Your 5-year-old can play at the kitchen table while you are making dinner without asking every 5 seconds for help. In fact, everything is so obvious that there are no reading instructions. Poisson Rouge has been designed in such a way that the simple games will build in your child the kind of confidence that teaches them that they can discover through curiosity, trial and error.
I highly recommend Poisson Rouge. You can use it as soon as your kid is interested and has the hand control to work the touch pad or mouse.
Check it out here.
Poisson Rouge is not adapted to work on tablet devices.
* Also, if you do like Poisson Rouge, please check out their boutique or donate money to keep this great site expanding. My kids love their Poisson Rouge t-shirts!
Poisson Rouge has French and English versions.
Bravo Michelle Obama and Some Food For Thought
January 27th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
I would like to start this post with a huge bravo to the efforts of Michelle Obama to improve America’s school lunches. Menus have been revised to offer more vegetables and a greater variety of healthy foods.
It got me thinking about the school lunches our kids have here in France. They are not perfect either, my kids often complain, but the variety in them is amazing. This is a picture of this week’s menu, which I translated below. Notice that there is always a starter, main course, cheese or yoghurt and dessert. Different classes get one thing from each of the courses. Take a look, I find it fascinating! What must already being exposed to lamb, turnips, beets, chocolate eclairs do for expanding a child’s palette?
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
| CauliflowerYellow MelonPorc Rillettes (a kind of pate)
*** Cow Tongue in Sauce Cordon bleu (Breaded turkey breast) … Vegetable Melody Pasta Torsades … Assortment of cheeses Dairy product … Seasonal fruit Black currant and apple compote Pistachio Cream chocolate Mousse
|
BeetsOcean SaladGreen Salad with Mimolette cheese
Cucumber … Merguez (a beef and lamb sausage) Veal Olive … Cauliflower Cous cous grain … Assortment of cheeses Dairy product … chocolate éclair Lemon cream dessert Seasonal Fruit Cous cous cake
|
Red CabbageEggCountry Paté
Rice salad … Quenelles in sauce Chicken Thigh … Mashed Potatoes Braised Turnips … Assortment of cheeses Dairy product … Apricots in syrup Pear Compote Seasonal Fruit Waffle
|
Soy Sprouts and TomatoGrapefruit with shrimpGrape leaves
Chinese Salad … Beef in black mushrooms Spring Rolls … Chinese Vegetables Rice … Assortment of cheeses Dairy product … Pineapple cake Coconut crème brulée Seasonal Fruit Chinese nougat
|
Carrot SaladColeslaw
endive and Apples Corn Salad … Steamed Fish raviolis … Wheat berries Spinach in cream … Assortment of cheeses Dairy product … Seasonal Fruit Peach and Apple Sauce Raspberry Mousse Pears in syrup
|
I
I Follow Marion Nestle’s blog for interesting information on what is happening in the food industry. She gives a great synopsis on her site today about the new changes. You can check that out here.
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Reusing Candle Glasses
January 14th, 2012 § 1 Comment
When the days get cold and Sundays are spent indoors with a good book, I am the first to go collect wood for the fire. When hot summer days get here and Sundays are filled playing outdoors and having guests over, you will find me lighting the BBQ. I love gathering around a fire, the smell and the warmth. Last year my dad and I even built our own fire pit at my in-laws to replace the gas grill. (How to build your own BBQ instructions here!)
In our apartment home, however, we do not have a fireplace or a BBQ. I tried convincing my husband at one point to put a hibachi on the balcony, but he did not think the copro would appreciate the smell of sausages coming from our place. So I make do with candles. My husband loves scented candles and often buys us delicious candles from Dyptique. When the kids and I get home in the evening I will light up a candle in the bathroom while they take their bath, then move it out to the living for us to enjoy for the rest of the evening. It is not much, certainly not the roaring warmth that a fire makes, but it is the little ritual that sets the scene for winding things down before bedtime.
Some of the glasses that the candles come in are so lovely that it is a shame to throw them away. So here is a little trick to clean them out and reuse them. We use old candle glasses for drinking glasses, pen cups, toothbrush cups, etc.
To Reuse Candle Glasses
1) In the sink, pour boiling water over the top of your used candle. Leave for a couple of minutes.
2) Grab the glass with a rag so that you don’t burn yourself and pour out the water. Use a spoon to scoop out the soft wax. Throw the wax in the trash, not down the drain where it could clog pipes!
Repeat if necessary until all the wax is out. Wash with dish soap and water.
Reuse!
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Thoughts on How We Learn Languages
January 10th, 2012 § 1 Comment
One day the bilingual speaker grows up to be a bilingual reader and writer. I have questioned various bilingual friends about how they developed these skills simultaneously in two languages, and the answers have been interesting. Almost everyone I know has noticed that one language, usually due to the school attended, becomes the stronger reading and writing language.
Julien and I have been simultaneously teaching our kids to read in the two languages of our home using phonetic reading methods. Today my son looked at me, having read the letter o’s short sound, and exclaimed, “In English the o says ŏ while in in French it say ō!” He is only on English short sounds for now.
His little epiphany was a big reassurance for me in phonetic reading methods. He had categorized the different lessons and was able to go from one to the other with the help of rules to decode each language. Will this logic help him sound out more difficult word patterns and eventually spelling?
I am currently adding the final touches to a phonetic reader that I have put together, so I have become a bit obsessed with how we build codes for language. This whole process, and my own experience with learning other languages, has got me wondering if we do it all wrong. During my high-school and college French classes, we memorized words and tried (painfully) to make the correct sounds by imitating the teacher. I do not remember ever learning the sounds of French through the alphabet.
My daughter, spent the first month in her Chinese class just learning sounds. I kept asking her to tell me some words that she had learned. She would reply that the teacher had not taught them any words. At first I was a bit worried that she was lost in the class, but then I would see her diligently practicing completely foreign sounds in front of her textbook. When I asked her again what she was saying, she insisted that she was just making sounds. At the time I was stumped, but now I am starting to think that we might have something to consider here when it comes to learning a language, be it our 1st, 2nd or 3rd! Should we concentrate on categorizing the sounds of a language before we learn whole words?
Former post on teaching bilingual kids to read.
http://delight-blog.com/2010/05/26/teaching-reading-to-bilingual-kids-and-learning-something-myself/
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The Ron Paul Family Cookbook: Autumn Root Vegetable Roast by Kelley Paul
December 14th, 2011 § 1 Comment
Cooking through the Ron Paul Family cookbook continues! Today’s recipe is what I call ideal, in fact, it was the first recipe that I marked when going through the booklet. It has everything that I love: lots of vegetables, family portion , easy as it is delicious, seasonal flare and something that I had never thought of! Roasted vegetables are a classic in our home as in many others. In my usual recipe I combine turnips, potatoes, carrots, onions and beets. Mrs. Paul includes all these ingredients plus brussels sprouts, which turned out to be a great idea! The bit of green makes this very earthy dish a little less heavy while adding even more color (that is if you don’t mix the beets with everything in the beginning!). Which leads me to one suggestion omitted from the book…
Mix the cut beets with oil and salt in a separate bowl, then put them to roast in the dish on their own side. You can mix the beets with the rest of the roasted vegetables without them coloring everything purple once their surface has cooked!
I highly reccomend this recipe during these last autumn days and into winter, as most of these vegetables will still be in season. Might I also suggest adding whole cloves of garlic, thyme, or any other fresh herbs.
Autumn Root Vegetable RoastKelley Paul
Mix and match as much or as little as you need, adding and omitting vegetables according to your preferences. I use: 8-10 fresh brussels sprouts, cut in half
3-4 fresh beets, peeled, halved or quartered depending upon size
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered
4-5 red skinned potates 3-4 carrots, peeled and halved 1 large yellow onion, chopped Mix everything with a good olive oil, salt and pepper in large bowl. Spread on a large baking sheet and roast at 425o for 45 minutes or until everything is tender. Brussels sprouts are best when they are crispy and blackened on the outside skins!
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Cooking with the “Ron Paul Family Cookbook,” Banana Nut Bread
December 6th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I really want to be a Republican. I want to be for that party that believes in a small federal government and a strong local government, but the candidates, since I have been of voting age, never really seem to embody this description of the Republican Party. The result has been that I pick and choose from both parties depending on whoever seems ‘better’. The Republican premiss seemed like a vestige of the American forefathers and Lincoln… that is, until I heard Ron Paul in 2008.
During this primary I find myself following press on Dr. Paul not only to learn more about his opinions, but because he is the only voice of reflection and civil discourse on important issues.
When I read that Dr. Paul’s wife, Carol Paul, was putting out a cookbook, as a food and lifestyle blogger, I decided to see if it the recipes were as coherent as Dr. Paul’s message. Cookbooks with recipes that don’t work are a real pet peeve of mine! At first I was a bit disappointed when I glanced through the recipes. Given Dr. Paul’s medical credentials, and his spry manner, I had envisioned a treasure of healthy down home classics. The cookbook, as it turns out, is collaboration by the Paul family (mostly the women), and the recipes are just about as random as the fare at a typical American family potluck. There are family style casseroles, American classics, ‘seasonal’ dishes, a few ‘special sauced meat’ recipes (these are male authored) and then the stuff that makes a foodie like myself gasp … recipes put together with canned and packaged foods, cool whip, oreo cookies and Doritos! Much to the regret of my children, I will not be testing these recipes on my blog… but in the libertarain spirit, I won’t tell you that you can’t. After all, as Dr. Paul would say “ Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force.”
With the consent of the Ron Paul presidential campaign, here is Carol Paul’s delicious take on banana bread. I like it because it is more bread than cake, delicious for breakfast… toasted with some grass-fed butter. You can purchase the book here.
Banana Nut Bread Carol Paul A very old, tried and true recipe, that is enjoyed by our entire family. 1⁄2 cup sugar 2 eggs 3 ripe bananas, mashed 2 cups flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1⁄2 tsp. baking powder 1⁄2 tsp. salt 3 tbsp. milk 1 tsp. vanilla 1 cup chopped nuts Mash bananas, and then add rest of o ingredients. Bake in loaf pans at 350 for 45 minutes. (This can also depend on the size of the loaf pan, I use small ones and sometimes they are done in 30 min.)
