Mirjam and Dennis are here visiting for a week from rainy cold Amsterdam to hot humid St Pierre la Mer... can you hear the Mexican bailler music in the background as they cook up a special thai meal for this starving pregnant lady?

What a wonderful time: today, we started by installing this ladder on the ceiling for my copper pots and pans to be hooked upon. Their idea. So happy, because Benji and I had no idea how to put it up and our guests just happen to be fantastic carpenters as well as professional chefs. What else could a hostess ask for? Friends that crawl into your attic filled with insulations on a day where it is 32 celcius outside? Perfect advice at every turn, respect, filling the frigde, filling our glasses and our hearts with love!

They drove down with their car full of ingredients! For Paté! Two large loafs later, we will be spreading prunes with armenac and pistachio paté for weeks after their visit. Mirjam gave me this cute apron that matches hers so we will always be in-sync and in-style together. I will post the paté recipe on garlic breath later this week when I do the official taste test. Dennis made watermelon sorbet when I wasn't looking and they have kindly invited mother in law to eat with us on many occasions so we can all chat in french. Needless to say, she loves them. As we do LOADS and loads. Now, if only we can be as wonderful of guests when we go to visit them.

Today I had my first appointment with the doctor and saw my little lentil, he/she is 5mm long and its heart was beating on the screen in its bubble.

I started crying and shouting look, le couer, le couer in my bad french and she said, oh yeh, listen and turned on the microphone so I heard a rapid thump-thup, thump-thup. Tears of joy streamed down my face as I said over and over, c'est fantastique, vraiment fantastique!!

I'm emotional in French - well intregrated, tout est bien and she gave me lots of confidence that all is well in my belly.

Probably why I havent blogged that much last week is because I'm now Six Weeks pregnant and incredibly --almost narcotically-- tired. It is as if my body has started producing its own codeine factory and I must nap two or three! times a day and go to bed at 9pm. Oh, and I eat and eat and eat. We are so happy and just told our families so now I can tell the blog-o-sphere our very happy news! My first doctors appointment is wednesday and I might get to see the little lentil that is growing inside of me. We will find out what flavor it is when the time comes so we can plan ahead and take bets from family members.

My dream that I had several days before I knew or I figured out that I was pregnant went like this: I was swimming along in a strong current and found this cave to hide in, shaped like an igloo, but not cold inside. It was bright white and in the center of the room were big building blocks like what kids would play with, but they were white with blue letters on them in some kind of codex stacked to almost the ceiling. All around was this aura of bright pure light and then I sat down at a glass dinner table and talked and ate dinner with relatives of Benji that I had never met before.

Lucky is hiding in the vines, while the neighbors move into what he thinks is HIS playground! Since his youth (this last year) he has claimed the Dates house and yard as his own favorite place to rest, sleep outside and play since they only use the house during the summer. He is so bummed, especially the COCKER SPANIAL that they brought in HIS spot! The nerve!


Head over to Claire's at Eat Stuff and check out the other cats in the blogoshpere for Weekend Cat Blogging.

Father in Law's birthday was the 24th, he moped through out the day as we avoided him busily preparing for my dinner party for 'british' people that I told him nonchanlantly "if you want to come then that is fine". He doesnt speak English, so it was not very appealing. Chantal told him the menu and it was all of his favorite things, (we planned it that way), so he said he will think about it. He pouted to his friends and asked if he could go out to dinner with them since its his birthday after all and they all said, "oh, sorry we are invited to a party that you are not invited too."

He was lifted up out of his malvais humour while we were waiting outside for the British, (a fun French pastime of long ago days) his croonies speedily drove up in three cars and parked in front of the house and tumbled out! Haha, they gave him gifts (as we did too), hugs and slaps on the back and I started pouring the Rosé Sangria for everyone. We all sat down to the three course dinner complete with different wines, candles and floating japanese lanterns in the trees above us until way past midnight.

(photo was taking at 9 something, look at how light it is outside! oh, summer!)

I wrote this article for Bonjour Paris, but I think its appropriate to share with all of you, since it is about Fathers day, which has just passed. I tried to call my dad about four times, but he was never home. *sigh* I guess that I'll just have to talk to him via email like we usually do. The article will go on line in about a week, but here is your advanced reading:

French Cemeteries
by Riana Lagarde

I’ve always had this fascination with European cemeteries. Not like the boring ones back home, these have museum quality statues, 300 year old rusted crosses in “fer forge”, charming smiling angels from above, intricately carved tombs and painted naves.

When I lived in Paris in the 20th near the Père Lachaise Cemetery, I would make special detours to stroll through the grounds taking in Parisian History told through grave markers and stone reliefs. I pass Arago, astronomer and discoverer of the Méridien de Paris then a bust of Honoré de Balzac, the writer watches me as I cut though the winding walkways. My respite from the busy city, it is here that I could meander between the artists, composers, writers of Paris and feel there artistic energies penetrating me and pointing me in the right direction in life.

For Father’s day, we took our “mamie” (French grandmother) to see her relatives. (side note: She is pictured here, isnt she adorable? Eighty-something years old and she cooks everyday and cleans her enormous house and takes care of grandpa, all alone, she is amazing!)

I brought my camera this time, feeling a bit disrespectful, but also really wanting to capture these precious moments. She brought roses for her father, and while cleaning the ledge in front of the family crypt, she told me for the hundredth time the stories of each person that rested there. Each time she adds another morsel of information, so I listened intently. This time she told me that “our” (and this gave me a shiver, because, this is where I will end up, right?) cross had been on top of the tomb and when her family broke from the Catholic church (another story) that they took the heavy cross off in defiance. She said it is discarded behind the family crypt in case I am interested.

As we turned to leave, I saw a pack of cemetery cats roaming the gravel pathways, pouncing on graves and chasing flys from dead chrysanthemum flowers. I followed them to their hiding place and found four darling black kittens peeking out from a 400 year old tomb that had conveniently cracked along the bottom and was now their home. I thought of Egypt and the City of the Dead who live on top of the family crypts, protecting their family heritage and claiming their plots in life.

Oh, I love this season, the lavender is perfectly formed, the tomatoes are green and growing and expanding quickly. It is hot, hot hot, time to go to the beach...

Lucky is showing off his pilates moves for weekend CAT blogging while mum blogs about "figs" on weekend HERB blogging...Kalyn does the kitchen round up while Clare does the Cat round up from around the world for both. Check them both out and remember to stttttreee--tchhhh!

Provence was a big hit! Lots of fish, olives, ratatouille, tapenade, aioli, anchoïade, salad niçoise, and a languedoc apricot tart! See garlic breath for some of the recipes.

We started at the farmers open air market as always, this time sampling all of the olives before deciding on the green ones marnitated in basil and spices. Yum. Got some rich black ones for the tapenade as well.

Along the way, we bought flowers just for fun and then bought some fresh baguettes to slice up for the dips. Lots of fresh vegetables: carrots, zucchini, eggplants, onions, green beans, lettuce, lemons and then purchased eggs and fresh tuna cut from a giant fish right in front of us.

We cooked for two hours, chopping, cutting, pastry making, stirring, opening and closing the cupboards and fridge and oven until at last we sat down to a proper Provençal meal share with many bottles of Rosé. The sun was shining; it was perfect.

Paravent... this lovely wood and iron screen to hide the woodstove and to divide the living room from the dining room area. Adds to our arabic theme that we have going on in the living room with the salmavar and carved mirror and the dark wood matchs our dining room furniture.

In the office, I framed up a bunch of Egyptian Papayri... that is all that is new around our house and it is a lot!

Every morning I go to this market in front of my house, by the sea... today, I brought my camera so I could feel like a real live tourist! I get treated like a tourist anyways because of my American accent, though I would love to banter back that I am a full time resident unlike the other 40,000 people that are here right now (In winter it is just 500 of us year-rounders) and I would love to point out that my husband is fifth generation St Pierrian. His great-great grandmother was born on entry to St Pierre on a wagon when her family was coming to "tent city" for the hot month of August from Narbonne. His family was also the first one in town to own a car. Regardless, the people at the market think I am just another damn tourist. So, I will act like a tour guide and give you the my journey via photos and explanations:

First stop the bread stand to get a baguette or two or a fougasse (a braided bread with garlic or bacon). There are two bread stands next to each other and I am not faithful to either, who ever has the smallest line is the one that I am standing in.

Second: the Poissionerie, fish stand-- for those anchovies that I talk about on garlic breath today. Sometimes, I'll get a kilo of oysters or mussels or a fresh cut of tuna or Nile perch is great, no bones!

Then the sausages, I like to stock up on a bunch when we have company and keep them in a basket for carving between and before meals. The deer (serf) is really good and the herb- crusted and black pepper ones are heavenly. Sometime they have promotions four for ten euros and I get one of each.

I love love love olives, they are fabulous for munching and making tapanades. In case you are too lazy to make your own this lady makes some wonderful homemade tapanades and confinades (sundried tomato pureé). There are three other olive sellers, but this one is the best, I have tested them all.


It is not a market without the cheeses! I could spend our entire paycheck at the cheese counter easily. I love the samples as I walk along the crowded stalls, snatching a piece of melon, sausage and cheese.

The "cinqui" (I asked for that many because it was the only number that I could remember in Italian with the word "pomodoro" for tomato at this tiny middle of nowhere nursery on the side of the road) Italian Tomatoes that I brought home on our road trip are doing fantastic! More than two feet high and just as wide growing in terracotta pots on the balcony. I put large strong bamboo supports and tied them with raffia. Under the fragrant follaige is small thai basil plants with their purple stalks and pointy leaves- perfect for chinese stirfry and pho soup.





Next up, the tiny little yellow flowers with purple hearts of the tomatillos are coming along! Novella sent me the seeds; I don't know if anyone grows then in France or not? But yes, they do, Physalis philadelphica is the latin name and I think the French call them Physalis, or chinese lanterns.

Since I have been writing this blog for 2 years or more now, it is getting kind of full and harder to find things... I did try to seperate the food stuff onto Garlic Breath for all the people that come here looking for the Armenian Pizza Recipe. (About Five a day come here looking for that addictive yummy bakery item!)

Blogger has a cute little box up on the left corner that you can search within this blog that works, sometimes, when blogger feels like it. I just got dreamweaver and would someday like to re-do my site to make it easier to navigate, but until that happens as I have a million other things on my list (i.e . two books that I am in the middle of writing--typical Gemini trait-- learning photoshop and how to use my new fangaled camera).

So if you are here, looking for the cookery class links-- Here they are:

Brittany

Alsace's Class

Burgundy

Normandy

Mussels recipe

tart tartin… yum

pain d’épices muffins

Andrew who received my food package

coq au vin photo and quick write up

coq au vin the recipe


And if you are a publisher, looking for a cookbook about France, let me know ;)

I hung up the summer curtains and Lucky thinks that it is big fun...there are little crystals on the top that he thinks he must get! AH, AH!

Woohoo, its weekend cat blogging at eatstuff.net, lets go see what Kiri is up to this weekend! Look, Lucky-- Kiri is car riding, just like you love to do! Happy travels!!

I just sent my mom and dad birthday cards and got to thinking about my childhood in Idaho. This summer my sister is doing an internship for graduate school at a newspaper in Idaho. How circular is that? Perhaps she will be able to get together with our dad? Mom is also going to Idaho for a week to see her old croonies.

It looks like I am the only one not going to Idaho as of yet. Maybe, I should fly there in August and drive with my sister back to California. Shades of "Thelma and Louise", except we don't drive over a cliff at the end, nor do we blow up truckers. But we would stop at randy truck stops and shoot a mean game of pool in seedy taverns.

I grew up on a cow ranch, 188 acres of alfalfa fields, isolated and happy drinking well water and playing with chickens and being chased by geese. Dad pulled out his shotgun from the rear window in the pickup and blasted a 4 foot rattler that was posied at the passenger door. Mom shot chicken hawks and wild cats, injected tabasco sauce into eggs to deter coyotes and plucked porcupine quills out of the dog's nose.

I made mudpies with mom's baking tins and collected cow turds and bathed in a horse trough until we got proper running water. How did I end up in France teaching French cooking classes? Reporting on the Middle-East for travel magazines? Writing a book in my spare time. It was a long journey, but I wouldnt change it for anything, because it is a big part of who I am. I am a cowgirl at heart.

With my extra money from Italian night I ran out the next morning before even emptying the dishwasher and propmtly bought this nice quilt set for the guestbed... not for Lucky, but for my ever growing list of guests coming this summer:

Mirjam and Denis in June
Saron and Joke in August
and maybe justt maybe...
Mikee at the end of August or September
Fillippo and Fabio in October!!

I am practicing with my new camera, only on page 38 of the 144 of the directions so I am still on exposure settings. This is a photo of my painting that I did a few months ago. I have 3 more empty canvases that I look forward to filling when the mood strikes me. I took this photo while sitting on my bed, head propped up with lots of pillows, reading the instructions on line on the laptop with the camera by my side. As I read something I pick up the camera and shoot... this one I zoomed in across the room to get my painting (unnamed as of yet). I have lots of belly shots and cat shots that I am not sharing, plus they are all 4K in size..

Woohoo, it has been one year the Kiri and her mummy at eatstuff.net has been interupting her regularly scheduled food programing for a very important Kitty cat program!

Lucky, hey Lucky get out of the refridgerator and come celebrate with kittens and cats from around the globe...it's WCB one year birthday!!

I just added more photos to flickr ( click on side bar of photos) and will add a few more as I get shots from other delegates on the tour.

still sick, so i'm off to bed to see if i can shake this egyptian curse...