3rd October

This is my 3rd October

It is the 3rd October I've seen the markets fill with apples.

The 3rd time I have been so sad to see the shoe stores in ALL black and brown.

The 3rd time I will have my annual Halloween/Harry Potter party/excuse to invite a bunch of girls to my house and make them eat baked brie and toasted sliced almonds from the same plate (french gasp).

My 3rd time dragging my boyfriend out into into the gray abyss that is parisian stone and the constant cloud covered sky to see the fiery colored trees.

My 3rd year witnessing the trees being sheared naked.

The 3rd bearing down for drizzly, blustery, chill-to-the-bones winter in Paris.

Mean

There is one of these in every neighborhood.

It's just kind of mean really. Not because everything is deliciously rich, but more because these cakes can cost 40Euros.

Junk mail

I love that my own reminders set up in my Yahoo account, sending to the same Yahoo account end up in my spam box.

Modern Art - Rant

What, you might ask, is this?

It's art. Of course!

And it is a commentary on War. Clearly!

Last week, I was waiting for a friend of mine in North Station and this modern art installation spontaneously started smoking, flashing its lights and flapping its wings.

I am pretty traditional when it comes to art. I like pretty art. I like art that makes me feel nice. I don't particularly like art that evokes a bad or confused feeling.

I have tried over the years to gain an appreciation for modern and/or contemporary art. I have been to Beaubourg. I been to the Picasso museum in Barcelona. I do not like Andy Warhol.

In the end, I like the Centre Pompidou because it has a good feel around the building (lots of life and diversity) and because it has a nice rooftop terrace full of too many employees who wander around not actually doing anything. And because the hostesses look like a model rainbow. Weird and true.

Ok I do like Salvador Dali.

I think it was the day I went to his museum and found a large red building topped with large eggs. No, really. And then I realized that even though I didn't get his art I could still appreciate his level of skill and be amused by his art. (And really, how can you not like a guy who has a handlebar mustache?)

If modern art were a person I would say: You are pretty but I don't understand you at all. What are you doing here? And why do you keep flapping your arms like that? Are you ok? You seem to be smoking.

If this piece, called Le grand serpent (The Big Snake) were a person I would, with my head tilted to the side and my face all scrunched up in confusion, say "what?"

At least my flappy, white, smoking friend at the station seems happy.

Genius in the Kitchen

I think I am a genius in the kitchen.

I find this amusing because always after saying this (after tasting some amazing I made), I realize that I have only succeeded in making someone else's food. (Well, somone else's recipe)

But I am still a total genius.

Example: butternut squash and ginger soup

Result: Great soup. I added a touch of Cayenne Pepper. EVEN BETTER SOUP

Genius for getting a craving and making a divine soup

Example: Toasted bread with freshly made garlic butter

Result: my sister's recipe, which I am sure she stole from someone else. And I make it at least twice a month so it is mine by right of most frequent user.

Genius of making full flavor meals

Example: Salad - red leaf lettuce, sliced celery, thin slices of onion, chopped green bell pepper, sunflower seeds, sliced sundried tomatoes, regular old mustard-oil-vinegar french sauce.

Result: Colorful, flavorful, healthy lunch

Genius of making use of what is left in the fridge

Today's lunch: Egg and Bacon Salad.

How could this be anything but Sheer Genius?

(Well, and then after this I added sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flaxseeds and frenchy vinagrette)

You remember when I said...

...you could get any dessert you wanted in a cup in the cold section of the grocery store?

Today's dessert: Crème Caramel

It's is like flan but more creamy.

That layer of dark on the bottom? A thin caramel sauce.

Rhone-Alps