Tarte au citron

I set a goal at the beginning of February: to learn how to make the perfect tarte au citron comme en France.  I also gave myself a roughly two-month time limit in which to accomplish this task.  This goal was partially inspired by an apparent manque de Paul.  While I'm sure there were better bakeries and pâtisseries, Paul offered the comforts that all chain stores do: those of availability and dependable quality.

I used David Lebovitz's recipes for both the pie and crust.  I followed the recipe for the crust exactly, but diverged slightly when making the lemon curd.  I doubled the recipe, except for the sugar; I felt there was enough sugar already, and I wanted it to taste more natural than sugary.  When I later tried the pie, after having refrigerated it, I found it to be much more sour than when the curd was warm.  Lebovitz advises that the curd should be strained as it is poured into the pie shell; I did not feel this was necessary, as I had strained the lemon juice after squeezing it.  I decided to decorate my pie with candied lemons, following this recipe, but again, not adding the full recommended amount of sugar.

I used six organic Meyer lemons, plus half of a regular organic lemon for the juice.  I candied the seventh Meyer lemon.  I would recommend using organic citrus because, as a former room mate of mine pointed out, citrus peels absorb pesticides and this recipe calls for zest.  More helpful tips on cooking with citrus can be found here, including that the fruit's juice yield can be maximized by juicing it at room temperature. 

The pie, as I made it, was well received by everyone who tasted it.  While it is not exactly like the tartelettes en France as I recall them, I like this recipe, and may adjust the amount of sugar when I make it again.

Happy Valentine's Day!

When Anna, one of my best friends, was away for a year abroad in England, I sent her this Valentine's Day card with all these heart stickers on the envelope. So last year, given that I had some troubles with the postal service (pieces of mail going to or from Canada never arrived, and a Hallowe'en card that arrived in December, to name a few) I thought I'd be smart and get my Valentine's Day card to Peter in the mail extra early. I figured that it would surely arrive on time if I mailed it January 31.

February 14 arrived, and Peter surprised me by having these gorgeous flowers delivered to my front door Valentine's Day morning just before I had to leave for work.  We were chatting on Skype that morning when they arrived, and I was floating on cloud nine the rest of the day and week or so that they were in bloom (as I recall, they actually lasted a pretty long time and then dried out beautifully).  He checked his mailbox, but no card.

February 15 came and went, and still my card had not arrived.  After a few weeks of waiting, we figured it had been lost in the mail and put it out of our minds.  Meanwhile, in mid-to-late February my mom received a postcard I mailed her from Paris in December, and this gave me hope that maybe Peter would get my Valentine's Day card.

One random day in May, after I had left France and flown to Québec, Peter called me.  "Guess what I just got in the mail," he said.  "What?" I asked, having completely forgotten my Valentine's Day card and figuring he was going to tell me about something like a tax return.  It was my Valentine's Day card!

I sometimes wonder where it might have gone in between the time I slipped it in the post box in France and it arriving in his mailbox, but I'm sure the answer is neither adventurous nor romantic.  Even though it was over three months late by the time he received it, I was still as happy as I would have been if he had been able to read my heartfelt message on the right day. Because, as another one of my closest friends once said of Valentine's Day, when the roses die, the chocolates are eaten, and the cards are thrown out, I'm still going to love you.

So Happy Valentine's Day, whether you're celebrating or boycotting it, and remember to show the ones you love that you care about them every day of the year.

Twitter

When I was getting ready to go to France, one of the important things for Peter and I to figure out was how we would communicate and maintain our relationship while we were on separate continents.  One of the ways we brainstormed was getting Twitter accounts to tweet and direct message each other from. When I got to France, however, the phone I got was a basic à la carte type and Twitter via SMS was unavailable for French phone numbers.  Instead, the nine-hour time difference worked in such a way that we were able to chat on Skype twice a day, morning and night.

Have you ever been in a long-distance relationship?  How did you stay in touch with your love?  

Also, if  you look to the right side bar, you'll notice I have created a Cartes Postales twitter.  I'll post blog updates, travel tips and more.  Follow me and I'll follow you too!

2 Days in Seattle

Pike Place Market, September 2004.

I was feeling a bit down the week before last.  I considered running my frustrations out, or binging on ice cream and drinking wine by myself while watching television (how cute is this Pity Party kit found via Cup of Jo?).  But then I remembered having passed a poster on a bus stop for a Gauguin exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum.  I suggested to Peter that we attend the exhibit and make a weekend trip out of it to coincide with our upcoming five-year(!) anniversary.  Planning this, and another upcoming trip, made me feel instantly better.

Almost simultaneously, I also began noticing these 2 Days in Seattle ads run by Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau all over the city.  "The promotion is part of . . . [an] off-season advertising campaign targeting San Francisco, Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia," and ties into a major interactive online component.

Seattle makes total sense for a weekend trip from Vancouver, but oddly enough I've only ever been there three times.  Once in 2004 to see Van Gogh at the SAM, again in 2005 to see Blonde Redhead and Interpol play, and lastly in 2010 when Peter and I stopped for lunch Fremont to see the statue of Lenin.

I'm really looking forward to the Gauguin exhibit, checking out Pike Place Market, and grabbing a bite at Odd Fellows Café.

Creamy Avocado Pasta

I've kept a blog of some sort intermittently for nearly ten years now.  While this blog has dealt with food primarily in the context of travel and my life in France, I follow food blogs and thought I would post a recipe "review" of sorts. 

Tonight I made Oh She Glow's 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta.  When I first read the recipe some weeks ago, my mouth watered.  While I find it was good, I think my execution of the recipe was a major factor in how it turned out. 

I followed the recipe exactly, except I added one can of Cannelini beans (drained and rinsed) for extra protein, sprinkled sea salt along with pepper on my pasta once I had plated it, and took a shortcut and used bottled lemon juice rather than real.  I feel this latter substitution probably significantly affected the taste.  I also made much more pasta as I failed to note the note that it does not reheat well, so lunch tomorrow will undoubtedly be interesting.  I feel the sauce needs to be warmed up in some way as just mixing it with the pasta straight out of the pot wasn't warm enough for me. 

This recipe was good, but I had (perhaps unrealistically) high expectations for it, and I feel my shortcuts took away from the end result.  I also feel that had I not doubled the amount of spaghetti I boiled, this would have been maybe almost too creamy.  I really like that this creamy pasta sauce does not contain dairy.  I will definitely make this again, but using real lemon next time.  

(photo from Oh She Glows)

Tastes Like Chicken

"A forager collects these wild snails in the Sierra Nevada mountains, then feeds them a strict diet of basil before blanching and packing them in basil water for shipping. When cooked, they become tender and infused with the flavor of the herb and are unlike any mollusk you've ever tried."

The description of how these snails are cultivated sounds really awesome and intense.  Before having taken the plunge last year and eaten escargots in France, I would never have believed that snails could be any good.  These, however, sound delicious!



(photo from Gilt Taste via Cup of Jo)

In My Life

There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more

Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more  

-- The Beatles, In My Life