I recently spent the night in the City with my friend Michelle (dinner at a yummy little French resto in the Mission, far too much wine, and lots and lots of girl talk - waaaay more fun than joining Fish Boy on his fishing trip!) and on Saturday morning we went on the most wonderful walk from her house, through the Presidio, out to the beach, and all the way around to the Golden Gate Bridge and Fork Baker. Here are pic's from the day - such fun being a tourist at home!
Some pic's from our recent weekend in Healdsburg celebrating Stephen's 50th.
The last two weekends, we have been hiking (& fishing) at Henry Coe State Park. Here are a few photos to share how fabulous it is. Including the coyote, above.
Autumn is here. Which means I'm in the mood to make homemade pasta and bolognese. Yum.
A long time ago, I started a Strasbourg photo album here, then dropped the project. I do that a lot. However, with the purchase of a snazzy new camera, I have picked up the project again. More photos here.
Last week, Strasbourg celebrated it's Carnaval. More photos from the parade here at Flickr.
Recently on the wonderful website Chocolate & Zucchini, Clotilde wrote a piece about opening one's own Coquille St. Jacques, (or scallops, if you insist). And, lo and behold, recently in my local market, fresh scallops appeared at the fish stall. Here are photos of me putting my nifty new skills to good use.
Interesting discovery - scallops come with a little pouch of roe inside their shell, which is absolutely edible, and yummy. It's quite usual to see it sold together with the scallops, even when they're shucked, here in France. The roe is the orangey / pinky half moon to the right of the scallop.
These were delish! steamed with some garlic, soy sauce, spicy peppers and other odds and ends (recipe available on request!).
Hey! That's us, with Mount Blanc in the background! Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to 2005. We enjoyed a busy, but great trip back to the states for the holidays, starting in Baltimore to visit Stephen's family, on to Los Angeles to visit my family, Stephen's mother, and his sister, then up to San Francisco to see friends and celebrate New Year's. Upon returning we re-packed our bags and headed to the French Alps for an incredible weekend skiing, courtesy of 4J's, (Stephen's company).
On Sunday, we enjoyed a tasty, late, lunch with "the boss", Jean-Georges, on top of the mountain - (only the French could do food this good at the top of a mountain!) - and finished it off with a nip of the local digestive. I can't remember the name, but the game is you pour it into your warm coffee cup after having drunk the coffee so that it is warmed slightly, and then sip it slowly. It tastes a little "piney" but that final run down the mountain was a wonderful experience!
This is the view from our hotel room. The snow was a little thin, but we didn't see a single cloud the entire weekend. For the record, we were at Les Arcs 1800.
See that white stuff? That's snow. Come on winter, bring it on, I'm ready!
This month, cities and towns all over Alsace are celebrating the 60th anniversary of their liberation from Germany. Wow. There's been photos in the papers of Strasbourg during the liberation, with tanks and soldiers in the squares, artillery piled up everywhere - very scary. As part of the celebration held last weekend, an American army band played in one of the big market squares. They also brought some army vehicles to display.....
And behind all this is City Hall, currently displaying this.....
It reads, "Hostage in Iraq" "Free the Journalist George Malbrunot"
Honestly, when will our world leaders figure it out? Watching the atrocities in Iraq taking place, I all the more strongly applaud France's decision to stay out of the war.
To end on a happy note, here's Stephen.
"Cedric: Moi, j'aime l'eocle" It's in French. It's for 7 years and older. I need a dictionary to understand it.
