Loving Frank

Just finished the book "Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan. I so did not want to read this book. And, yes, I judged it by its cover. (I mean LOOK at it! Ick!) Plus, I am not a huge fan of Frank Lloyd Wright (though I do like the Dana Thomas house in Springfield, Illinois). What is great about this book is that it is NOT about Frank Lloyd Wright but, rather, the amazingly strong woman, Mamah Cheney, who left her family to be with him. While this book is a work of fiction, it is based on fact and is incredibly thought-provoking, well-researched and historically relevant. I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the womens' movement in the early 20th century and life before women had the right to vote (1907 - 1911). I am really glad I stuck it out and finished the book. It is definitely a good read. Next up: Clark School and WGHS graduate Jonathan Franzen.

London

I love London!

I didn't always. In November 1988, I arrived in London for the first time. I arrived very late, couldn't get a hold of my friend and spent the night in Euston train station with a lot of homeless people. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Hopped the first train to Scotland the very next morning.

Fast forward. 20 years.

I LOVE LONDON! Every time I visit, I love it more! And the food - YES THE FOOD - is amazing! Sorry, Paris, but I think London is starting to pull ahead of you gastronomically. Some of my best meals in Europe have been in London.

When I was there a few weeks back, we went to a "gastropub." What is a gastropub? Basically it's a pub that serves gourmet food. The gastropub we went to was called The Eagle. The food was so amazing! The menu had several vegetarian options (no veg options in Paris!) and I had the linguine with pesto, potatoes and haricot vert. Yum!

Beets

So a few years ago I decided that I wanted to try to like beets. (Kind of like when I decided to try to like onions and mushrooms which I love now!) I've never liked them. But a lot of that is because my mother used to buy the ones in the jar. About five years ago mom made a "fancy" salad for Christmas: farm cheese, roasted beets and some other grose thing. It was pretty awful. But it didn't deter me in my quest to try to like beets.

Now I like beets. Roasted beets. Well, only roasted beets. And you know what? They aren't very bad. You can either roast them whole in the oven for an hour wrapped in aluminum foil OR you can peel them, add them to other root vegetables, toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast them in the oven for 40 minutes. I've made this dish twice this last weekend for Thanksgiving and it was pretty good.

The biggest thing you need to know is that beets stain. Big time. So if you mix them with white potatoes, they are going to turn pink! Although mixing them with carrots makes a really pretty color.

Threading

This is kind of a grose new thing to try to I will keep this short. It is the ancient art of hair removal. It's Indian. And it's very odd. And painful!!! Very very painful.

It involves a woman. A long piece of thread. And, well, a lot of pain!

Does it work!?

I've done it twice so... maybe!?

Macarons

I have been to Paris on at least ten different occasions and have ALWAYS turned my nose up at macarons! I mean LOOK at them! They look like those neopolitan-colored sugared wafers. They look stale. They look terrible.

THEY SO ARE NOT!

One of my Paris books mentioned going to Laduree for macarons. So I decided to try. How bad could they be?

NOT BAD! NOT BAD AT ALL! Instead, I found them to be AMAZING!!! Laduree had about 20 different flavors. Fabice and I put a lot of thought into choosing those beautiful little cookies. We opted for: Dark Chocolate (awesome!), Raspberry (nice!), Rose (ick), Saffron (interesting), Salted Caramel (grew on me) Chocolate (not as good as the Dark Chocolate), Mango Lime (hmmmm) and Pistachio (the best of the bunch).

Holding the beautiful pink Laduree box in my hands, we strolled through the gardens at the Luxembourg Palace and sat next to the fountain. It was a rare warm, sunny October day in Paris and we took full advantage. Sitting on two chairs with our feet propped up, we took turns popping those little flavorful bites into our mouths!

I highly recommend a visit to Laduree! And thanks to Williams-Sonoma you can purchase these yummy little things online for less than a plane ticket to Paris!