Sud de France, part 1 - Food

Chocolate cake of lava death - my favorite!

A little late (and late in the week), so with out further ado...

As some of you know,  after several years of teaching as part of an Summer exchange program, my Dad became part of the faculty at the university in Montpellier.  Though he still teaches most of the year in the States, for a week each year, in either the Spring or Fall, he teaches part of a course in Montpellier.  This past October, I was lucky enough to go with him and my mom. This is the first of a 3, or maybe 4, parter about that trip.

When traveling in the South of France, there are a few things one  must do - see fields of sunflowers and lavender, explore the medieval cities, and EAT!  I love food.  I love French food.  And I really love eating  French food in France.  Here are just a few of my food-related excursions.

Eat Dessert First

Do I have your attention yet?

It's France.  With French desserts.  Need I say more?

Marshmallows have never looked so good

Nougat of all flavors

Chocolate that looks like potatoes.  Does life get any better?

Les Macarons!

Yes, that is a cake topped with macarons.  Genius, I tell you!

Sense et Sensability

Several Summers ago, my family celebrated a special occasion at the Michelin Star-rated Jardin de Sens, owned and operated by the Pourcel brothers, Jacques and Laurent.  It.  Was.  Amazing.  Since then, we have had occasion, or made occasions, to try others of the brothers' Montpellier restaurants: the now-defunct sandwich shop, La Compagnie des Comptoirs on the beach, and this time around, Insensé, the restaurant at Musée Fabre.

I have to say, I wasn't impressed.  I'm pretty sure I could've cooked that one up in my own kitchen and done a better job.  In fact, the chocolate cake tasted just like my own recipe.  Perhaps my previous experiences just heightened my expectations too far.  Keep in mind, this in no way means I would pass on an opportunity to eat in any of their other restaurants.

Down on the Grange 

The pavillion in Antigone has many restaurants.  You can get anything from fish and pasta to Lebanese and Chinese.  But one place in particular takes the crêpe.  La Grange aux Crêpes has a nice atmosphere, friendly owners, and a lovely menu of salads and sweet and savory crêpes.  But their signature dessert is one of my dad's favorites - profiteroles made with crêpes instead of cream puffs.  We went twice in the 9 days we were there.  I'm only sad I didn't get a picture.

The Original Waffle Window

I love the Waffle Window here in Portland.  But, if it's possible, I love the gauffre window in Montpellier more.  Begian waffles with a variety toppings, made while you wait.  Yum!  I hear they also do sandwiches and some other fried snacks, but why waste your time with those?

There may be things on the menu besides waffles, but I'm not sure why

They call me Tater

One of Dad's favorite restaurants is located at Polygone, the shopping venter at the end of the tram line.  Les 3 Brasseurs is a brasserie featuring it's own line of beers.  So, what goes better with beer than a burger?  Perhaps next time I should READ the menu instead of skimming it.  I caught that the burger had cheese and onions and an egg and that it was served with potatoes and, although I found it odd that both potatoes and pomme frites were listed, it didn't really click until my plate arrived.  My burger was served, not on a bun, but between what were essentially 2 very large, flat tater tots.  Again, my great regret isn;t so much that I couldn't finish it, as that I hadn't taken my camera to dinner and missed the the opportunity to photograph it.

Cheesus

Anyone who knows my dad, knows how he feel about cheese.  The first day we were there, he bought cheese.  He also bought cheese the second and forth days we were there.  Not that I'm complaining, of course.  Just that, as usual, his perception of what 3 people can eat in three days was a little off.

Say Cheese, cheese!

Food of the Gods

Many of you might also be familiar with what I can consider the Greatest Food on Earth: Aligot.  Aligot is traditional food from the Lozère region of France.  Lucky for me, there is a place to get it in Montpellier!  Maison de la Lozère serves many traditional, and some not-so-traditional, foods from the region.    Of course, the house speciality is aligot.  Warm mashed potatoes mixed with cheese that is served from a large bowl at the table, using 2 spoons in a twisting motion.  The cooking of the dish isn't difficult, if you can find the right cheese, but the serving...there in lies the true talent.  Don't believe me?  Just do a Google image search for "aligot."  Also, should anyone ever offer you a second serving, it would be wise to politely decline.  As lovely as it is, one serving is designed, and does, stay with one for several hours.

This One Went to Market

Portland has a wonderful Farmer's Market.  There are local farmers and food crafters and it's a fun excursion even if you don't need a whole ton of produce.  But nothing quiet compares to a European open-air market.  Montpellier's Sunday market is a fun walk with beautiful produce, meats, cheeses, and even wine.  My favorite happens to be the guy who sells live fish out of the back of his truck.

Market wine!

Fish in the back of a truck.  Trust me, they're in there.

I don't even like olives, but they're still pretty.

And I'll leave you with one last French food greatness - the Café Gourmand.  A small coffee (which I could do without) and several small desserts, usually the house specialties.  Seriously, they've thought of everything!

YUM!

Easter Crafting Fun

I've been away for a while, but it's a new year, I have a new job and this means more time for myself, my crafting, and (hopefully) my blog!

I'm starting off with an easy, but fun one.  This is what I did last year for Easter.  I planned to post it later, but there was some interest out there on more in-depth process info, so it's going up early.

Since I feel I've pretty well mastered crochet, and I'm learning how to knit, I decided the next thing to take on is dyeing yarn.  I've tried a few things but before I'm ready to move on to Big Girl Dyes (acid dyes), I wanted to try one more fun, food safe thing - Easter Egg Dyes!

Somewhere along the line, I decided I wanted to compare how the dyes work on wool as opposed to eggs.

So, I started the process by hard boiling some eggs, buying some dyes, and winding my wool into 9 sections (one for each color of dye) of about 25 grams each:

Mason jars in the front row, plastic party cups in the back

After prepping the wool by soaking it in water for an hour, I prepared the dyes according to the package directions.  I used mason jars and double dye (2 tablets, twice the vinegar, and twice the water) for the wool and clear plastic party cups for the eggs.

I dropped the eggs in the cups and put the mason jars into a glass jelly roll pan for ease of transport.

Eggs in the dye

The yarn went in the mason jars then into the oven at 200*

Yarn in mason jars pre-baking

After baking, and exhausting dyes

I left the eggs in the cups and yarn in the oven until the yarn had completely exhausted the dyes (i.e. the liquid left in the jars is clear), which took a lot longer than I anticipated - about 2 hours.


When I took the yarn out of the oven to cool, I took the eggs out of the cups to dry.

After the yarn was completely cool, I rinsed until the water ran clear (almost immediately), and hung it to dry.  The only color that didn't really turn out, was the purple, which is, apparently, notorious for breaking.

Here are the finished products:

Some day, in the not too distant future, there'll be a progress update with the projects I'm made (there are some ideas in the works).

Newton's Third Law

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

You know it, you live it.  Everyday.  It seems to not only apply to objects in the physical world, but to every part of our lives.  For the past month, I've felt like every good thing has been accompanied by a bad thing in equal measure.  This has left me feeling blah.  Or meh.  Or however you choose to portray the complete absence of both happiness and depression.  Like a roller coaster stuck at the platform, I'm neither up nor down.

It's a little odd for me.  Since I moved back to Portland a little over 4 years ago, I've been almost entirely ecstatic.  Even bad days were good days.  I'm still loving every day in my city - the gray skies, the budding flowers, the cold, the glimpses of Mt Hood and/or Mt Saint Helens on the drive home.  But I'm lacking the ability to actually..DO...anything.  Cooking, cleaning, writing, crafting, even reading.  They've all fallen by the wayside.  I can't even make a proper To Do list.  This would also explain the lack of postings since February. They're there in outlines and half written ideas.  But I just can't seem to concentrate long enough to finish writing anything.

I had big plans for this month.  April is a break month for my Harry Potter yarning group and I wanted to spend it getting some other crafting done and organizing and planning for the next round of competition.  But beyond mentally planning for the 2 large challenges I know I'll be doing, I just can't seem to get it together.

On the upside, I've been spending tons of quality time with Mendel and have been tearing through my Netflix queue.  Here's to hoping the next few weeks bring a few more ups than downs and the needed motivation to get my life back in order.

January Project Recap

Last month was busy for crafting and this week has been crazy for working!  So, to make this an easy week for both y'all and me, how about just some pictures of the fun (and maybe a little tedious) things I've been working on...

First up was an afghan for a friend in Afghanistan.  Loved the pattern, hated the yarn.  I was pretty glad to be done with it but am fairly happy with the way it turned out. (Pattern here)


And with the leftover yarn?  A little something for the Snuggles Project, which provides blankets for shelter animals for their cages and then to take home with them when they're adopted.  I thought I was going to have enough yarn to make several, but I was wrong.  Just one so far, but I'll just keep holding on to my leftovers until there's enough to make a few more.


Next up, baby sweaters.  2 of them.  Both were adapted from other patterns.
For the St Louis Blues fan baby:


For the Hogwarts baby:


As I was thinking about hosting book club this month, I realized I only have 4 coasters.  So, I whipped up a few more:


Also, I managed to get in a few squares for an afghan I'm making for myself.  The whole thing takes about a million in several different patterns, so I'm trying to do 6-8 a month.  It's going to take a while to finish them all, but I'm hoping I'll really like the end result:


A cute little purple alpaca earwarmer for a co-worker.  Have I mentioned how much I love alpaca?  I love alpaca.  It's soft and warm and it makes me happy.  Plus, alpacas are cute - more on that in a future post. (pattern purchased on Etsy from Too Cute Crochet)


And, of course, the Socks of Doom, which are slightly better after their first wash, but stretch out again pretty quickly:

School Spirit Quilt

I made one of these little lap quilts a few years ago for myself and love it.  Mendel knows when it comes out that he can sit in my lap for a snuggle and some pets.  And since it's fleece and cotton, it's machine washable- I wash mine almost every week.  It's large enough for me to get under while I'm reading or crafting, but small enough to take with me on a plane.  This Oregon State one is the prototype and has held up pretty well, so I decided to have another go at it for a University of Florida blanket for Laura.

Materials Needed (all yardage given for 45" fabric):
2 Colors of Fleece - 1 yard each
1 yard school spirit or any patterned fleece (optional)*
1 yard cotton fabric for blanket backing (usually you can find this is a coordinating school fabric)
1 package crib size batting in desired material and thickness
1 pack satin blanket binding in coordinating color
Cotton thread matching blanket binding
Embroidery thread in coordinating color
Scissors
Sewing machine
Rotary cutter
Self healing mat
Acrylic quilting ruler

*Depending on the pattern, you may not need this much fabric.  You will need 7 squares that are 7" a side.  Or you can leave out the school specific squares and make additional squares of solid colored fleece.  See cutting directions below.

The directions for this are kinda wordy, but it's really a very easy project and can easily be done in a weekend (in a day if you have a whole one with no distractions) but can just as easily be broken into make steps that can be done one at a time.

Cutting the Squares:
You will need 49 squares total.  I used the following quantities:
7 Patterned squares
21 Blue squares
21 Orange squares
For solid colored  fleece, using a rotary cutter, self healing mat, and quilting ruler, cut 4 strips of fabric, each 7" wide.  Cut each strip into 7" squares, not using the salvage edge.  This should give you 6 squares per strip or 24 squares in each color.
For patterned fleece, cut 7 pieces that are 7" square.  This may require some to be cut from the middle of the fabric, rather than in strips depending on the pattern of the fleece and what you want the finished project to look like (see example below).

Whole pattern of UF fleece:


After cutting usable pieces:


Next, lay out your squares in the pattern you like.  I like to use the living room floor since it's a nice big space and I have plenty of room to move things around until I get them the way I like them.  Just remember, pets love fleece!

Once you have it the way you like, pin the squares together into vertical strips.  I find just one quilting pin per join does well enough.  At this point you may want to take a quick pic with your camera or phone so you don't forge the layout when you pick up the strips to start sewing.  Or you can use a quilting pencil or fabric marking pen with disappearing ink to number them.  If you're neurotic like me, you just carefully pile the strips in their correct order and keep them that way.

Next, start sewing (yay!) the the pinned joins using a half inch seam.  I like to do a kind of running seaming.  I sew the top two squares of the first strip together then, without cutting the thread, send through the same seam on the second strip and continue like this until all the strips have their top seam sewn together.  Then I cut the tread from the machine and cut apart each strip (being careful to keep them in the correct order).

Repeat this with each set of pinned joins until you have 7 fully sewn strips of 7 squares each, like this:


The next step is to sew the strips together to make the top of the quilt.  I like to pin the stips together before I feed them through the sewing machine.  I think it just makes it easier to make sure top and bottom layer are feeding evenly and that the corners are matching up.  And because you can't iron fleece, it also helps keep the seams open as your feeding.



Once the top is finished, make a little sandwich with the cotton backing material on the bottom (right side facing down), then the batting, then the top (right side facing up).  Cut the batting and backing to the same size as the top.  Make sure you give the top layer a good tug before cutting as it will stretch in the sewing machine, but the other 2 layers won't.  Again, I like to pin everything together before cutting.  It's not required but it does make it easier and makes the next step easier as well.



Once your layers are cut, do a quick basting around the outside about 1 inch in to hold all the layer together.  This step isn't required, but I highly recommend it.

Next, pin the blanket binding in place, making sure the narrower side is facing up.  Start in the middle of a side, rather than in a corner.  When turning the corners, I like to miter them, like this.

Pinning the blanket binding:


Mitered corners:


Sew the blanket binding in place using a matching thread and sewing as close to the edge as you feel comfortable.

Last step!  Where the corners of your squares meet, pin through all 3 layers.  Then, using three strands of the embroidery thread, "stitch" at the corners and tie a knot.



When all's said and done, you should have this:

Socks of Doom

I've been crocheting pretty avidly for about 2 years, maybe 3.  In that time I've learned so many new skills and tried many projects.  I'm at the point where I'm fairly confident I can do just about any project I find a pattern for, and am even writing some of my own simple patterns.  But there were still 2 things I hadn't done yet - make socks and make an adult sweater.  I got yarn for a sweater back in November, but I'm waiting for just the right pattern to come along.  In the meantime, it felt it was time for me to tackle the socks.  And I had a deadline to learn, because I signed up for a sock challenge happening as part of my Harry Potter yarn group on February 9th (the pattern is posted at midnight and the first person to finish gets the most points).

Now, truth be told, I tried socks once before when I was still a very beginner.  It was a disaster.  The pattern started at the top of the sock and worked down to the toes.  I worked the leg and was about to start the heel but wanted to make sure I liked the height, so I tried it on.  Or, I should say, I tried to try it on.  My crocheting was so tight, I couldn't even get it over my heel.  That was one of my first lessons on guage.

This time around, I chose a different pattern - one that works from the toes up (it can be found here) so I could try it as I went.  I have some sock yarn that I really like, but didn't want to use it on a project that would potentially just be frogged and the yarn forgotten about.  So I went to Joann and picked up 3 inexpensive yarns (that also turned out to be on sale!).  The first is actually quite nice - purple and gray self-striping, wool/bamboo/acrylic mix.  Pretty, soft, warm, and machine washable - what's not to love?

I excitedly printed the pattern and got to work.  The first sock, though time consuming, went swimmingly.  The stripes worked out perfectly.  I had to read through the instructions for the heel a few times, but eventually did something I thought was right.  It ended up looking like a sock (woo!) and more or less fitting.  It's a little on the big side, but I'm hoping it'll shrink up in the wash.  And if not, well, then, I have some warm socks I can wear at home.  It took me about 3 session to finish the whole first sock.

Having successfully made one sock, I was convinced the second would be a piece of cake and take much less time.  It started out okay, until I realized that the stripes were coming out wonky - much differently than they had one the first sock.  I thought it was just a fluke, and continued on.  As I was nearing the start of the heel shaping, I compared it to the first sock, so I could make sure I was getting the heel in the same place.  Turns out, I was short about 4 stitches a round so it was much smaller than the first sock - and wouldn't fit me.  I ripped it back to the toe and started again.  This time it was working out much better and mostly matching the first sock.


(mostly matching stripes!)

Then I got to the heel shaping.  I did all the decreases and everything was fine.  I started the increases but something wasn't working out.  It didn't look or feel right.  So I ripped back to the start of the increases and re-read the instructions.  I started again but it still didn't seem right.  The next day I ripped it back once again and started over.  At this point I had put in about 2 hours of work on just 16ish rows of work.  And I was still unhappy with how it was turning out.  I ripped out the whole heel section and put it down for a couple of days thinking that coming back to it with a fresh mind would be better.  It took 2 more tries before I finally just gave up on getting it right and just focused on getting it done - however that was.


(notice the stupid looking heels)

I finally moved past the heel (which is still wrong and I still hate) and started up the leg.  I was in the home stretch!  No shaping, no pattern, just stitches until I got it the height I wanted it.  Only...the stripes were coming out wrong again.  After counting and counting and counting, I discovered I had over-increased the second section of the heel shaping and had about 7 extra stitches (it was huge!).  Luckily I was only about 4 rows into the leg section.  I decided instead of ripping back another 30 minutes of work, I would just keep going, putting in some decreases in the calf side of the work, which is fine, but not perfect.

So, here they are - my socks of doom.  Or really, just the one sock of doom.

I'm not done with socks.  I'm still going to try and get in one more practice pair before the challenge.  I'm trying a different pattern this time, hoping the wording might make a little more sense.  I'll let you know how they turn out!