Green Machines!

France. A world where an American is cut from those beautiful streaming items...Pandora, Hulu, Netflix, etc. BUT, as evil or genius you may think Apple is, the Apple TV has allowed us to bridge the boundaries of nations and watch our beloved English movies....for a small fee of course, but hey, a few dollars for a night IN would barely cover two espresso for a night OUT. Long story short, we love it.

As mentioned earlier, we've had quite a stream of guests come through the past few weeks, and recently, a friend of ours had rented a food documentary called Hungry for Change. We both dig documentaries and think food is pretty cool, so we cozied up one Sunday afternoon to see what it was all about. 

In summary (if you didn't just watch the preview), the show tries to make people realize that all the processed crap they're eating in America is slowly killing them, and it's time for a change. Some stories were, 'yeah yeah, we know,' and other things really made you think. Honestly, I think living abroad has actually bettered our diets in some ways. I'm not going to lie, we consume about double the amount of cheese, butter, cream and wine as back home, and we don't feel a tad guilty downing a buttery crepe or confit de canard (literally, duck preserved in its own fat, then cooked in it's own fat. It's the best piece of meat you'll ever eat!) But other than that, most everything else we eat is fresh or at least contains ingredients we can pronounce as well as count on our fingers.  In addition, corn is actually hard to find here, so companies don't tend to pump all their products with corn syrup. Even buying 'corn tortillas', we found most of it was flour!

So yes, we've escaped some evils, but there's always room for improvements. I often think about this, too, having gone through surgery,  that there is that slight possibility that cancer may feel like showing face again. Taking preventative measures from the start is the one real defense I have, and the reassurance was there in the film as it interviewed two women who overcame/recovered from this disease just by changing their diet. And what did they eat? Well, A LOT more vegetables than we eat, that's for sure. Or to be more specific, more greens - leafy greens, fresh herbs, grasses, algae, anything with chlorophyll. 

I decided to come up with a personal challenge: To go a whole week eating something green for at least one meal, if not two per day. Once you're actually conscious about this, it really does become a bit tricky being creative with your food (aka, eating more than just salads). But hey, we made it work, we felt great about what we ate, and are trying to keep eating green as much as possible, when possible. Below you will find the results of creative cooking with green things, and some of the heath benefits from the ingredients. Thanks to Apple TV, we are trying to change our health from good to even better. So, then, you have to ask YOURselves......

How much Green to you allow into your diets?

(see here for a cool visual guide to fruit and veggie servings) 

Green Stuff used for the challenge, and their benefits:

Fresh Dill 

Known for centuries as both a spice and a medicine, dill is known for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties. It aids in digestion, helps regulate menstrual cycles, is thought to be an anti fertility agent and fights against free radicals.

Spinach 

Packed with tons of vitamin K and A, fiber, calcium, protein, etc, etc, spinach is packed with antioxidants, can improve cardiovascular health, combat certain cancers, and fight against aging. 

Cucumbers

These guys do a ton - everything from keeping you hydrated, to improving your skin and nails, to stimulating hair growth, to fighting certain cancers. 

Fresh Chive 

This little guy helps lower cholesterol and blood pressure, fight against the growth of cancerous cells and tumors, rids your digestive track of the nasty toxins to help you digest food more efficiently, and helps the body absorb all those good-for-you nutrients.

Fresh Parsley 

Again, tons of vitamins with more vitamin C than your daily glass of OJ. This also helps lower inflammation, rids your body of toxins, freshens breath, reduces water retention, and fights certain tumor growths. Sweet! 

Leeks 

Packed with Vitamin A (the 'anti-infective vitamin) this onion-like cousin of garlic helps defend against colds, activates your white blood cells, and has antibacterial properties. This also helps spur the growth of the healthy bacteria in your gut (like the stuff you get from Activia yogurt) and is a diuretic, aiding in fluid retention.

Arugula

This is a great leaf for salads as it's a great source for vitamins and minerals, has anti-bacterial anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties, is thought to fight against certain cancers, and is a good thing to help you stock up on your folate.  

Endive

This leafy thing contains vitamin C to help the immune system, vitamin A to help vision, calcium for those bones and teeth, vitamin E for antioxidant superpowers, and more.

Green Lettuce

The greener the better, so definitely pick just about anything over iceberg (which is simply a bunch of water with no nutrients). Has similar benefits compared with arugula and endives.

Avocados 

Ok, this is a fruit, but it's still really awesome for you. It has a million vitamins, contains healthy fats, keeps your heart, eyes, and skin at tip top shape, prevents cancer and birth defects, cures bad breath, contains anti-aging properties...well the list goes on and on.

Broccoli 

This guy is packed with vitamin C, Calcium, and vitamin K, etc. etc. which means it's great for your immune system and keeps you bones strong. It's also been proven to reduce tumors and allergic reactions, prevent cancer and detox your body. Nice.

Dishes with Green Stuff 

Sunday

Spinach/bacon/cheese omelets and cold cucumber tomato salad with dill vinaigrette 

Monday

Merguez Sausage in a chive leek mustard cream sauce and roasted vegetable with fresh parsley

Tuesday

Potato Leek Soup and side salad with a parsley vinaigrette, mint ice cream (oh wait, that green doesnt count)

Wednesday

Cheese Burgers with an arugula/endive/lettuce salad

Thursday

Spinach/Chive/Dill and Cheese quiche with side salad

Friday

Chicken marinated in a parsley vinaigrette with Endive/green lettuce salad

Saturday

Leftover Leek Soup

Guac and chips with leftover spinach quiche

Sunday

Leftover guac and chips

Stirfy w/ Broccoli and Leeks

No Longer MIA

Picnic Time!

Bridgette has been doing a fantastic job keeping this blog up-to-date. The last time I posted something was towards the end of February! What on earth (and in France) have I been doing!?

Galette des Rois

...or King's Cake. 

So I was always under the impressions that this was a Mardi Gras tradition, as in America, I've see these come out in all their delish glory in February, overly decorated with icing and colored sugar to appease America's appetite for sugar, hiding that little plastic baby inside. Ever since returning, all the bakeries and stores have these elegantly displayed in their windows....yet without all the fluff and decoration I'm so accustomed to. Reverting to the handy dandy internets to explain this phenomenon, I found out this tradition actually has to do with the Epiphany which was the day the Three Kings came and gave their gifts to Jesus, and THIS is when you are to eat the cake. So as I was at the grocery store yesterday (Jan 6th), I decided to pick up a single serving portion just to give it a try. Come to find out, the Epiphany was said to have happened ON Jan. 6th, so my random timing was JUST in time. In any case, it's customary to bake a fève (broad bean) in the cake, but over the years, this has been replaced by a small trinket made of porcelain (once upon a time) or the  present day plastic piece of junk. Whoever gets the trinket in their slice gets to be king for the day, wear the paper crown that comes with the cake, and is responsible to provide the cake the following year. To make distribution 'fair', the youngest in the group is to go under the table, and allocate the order in which slices are distributed.

 For a better description of the differences of French King Cake vs the New Orleans tradition, check out this fun post, 'King Cake Smackdown'.

First Macarons

We FINALLY had our first delicious macarons the other day, our chosen firsts being flavored with coffee, pistachio, and raspberry. If you're thinking of those chewy little coconut things from America, think again. It's not macaROON, but macaRON. I doubt any french person would even understand macaROON, but then again, I don't think they understand most of our twangy Franglish, ha. In any case, I had the wrong idea, too, when I first came over here, thinking, why do these people have such a fascination with coconut? Yet two and two finally clicked as I saw the word macaron associated with these tiny, multicolored cookie gems. In any case these little guys are just about as prevalent as baguettes and French stinky people, so there's no difficulty being able to pick one up while you're out and about. They're pretty dangerous, too, for each one of these delightful confections costs about the same, if not a bit more, than a whole baguette. Maybe it's good we've held out so long.

For more drooling pleasure check out these sites for more details:

Intro to French Macarons
(For you super cool archie/engineer nerds like us, there's a great cookie cross-section here for ya)

Making French Macarons: Instructions and Recipes
(David Lebovitz's blog 'Living the Sweet Life in Paris' is an awesome source of info if you're into Food, Paris, Food, or more Food : )  

Thanksgiving (the store)

We signed up to bring some cranberry sauce to a Thanksgiving dinner over Thanksgiving weekend (I'll be using that word a few more times, so bear with me). Bridgette and I looked in several (4? 5?) grocery stores in the neighborhood, but alas, no canneberge to be found. We even took a looooong trip out to Auchan, some giant general store akin to a SuperTarget, but they only had tiny jars of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce for about $5 each. We needed to provide enough for 14 people at a Thanksgiving dinner.

Luckily (?), Paris has a store called "Thanksgiving" which sells year-round American goods. "Goods," meaning Pop Tarts, peanut butter, Jell-o, Mountain Dew, corn syrup, Aunt Jemima's, brown sugar... you get the point. Oh, and they have cranberries for sale, as well, at €4.50 for a 12 oz. bag.

I shouldn't make it sound like they only have sugary foodstuffs. They also prepare turkeys for American Thanksgiving meals, and provide a chance to buy some other American items, such as chili powder, canned chicken broth, chocolate chips (oops! sugar), corn meal, Mac n Cheese, cheddar cheese, refried beans, and much more than I can handle writing without needing to go eat lunch.

So Bridgette and I were able to whip together a successful cranberry sauce.

Happy Thanksgiving

Bridgette and I attended the SAPV Thanksgiving dinner last night, which was held at Au Chapeau Gris. Items we learned from last night:

• Allegedly the pilgrims discovered America with Columbus sailing the ocean blue in the Mayflower.
  (These are architecture students. Not history buffs.)
• One can draw direct comparisons between the Native Americans / Pilgrims and the French / American students.
• Squanto was a good guy.
• A French interpretation of Thanksgiving cuisine is delicious.
  
  
• The youngest professor gets to make a speech. Guess who that was?
• A 7.30pm dinner means show up at 8pm, sit down at 8.30pm, start eating around 9pm, then have to rush out to catch a train at 11.15pm.

Besides the abrupt ending to the night, we had a great time chatting with the students and other guests and enjoying some American tradition. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there!

Marché

We hit up the market again last Sunday, which is always an exciting and overwhelming experience. For anyone who loves to cook, it’s like being a kid in a candy store. The French take fresh food seriously, and market day is like a religion. Hoards of people swarm and push and wander through as venders yell, then yell louder. God knows what the hell they are saying, but it certainly pumps up the enthusiasm. It’s said that most of the time, the French just go to the market to see what to buy, then figure out what to make later. The trick, though, is finding those guys who are actually local farmers, not just some schmo who imports most of his stuff. We finally found a stand touting a huge homemade sign saying they were from Normandy, and we had to go back almost a full booth’s length just to get in line. Long line. They must be good. We stocked up on apples, pears, a cooking pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, and some lettuce (yes, the items we actually know how to say which can be a limiting factor at times) then pointed to the leeks.  We keep seeing everyone buy these things, and we’re thinking, what the heck do you do with those? But hey, if these food savvy locals dig ‘em, then they must be good, right? We bought the last of their stock, and the girl laughed at us as she taught us how to say it in French. ‘poireau’. It’s a tricky one. So for anyone wondering, it’s like a big fragrant green onion, and god does it smell good. I recently made some potato/leek soup that was to die for….definitely good comfort food for a cold rainy/snowy day. Give it a try, let me know what you think.

Recipe for Potato Leek Soup

First Impressions of Groceries

Not sure why it seemed significant, but I took a picture of my first groceries receipt a few weeks ago.

There are several food choices near me, and I know very little about the differences between them. I've heard that Leader Price around the corner is "cheap," though a walk through seemed typical. It'll take a while to learn the prices, and I still don't have a good feeling for what a kilogram is (I know, I know: a little over 2 pounds).

A few things to know: one can purchase a generic brand wedge of brie for about 1.60€. That's awesome. Wine prices are all over the place: 1€ all the way to the sky. I've been told to avoid anything below 5€. I know from experience this is a warranted observation. Milk is sold in boxes not refrigerated. To be honest, I've been sticking with the cold stuff (that is sold, too, for a bit more), but I will try the boxed ones soon. Bread is delicious; I'm considering an all-carb diet. Lastly, Europeans know what muesli is. Thank goodness.