paris in spring

Stephen and I went to Paris together for the second time at the beginning of April, after having had such an excellent time on crêpe weekend last June. Our plan was pretty much to do the exact same thing as last year, i.e., eat every single crêpe and galette we could get our hands on. To that end we stayed at Timhotel Tour Montparnasse on Rue de la Gaité, approximately 200 meters from the closest crêperie (and because we are ridiculous, complained about just how very far away that was). We actually only went for crêpe three times over five days (compare to last year's five times in barely two full days!) but a good bit of that can be blamed on our discovery of the magnificence that was Barthélémy cheese shop at 51 Rue de Grenelle and its excellent salted butter and stinky Roquefort cheese and our multiple subsequent picnics involving said magnificence at the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Coeur (as well as in our hotel room when the weather was less stunning). We also rented Vélib' bicycles, which are a great deal at EUR 1,70 for the day + the first half hour of each ride thereafter is free, otherwise EUR 1,- for up to an hour -- and with stations all over the place to switch them in and out, it's relatively easy to keep your rides under half an hour. I dragged Stephen to my beloved Les Cocottes for a vegetable cocotte, chocolate tarte, and fresh cheese (like yogurt but less tangy, served with wonderful clear honey) and we checked out the impressionists at Musée d'Orsay and other than that we pretty much just wandered around and slept a whole lot and soaked in the city. Oh, we also ate at least one pain au chocolat each day, because why would you let a day go by in Paris without a chocolate croissant? Exactly.

german november/december

Writing from Virginia Beach, where I haven't yet taken a single photo with my big camera. Here are a few shots from Frankfurt and Nuremberg from late November/early December. Happy holidays! And yes, that is Santa playing an accordion with a dog who is also dressed as Santa. Nuremberg has not one but two sets of Accordion Santa and Dog Santa. They sit about a block apart from each other and we assume that they are bitter rivals.

brussels

Stephen and I went to Brussels last weekend to see Arcade Fire in concert*, selecting Brussels out of the European options (Brussels, Paris, Berlin) because neither of us had ever been there. In the five years I've lived in Germany, I'd still never even been to Belgium! Through Belgium, sure, but I hadn't ever stopped there.

The weather wasn't terribly inviting and we were both pretty badly in need of a chill weekend, so we took it pretty slow. We didn't even see the most famous sight of Brussels, in spite of being only ten minutes' walk away. However, we did eat a couple of waffles (the street waffle was far superior to the indoor waffle) and drink a bunch of Belgian beer, if only to prove to ourselves that we like German beer a heck of a lot better. A La Mort Subite was our favorite place to hang out (other than our hotel room -- it was a good weekend for napping). Despite having seen only a tiny bit of the city we both really liked it. I'd go again! Brussels. Who knew.

*The Arcade Fire concert was very, very fun. It was a fancy dress or costume concert, so we busted back out our crocodile and roach costumes from Karneval -- you know you're in for a good time when you go somewhere in a full-body costume. I haven't historically been an Arcade Fire fan with the exception of a couple of songs, but I've really been digging the album Reflektor, and have slowly been tiptoeing into the prior three albums (off The Suburbs, the title track and "Ready to Start" are both excellent).

ryan & mariah

Ryan and Mariah got married not quite three weeks ago, and we all celebrated with them two weekends ago! It was really gorgeous fall weather in Stone Harbor for a lot of fun outdoor time: a pizza dinner on Friday on the deck at Stone Harbor Pizza, a lovely midday celebration on Saturday at a huge rented house on 103rd Street with catering from Back Bay Seafood, and a bagel breakfast at my parents' house on Sunday with bagels and coffee from Avalon Coffee Company. My cousins from both sides of the family were in the same place for the first time ever, I got to meet Mariah's parents and a lot of her extended family members, and basically everything about the weekend was delightful. One of our family friends pointed out that the weekend felt like one big happy relaxed reception, which I'm pretty sure was just what Ryan and Mariah were hoping for. And it was great.

Stephen and Gran and I did a little bit of cooking to supplement the catered food, specifically the following things (the eggplant salad in particular was very, very tasty):

+ roasted eggplant and herbed quinoa salad [only change was to roast the eggplant in the oven instead of grilling it, but grilling would be delicious]
+ black bean and roasted cherry tomatoes salad [approx. 1 cup of caramelized onions added]
+ salsa
+ quesadillas: take small corn tortillas, fill with a small amount each of grated pepper jack cheese, caramelized onions, and sauteed green peppers, and cook in a dry frying pan until cheese is melted.
+ gluten-free chocolate nut granola [made with 1/3 cup of coconut oil rather than the 1 cup the recipe calls for]
+ Smitten Kitchen maple walnut granola
+ Nutella-stuffed brown butter sea salt chocolate chip cookies [we have made these before, and I think they turned out even better this time, which is to say incredibly deadly]

And then we spent the better part of the following week eating leftovers of all of those things plus the catering. Trust me when I say that we suffered.

sardinia III: cala gonone & the golfo di orosei

     
Some shots from the two different days we did the Golfo di Orosei boat tour (separated by a day of hanging out at a beach to the north of Orosei & subsequently at the pool at Hotel Villa Gustui Maris, pictured above). We totally loved Villa Gustui Maris last year, so much that I reviewed it on Trip Advisor. Their breakfast is one of my favorite hotel breakfasts ever -- little individual silver coffee pots! fresh fruit! local Dorgali ricotta! eating on the patio overlooking the Golfo di Orosei! So great.