Our Juicy Life

Christmas Dinner for Two

                  

What do you do when it's just the two of you for Christmas dinner?  In our case, it's a chance to try a new recipe and to have duck.  We just love duck but you can't find cut up duck here in Los Angeles.  I have to buy a whole duck and cut out the spine, cut off the wings, legs, breast.  It's a big job with sharp scissors, but it's so so good.  I use my Le Creuset of course, because it makes the juiciest meat.  All I do is make up a butter, herb de provence and garlic mix and stuff it under the skin.  Salt and pepper each piece and then brown it in olive oil and then put it in the oven for 30 minutes.  So easy and so good.  I also made roasted potatoes and a new salad called Bettes de Vigneron (vineyard-style swiss chard).  A parent of one of our students gave me this fantastic cookbook called "The French Market" and I love it.  There are so many authentic french recipes from southwest france.  I had to try this 'warm' salad.  It has swiss chard, onions, garlic, raisins, walnuts and lemon juice (salt & pepper too).  It was really good, very earthy and yummy.  Something we will be eating again soon.

Here is the duck.  Don't get tons of mean from this little bird...just enough for two.

The Swiss chard salad was so good. Very french.

But the best part of making dinner is that Bruce always cleans up.  I love to cook, love to try new recipes and he's so open to try new things and he's always there to clean up my big mess (although I try to clean as I go so I don't have tons for him).  I was going to make this traditional french dessert called "floating islands" - which is custard with meringue and caramel sauce, it's in the "french market cookbook", but after reading it I decided it would be too much work.  I'm not feeling 100%.  Been fighting a sinus cold for a few days, so instead we had vanilla bean ice cream with this armagnac (a french brandy), sea salt, caramel sauce that another parent (who happens to be a food writer for the LA times) made for us.  She told me that you can basically put it on anything and it was unbelievable on the ice cream. 

We had a lovely day.  It was about 70 and sunny here.  We relaxed, took the dogs to the park, went for a bike ride (although I had to turn around after 8 miles because I wasn't feeling great...Bruce ended up doing 38 miles).  We ate some great food, we exchanged gifts in bed this am with all the dogs and took a great nap this afternoon.

Can't ask for anything more! 

The Aveyron Region

We left the Rousillon region and headed north to the Aveyron region.  This region is north east of Toulouse and is one of the most remote regions in france.  The landscape was so different from where we were and we instantly fell in love.  It took us about 2 hours to get there and once we did we knew we definitely stepped up in terms of beauty, the landscape is like a dream.  Best of all, the Aude valley has...no WIND!  The picture above is our beautiful restored 13th century barn on the property of Nala and Neerva McEvoy.  The hamlet is called Finnerols and it's in the middle of the countryside, the road is 1 mile long and has about 6 houses along it, ours is the very last one on the top of the hill.  This area is in the gorges de l'aveyron, surrounded by the Aveyron river and huge limestone cliffs.

Tonight we went to dinner in Najac a beautiful village about 15 minutes away.  The first thing we see when we get out of the car is this little frenchie.  Just sitting outside of the restaurant.  He was so cute we just had to get a picture of him.  The grey-tiled houses of this beautiful village tail out westwards in a single street along a narrow spur that connects the valley side to the castle hill.  It's a long walk up to the 12th century chateau, but worth it.  We ate dinner at L'Salamandre and had our best dinner yet with the full complement of aperitif, wine, entrees, plats and desert.  The creme brulee was the best we have ever had.  Before we left we had a great conversation with the owner who fled Paris with his family to settle in Najac.  He told us that the restaurant he worked at in Paris would go through 10 kilos of coffee in a day, almost 1500 coffee's.  He and his wife and daughter (17) work in the restaurant and they live upstairs.  They are closed November - February!  Not a bad life. 

We got out for a nice ride through the beautiful landscape and discovered that the roads - at least nearby - go two ways - UP & DOWN.  We are going to burn off every croissant we eat!  We road from the barn house to the villages of Lunac _ Lescure - Laoul and back around.  After some lunch with drove to Villefranche de Rourgue, a beautiful small city on the Aveyron right.  We made dinner in tonight, pasta with Jambon, peas and goat cheese.  Along with it we had a delicious 3 euro Chateau Chateloup Bordeaux and for dessert a cafe eclair. 

The next day our host - Nala (Patrick) took us down the road to his friend Jacques house.  Jacques is 60 something and a huge cyclist.  He actually has an arsenal of bikes, two of which are very close to being lightest in the world - we were in the middle of nowhere and here is this man, living in our hamlet, in a 13th century home and he has tons of bikes...expensive bikes!  It was mind blowing.  He offered to take us on a 30 mile ride along the rive viaur and we road and talked most of the way.  He would become a great friend.  We had dinner at his home with 4 other people and went on many other rides with him.  Our original itinerary was to spend 1 week here and then head back to Spain and spend 1 week in Girona.  Well, after 3 days here we have decided to extend our trip here and not spend 1 week in Girona.  We have found the area we love...we don't want to leave.

The next day we packed the bikes in the car and drove northwest to Cajarc, in the Tarn (the department next to us), we had a great ride along the river tarn and cliffs to the beau village of St. Cirq Lapopie (above).  The ride was mostly flat but the few hills made the 26 mile ride feel like 46.  This village was so pretty.  We had lunch here and I visited a potter who told me that she is open April - September and spends October - March throwing, bisquing and glazing.  Not a bad gig!  We stopped in Villefranche and got some croissants and had sandwiches at the Cafe des Arcades.  They have the best jambon and brie sandwiches for only 3 euros. 

Today was a rest day for us.  Our legs are killing us from all the hills!  We woke to more sunny skies - we have had the most beautiful weather here and no wind!  I didn't have a converter that worked here, so I had not been drying my hair....I needed to dry my hair!  So we ventured to the Hyper U, which is a sort of mini target/walmart/grocery store.  It sure lived up to it's name, it was 10 am and it was quite hyper.  It was a Wednesday, so children were not in school (they don't go to school on Wednesday).  I found my hairdryer and it was our first investment in relocation...a french hairdryer!  This afternoon we decided to check our emails.  We were told that the library in Najac had internet access, so we headed over there..only to find that they are only open Saturday from 10:30 - 12:30 - so french!  Alas, no news is good news.

Here's Bruce in front of the biblioteque....of course it's not open.

Today we were tourists.  We drove to Cordes sur Ciel (above) to explore a bit and found a studio of a couple who make etchings.  The wife makes the plates and the husband prints them.  L'homme etais tres sympa (the man was really nice).  We bought two small etchings.  We had pizza for lunch at a lovely restaurant.  We then went to Villefrance to the Thursday market - it's huge and there is everything you could imagine - food, spices, veggies, fruit, clothing, toys, pottery, leather goods, etc....a bit overwhelming.  We picked up some fromage, fruit, rose and honey.  Then we drove south to Albi and visited the Musee de Toulouse-Lautrec.  Albi was hot and as always the musee was tiring, so we drove back stopping for some cafe and rose before returning home.

Tonight we stayed in and I made lamb for dinner.  Our friend Jacques stopped by to show us his sprained ankle.  We had a great time talking with him and Nala even came over for a chat.  We had some vin rouge de Gaillac s'apelle Marquis d'orial 2003......so good.

Today we went to visit a village called St. Antonin Noble Val (what a great name).  We have discovered our favorite village as of yet.  Just the right size with a nice mix of people, it is really pretty and friendly...it could be the one!

St. Antonin Noble Val sits on the river's north bank beneath the beetling white cliffs of the Roc d'Anglars, where it developed in the ninth century around an abbey said to house the remains of the evangelizing St.  Antonin.  The picture above was taken in the place de la Halle, the main square in the ville.  The building in this picture is the Maison des Consuls, the town's finest building, whose origins go back to 1125.  This picture below is about 1/2 mile outside of the village...

Bruce is obsessed with these hay circles.  They are everywhere.  Today we went on a long, hot and hungry 50 mile tour de Jacques through the Aveyron gorge with friends Anka and Fabrice and Jacques girlfriend Fabiene, with Jacques in tow in the car due to his sprained ankle.  There were lots and lots of hills and not enough food, it's made us very tired towards the end, although you only have to look around to appreciate the suffering.  We finally made it back to the car and had sandwiches and ice cream in Cordes as our legs stiffened up.   We went to dinner in Najac at a restaurant called Belle Rive, which was below the chateau  Bruce had real Roquefort cheese...quite blue and very furry, but packing a big taste.  Another world from the blue cheese at home.   We have tried many things new on this trip.  Rose, aperitif, duck, lamb, fois gras, pate, Roquefort all new tastes.

Our neighbors

Last night we were invited to a soiree a' chez Jacques.  It was tres intereseant.  It was Bruce and I, Jacques, his daughter, Nala and their friend Francious.  We enjoyed a great dinner with soup d'Averyon, salad with fois gras, confit de canard, potatoes, cheese and great wine.  It was difficult to follow the conversations, always at least two at once, but fun to try.  Our french is getting really good but when a debate explodes we get a bit lost.  We stayed until almost 1 in the morning and ended only because I was falling asleep at the table.

This is a view from our restored barn.  I could never get tired of this view.  We leave today....we are both very sad.

Left takes you to the motorway....and home.  Right takes you to paradise.....which way should we go?????? 

As we crossed the border into spain, we say au revior to france in search of a place for the night.  We are heading to Barcelona and on to home.    We took our last ride yesterday from our favorite village and hopefully new home soon, St Antonin Noble Val, where  picked up a ring that was handmade for me.  It was hard to say goodbye, we stopped at Anke and Fabrice's home and later at Jacques.  We made some great friends on this trip and the Aveyron and around could be the best place we've yet been.  We packed up and said goodbye to Nala and we both had to choke back the tears.

We will be back....sooner than later!

Missing our little lady "Daisy"

                              

Today was a very sad day.  We had to put our little lady, Daisy down.  6 years ago I was searching through Petfinders.com and came across this scrappy 4 year old Boston Terrier.  She was located about 2 hours from us and there was just something about her...I knew I was meant to rescue her.  So, we packed up the car along with Hemet & Augie (Hemet was our first Boston Terrier, we had to put him down 2 years ago).  We drove into this dusty little town and down a dirt road to his old house.  The woman was very nice and went to get this little girl I saw on the internet.  She came trotting into the run, chest out and immediately went up to Augie grabbed his neck and pinned him to the ground.  Basically letting him know that she was boss.  She didn't do that to Hemet though, because he was the Alpha dog.  After she did that, she was fine with Augie, but Augie never forgot that and basically ignored her, up until recently.  She was a brindle boston and we think about 4 years old.  The woman told us that she was part of a puppy mill and they think had had at least 2 litters of pups.  She wasn't allowed in the house, lived in a kennel and her owners dropped her off at the vet and never came to get her.  That just broke my heart...I had to take her home and give her a wonderful life. 

Well, it was obvious that she had never lived in a house, because she wasn't house trained.  She wasn't grass trained either and would only go to the bathroom on the cement patio in the back.  She was also a dumpster digger, she'd break into the trash and get anything that she could (plastic, aluminum foil, paper towels, etc...).  She was very sweet but not affectionate and very alouf, almost like a cat.  I don't think she knew how to trust anyone.  We finally house-trained her and she became part of the pack.  A couple months after we got her she started to get sick with diarrhea, we found out she had giardia and nasty parasite.  This is when the trouble began.  Over the past 6 years she was diagnosed with Irritable bowel disease, colitis, 2 more bouts with giardia and most recently lymphangiectasia, which is a horrible disease where the lymph system doesn't absorb protein or fats, so the dog wastes away. She always had horrible diarrhea and would loose weight and then gain some back and then loose again.  She was just diagnosed with lymphangastasia in March of this year and she started going downhill, fast.

We found this wonderful vet who is known as the guru of the GI Tract, he's known worldwide and he happened to be here in Los Angeles.  So I called him first and then emailed him (attaching a picture of her).  His assistant called me back to inform me that he doesn't take patients anymore, he only does conferences and teaches at universities...BUT something about the picture and story grabbed his heart too and he agreed to take her case!  How cool is that.  He tried things no other vet tried or even spoke to us about but her body couldn't tolerate a few of them them and 2 weeks ago her white count went to 200 (normal for a dog is 10,000) and she got a horrible infection and had to be in the hospital for 2 days.  After antibiotics her white count went back up, but then her liver enzymes came back off the charts and her protein levels were super low.  Not good.  We tried so many things over the years, so many medicines so many different foods,  you name it, we tried it.   Our new wonderful doctor couldn't even help her.  Her disease was just too far along and her little body just couldn't fight anymore.  We looked at her this morning and she wasn't the dog we knew and her eyes told me it was time.  We wanted someone to come to the house to put her down, but couldn't get an appointment until tomorrow, we knew we couldn't wait that long, it just wasn't fair to her.  So we took her over to the vets, wrapped in her favorite blanket and I held her and kissed her until she took her last breath.  Although with that last breath, I did feel a sigh of relief from her.  She was tired, tired of fighting and tired of feeling bad, she was ready to go and we were ready to let her go.  We've cried all day.  I know it was the  most humane, unselfish thing we could do for her, but it's also the hardest. 

I would show you more pictures of her but I don't have any good ones.  She never wanted her picture taken and if a camera would come out she would either turn away or get up and walk away.  This picture was taken by me at a vacation house in Palm Springs last September, she loved that house (we stayed for 2 weeks) and she loved laying in the sun by the pool.  I had to lay on the kitchen floor and sneak the camera around the corner to get the shot.  It's the most beautiful picture of her.  She did finally learn to trust us and would wag her little paint brush of a tail all the time, she finally gave us a kiss after being with us for 2 years, what a great moment.  She had a wonderful life with us, she slept on the bed, had all the food she wanted, had great vacations, went to the dog park everyday, and got so much love.

It's quiet around here without her.  The whole pack misses her right now.  We will always miss her.

Making people smile...

sure makes you feel good.  These two little girls made many people smile yesterday.  The one looking at the camera is Stella, she's almost 1 year old.  The aloof one (who never looks at the camera) is Daisy, she's almost 9.  Both are rescues.  We ride our bikes to our studio about 2-3 times a week.  It's only 6 miles from home and it pains me to start up the car and drive such a short distance.  So we try and save on gas and try not to pollute as much as possible.  We rode to work a few times in the fall and didn't bring any dogs with us and the kids were very upset.  They all love having a dog at our studio, they expect it.  So we decided to get one of the kiddie carriers that hook to your bike.  So now we carry the dogs.  Only two at a time though (remember we have 4).

This is Augie.  He's the man, the gentleman.  He's 14 1/2 and solid as a rock.  This dog is my baby.  I rescued him when he was 6 months.  He's been with me longer than Bruce.  He's deaf now, but other than that, healthy and still Mr. Love.  This guy greets all the kids that come into the studio, he doesn't bark, doesn't lick, doesn't jump, just rests his chin on your leg.  He's very chill.  He and Daisy came to the studio today, in the carrier.

This punk is Dashell.  He's 2 1/2.  He's a golden retriever.  He doesn't ride in the carrier, although he could...but he's afraid of it.  He's the biggest dog we have and the biggest baby.  He comes from an organization called North Star Foundation, which is an organization we volunteer with that raises and places golden's with children who have autism.  We were originally Dashell's puppy raisers (you raise the pup for a family for 6-8 months), we were raising him for some friends of ours who have a child with Asperger's.  4 months into our raising our friend was diagnosed with cancer and died 2 months later - tragic.  The children associated the dog with daddy and decided they didn't want him, but wanted us to keep him...so Dashell is with us and he is also a service dog, he visits sick children in the hospital.

Anyway, today we made 10 or so people smile or laugh.  Most of them looked stressed, rushed or grumpy and then we pull up on our bikes with the carrier and instead of seeing kids they see our little kids.  How can you not laugh or smile.  It makes us happy to make others smile.  Smiling is good...laughing is good.  Hope this made you smile.