Our Juicy Life

Let the countdown begin

I have been feeling antsy lately, restless. I am so ready for our adventure, but it's not until September. Bruce thought it might be good to get a big wall calendar so we can count down the weeks/days. I also was visiting Kim at her blog and noticed her countdown widget...what a great idea. Then every day I can see on my computer screen how many weeks/days I have left, that will be just what I need. So I put one on my blog...thanks Kim! Kim is leaving in July, so her days are 1/2 what ours are....lucky dog!

We only have 4 more weeks of regular after-school classes and then our summer program starts. It will be 12 weeks of 1/2 day summer camps. Our schedule will switch from having the morning & early afternoon free and not having to go to work until 3:00 pm to being at the studio at 8:00 am and working until 1:30, so our afternoons will be free. I prefer the morning free, but alas. We will work the same number of hours per week, a light load at 20, but instead of working Tuesday-Saturday, we'll work Tuesday-Friday. Once the camps start the weeks fly by....usually when we start them it goes like this "ugh, 12 weeks of camps", then the next thing we know it's "ah, only 6 more camps"....then "yeah, only 1 more camp". Camps are great fun, we do super cool projects with the kids have a wonderful time, but it's draining and exhausting (in a good way that doing art with kids brings).

It feels like I'm a kid again...."are we there yet?" We were big on road trips when I was younger, as most of the country was back in the 60's and 70's. We had a big green station wagon and all of us would pack in there at least 2 times a year and head to Florida. I think I have been to Florida maybe 25-30 times. My parents are from Florida and my oldest sister and brother we born there. My sister Anne and I were born in Michigan. My father was a golf professional and started out in Florida and then took a job at a private club in Michigan. But anytime we had vacation it would be back to Florida to see the grandparents and Aunts and Uncles and it would allow my dad to golf.

I recently saw my brother, he and his family came out to San Diego for a weeks vacation, so Bruce and I drove down to have dinner with them. We were talking about the hell we had on those car trips. Mom and Dad in the front and 4 kids in the back. I'm sure many of you had those trips. "This is the imaginary line, don't cross it". "Mom, Anne hit me". "Mom, Mark kicked me". We didn't have DVD players in the car or hand-held games or ipods. My Dad would pop in his 8-track and we'd listen to his music, Edie Gourmet, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, etc... We played the alphabet game with license plates. Yee Haa! My brother also reminded me that on the drive down to Florida we'd always stay the night in a Holiday Inn and every time we'd have to eat, we'd stop at a Holiday Inn. He is sick of Holiday Inn's. We'd also stop in the same city for the night...talk about creatures of habit. Florida was our vacation...my dad didn't want to go anywhere else. Sure, we'd stop at Rock City or Mammoth Caves on the way down, but that's it. It was always St. Petersburg Florida. Staying with my grandmother, swimming in her pool, going to Treasure Island beach, going to Disney World when there was no Epicot center. The sunshine state. All my grandparents have passed on and only my cousin and her husband live there now, so no more Florida trips for me.....ever again.

What was I talking about? Sorry, got side-tracked. Ah, yes....counting the days until France. It seems so far away, but I know that once the summer gets going it will come up fast. It's hard to be patient when the countryside is calling you. The picture above was taken in September when we visited the Aveyron region. This is very close to where our house is. The nice thing about that area is that it won't change from when we saw it in September to when we'll be back in September. It is patiently waiting for us.

Moi!

Our great friends K&E came for dinner last Sunday and they brought their lovely daughter Kellen.  She's 8 and takes art classes at our studio.  I made duck, chez lou lou's onion and roquefort tart, a bow tie, broccoli salad (for kellen) and individual chocolate souffle's for dessert.  It was a great night.  They also brought their 8 month old black lab named "Stella".  The guys took the dogs to the park while I got dinner ready.  Kellen wanted to draw.  OK...my husband is an artist and we own an art studio and we don't have any drawing paper around the house, can't find any colored pencils (we found a few)...so we gave her wrapping paper and a sharpie and she was good to go.  Her first picture was this one above.  It's me. 

This was her 2nd picture, it's on the back of the first picture.  I just love this one (note the words).  Queen Alisa.  It's on our fridge and I turn it over every couple days.  I just had to share them with you. 

New friends far away

In September we went to the Aveyron region of France for 3 weeks. We had never been there before, didn't know anyone, but figured we'd check out this remote beautiful region. We stayed in a gite called Le Roucan, owned by Nala & Neerva. It was amazing and very rural. When we arrived with our bikes Nala said to us "my neighbor down the lane owns one of the lightest bikes in the world". Sure, Bruce said....right...in the middle of nowhere a guy has the lightest bike. Nala promised to introduce us to him.

The next morning Nala is tapping on our door telling us he spoke with Jacques, who is the man who has the lightest bike. Jacques will take you on a bike ride today...now....get ready! WHAT? So back down the road we went. The place we were staying was the last house on a very long road (about 1 mile up), it was at the end of the road. Jacques place was the 2nd house on the road, called Feniryols. So, we drive down to his beautiful french home with our bikes. Jacques is about 60 and fit as anything. He kisses us 3 times and was so warm and welcoming. He immediately took us into his "bike room" and there it was....his bike....and Bruce was amazed. It weighs 4,257 kg. That's nothing! His bike is worth probably 15K - 20K. Seriously, we were shocked. We weren't in Paris or Toulouse or Nice...we were in the middle of nowhere, in rural france and here we are with this man who loves bikes as much as us. FATE.

We went on many rides with Jacques and his girlfriend Fabian and our new friends Fabrice & Anke. We instantly made a connection with all of them. It felt so comfortable...like home. Jacques invited us to his home for dinner one night. Which I hear is very very unusual. Most french people who have only known for 2 week don't invite you to their home for dinner. We were honored. Our dinner included Jacques, his daughter (who was visiting for the weekend from Pau) and our host Nala (unfortuantely his wife Neerva was out of town). We had duck, fois gras, amazing wine, great conversation, etc...it was a truly magical night that ended at 2 am. We knew that we had met people who would be friends for life.

We spoke with Jacques today on the phone. It was great to hear his voice and we can't wait to see him. But we heard some sad news. Fabrice and Anke have separated and are getting divorced. They have 2 beautiful girls, but sometimes that's not enough to keep a marriage together. It was sad to hear that, boy you really see people differently when they are out of their home. Jacques told me that Anke wants to move back to Germany (where she was born and all her family is) and that made me sad too. Anke and I really hit it off. I am very athletic and love to bike, run, swim, etc...and she is exactly the same. I was so looking forward to having a good friend there. I am trying to reach her now to see what her plans are. I hope she'll be around some of time we are there, but who knows.

We are still so excited about our sabbatical, but it's strange how much can change in 6 months. We know that we still have very good friends waiting for us to return, but it's different somehow. When I was there the landscape and the lifestyle, it all seemed so dreamlike to me, but when you look at it you realize that people are the same all over the world, be it in a big city in America or in the rural countryside of France.

Sugar Snap Pea Salad

There is a restaurant across from our studio called Beacon it's about 2 years old.  Lately I've been going there for lunch with my 2 friends Laury and Stephanie.  The first time was with Steph and she recommended this salad.  I loved it so much I decided to make it at home, so we had it for dinner tonight.  I had to share it with you, because not only is is really good, but it's really easy.

The ingredients for the salad are simple (this is for 4 servings)

6-8 ounces of sugar snap peas
5-6 radishes (sliced very thin)
goat cheese - this you'll have to eye, some people like loads of goat cheese (like us) and others might not like so much
cashews (I used about 1/4-1/3 cup)
vinaigrette (recipe to follow)

Slice the radish's very thin

In bowl combine sugar snap peas, radish, goat cheese and cashews.

For the vinaigrette

1/5 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup sesame oil

Mix all together

I then lightly mix up the salad, plate it and then drop the dressing by teaspoon over the salad.  yum yum.

PRO BAKING I

                  

This is our neighbor at our studio ...The New School of Cooking.  What a great neighbor to have.  Anne is the owner of the business and it's a wonderful place, it's also nice when Anne brings over this amazing flourless chocolate cake!  2 years ago I took a Crepes class and loved it. I bought 2 crepe pans and have made many sweet and savory crepes over the years.   I love to cook and love to bake and I was checking out their schedule and I have always wanted to take their Pro Baking I series.  It's on Sunday from 9:30 - 1:30 for 10 weeks.  So, I'm going for it...here's what it's all about.

PRO BAKING
The professional baking program teaches the foundations of classic baking technique for
anyone who loves to bake and wants to understand baking in depth, or for students who
are interested in a pastry career. We will teach technique as well as the chemistry of
baking so that students will truly understand what they are making. Classes meet once a
week for four hours and emphasize seasonally appropriate ingredients. Each student
works on their own. Students can miss two classes and receive their diploma.

CLASS 1 Quick Breads: Muffins, Scones and Quick Breads
CLASS 2 Custards, Bread Pudding and Ice Cream
CLASS 3 Soufflés, Pate a Choux and Pastry Cream
CLASS 4 Tarts, Pies, Cobblers and Crisps
CLASS 5 Chocolate Tasting, Double Chocolate Cake with Milk Chocolate Buttercream;
Flourless Chocolate Cake with Ganache Glaze
CLASS 6 Classic White , Cake with Buttercream; Meringues
CLASS 7 Artisan Breads
CLASS 8 Flat Breads and Brioche
CLASS 9 Puff Pastry and Croissants
CLASS 10 Complete Puff Pastry and Croissants

I have decided to take this program over the summer.  I wanted to take it last summer but I was so into my pottery that I didn't want to give up 4 hours on Sunday to do it.  But, I must say that I haven't thrown pottery since November.  I feel a bit like a poser, because on my "about me" link I say that I'm a potter....well I am a potter, but I haven't been that into it lately.  It's OK, it's not my full time job, it's just a love of mine and sometimes it's good to take a break.  It was a very rainy cold winter here in Los Angeles and my studio is in the garage...a non-insulated garage.  It was cold, wet, damp, freezing, windy, cold, cold, cold...I had NO desire to get out there and throw. 

I have been cooking much more and I like a warm kitchen to a cold studio any day.  I would like to take some pottery classes/workshops while I'm in France but for now I'm into cooking and baking.  I'm super excited and can't wait to start.  Unfortunately it doesn't start until June 1st, but that will be here before you know it. The do have one that starts in a couple weeks but it's during the week until 10:30 at night and I just can't do that...I'm in bed by 9:00 -9:30.   Summer is easy for us - we work Tuesday-Friday from 9-1pm.  So we have Saturday, Sunday and Monday off and the afternoons free Tuesday-Friday.  It's something to look forward to over the summer.  Look at all I'll learn.  And my teacher is Carol, who I know well, her daughter Pearl took classes from us, she's an amazing teacher & cook.  If you live in Los Angeles I highly recommend the new school of cooking!  I'll be blogging about my experience too, so stay tuned.  I think I'm most excited about week 10 - Croissants...I have tried so many times to make croissants and I just end up with dinner rolls.

Banana Bread

This is NOT my image above.  I took it from Elise, her blog is Simply Recipes  and it's great!  All of her recipes are excellent.  I wanted to make banana bread and found this recipe, so I tried it and it was amazing.  I've made it twice in 2 weeks.  I was never patient enough to get a good shot of the bread after it came out of the oven...I couldn't wait to taste it.

The ingredients are simple.  Bananas, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda salt and flour (nuts are optional). The recipe is so easy. 

First, you don't need a mixer and you only use 1 bowl.  With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. 

Mix in sugar, egg and vanilla.  Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.

Add the flour last, mix.  Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.  Cool on a rack.  Remove from pan and slice to serve.  The first one I made I added walnuts and the second I didn't...both were great.

We like to toast it just a bit and top with butter

It only lasts a couple days...not because it spoils, but because we have it for breakfast, mid-day snack and late snack.  This is the best banana bread I have ever had.  Please try it out Banana Bread recipe  and check Elise' blog daily for new recipes, you won't be disappointed either way.

France...here we come!!!

               

How beautiful is this house?  We loved it from the moment we saw it on the internet.  We knew this would be the house we would live in for 1 year.  It's called Les Costes  and it's in the Aveyron region, our favorite region of France.  It's located about 1 hour northeast of Toulouse.

We sent an email out today to all our customers.  It's official.  We are taking a 1 year sabbatical in France...1 year in this lovely home.  We have been working on our plan for about 5 months, but I haven't been able to post anything because some of our clients read my blog and I wasn't ready to tell them yet.  But now we have a person who will be taking over the teaching of the classes.  This was the hardest part...finding someone to fill Bruce's shoes.  Everyone loves Bruce and I will say that he is amazing with the kids and is casual, relaxed, patient, fun, cool and a great artist.  We have a friend, Travis, who we have known for 15 years.  He's Bruce's long lost soul brother.  Same personality, same gift with kids, an artist, surfer, cyclist, etc...we wanted him, wanted him so bad...well, he accepted our offer to take over the studio for 1 year.  That happened last week.  So now I can talk about it.  Now it's official.

So...we leave the end of September.  We are going to rent out our home here in LA for 1 year.  We will sell the car (it's an SUV and when we come back we don't need an SUV).  We will rent a car and drive across the US to New York.  We will stop and see friends in Ketchum, Idaho and Boulder, Colorado and see my family in Michigan and then drive on to NYC.  We'll have all the dogs with us too.  We leave on October 4th on the Queen Mary II, from NYC to Southampton, England.  6 days on the ocean.  The boat has 1 level that is a state-of-the-art kennel facility, it's the only way we could travel with the dogs, as I would NEVER fly with them in the cargo area of the plane.  We'll arrive in England, rent a car and drive to France.  Then we'll go to our new home and live a new life for a year.

Bruce will spend part of the day painting and drawing and I'm looking into cooking classes and pottery workshops.  We'll bike with our friends Jacques & Fabiana and Fabrice & Anka.  We'll hang out in the cafe, drink great coffee, great wine and eat great food.  We'll travel and see more of France and I'll take Bruce to Italy.  Most of all we will re-charge our batteries.  We are both a bit burned out right now.  We have been teaching art at our studio for 9 years and the longest break we have had was 3 weeks (and that was in September).  Teachers have the summers off and professors have sabbaticals for a reason.

I'll keep you posted as the time comes closer.  We have loads to do:  rent the house, sell the car, get the studio turned over, get the dogs ready to enter England (loads to do there), get our long-stay VISA's, etc...
We are both so excited and so ready for our new life.  I'll keep this blog going while we are there, so you can hear about all our adventures in France.

Stay tuned...

For my Valentine

                   

Thursday is our French lesson day.  We have been taking French for almost 3 years.  It's still so hard!  This morning I didn't feel like going, I felt like cooking.  So, Bruce went without me.  Thursday night at our studio is a late night for us.  We have a class from 3:30 - 5:00 and then a teen class from 5:30 - 7:00 pm, don't get home until around 7:30, too late to cook.  So I decided to make the meal in the morning and then we'd have it ready when we got home. 

Instead of being adventurous and trying something new I decided to go with a proven winner, my roast chicken and tri-colored orzo pasta salad (I'll give you the recipe for these next time).  The one thing I have never made is this chocolate torte.  I wanted to make individual chocolate souffle's, but you had to cook them right before you ate them and I didn't want to do that. 

First, you need a springform pan.  Butter or spray bottom and then cut out circle to fit in bottom, press in and butter or spray on top of it.  Set aside.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Great ingredients:  butter, eggs, unsweetened chocolate, sugar and vanilla.

Separate the eggs while still cold, placing the egg whites in one bowl and the egg yolks in another bowl.  Cover both eggs whites and yolks with plastic wrap and bring to room temperature before using (about 30 minutes)

 Cut butter into pieces - 1 cup of butter!!!!

Combine butter and chips melt.  You can either microwave this (keep a close eye on it and stir often), or you can use a glass bowl on top of boiling water.  Either way works fine.  Just make sure you watch it so it doesn't burn.

This is what the mix should look like once everything is melted...very shiny.

Place egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer, beat on medium high speed until thick and lemon-colored, about five minutes.  The eggs should have tripled in volume, look thick and soft, and when you lift the beater the mixture falls back into the bowl in a slow ribbon.  Add the vanilla extract and melted chocolate mixture, beating until combined.

 

In a clean bowl, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy.  Add the cream of tarter and continue beating until soft peaks form.  Gradually add remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.  Using a large rubber spatula, fold in a small amount of whites to the egg yolk mixture to lighten the batter.

Add the remaining egg whites, folding just until incorporated.  Do NOT over mix.

Fold the mixture into the prepared pan, smoothing the top.  Bake cake for about 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.  During baking the surface of the cake will form a crust which will collapse when the cake is removed from the oven - don't panic.  Remove from over and place on wire rack to cool.  The top of the cake will be cracked with crumbs.

This turned out great.  Moist, dense, intense chocolate flavor.  I topped it with whipping cream (no sugar) but you can also do it with the ganache that is included in the recipe.  Feed this to your love (any day...doesn't have to be Valentines day) and this is what you'll end up with!  Guaranteed.

 

LouLou's Onion Roquefort Tart

                  

I'm not a fan of blue cheese...really never liked it.  When we were in France in September we ate at a restaurant in the beautiful village of Najac called Le Belle Rive .  We had an amazing dinner.  For dessert we had a cheese plate with many different cheeses.  One of them was Roquefort.  We learned that this cheese is made in the village of Roquefort.  Roquefort is at least one of the oldest and best known in the world. This blue cheese has been enjoyed since Roman times and was a favorite of Charlemagne. It is made from sheep's milk that is exposed to a mold known as Penicillium roqueforti and aged for 3 months or more in the limestone caverns of Mount Combalou near the village of Roquefort in southwestern France. This is the only place true Roquefort can be aged. Roquefort has a creamy-rich texture and pungent, piquant, somewhat salty flavor. It has a creamy white interior with blue veins and a snowy white rind. It's sold in squat foil-wrapped cylinders. True Roquefort can be authenticated by a red sheep on the wrapper's emblem. The name "Roquefort" is protected by law from imitators of this remarkable cheese.

When they put this cheese in front of us we were truly amazed to see how furry it was.  Being from America, we are not used to eating furry molded cheese.  Most people would throw away cheese that has mold on it.  I just cut it off (but don't tell Bruce).  Bruce took the smallest morsel of this cheese and put it in his mouth - he said it was like a rush to his head, it cleared his sinuses and he felt it all the way to the top of his head.  He has never experienced that before with any cheese.  It tried a small taste but it was too strong for me.

I read this lovely blog called Cuisine Quotidienne.  Betty writes this blog as well as  La France Profonde She is a native of Olympia, Washington, and has been living, working, cooking and raising a family in France for 17 years.  I was reading her blog a couple weeks ago and she had just made this tart.  She got the recipe from Chez Loulou .  I decided to make it for Bruce and I.

I'm not going to give the whole recipe here...click on the Chez Loulou link for it, I will give you some pictures of it though.  I tried to make the crust, since we don't have the "good" pastry crust you can buy in France.  The crust didn't work out well for me, not sure if it was the measurements.  I would use puff pastry or make a traditional crust, either would work really well.  You can see how to make the puff pastry from my post for Goat cheese tart.

Simple ingredients:  heavy cream, eggs, onion, butter, Parmesan cheese, and creme fraiche (sorry to those in france, I don't have the ' in creme and the circumflex for the i in fraiche).  If you want really good blue cheese, try Bristol Farms here in Los Angeles.  The selection is great.

That's some good blue cheese!!!!

Cooked onion and then the cheese on top.   The pour custard mix over, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake.  This what comes out...

So I said above that I don't like blue cheese....but I loved this tart.  The custard and onions take away the sharpness of the blue and they all go together.  It's creamy, a bit tangy and smooth.  I loved it.  Can't wait to make it for some friends.  Now the bad news.  We left it up on the counter - big mistake....Dashell, the counter surfing golden retriever got up and ate the rest of the tart - we had 2 pieces for dinner, he had the rest.  He liked it too. 

Thanks Betty for a great new recipe.

Scallops wrapped with bacon

               

I have never made scallops.  Not sure why, but just haven't.  But I have had a craving for them and figured to try a recipe that I saw in bon appetit (can't seem to find the ' that should go over the e).  It turned out great.  This was a huge hit with Bruce and I loved it too.  Make sure before you buy the scallops you ask to smell them...it's not insulting...but you don't want a fishy smell to the scallops.

First, wash scallops and pat dry.  Cut slices of bacon in half widthwise and lengthwise, getting four pieces to a slice.  Wrap bacon around scallops and place in a long baking sheet/pan that can go in the broiler.  Make a lemon, butter, garlic sauce by melting butter, adding a tablespoon of lemon juice and sprinkle with garlic salt.  Brush this mixture on scallops.  Garnish with dry parsley and paprika for color.  Put in broiler and watch carefully.  When they are golden brown, turn them over and brush with butter mix again.  Scallops are done when they just stat to brown.

This dish was so easy and so good.  I served it on baby spinach with dried cranberries, dried blueberries, toasted almonds and a balsamic vinaigrette...perfect.  We also had our staple - french bread with olive oil & balsamic vinegar and a great bottle of French wine!   Yum yum.  If you try this, let me know how you liked it.