Holiday Yule bLog

Happy Christmas ! Joyeux Noël ! Bonnes fêtes de fin d'année !

So, you've hit the punch bowl, you've opened a present or two, you've stuffed yourself with rum balls and turkey, watched football, and listened to just about enough of Uncle Joe's rambling on and on... You're back on the web. Good for you ! Here, for your pleasure, is a little yuletide fire. Enjoy.

Frosty Eve

It's Christmas Eve and the web traffic has died down. I presume most folks are traveling or shopping, busying themselves with final preparations, wrapping, decorating, cooking. Some are already eating and drinking; good for them...

For those of you who are still surfing, here is the scene around St. Aignan this weekend:

The frost forms on the railing of our terrace.

The grass in the vineyard is frosty.

Not exactly a winter wonderland, but we'll take it. It beats shoveling snow. Merry Christmas Eve (and stop calling me Eve...) !

Photo Du Jour : Fromages

From several recent meals, a tome de montagne on the left and a bleu de Bresse on the right.

The tome is a typical mountain cheese from eastern France, usually in and around Savoie in the French Alps. It's a cow's milk cheese that's mild, but with a nutty kind of flavor.

The bleu comes from nearby, but closer to Lyon, in the Ain. Also a cow's milk cheese, it's described as being similar to Italian gorgonzola.

Our local market on Saturdays includes the cheese ladies, two young women who staff their booth and dispense eggs, cream, butter and all and every manner of cheese. We typically get our parmigiano reggiano from them as well, since most supermarkets only carry tiny packets of grated parmesan.

On Sundays, the cheese folks are at the Noyers market across the river, so if there's anything we forgot on Saturday, we can run over there for it!

Un Jour, Une Tour [Edition Spéciale]

Here's a special edition of the Eiffel Tower series for the holidays! I got this ornament tower at the museum shop at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco back in the late '90s.

Every year since then it comes out for the tree, but gets packed away after with the other ornaments, so it doesn't have a place in the "permanent collection."

Jingle bells and ho-ho-ho to all!

Birthday Boy

Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. It's also my birthday. I made it through another year! To celebrate, I decided to post a photo of me celebrating:


Pink and green frosting, yummm! It's my third birthday party. The same year that Marylin Monroe died and Johnny Carson took over the Tonight Show on NBC from Jack Paar. Moon River by Henry Mancini won Song of the Year at the Grammys. I had to look that stuff up - I was only three.

My family lived in Tampa, FL, at the time. I do have a few vague memories of living there back then. We moved back to upstate New York the year after this photo was taken.

The original photo is a Polaroid that I scanned.

And, while I'm at it, here's a holiday angel, a.k.a. moi, taken the same year, to wish you all the best:

And, yes, that's Yogi Bear on the couch. He's smarter than the average bear, which is why he does Christmas in Florida!

Birthday dinner this year will be the same that I've had every year since my first birthday in France back in 1981: steak au poivre in a cognac/cream sauce with frites. Yum!

Word Of The Week

étrenne

It's that time of year. The time of year in France when the doorbell rings and it's the factrice (mail delivery woman), or a few of the local pompiers (firefighters) or a member of the local youth football (soccer) league. Each and all of these visitors is "selling" a calendar for next year.

I put selling in quotes because it really is impossible to say no. You scrape up some change and fork it over for your (ugly as sin) calendar. It's a gratuity for the year of service you just received. And, in this very small town where we live, a bribe to ensure you continue to receive good service.

I made that last part up. But really, who wants to be known all around town for being a scrooge and refusing to donate a few euros to your friends and neighbors? I mean, I don't want to take a chance that, should the fire alarm ring, the guys might not respond as fast to the foreigners' place where they don't even buy a freakin' calendar once a year...

The money that you pay for the calendar is called an étrenne. An end-of-the-year gratuity. But this is a recent usage of the word. The word's primary meaning is a present that one receives at the first of the year.

Kitchen Collection [2]

The Steamer


What can I say? This handy gadget helps out in all kinds of situations. Perhaps it's at its best steaming fresh broccoli, or cauliflower. But it does much more than that.

Its flexible design allows it to fit into many pots, conforming exactly to what you need it for. Asian dumplings? No problem. Fresh beans? Go for it. It'll even do fish. This little steamer basket has served us well over the years, and will continue to do so for some time to come.

I'm not sure how long we've had this one; I know it's not our first. We repaired it just the other day when the center ring broke. We put a key ring in its place (visible in the photo above).