Marché Photo for a New Year

Hello! Two thousand and thirteen is gradually making itself at home in our little corner of Paris and I feel the same mix of excitement for the fresh start and bafflement that it could cruise along to almost mid-January already that I’m sure everyone is feeling. So many ideas and thoughts are spinning around and I’m hoping to be able to grab onto as many as I can and love every minute of this year. The end of twenty twelve throw me for a loop with two big jobs that I pushed everything else aside to focus on. It carried through the holidays and left me feeling frustrated to not be able to really soak up the season but I wrapped up that chapter last week and now I can come back to this space and work on a better plan to keep my momentum through both busy and slow. I’ve missed it here!

So where better to start than the marché? This past weekend was our second trip there of the new year and almost all the stands are back in their reserved spots, a full landscape after the previous weeks’ patchy scene of empty spaces where sellers were on vacation. The new year is fully here.

We’ve been a bit obsessed with Brussels sprouts and they have been popping up in almost all of our weekend warm salads for lunches. At the marché, they often top up the brown paper bag of sprouts with a bit more than you asked for. “C’est trop?” Too much? they ask. “Non.” we say, Anyway, it won’t go to waste! Things really aren’t that different in the winter than they are in the summer, it turns out.

– Arianne apples

– salmon

– potimarron / red kuri squash

– orange, yellow, and purple carrots

– a little lemon

– radicchio

– celery

– pears

– leeks

– endives

-Brussels sprouts

– green cabbage

– parsely

– arugula

– thyme

– sage

– potatoes

– farmhouse bread

Which will be used for:

Cabbage & Vegetable Soup with Parmesan toasts – Salmon with Soba Noodles and Mirin Dressing – Potimarron, Pancetta, and Sage Risotto

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And just a couple little glimpses of Belgium in the winter. We did manage to escape Paris for a short holiday with family in Belgium. I had to bring my work with me but one short walk through the garden was, of course, an obligation. My Maine heart can never get over the vivid green of winter in the middle of Europe!

xo,

A.

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Christmas Tree Anticipation and a Loving List

2011 sapin de Noël

Word on the street the texts I keep sending to R. is that tonight is get-a-Christmas-tree-or-else night! Here in France the most common way to set up you tree is with the trunk fitted into a whole drilled in a halved log. This is hard for a Maine girl who most of the time cut her own tree from farms to swallow. It means that the tree dries out much faster (or fossilizes as my mom calls it) and we both love having the tree up through January if we can. So I had this idea that buying the tree sooner would mean a fresher tree that would be more able to suck up water for a good long time. We didn’t make it to the garden center last weekend but I really want to get there tonight and then I’ll test that tree freshness theory out. I bet you already have you tree, don’t you?

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Here’s some things I loved this week:

• I love reading posts by E who writes so well and with such funny honesty. Her latest post where in her little EE meets the doctor and the mall Santa in the same day with unexpected mixed results cracked me up!
• I really, really, really want to get my box-loving cat one of these for Christmas. Could I ever get him out? I’d have to tempt him with a ball of brown paper or by pulling a tissue from a box, both of which have his complete and devoted attention. (Blowing your nose at our house must be awkward for guests. Sorry guests.)
• The pretty Griottes blog posted a list of wonderful boutiques in Paris to find treasures. Virtual windowing shopping anyone?
• In the past two weeks I’ve stumbled upon some incredible food blogs. One of them is farmette and her Juniper Junket recipe had me at ‘juniper’. I can’t wait to try it or her Sh’mores but I’m sure to be spending plenty of time in the future getting lost in her archives because her posts feel like sitting in a warm country kitchen with a friend.
• Then there’s the French country kitchen, Manger. Just click that link. (Oh my gosh! A Scottie in a brocante!!)

I would like holiday cards, hot chocolate, Muppet Christmas Carol, decorating, Christmas music, and gift wrapping to be on the menu for this weekend, please. What have you got planned? If you’re near Boston, MA, you must stop in at one of Aran’s events!

xo,

A.