Dinner Party Day

I learned much from this type of cooking magazine, and hauled this 20-year-old issue out for yesterday's main course, Corsican veal stew with olives 

I had a farm in Africa....

Well, no. But I had a cooking blog. 

It is still floating around, bereft of its custom design and many of its photos. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing with it, but for the moment it is a nagging reminder of a time when cooking was not just something I had to do, but a true hobby.

I think I burned out, or maybe I just started working full-time plus. But cooking hasn't been any more than a duty for a while. Not an unpleasant duty, but a duty nonetheless.

Yesterday, though, I pulled out the stops and did the whole French Saturday night dinner party thing: poring over recipes Friday evening, shopping all morning on Saturday, cooking all afternoon, then sprucing up the house a bit before hosting guests from 8pm to a bit past midnight.

I get by with a little help from my friend Picard

The food and company were great, bien sûr, but I also really enjoyed the whole process. 

One fantastic new element of this whole process is that in my circles, it is now deemed legitimate to have one course of your meal come from Picard , the amazing French frozen food chain that makes so many's lives a bit easier. 

More than one Picard dish would be a bit tacky, but a lot of people turn to ami Picard for before-dinner snacks, a starter, or a dessert.   

My Picard choice was before-dinner snacks

Just put these fancy-dancy little canapés in the fridge to thaw for four hours, and voilà! Who could ask for anything more?

And who could complain about smoked salmon with savory lemon cream on a poppyseed blini?

On the left -- source for my 90s Apple Crisp recipe

On the right -- source for yesterday's Apple Crumble recipe 

When I first moved to France, I liked to surprise guests with making "American food." I must have made Betty Crocker's apple crisp recipe for every other dinner party I gave in the early-to-mid 90s -- provided I could find oatmeal, of course.

Now "crumbles" are so prevalent that I wonder if young people even know they are an Anglo specialty. I made an apple one last night, but glazed it with tangerine marmelade and crushed up Breton butter cookies for the crumbly part. 

That original take on the crumble got oohs and aahs, but (the other) Betty C.'s version would just be a standard here now.

No grand réveillon for this gal

"Le réveillon du 31" is all well and good, but I just can't be bothered with it

Is it my American side creeping back, is it age, or is it general party poopiness?

There must be some reason that this year, I am spending the much-made-of réveillon du St. Sylvestre at home more or less alone.

Sure, there will be my husband, a foie gras, a few stray scallops, and some glasses to wash in the morning. But this is a far cry from our French New Year's Eve parties of old.

To be honest, le réveillon has been weighing on me for the past five years or so.

It is a pain to plan.

It is expensive at a time when plenty of euros have just gone out the window for Christmas.

It is food-heavy at a time when most of France has already been feeding heavily.

And it's all over so horrifyingly late! I think the earliest we have ever gotten to sleep after a French New Year's Eve party was 3am. The latest was 6am -- and oops, I hosted that one.

As I write this, I'm sure many of my expat readers are anxiously awaiting the big night, and perhaps putting finishing touches on a fancy apéritif platter or checking that the Champagne is chilling nicely.

I truly wish you the best! But this year, I'm quite content with my cook-a-little, geek-a-little, sip-a-little, stay-at-home réveillon.

Chez Cécile et Aimé

Friday evening atmosphere at Chez Cécile et Aimé
8 rue Oustry, Rodez/ 05-65-69-57-97

Back when I was writing my cooking blog, I imagined posting about local restaurants, either on Cuisine Quotidienne or here. I even toyed with the idea of trying to write real "restaurant reviews," but since Aveyron is a small place, I didn't want to get anybody's nose out of joint.

The result is a pile of untagged, but categorized, photos of local eateries. Since I don't plan to be writing anything resembling restaurant reviews in the near future, I thought I'd just share some of my favorite local restaurants with you in an informal, non-exhaustive fashion.

A spring "assiette" with smoked salmon, asparagus, and other goodies

There's not a lot on the Web about this funky and creative restaurant/salon de thé which has now been open for seven years in the Rodez town center. I did find a press article about its opening, and can say that the owners, sisters Florence and Isabelle Sabin, have been true to their ideals. Everything is homemade, and the menus change nicely with the seasons.

The restaurant is located in an old house, which is cozy and creatively decorated. You can eat in three rooms, and in the summer, on two different terrasses.

Okay, no one was dining outside on the day I took this picture, but at least it gives you an idea.

Chez Cécile et Aimé features homemade quiches, salads, desserts, and other dishes depending on the season and the inspiration of the chef who has worked for them for five years now. Prices are reasonable and "la maison" is open non-stop from 10:00 am until 6pm, serving late breakfast, lunch and mouth-watering goûters.

For a special dining experience, go on Friday evening -- the only day they are open for dinner. We often do.

Random Image 1

As I started to tackle my last week of January's NaBloPoMo, I was totally lacking in inspiration. Then an idea popped into my head -- an idea that quickly became a concept, to paraphrase Woody Allen.

Like a lot of bloggers, I have accumulated endless files of photos that I had planned to use in some future post. I got the idea that it might be fun to pick a "random image" and write about it. So I closed my eyes and did my best to mouse my way to whatever photo came up.

I think I have already posted this pic at some point, but it was probably in my now-defunct cooking blog.

I had bought some bread in Rodez and was struck, rather negatively I must admit, by the advertising on the packaging. Was nothing sacred, not even French bread?

It was the first time I had seen this exact form of corporate communication. And I think that, at least in Aveyron, it was the last.

Adieu, Cuisine Quotidienne

R.I.P.

There are two activities I am really sick of right now: cooking and laundry.

Now I never ran a blog about laundry, so that poses no online-life issues. But I did write a cooking blog for nearly four years -- and over the summer, I realized I just had to let it go.

My terse, virtually commentless farewell post on the site itself bears witness to how out of steam I am on the subject. But what I didn't say there is that the problem isn't really blogging -- although I am going through a dry spot there too -- the problem is cooking.

I will have been living in France for twenty years come next April, and as another expat friend with a similar background said to me a few months back: "Let's face it -- we've done one heck of a lot of cooking."

I've mastered the basics of French cuisine; I've thrown dinner parties that took me a day of planning and shopping followed by another day of cooking; I've prepared meal plans and shopping lists to correspond to particular recipes; I've worried too much about what my husband and family would all like to have on their plates.

Been there and done that now.

I don't know about my friend, but cooking-wise, I'm burnt out.