in retrospect

2010 has been a big year for me, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. I started the year by graduating from the University of Richmond (diploma says December 2009, received it May 2010) and moving in with my best friends’ parents and working for them. I also ran my first races and achieved some pretty good times (for me!). This summer, I traveled to France (read here, here, here, and here) to stay with my family on their vineyard in the Champagne region. I then kissed Virginia goodbye and headed west. I moved to Austin, TX where an apartment and graduate school were waiting for me. I revoked my short-lived vegetarian ways to welcome meat back into my life joyously. I fell in love with Texas. I ended the year hosting a FoodBuzz sponsored Thanksgiving feast from some Virginians down in Austin and finally a trip back east where I am currently spending hours sitting on my butt and catching up with my Mama. Throughout the year, I’ve discovered a passion for cooking and real food and I’ve started figuring out who I really am and what I really want out of life.

It has certainly been the year of greatest change in my life, but I look forward to the changes that 2011 will bring.

May your life bring you moments of happiness, delicious food, and epic changes. Happy New Year!

FoodBuzz 24×24: A Very Virginia Thanksgiving

Virginia is a pretty great place. And as much as I love Texas, I also love my home state and I am full of pride that I come from the state that made such significant contributions to the world as several presidents, me, Pocahontas, and bacon.

So naturally I’m feeling a bit homesick for the Commonwealth during the holidays. Thanksgiving has been rough the past 2 years because of my father’s death. To make it even harder, I’ve just moved 1300 miles away from my mom! Today also happens to be my big brother Hunter’s 24th birthday, but he’s in a far away place, serving our country as a soldier and stationed just below the North Korean border. (Yes, the country that is currently threatening war and has missiles in range of my brother’s barracks. I’m getting an ulcer.)

So this Thanksgiving had to be special. It just had to be. And thanks to huge amounts of butter, bacon, and FoodBuzz’s 24×24 feature, it was.

Cast of Characters:

• Mary: dear friend who moved to Austin at the same time as me; we’re practically neighbors & she’s frequently mentioned on here.
• Sarah: Mary’s older sister and another old friend; she flew out from Georgia to be with us! She loves goat cheese & long walks with dogs.
• Alex: Cousin of Sarah and Mary; delivery-boy of Mary’s long-awaited furniture; bringer of 96 bottles of East Coast beer and Chesapeake Bay oysters.
• Emily: Alex’s girlfriend and master potato smasher; lover of heavy cream.
• Todd: Brother of Alex and supporter of A&M (booo!); famous for cracking open a PBR at 8:34am the day after Thanksgiving.
• Becky: Sister of Alex & Todd; dog walking extraordinaire and enjoys motorboats;
• Zack: Husband of Becky and instigator of several “That’s what she said” jokes.

Appetizers:

• Hot Virginia Dip
• Creamy Oyster Stew
• Virginia peanuts

Main course:

• Virginia cured honey ham
• Country Biscuits
• Brussels Sprouts with Radicchio and Bacon
• Cheddar Bacon Twice Baked Potatoes
• roasted acorn squash

Liquid Libations:

• Too much beer
• Too much wine
• My uncle’s champagne, Hennequin Père et Fils

Salad course:

• Mixed greens, shredded carrot, onion, Virginia peanuts, and tomato
• Hot Bacon Dressing

Dessert (aka, breakfast on Friday):

• Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust with a candle for my brother’s birthday!

It may not have been a typical Thanksgiving — we didn’t even have turkey! But it was amazing anyways. We ate on mismatched plates, most of the time we sat on the floor, I caught the oven on fire on Wednesday from an incident involving butter, there’s a cup of rendered bacon fat sitting in my fridge, we fell asleep on my living room floor before we got to the cheesecake, and we drank far too much.

But for me it was picture perfect. We had the food I grew up on and it reminded me of Virginia. We had my dad’s favorite side-dish: Bacon Cheddar Twice Baked Potatoes. We had my Uncle Bruno’s champagne, Hennequin Père et Fils, which makes me go weak at the knees and start telling dirty jokes every time. We had my brother’s birthday cake for breakfast Friday morning, Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust. We had laughs so hard my stomach hurt, great moments of family and friends, only a few moments of utter panic, and a wonderful day together. My tongue is a little burnt from the Creamy Oyster Stew, my head hurts from the wine, and my kitchen is a wreck. But I wouldn’t trade yesterday for any traditional Thanksgiving. Thank you for everyone who shared this day and this experience with me — who knew I’d be able to cook a 4 course Thanksgiving for 8 and not panic the whole time?

(If you’d like any of the recipes seen above, leave a comment below and I’ll feature them in the upcoming weeks!)

recovery from France

Home sweet home Bittersweet, because I miss my French family and obviously being on vacation, but it is good to be home and see my mommy, since Wednesday I’m turning around and going to Richmond for 3 weeks to work at the language academy.

Thursday was a long, but successful day. I made my train and both of my flights (flying on a standby buddy pass). I spent the night with a friend last night who picked me up from the airport — she just quit her job and decided to move to Austin with me!! Wahooo!! This morning I got back to my car and drove to my mom’s house, making a pit stop 10 minutes from my mom’s house to see my grandparents. My grandmother was in the hospital and very ill while I was gone (the severity of her illness was kept from me while I was in France, probably for my own good). She is doing better and is back at home recovering, so good vibes out to you, G’ma!!!

So now I’m recovering, too. I’m definitely taking it easy on the dairy as I can tell that a vacation of eating carbs & cheese did not do my tummy well. Not to be too graphic, but how do people in France go to the bathroom regularly (if you catch my drift)???? Not nearly enough roughage in their diet! I hardly ate any fruits and vegetables in France so I’m really craving them now. My mom and I went grocery shopping and for dinner I picked up this salad amazingness to speed up my “get my body feeling awesome again” recovery process:

Salad bar creation: spinach, romaine, chick peas, black olives, artichoke hearts, beets, pickles, onions, peppers; topped with a Boca Vegan burger & homemade dressing

So here is my France recap:
- glasses of champagne consumed: 31 (embarrassing or epic?)
- baguettes consumed: at least 3 or 4
- pastries eaten: too many to count
- photos taken: 235
- memories made: millions
- weight gained: -1 lb (seriously, I lost a pound — defying the laws of nature!)

Okay so I know weight isn’t the ONLY thing that matters and I don’t dwell on the number too much, but let’s be honest: I still have some weight to lose. The last month has been a HUGE plateau for me, so I really think that the indulgent eating I did in France kind of restarted my metabolism. I think my body may have gotten too used to caloric intake I was eating (I do not actually count calories, but you know what I mean). Some Internet research supports this hypothesis. Whatever it is, I’ll take it! During my plateau I actually put on a few pounds, so now I think this is a good jumpstart to the rest of the summer!

Not feeling jetlagged, actually, but I did have a mid-afternoon coffee just in case. I want to stay up and try and get on East Coast time. Off to watch “Twilight” with my mom — she decided she wants to see what everyone is talking about hahahahhahaha!

French food marathon

Wow, yesterday was the Boston Marathon of food (in my life, at least). My cousin Clement had his First Communion and their definition of a “dinner party” starts at noon and goes until last man standing.

I got in a run before, thankfully!!! I feel human again after some exercise! Just 2 miles (knee still bothering me, working up slowly) but my Garmin works in Europe! Coolio!

Church was boring (no offense) because I’m not Catholic (or religious, but I grew up going to church) and it was all in French that I could barely understand! The microphone was faulty and I was sitting behind a pillar, so we mostly whispered to my little cousin Milan (6) who constantly asked “Who is the man bleeding on the cross?” Explaining a higher being to a 6 year old is difficult. Oh and the church was beautiful, it has been in the town for hundreds and hundreds of years, I wish I knew the exact date!

After plenty of photos, we finally made it back to Bruno & Catherine’s house (up the hill from where I’m staying) for Clement’s luncheon. I thought that after the appetizers we’d have an entrée, a salad, and a cheese course/dessert. But boy was I wrong. I took plenty of pictures for you guys, so enjoy. Note. I didn’t photograph the appetizers (veggie platter, gruyere puffs, other delicious things).

The menu... the left is alcohol, the right is food (yeah, that many courses)!

First course (I gave all the meat to my cousins, and they gave me their veg/fruit -- a win-win situation.)

Mango & champagne flavored ice cream!

For the meat course, I partook of the spinach fritters & tomato amazingness

Cheese course! I had a piece of baguette with 3 small tastes of cheese (a goat, a soft cow, and a hard cow)

Dessert (with a bite taken out of it!)

Seriously, there was more dessert??? A traditional Croquembouche (a cake made of many, many cream puffs)

SO. MUCH. FOOD. But so, so good. I ate way too much and then tried to run/dance it off by playing with my cousins and dancing with my uncles. We were seriously at their house for 10 hours. After the 5 hour luncheon, we all sat around (drinking champagne obviously) until eventually MORE food was put out! I had some leftover cheese, some couscous salad, and some random candy the kids found in a treasure hunt. The day was so fun and I loved just hanging out. The food culture is amazing; family time is food time and there was no rushing to finish or desire to hit the road early! Absolutely lovely.

Today, we worked in the vineyard for 2 hours doing manual labor. I love physical movement in the morning! It sets the day off right! After a morning in the vines and a great lunch, we headed 30 minutes over to Reims, the big city in the area. The Cathedral of Reims is famous because almost every French king was coronated there, as well as Joan of Arc ending one of her crusades here.

The cathedral at Reims

It was a drizzly day, but we walked around town, visiting cool shops and doing an olive oil tasting!! I bought the most amazing (and expensive) French olive oil infused with basil! French olive oil is so different from Greek or Californian olive oil, it is incredibly light and flavorful!!! We also munched on some pain au chocolate and macarons (not to be confused with macaroons, which are inferior) to counteract any exercise benefits we may have gotten.

Hitting the sack NOW because we’re leaving at 5:00am tomorrow for a roadtrip to deliver champagne & visit friends in Middelkerke, Belgium!

dairy backlash, champagne, and climbing statues

So I decided to keep track of the number of glasses of champagne I’ve consumed thus far, and let’s just say the number is pretty embarrassing/impressive (depending on your point of view). We have to remember that a glass of champagne is much smaller than a glass of wine, and I’m counting each time the glass is topped off, not just when it is empty and refilled. But still. I’ll reveal the number at the end of my trip and you can all send me to rehab.

I have hardly had any free time, so I apologize to those who have been waiting for an update! But I have some time now before bed so I figured I’d get it up now because tomorrow is super busy.

When I last left you, I was loving the cheese. Well let’s just say all the fuss I made about dairy a short while ago was totally right because I was up ALL night on Thursday/Friday morning with stomach issues. I refuse to give it up, so I’m sticking to mostly goat cheese (easier to digest) and cutting back. My Aunt Josette pointed out that Americans don’t really eat the same amount of cheese and not nearly as often as the French, so that had a lot to do with it.

But a little lactose intolerance won’t stop us from tasting champagne! Since we’re staying with our family in the heart of Champagne Country, we went from our little ville to Épernay, 2 towns over. Épernay is where most of the big champagne houses are located. Note: a champagne house is like the “headquarters” for the big guns… think of the big vineyards in California. My cousins Marie and Jason go to school like a block from all the champagne houses, it is kind of magical when you think about it. But we made a reservation to tour Moët & Chandon, which you’ve probably heard of (Moët is pretty mainstream in American and they also make Dom Perignon).

La Rue de Champagne is so beautiful!!!

The beginnings of a very good morning

Climbing the statue of Dom Perignon... no big deal.

We did the "Imperial Tasting" -- a Brut Traditional and a Rosé from the Imperial selection

Twas delicious!!!!

Before the tasting, we walked around town and took a tour of the cellars at Moët & Chandon, so that constitutes exercise, right? Don’t answer that. It was really interesting, actually. Apparently Napoleon Bonaparte was best buds with one of the Moët’s and there is a private tasting room there that has been kept to look the same and underground we saw a huge cask of his personal store. No one has drank that champagne since Napoleon, so you can imagine how old it is! We saw a bottle of Dom Perignon Grande Reservé from 1896. Yeah. As champagne gets older, it tastes like licorice, actually. But the general concensus, and in the expert opinion of my Uncle Benoit and Uncle Bruno (who both own small champagne houses) champagne is best in the first 10 years after bottling. It isn’t the kind of thing you lie down and let it mature, like a red wine. When you buy real champagne (ie, not sparkling wine but the legit stuff actually made in this region), you can let it rest 1-2 years but if it is on the shelf, it is ready to drink!

Later Friday afternoon we worked to help my Aunt Joelle do an order of champagne. She has a client that wanted customized bottle labels and they don’t fit in the labeling machine so we hand-labeled and boxed 118 bottles of champagne. After all the meals and work, we went to town to see my cousin Pauline’s dance recital! She’s a really great dancer and just got en pointe in ballet, so it was really exciting to see her dance! The venue was 100 billion degrees (Celsius, naturally) and my cousin Marie and I kept saying that we were melting.

We got home super late and then I woke up super early today (Saturday) so I could go to school with Marie. Yes, school on Saturday. Apparently that is normal here (high school only). She came to a class with me when I was in college, and since its the end of the school year here it is very relaxed so I went to meet her friends and see what high school is like in France! She only has 2 classes so we were there from 8-noon and then came home where I turned right back around and walked down the road to have a traditional, big Saturday lunch with my “French Grandparents”, Anne-Marie and Michel.

Michel, moi, et Anne-Marie

They’re actually the parents of my Uncles Benoit and Bruno (and Aunt Astrid who I met today) and the grandparents of all the cousins I’ve been hanging out with. Papi Michel likes to refill my champagne glass when I’m not looking and telling me it “hurts him” when I say I don’t want any more and Mami Anne-Ma is that cliché grandmother that keeps offering you food and making you feel guilty if you refuse. Lunch was super filling and delicious, and clearly I had a good time. We couldn’t get Papi Michel to take a normal picture, so that is the best I’ve got!

After an afternoon digesting, falling asleep in the car, and hanging out with more cousins, I finally squeezed in a 1 hour nap before going out to dinner and bowling with my cousins. We grabbed sandwiches at a sandwich shop and ate them on benches in a plaza. Heaven. I had a baguette panini of veg and goat cheese. Amazeballs. Then Paul (20), Marie (17), Jason (17), and Thomas (16) and I went bowling! The USA-England match was on tv as we played so I payed too much attention to that and bowled like crap. But it was still fun!!

I haven’t taken pictures of my food because, while it has been amazing, it is awkward to pull out my camera at intimate 5 course meals! The food culture is so different here that it would really detract from the family time if I did it. And honestly how many pictures of cheese do you want to look at? However, tomorrow is my cousin Clement’s First Communion so Aunt Catherine is throwing a big party for 40 people at her house afterwards (complete with her husband/Uncle Bruno’s champagne) so I’ll definitely snap some shots of that. I’ve never been to a French dinner party. Have you?

oh my god the cheese

Seriously. Le fromage. More on that in a second. First let me catch you up to speed on my adventures.

I made it from Brussels to Paris with no problem and arrived to enjoy a café au lait and a few moments (hours) of panic where I didn’t have a working phone or computer, but my Aunt Josette finally found me. We drove an hour and a half to the Épernay area where my family lives in a small town (the heart of the Champagne region of France). My Aunt Josette (my uncle’s wife) is related to everyone here distantly, so I refer to them as “aunt” “uncle” etc but none of them are actually related to me — FYI. I enjoyed some good conversation and a meal with some family and crashed hard.

This morning I woke up on French time and helped my Aunt Joelle (whose house I’m staying at) label and box up some champagne for our trip to Belgium next week. Yes, I’m going back (this time on purpose). So let me just show you what I see as I walk from the house to the storehouse (literally 15 feet from the house I’m staying at):

The grapes a growin' (and in the background the house of my Uncle Bruno and Aunt Catherine)

And when I went into the storehouse (“le cave”) I found this (and about 8 billion times more):

Bottles and bottles and more bottles of Uncle Benoit's champagne

After putting in a few hours with Aunt Josette helping Aunt Joelle out with the champagne, we took a break for lunch where, as usual, we ate amazing food. Seriously, everything tastes better here. I can’t say it as a generalization for the rest of France, but here the food is fresh, in season, and prepared with absolute love. And of course, every meal has champagne and cheese. I used to think of champagne as something for special events, but I’ve learned that it is viewed just like wine (let’s be honest, it is wine just prepared differently). It is totally normal here to open a bottle for lunch. We also had Marc de Champagne, which is a liquor that is a byproduct of the champagne process. Heaven.

After lunch we went to Metro, which is like a Costo but only for people in the food industry (my Aunt Catherine has a friend with a membership so we could get in) where, among many things, I found a wine tasting, a jar of Nutella as big as a bucket (SERIOUSLY), and this little beauty:

A wheel of Brie bigger than my face.

Happiness. Pure, indulgent happiness. After that outing, more food and a much-needed walk were involved, along with hanging out with my cousins Marie (17) and Pauline (14). My new French grandma is already trying to find me a boyfriend and my new life plan involves me moving to France to teach Spanish when she finds me a rich château owner. This is not entirely impossible because there is a castle literally across the river from the house here. I dream big.

About the cheese: if you’ve never had real French cheese, I highly suggest you go to a nice grocery store and buy a small amount (preferably goat cheese) and a good quality baguette and just enjoy it. Even if you think you’ve had brie, you probably haven’t had the REAL stuff. I swear the cheese is laced with crack here. Who cares that I don’t eat the meat at every meal? I make up the calories and protein in cheese (if only champagne had protein…)

Aside from the le fromage and champagne I’ve also never left a table feeling over stuffed or sick from eating too much. Also, I haven’t for one second been body conscious or worried about what other people were thinking of what I’m eating. The French culture of food really is so different from the US that it is utterly ridiculous to be concerned with calories, fat grams, carbs, etc. They eat a reasonable amount of what they want and they’re more active, on average, than Americans and it just works. This is, of course, the type of life I strive for, but I just seem to understand it better here. Perhaps the Nutella and wine give you clarity?

Off to sleep and wake up for an adventure at some local champagne houses! Bonne nuit!