Easter Hollidays

This year for Easter we planned on a trip to the sea with our friends Maria and Greg. Greg's family has a lovely house on the Normandie coast and we where very lucky to borrow it for the weekend.
We left Paris on Friday night about 11pm, and arrived at Fecamp about 2am. The house hadn't been inhabited since September and was literary frozen on the inside... I think it was the coldest night I've spent in my entire life, though I had on: two leggings, two pairs of wool socks, one wool shirt, a big wool sweater, and many blankets... Luckily the electricity and the radiators worked just fine and the next morning, the inside temperature was almost comfortable!

Saturday we had a late breakfast followed by a  lovely walk along the beach. In the afternoon we went for a run, Me and Maria for a smaller one (...) and Etienne and Greg for a more appropriate distance... (but we are not the ones preparing for the marathon!).
In the evening, we made a fire and had some wine and tuna rillettes for starters  before we attacked an enormous seafood platter. Starting at eight o'clock, at midnight we where still eating... (Somebody made up the challenge that nobody could leave the table as long as there where any food left...). I don't think we slept very good that night either...

Changing the hour the night upon Sunday, made us sleep really late that day also... (very relaxing weekend...). After a quick breakfast, it was already time to prepare lunch..; Salmon trout and ratatouille, absolutely delicious!
After lunch it was time to hunt for the Easter eggs. Etienne had been hiding them all over the house, so we had grate fun looking for them. A bit childish maybe, but tradition is tradition!

Quite stuffed, we where ready to attack the day around 5pm... The scenery in Normandie is absolutely fabulous, with high cliffs going straight into the ocean. We drove along the coast and visited several places that was really worth seeing. Small cute villages, natural stone slabs beaches, cliffs...
The last place we went to was the famous village of Etretat. The views are breathtaking and you can walk from one cliff to the other. A sort of path has been made so that you can easily climb the cliffs. It's a little bit steep but not so much, so you can easily bring children or elder people.

It was almost 9pm before we where back home. For dinner we had planned for a leg of lamb and gratin dauphinois (potatoes gratinated in cream and cheese). We had just more or less forgotten that this takes time to make and time to cook... But we where finally set to have dinner at 11pm... not so bad, really... Once more it was difficult to fall a sleep, as we had seriously overeaten...

Monday, the last day of Easter went really, really fast. I think we must have been quite disturbed by the change of time, because we woke up late this day too... we only had the time to have lunch, hit for a run, have dinner, and then pack our bags and go back to Paris... A bit sad, but really it's amazing what a few days of nature can do to you. Once back in Paris you feel like you've been away for a whole week.

So that was pretty much our Easter holidays, in resume; beautiful walks, a lot of lovely food, good friends and a lot of sleep... :)

Computer Breakdown

Hi there,

I haven't been able to blog any lately, cause my computer decided to have a breakdown....!! How annoying!
Now, however, it decided to start working again, - just like that... - But apparently it's for an indefinite period of time... it could be for 1 day or three years...
According to my computer, I would need to buy a new hard disk and change it, so I was just wondering if any of you had ever had this kind of problem and if you could give me some advice?
I like my computer very much so I don't want to buy a new one if I don't absolutely have to and it worked just fine until about a month ago...


I hope I'll hear from some of you!!
Until then I wish you a very nice day!

Preparing for the Champagne Party

(I actually wrote this article yesterday, I just forgot to post it...)

Tonight I'm going to a « Champagne Party » !! It's my first time, so I'm really looking forward to it.

The Champagne Party is invented by a group of Norwegian women who lives in Paris and who gathers about 4 times a year (I think) in order to exchange Norwegian books, drink champagne and psyche themselves up for the annual « La Parisienne » run.

Parathese : La Parisienne is like a small marathon (very (very) small marathon), which takes place every year in September. You can run as an individual or as a team and it's for the cause of breast-cancer. The inscription is 40€, which is collected for breast-cancer research. This year I'm running with the champagne ladies too. It's a first for me, but some of the Norwegian ladies has done this for many years already.

So, tonight is the big night. Everybody is supposed to bring a little something to eat and some champagne. I've decided to make « Rillettes de Thon », ils like a tuna paté... Or, I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but it's really good ! The recipe is from Arthur, Etienne's brother in law. I hope he wont't be furious with me for publishing it...

I'm also making my own little recipe ; salty cakes with chorizo, serrano ham and red and green pepper, on skewers with some dry ham, mini mozzarella and tomato.

Here comes the recipes and explanations in photo :

Rillettes de thon :

You need :

1 big box of tuna

half a box with saint Moret or Philadelphia natural cheese

half a shallot

Juice from one lemon

freshly choped chives

Mix together the tuna and the natural cheese

slice the shallots in very thin slices

Ad some lemon juice

Make sure that you don't leave any seeds in the preparation

Salt & Pepper

Put it in a nice bowl and ad some chives on the top 

Serve on a small piece of bread and enjoy :)

Mini Salty Cakes : (24 pieces)

3eggs

10cl olive oil

150g of flour

1dl milk

2 teaspoons of baking powder

100g of grated cheese

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

20 slides of chorizo

2 slides of serrano ham

For decoration :

Ham

mini mozzarella

mini tomatoes

Mix the eggs with the flour, baking powder, milk, olive oil. Blend it well and then ad the cheese

I also aded a little spoon of this spice that I bought in Marrakesh last year... In dont know what it is, but it's rather good on taste... Otherwise you can ad some safran or curcumin 

Slice the Chorizo in small pieces

Chop the red and green pepper and fry it slowly for  about 10 min

Ad the chorizo and serrano towards the end

put everything in your first preparation

Cook it in the oven for about 10min, 180C° (the cooking time depends on the size of your molds)

Put it on skewers with some ham, mini mozzarella and tomatoes  for a more sophisticated presentation!

Now I'm finished and ready to go, trying not to forget the champagne!! :D

Have a nice evening! 

Ikea fabrics

This afternoon I went to the Saint Lazare train-station to have a look at Ikea’s latest marketing stunt; a textile workshop. They've been installed on the square in front of “Gare Saint Lazare” (one of the busiest squares in Paris), since last Monday.

Their work field was a 150m² triangular tent, containing 8 sewers and two interior designers from Ikea. In the center of the tent, you would find a large table with lots of different fabrics, where the visitors were invited to participate in the different activities, learning how to customize details in their own interior and give old furniture a new life.

By the time I got there, everyone seemed a little busy so I didn't really dare to ask too many questions and the workshop also seemed more or less finished (today was the last day). But at least it was quite interesting just to have a look. And, I wasn't aware of Ikea selling fabrics (available in the stores and on the internet), so I was very pleasantly surprised!

Here is the link towards their internet site where you can purchase the fabrics:

In France : http://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/catalog/categories/departments/Textiles/10655/

In Norway: http://www.ikea.com/no/no/catalog/categories/departments/Textiles/10655/

Where to have lunch with your BF

“Les Parisiennes” is a medium small restaurant in the heart of Paris, not so very far from the Eiffel Tower.

The decoration of the restaurant is classy and stylish, with grey velour chairs, white naps, tissue napkins and wine glasses from Chef & Sommelier. The major parts of the restaurant is decorated with different shades of grey (no, not sex toys, just shades of grey), twisting between hot and cold colors, creating a complete and peaceful harmony.

But, in the middle of all this (otherwise quite so normal decoration), you have a small pink room with only three tables. And this is where I want you to go and have lunch with your best friend!

It’s a 100% girly room. Actually you get the impression that you’re in an apartment close to the restaurant. It’s the perfect place to have the girlfriend talk, laugh and share secrets.

To be completely in the theme I recommend; high heels, working girl outfit, nice handbag and wine.

My friend and I tried out the two main courses of the day; fish and rice for me, falafel with Roquefort for Nathalie.  With that we had a little bit of Chablis and finished it all with a small espresso. The meal was delicious, the service was lovely, and all together we had for 21€ each.

The restaurant opens at 7.30 in the morning, so you can even go there for breakfast or simply for tea in the afternoon. It’s open all day. In the evening the kitchen closes at 23h30. If you want to try it out for lunch, make a reservation in order to be sure to get a table without waiting for too long…

Adresse “Les Parisiennes”:

17 Avenue de la Motte Piquet, 75007.

Phone number: 01.47.05.07.37 

My BF Nathalie :)

Farfalles with Roquefort

Fish with rice and a spicy Thaï sauce

Photo from Google