Raw Tacos

I love tacos.  I love them pretty much any way, but usually I make them with about half ground beef and half beans (red or black).  I was skeptical of being able to recreate one of my favorite comfort foods as a raw dish, but I finally took the plunge....and loved them!



Here, I've used raw walnuts mixed with taco seasonings.  For the rice, I modified Ani Phyo's recipe for "Sushi Rice" (from her book: Ani's Raw Food Essentials) using parsnips with a bit of apple cider vinegar and macadamia nuts.  For the Chipotle "Cheese" Sauce, I pureed soaked cashews with a bit of water, lemon juice, a canned chipotle (not raw), and some nutritional yeast to make it "cheesy".  I also threw together a quick Cherry Tomato Salsa/pico de gallo to put over the top.  Served in Romaine lettuce boats, they were delicious, but I look forward to eventually having a dehydrator to make chips or wraps to make it more of a true "taco".  So much fun with raw food!


Raw Walnut "Tacos" with Parsnip "Rice" and Spicy Chipotle "Cheese" Sauce

Serves: 2 people (or at least two people my size.  I had this for lunch two days in a row.)


NOTE: The cashews for the "cheese" sauce need to be soaked 5 or 6 hours (or overnight) before making this, to plan that into your timeline.  If you have a high-speed blender, you might be able to forgo the soak time, but I have not tried this since I have a "regular" KitchenAid blender.

Taco meat
3/4 cup raw walnuts
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Braggs Liquid Aminos, Nama Shoyu, or soy sauce (not raw)
Salt to taste

Pulse nuts, chili powder and cumin in food processor.  Add olive oil and Braggs and pulse until the nuts are in crumbles and resemble taco meat.  Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Rice
1-1/2 cups peeled and diced parsnips (alternately turnips or jicama can be used, although I have not tried either -- if you use jicama you will probably have to squeeze it out [after processing it] with cheese cloth, through a strainer, or with a nutmilk bag to get rid of some excess moisture before adding seasoning)
1/2 cup macadamia (or pine nuts, sunflower seeds, etc.)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Combine parsnips, macadamia nuts and salt in food processor.  Pulse into rice sized fluffy bits.  Add vinegar and pulse one or two more times to combine.

Spicy Chipotle Cheese Sauce
1/2 cup cashews
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons water (or as needed)
1 canned chipotle chili (to make this completely raw, soak 1 dried chipotle in water at room temperature for 1 hour.  Reserve soaking water and use in place of the 2 tablespoons of water in this recipe)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (or as needed for "cheesiness")

Soak cashews for 5-6 hours or overnight.  Drain and add to blender along with lemon juice, water, and chipotle chili.  Blend until the sauce has become creamy (you may have to stop the blender several times to scrape down the sides, but keep at it -- it will all come together!)  Add water as needed.  Once it has become a creamy sauce, add nutritional yeast and blend to combine.  Taste and add salt and/or more yeast to taste.  If you are chilling this to use later, it will thicken up considerably.  I added a little water to the amount I intended to eat when I was ready to use it so that I could make an attractive "drizzle".  This is also delicious left thick and used as a dip for crudités.

Cherry Tomato Pico De Gallo
1/4 cup cherry tomatoes sliced in half
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion (or white or yellow or scallions....)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
chopped fresh jalapeno to taste
salt to taste
cubed 1/4 of an avocado (optional)

Combine all in a small bowl.

Arrange your meal on large Romaine lettuce leaves.  Enjoy!

The Frantic Clean, and a (belated) Thanksgiving recap

Today was the day I'd planned to clean for Greg's upcoming arrival.  A few days early, but I figured this would give me a chance to get a reasonable amount of things done each day without going totally crazy.  Let me just tell you: the nesting urge, once fully unleashed, is a frightening and powerful beast.  The children helped some, because of course the Best Thing Ever is to squirt excessive amounts of cleaning supplies all over everything, and we actually had a very nice day together.  Things accomplished today:

Children's toys picked up and put into their room
Floors in living room, guest room and sun room swept and vacuumed, including rolling up area rugs and getting under them.
All furniture moved and cleaned under (vacuumed inside couches, moved piano, corner bench, etc.)
Living room and my room dusted.
7 loads of laundry washed and hung to dry (= 14 trips up and down 2 flights of stairs)
Both bathrooms cleaned.
Some windows and both glass doors Windexed.
Microwave scrubbed out.
Kitchen cabinet surfaces wiped down.
Hood and stove range cleaned on top of and under.
Oven door window scrubbed.
Computer room partially organized.

I still want to wipe down the inside of the refrigerator, finish the computer room and hit a few other clutter spots, but I had to stop myself after 8 hours.  It's 10 at night right now.  The children have been in bed for 2 hours, and I'm just now finishing my dinner.  I will clean more...if I can still move tomorrow.  I'm telling you though, this level of Crazy Clean feels good.

This is very belated to post about (although when has that ever stopped me?), but we had Jonathan here for Thanksgiving weekend!

Jillian had a big Thanksgiving dinner at her house.  Lavella, teething two teeth at once, had refused a nap all day, so this is how she spent the first part of the later afternoon:


Thankfully she roused herself part-way through, and was quite the character for the rest of the evening.


Jonathan and I were responsible for most of the desserts, so we brought Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie (with dark chocolate almond bark, whipped cream and toffee sauce), and Butterscotch Pumpkin Pie (with Scotch spiked whipped cream).  Both were huge hits, and rather delicious, although Jonathan preferred the latter (guess which one he made). 


(Sorry, the picture sucks, but I kept having to jump up and help the children with stuff, so it started melting before I could get a good shot)

Also, because I'm excessive, I decided that I needed to make two types of candy as well.

Chocolate rum balls (recipe to come soon):


And vanilla marshmallows:


On the last day he was here, we struck on a fun idea.  He ran out to get take-out from the local Asian Bistro (their name for it, not ours -- just "Asian".  Really darn good food though; some sort of Chinese/Thai fusion.).  We set up the computer room with my little collapsible tables, and then watched on the computer an episode of Bizzare Foods on Thailand.  Everyone ate happily, and the kids thought it was the coolest thing ever to be "eating what the other Andrew is eating!!"

(I love all of their expressions in this shot)



We also visited the Midevil Christmas Market at a nearby castle ("OUR" castle), which wound up being kind of fun, but very, very cold in the end.




Overall, we had a wonderful visit, and look forward to seeing him Christmas weekend!  (He and Greg will probably be cooking dinner -- should be fun times!)


Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to all of you, and much love from our family to yours.

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On pregnant people and my love of sushi

Now, I know that people have started to stop by this blog in the hopes of a hint as to how Hannah is doing. No worries, she and baby are fine, but he still hasn't made his appearance yet (and yes, today is her due date). At the moment she's still living her normal, active (although increasingly uncomfortable) life, and we're all just waiting. It's sort of like sitting around watching a bomb, waiting for it to go off. We'll let you know as soon as the Big Event has taken place and list the stats and everything right here.

By the way, congratulations to Beka, who just gave birth to her 4th baby -- finally a little girl! (Beka, I would link to your blog here, but I can't seem to figure out where your blog is.)

Now since there's nothing more to say about Hannah and the little guy we have yet to meet, I'm going to talk about me. =)

With each pregnancy, I've struggled with a good deal of back pain. This is largely because of scoliosis, but also the shear size of my babies in comparison to my small frame adds to it (although most people would say that a 9.5 baby is large for any size woman).

In the last few weeks before Andrew was born, I had trouble walking, driving, and sitting for periods longer than 10 minutes at a time; I was constantly going to lie down.

When I was pregnant with Elijah, I had just recently been in a car accident before I conceived, so our insurance paid for regular chiropractic care almost up to my due date. It made a huge difference in the constant back pain (which went from almost unbearable to just minimal and definitely manageable). I also saw an increase in energy, probably because of better circulation due to regular adjustments.

With Lavella I had no care at all, and once again the pain was back full force.

All of this to say, I finally decided to go and get a pre-natal massage this past Wednesday. I felt strange about dropping so much cash to have someone spend an hour rubbing my back, but let me tell you, it was incredible. I felt rested and relaxed and cared for. I think I'm going to have to pay a few visits to both the chiropractor and massage therapist while I'm home this summer; I'm already having trouble walking when I'm tired (it's like something in my low back just gives out, and makes it painful for me to lift one of my legs). When I get back to Germany I'm going to have to look into what options the Army has available for me -- I know that they do physical therapy of sorts, and maybe my German midwife can work something out.

Anyway, now that you've heard all about my back pain (which was probably just as fascinating as watching the paint dry), let me just say that the place where I went to get the pre-natal massage, Traditions At The Glen, is completely worth going to. It was a lovely, soothing experience from the moment I walked in the door, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a few hours to unwind and pamper yourself. It's a fluffy towel/white robe kind of a place, and the staff is exceptional.

After my massage and a good long steam shower, I stopped at Wegmans for some sushi (my selection was fully cooked -- no worries).



Besides the fact that sushi is addictively good, is the fact that it's so aesthetically pleasing. Mmmmm.... I'm already hungry for more.

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Italy Part 9: Venice

On the last day of our Italy trip, we spent the day in Venice.

The city is built on 110 little islands in a salt water lagoon. Travel is restricted entirely to boating or walking -- no cars are allowed in the city at all. Venice is known as the largest urban car free area in Europe.

We parked near the dock, and took the traghetti (waterbus) in.

Once inside the city, the water is full of Gondolas giving high-priced rides to tourists, as well as Venitians boating about doing their every day errands. (For example, if you dig a hole, you then have to boat the dirt out somewhere. So strange.)

We, of course, had to eat seafood while we were there. I ate my favorite food -- raw oysters. Everything we had, unfortunately, was incredibly overpriced, because we were not able to get beyond the very touristy area during our short visit. (Although the seafood was very fresh and good. The vegetables though...hm. Not so much.)

The bread of Venice, as well as the olive oil, is remarkably bad (the bread pale and spongy and the oil smelling...well, just not good), and was especially a let down after what we had become accustomed to in Florence. From what I hear, their Jewish bread (from the Jewish ghetto or district) is delicious, but it always sells out at the bakeries by lunch-time, so at dinner there's almost no chance of it. Oh well.

The architecture was very beautiful, and we definitely want to go back to explore more. The top two pictures below are of San Marco square.


Unfortunately, the whole place is over run by pigeons, and this is totally played up, complete with little stands selling cones of pigeon food to feed to the hoards of birds (we contributed to the problem with two dropped ice cream cones).





The shopping is extensive, strongly featuring beautiful, artistically handmade Murano glass in countless shop windows.


The entire city feels magical. It was a lot of fun just to walk around and take in the sites. It did get pretty cold as night fell, and we did not manage to get beyond the touristy bits, but we took with us some lovely memories.


One funny fact: as we were looking around for a place to eat dinner, I noticed a heart and cupid on one of the menus in a restaurant window. I turned to Greg: "Hey, what day is today?"
"Ummm...February 14th."
(joking) "Wow! So you took me to Venice for Valentine's day!"
"That's today?!"
Neither of us had any idea until that moment. Whoops! What hopeless romantics we are. :)

Italy Part 8: Parma, Maranello, Bologna

Towards the end of our stay in Italy, we went on a bit of a road trip, hitting three cities in one day.

The first was Parma, where we took a whole bunch of pictures of things that we know nothing about.


We had essentially stopped there to taste Parmesan cheese at it's source, so we got down to the business of lunch straight away.


Lunch did not disappoint, and besides the buttery Parma Prosciutto ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano (which go so well together because the pigs eat the whey by-product of the cheese making), we also had the best tortelloni that we have ever put in our mouths. It was sweet, salty and savory -- each a different kind, each equally pleasing. We wish that we could remember more about what they were actually stuffed with, but we failed to carefully read the menu.

Our next stop was Maranello, home to the Ferrari factory.



The gallery wasn't enormous, but it was cool, because there are no barriers around the displays, letting you get as close as you want -- although heaven help you if you touch any of it! The staff is friendly, but very watchful (and who could blame them?)

Our third and final stop of the day was in Bologna.


Oh, Bologna, we wish we could have had more of a chance to explore you. We also wish that the food we ate there wasn't crap.

Really, it was kind of our fault that we had a terrible dinner here. It was late by the time we got there -- the children were hungry, it was cold outside, and by the time we'd walked around a little, they were more than ready for dinner. We had to stop at the nearest place...on this particular occasion that decision did not serve us well.

However, we did discover two leaning towers we'd never heard of. I found these a good deal more impressive than the much more famous one in Pisa, as the one of them was taller, with more of a lean. I wish that we could have seen them in the daylight.

Bologna is a college town, and seemed full of art, music and life. We hear that there is excellent food on the opposite side of town from the one that we were one. Next time.

Click on any of the above mosaics for more info on the pictures within.

Next post: Venice

Italy Part 7: The Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, situated in the Piazza dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) -- tourist hot spot, and one of the most recognized structures in Italy. One beautifully clear morning, we set off to see what all the fuss was about.

First off, we can say with all certainty: the tower indeed leans.


Why didn't they build the foundation deeper than 10 feet? No one seems to know. Funnier still is the view when you look back across the field next to the tower:



Recognize the poses? Right. Yeah, we didn't do that.



The entire set up is a bit strange. You drive into the city of Pisa and all is normal and fine, then suddenly everything opens up, and there are these wide expanses of grass around several beautiful buildings -- all with at least a slight lean.



(One would think that after the first enormous, expensive structure began to lean, that they would call it quits on the sandy, unstable ground, but no. Apparently that was no setback for these architects -- the tower was the third of the four great religious edifices.)

The foundation of the tower


The tower and all of the other buildings are very beautiful, but there was something sad about the fact that the entire place has become a mere tourist trap. It costs at least 5 euro to buy a ticket into EACH of these buildings. The other side of the street is completely lined with little souvenir tents selling plastic and ceramic leaning towers, shirts, bags, and miniature Pinocchio puppets (present at all tourist stops nationwide).




There is controversy over who it was who actually built the tower, but what is known is that the structure began to lean after only the third floor was built. Construction was halted for about 100 years. Giovanni di Simone, an architect, began work on it again in 1272, and built 3 more floors, tilting them in the opposite direction to try to compensate for the already flawed building (thus, it is actually curved).

In 1319 the 7th floor was completed, and then the bell-chamber added in 1372. I'm really not sure why they decided to add a bell tower, as this just adds to the weight at the top, and contributes to the lean.

The tower leans more every year. In January of 1990, it was closed to the public, because it had acquired a lean of 14-1/2 feet of the center line. They took the bells out of the top of the tower and used cables to pull the building in the opposite direction, while removing some of the soil from the raised side. The tower has now been opened back up to the public (supposedly safe for another 300 years), although children under the age of 8 are not allowed inside.

Our boys were sad because they dearly wanted to go up inside of the tower, but the rules are firm. We, obviously, didn't go up either ("Yeah guys, you know about that tower you've been begging to explore? Well, Mommy and Daddy are going to take turns, but you're not allowed". That would have just been cruel.) I'm not much on heights anyway, so I didn't feel like I was missing out.






We decided to buy tickets to check out one of the two museums. Very unfortunately, the interior of the museum was simply filled with artifacts that had been displaced from there original places in the Cathedral and Baptistry, which are located a mere several hundred yards away. Not only were the things on display poorly set up, but the walls were an institutional whitewash or brick, and the floors plain tile.



We quickly left this place with a bitter taste in our mouth, and decided that it was time for lunch.

Since our little ones were very hungry by this point, we didn't have time to explore the town for something a little further away from the Piazza dei Miracoli. Instead, we stopped at the first trattoria that we came across, and were surprised to eat a rather delicious meal of pizza, fresh salads, and pasta.

Cured beef, arugula, shaved parmesan


Our overall feeling about Pisa was that the tower is something that's worth seeing, but that's pretty much all there is to the place. I've read online that there is actually more to the city, so maybe we'll go back someday to check it out, but for now, I've had enough. Hey, at least the food was great!




To read a more in depth history on this tower, click through to the Wikipedia article.

Next post: Parma, Maranello and Bologna

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Greg's home! And a super pie crust

(At the end of this post is the best pie crust recipe ever -- if you haven't made yours yet, I urge you to give it a try!)

Today, Greg came home!!



We were all so excited to see him again. It's been four weeks!

I haven't been doing much cooking lately, so to ease into it, Andrew and I made my mom's Honey Whole Wheat Bread in the bread machine last night, and tonight I made hummus, and baked up a double batch of whole-wheat pita. I always forget just how great warm, fresh homemade pita is. Mmmm.

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner has taken a bit of planning. Greg is not a traditional sort of guy, and doesn't enjoy most of the dishes that make up the usual meal (i.e. any sort of pie, sweet potatoes, turkey). We all love ham, but he wanted to keep the crowd to just our little family for tomorrow (since we've been apart for so long), and I didn't want to have to dream up ham-inspired dishes for the next 6 months just to use it all up. Another challenge is that I have a tiny oven here that has only one rack. Everything has to be done very strategically for a large meal. Thus, the following menu:

Appetizer: Shrimp with Caribbean inspired lime spiked cocktail sauce (Cook's Illustrated Best Recipes)
Salad: Spicy mustard dressing on mixed greens with pear (Gourmet Magazine, most current issue)
Side: Potatoes (not sure how yet -- probably just boiled with salt and butter)
Bread: Slightly sweet Cardamom Bread (Taste Of Home...I'll have to find the issue)
Main: Stuffed Beef Tenderloin -- meat is wrapped around a mixture of sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic and water chestnuts. (Also Taste Of Home)
Dessert: Zabaglione Parfaits -- a Marsala flavored custard, layered with whipped cream. Mine will have chocolate curls on top, but it can also include fresh fruit.

I've also made a double pie crust (using the best recipe I've found so far! Its has the consistency of play-dough, and yet still manages to be tender and flaky), so the following may make their appearance, although Greg won't touch them:
Pumpkin Pie
Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Pie - chocolate is layered between crust and filling rather than being mixed in. (Gourmet Mag -- current issue)

I might be eating pie for the next two weeks, but worse things could happen. I also considered cupcakes, but really, that might be taking things just a bit too far.


Pie crust recipe (Cook's Illustrated magazine):

Foolproof Pie Dough

- makes one 9-inch double-crust pie -

The trick to this pie crust is the inclusion of vodka. Eighty-proof vodka, which is 60 percent water and 40 percent alcohol, adds moistness to the dough without aiding in gluten formation since gluten doesn't form in ethanol. Although the recipe includes 8 tablespoons of liquid, the alcohol vaporizes during baking, resulting in a tender crust that only contains 6 1/2 tablespoons of water. Because of the extra liquid, the dough will be moister than most standard pie doughs and will require up to 1/4 cup more flour.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup cold vodka
1/4 cup cold water

Procedure

1. Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

Stuffed Beef Tenderloin

Recipe from Taste Of Home magazine February/March 2002

Stuffed Beef Tenderloin

Serving Size : 12

1 cup olive or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon each dried oregano, basil and thyme
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (3- to 4-pound) whole beef tenderloin -- trimmed
Stuffing:
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1 (8-ounce) can water chestnuts -- drained and chopped
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
3/4 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary -- crushed
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon pepper

In a large resealable bag, combine the oil, Worcestershire sauce and seasonings. Make a lengthwise slit about three-fourths of the way through the tenderloin. Place in bag; seal and turn to coat. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. In a skillet, saute mushrooms, onions and water chestnuts in butter until onion is tender. Remove from heat. Add remaining stuffing ingredients; mix well. Discard marinade. Open tenderloin; spoon stuffing on one side. Close and tie with kitchen string. Place in a greased shallow roasting pan. Bake, uncovered, at 350' for 1-1/2 hours or until meat reaches desired doneness (for rare, a meat thermometer should read 140'; medium, 160'; well-done, 170'). Let stand 10-15 minutes before removing string and slicing.

Finnish Cardamom Braid

Here's the bread that I'll be baking tomorrow (I'll add a photo when I get a chance). Recipe is from Taste Of Home magazine, and I've tweaked it just a tiny bit.


Finnish Cardamom Braids

2 pkgs.(1/4 oz each) active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water(110-115 deg)
2 cups warm milk(110-115 deg.)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground cardamom
2 eggs
1 Tablespoons Vital Wheat Gluten
7 to 8 cups all puirpose flour

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk, sugar, butter, salt, cardamom, eggs, Vital Wheat Gluten, and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, divide in half. Divide each half into thirds. Shape each piece into a 13-in. rope. Place 3 ropes on a greased or parchment paper covered baking sheet. Braid ropes, pinch ends to seal and tuck under. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

After loaves have risen, before baking, I paint them with mixture of:
1 beaten egg
2 Tablespoons milk

Sprinkle librally with granulated sugar. Bake at 350 deg. for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

Yield: 2 loaves.

Note: if possible, after braiding loaves, place on parchment covered baking sheets. When pre-heating oven, put two baking stones in for 20 minutes to heat through. Slide loaves on parchment off of baking sheets on to baking stones and bake as directed. This adds to the great texture of the bread.

Paris!

Yes, we did visit Paris about two months ago, and have been to The States since, but no time like the present to catch up, yes? (By the way, we did manage to return safely to Germany this past weekend, and I'll post pics of our trip..um...later. Right.)

Note: all collages are clickable and will take you to their respective albums.

Paris. This was one of the coolest places we've been yet, I think. The top two pictures in the collage below are from a stop we took at the side of the road for the little guys to stretch their legs and Lavella to eat. Greg always knows how to make things fun for everyone, no matter where we are. (The boys are actually running on a deserted farm road that ran parallel to the road we were driving on, which was on the other side of the hedge.)

Bottom left, you can see the "roller cops". Would be interesting to be accosted by one of these dudes.

At bottom right, Andrew looks over the whole of Paris from the grounds of the Sacre Coeur.



The science museum was great! For the children, we had to buy a ticket for a 90-minute session of age-appropriate play and discovery. It was so cool. There's way too much to point out things in each shot, so here's an overview:



The food. As expected, food in Paris is great. We weren't looking for the fancy super high-end places that give you "bites" of food in little towers on gold-edged plates. Instead we wanted the people's food, things we could sink our teeth into, get our hands dirty.

Bottom row: a diaper incident led to Elijah eating his dinner pants-less and proud.



Top row (of collage below) is from an open-air market we came across. The breads, cheeses and cured meats were uncovered and just out there on the displays. So unsanitary! So utterly delectable!

Second and third rows are of a place called Fauchon. Now, I did just say that we were not in search of high end food. I must admit, however, that we were in search of high end chocolate. Fauchon is also a patisserie. It was an incredible place, and is recognized as one of the finest of chocolatiers. We were prohibited from taking pictures inside, so instead I went all around the outside and took shots of each of their display windows (!). (Really though, click on the Fauchon link -- you can buy their chocolates online too!!)

Bottom row is some souvenirs. I don't think I have to specify who got what of those last two. Not included in these pictures is a watercolor print of the Awful Tower (as the boys called it), which we hung in their room, and they love.


Here are some shots from just general sightseeing. The top left corner was of a random bronze statue of a man coming out of a wall. No explanation to it's significance, and the boys were a bit disturbed by it, but we thought that it was pretty cool. The picture immediately below it is of the Cartier flagship store, located on the broad, beautiful "avenue des Champs-Elysees", lined with other flagship stores like Gucci, Vuitton and Cavalli (just to name a few).

Third and most of fourth row are, of course, the Eiffel Tower. I never knew why it was there or what it was for. Now I do, but if you want to know, you'll have to read about it for yourself. It's pretty interesting, and not at all what I thought. (Well, actually, I don't know that I thought anything about it 'till I saw it in real life.) The image copyright portion of the Wikipedia article, however, just completely make me see red (if you click on that link above, click on number 7 in the contents box).

Bottom row: Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur, and a view of Paris from the Sacre Coeur grounds.

We didn't go up into the Eiffel Tower, and we didn't plan to. There's no way that I'm going to wake up early to stand in line for hours to go up to the top of a tower -- especially when I can see it some other way. Through the use of a great guide book and some direction from a message board I'm part of, we felt like we got a great slice of the essence of Paris, and someday hope to return after Greg retires (from the military) to explore it fully.

One of my favorite things about traveling with Greg is that he makes it a point to take time to make sure each person has fun, from the smallest to the tallest. When we're plotting our journies, he always researches things that will be interesting to each one of us, not just things that he thinks would be cool. Because of that style of planning, the trip to Paris was a great success for all of us, and even the boys have great memories that they still talk about.