Le Sud

Bonjour mon amis! La France est bonne jusqu'ici et je suis travaillant et apprenant tellement. Il fait chaud ici et nous mangeons beaucoup journalier pour le déjeuner. Le famille que je suis avec est très gentil et ils ont juste fixé une bicyclette pour que je monte. C'est tout pour maintenant, j'écrira encore quand j'ai le temps. Au revoir !

Coco, Peas, and Carrots

I am in love with the idea of love. I have not, however, quite decided how I feel about relationships. I will certainly be the first to admit that I pretty much suck ass when it comes to them yet somehow this does not deter me from being mad about love. I get swept up in the stories they tell about it. I might be a story about great love, true love, lost love or even mad love – doesn’t matter – so long as the subject is that illusive L word. You must admit that it would be pretty damn romantic and amazing to feel the feeling that those people are feeling when they feel like they have met that one person for whom they just know they were made for. Think about it man, this is the person for whom they would die, kill, rape, pillage or even eat bugs! Although I have met some great people in my life so far, I don’t think that I have met this one yet. I say this because I think that this is something that I would recognize without a doubt, right? And so, until this day, I will dream to know what Woody was feeling when he was quoted as saying, “I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox.” And of course I will live vicariously through the stories of Coco and Boy, Wyatt Earp and his Josephine, Forrest and Jenny, and Wesley and Buttercup. And so, for all of you out there who hear me loud and clear, please raise your glasses and toast with me - viva l’amore!

Nightime, Nightime Everywhere and Not a Z for Me

What is a girl to do when she finds herself wide awake at 4:53 in the morning? That is indeed the question. Alas I have not been very sleepy lately. It feels to me like there is electricity in the air or something and it simply will not allow my eyes to grow weary. And so here I sit, bright eyed, bushy tailed and with nay a fucking clue as to what I shall do until am able to count sheep once more. Well, one of my all time favorite things to think about at any given moment is beautiful, wonderful, drop dead gorgeous food! When I say food I suppose I mean recipes and ideas mostly, to be more specific. And so, being the middle of summer, with very hot days and no air conditioning, what naturally comes to my mind anyhow is light, fresh and simple foods. Having said that, the following recipe is not completely spot-on but I think you will agree that it’s close enough and that what it lacks in light-ness it more than aptly makes for in de-light-fullness! I can attest to this as my niece Eva and I made these just last week and they were just heavenly. P.S. - Although I wish I could take credit for this one, it is not mine but rather a recipe I found on that wonderful site epicurious.com.

For cookies
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar for dredging and dusting
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation of basic butter cookies
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer (preferably fitted with paddle attachment) or 6 with a handheld. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and mix until just combined.
Form dough into a 12-inch log (2 inches in diameter) on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll up dough in plastic wrap. Chill dough on a baking sheet until firm, at least 4 hours. (To roll cookies into balls, see cooks' note, below.)
Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F.
Cut enough 1/8- to 1/4-inch-thick slices from log with a heavy knife to fill 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging slices about 1 inch apart (chill remainder of log, wrapped in plastic wrap). If garnishing with coarse sugar, sprinkle slices with it.
Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes total. Cool on sheets 3 minutes, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies with remaining dough on cooled baking sheets.
For lemon curd
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into bits
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large egg yolks
Special equipment: a 1 1/4-inch round cookie cutter; a pastry bag fitted with small plain tip or a heavy-duty sealable plastic bag (not pleated)
Preparation
Prepare cookie dough:Follow recipe for basic butter cookies, forming dough into 2 balls (instead of a log) and flattening each into a 6-inch disk. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
Make lemon curd:Simmer lemon juice, zest, sugar, butter, cornstarch, and salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderately high heat, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Lightly beat yolks in a small bowl, then add 1/4 cup lemon mixture, whisking. Add yolk mixture to remaining lemon mixture, then reduce heat to low and cook, whisking constantly, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, then cover surface with plastic wrap and chill while rolling out dough.
Roll out dough:While oven preheats, roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining dough chilled) into a 9-inch round (slightly less than 1/4 inch thick) on a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin. (If dough becomes too soft to roll out, chill on a baking sheet until firm.) Cut out as many cookies as possible with cutter.
Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Dredge warm cookies in confectioners sugar until coated and transfer to a rack to cool completely. Make more cookies in same manner.
Transfer lemon curd to pastry bag or plastic bag (snip an 1/8-inch opening in a corner of plastic bag). Put 1 cookie upside down on work surface and pipe about 1/2 teaspoon lemon curd onto cookie, then top with another cookie, right side up, to form a sandwich. Make more sandwiches in same manner.

Just before serving, sift some remaining confectioners sugar over tops of sandwiched cookies and enjoy!

I highly reccomend a glass of chilled Moscato d' Asti to perfect the experience of eating these yummy little treats.

So Long, Farewell, All You Sexy Bitches!

There's a sad sort of clanging,
From the back of my car,
As wine glasses clank together,
They may not make it far,
An absurd little bird,
Is pooing on my hood,
Damn if I had my gun,
I'd fix his feathered ass good,
Coo-coo, coo-coo regregfully he tells me,
Coo-coo, coo-coo but firmly he compells me,
To say goodnight,
Coo-coo to all of you,
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight,
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight...

But alas, my fair feathered friends, after (OMG) fourteen years in this town we call Denver, I must kiss its beautiful booty goodbye. This saturday morning I am heading to Paonia, an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny town on the western slope of CO, to chill wit ma mamma for a few until I head for France at August's end. Although it feels kinda strange and a little sad to be leaving the place I have called my home since I was legally old enough to drink, blessed be the day, I have a marvelous sense that I am on the brink of embarking on what could possibly be the greatest adventure of my life thus far. Nonetheless I will miss Miss Denver and my sisters and friends who live here. I will miss the fabulous back to back dining room and amazing food at Frution; the ceaslessly wonderful fare from Mr. Forman and staff at Table 6; everything about Sasa; the food, the patio, the great atmosphere and the people of Domo; drag queen brunch at Bump & Grind; I will miss picknicks at Cheesman Park; the zoo, the baseball games; the Fillmore; and amongst many other things, I will miss the Cowboy Bar (except for the fucker who stole my coat last time I was there). Denver has been a great place to be and so, au revoir et salut my sweet city, I will miss you.

P.S. I will be blogging from P-Town - tiny town, 2000 peeps, fruit, coal and absolutly no idea what will happen next, tune it. And also while gallavanting about France where I will be harvesting grapes, learning as much as I can about wine making, and hangin with the local farmers, winemakers, chateau dwellers, and Parisians. So subscribe to Le Blog and lets stay in touch shall we! Peace out all you sexy bitches.

On The Importance of Good Stuff

I know you have all been suffering terribly and waiting with baited breath wondering where I have been since my last post which I deleted because it was not only depressing but also a waste of all of our time. Anyhow, you will be happy to know that all is well. In fact, the more time I have had to think about the things that are really important to me - aka: food, wine, family, true friends & good times with food, wine, family and true friends, the less I think about the stuff that doesn’t matter so much. On that note, I have a few good friends in fact who remind me of that every time I spend time with them. One (and you know who you are you beautiful lady) is also the proud momma of my favorite kitty in the whole wide world, a sister in my love of food and wine, and one of the most wonderful and strong women I know. I had the great pleasure of sharing a glass of wine and some kick ass conversation with her just this week. Not to mention a horror story about the moving of the couch from hell, but I'll save that gem for some other time. Another is a friend who, no matter what I am going through, or how damn grumpy I am, or how many times I don’t pick up the phone and only respond with one word text messages, is always there for me with a smart ass remark, a gorgeous glass of wine, or something delicious to eat - and who somehow manages to make me laugh on even the dreariest of days. So I guess I just want to say thanks to all of you who inspire me, make me laugh, make me smile, give me hope, give me hugs, talk the best of shit with me, and take the time to drink and eat good things with me. You are my inspiration and I love you dearly.

Whoopsie Daisy

A friend of mine emailed me to tell me that I misspelled Jacque's name in that last blog so I wanted to say whoops and correct my mistake. Although I fancy myself kinda good at some stuff I think perhaps I may be kinda bad at some stuff too. Spelling for example. When I was twelve I entered a spelling bee and choked on the word gauge. I cried about it for days and it reminded me of another time when I was even younger and broke a large glass jug of milk when removing it from the fridge. Being the big baby that I was then, and still am, I started to cry. My mom hugged me and said "no use crying over spilled milk". So true too. All I can do is try to be better going on down the road and not fret over things Ive done poorly in the past. By golly, I think that finally, at age thirty-five I have become comfortable with the fact that I am hopelessly, and wonderfully flawed. C'est la vie, I think that in this world of airbrushing, liposuction and fake tits, maybe I'm a little more interesting for it. No? All that aside, I will try not to misspell Jacque's name again but that's just because I love him.

Itsy Bitsy Dogs and Great BigBeautiful Wine

I had the pleasure just last week of meeting and dining and drinking wine with the lovely and talented Cathy Corison of the Corison Winery in Napa. I can honestly say that I had never heard of the wines nor the woman before that night so when told the dinner was themed around California Cabs I was all like "well la ti fuckin da, this will be super special". (Total bitch am I!)That is not to say that some good wines don't come out of CA, but I find that a good deal of them are over-priced and under-impressive. So, with no expectations for greatness but a very strong desire to get my drink on, I headed over to the Synergy Loft. Upon arrival I was handed a glass of bubbly and the night was off to a decent start. After sweeping the room, my attention was drawn to a very tiny lady with very tiny feet. Why do I mention her feet you ask? Am I a pervert with a foot fetish? Well, maybe but that's another blog. Anyhew, I do look at feet, mostly my own, and that's all you're gettin. So here is this cute little lady with feet so tiny I wasn't sure how she didn't topple over and this, of course, turned out to be the winemaker Cathy Corison. A little intimidated at first I sauntered over to say hi but resisted the urge to ask her to take her shoe off so I could get a better look. We chatted only briefly and then it was time for the dinner to start and for me to shut the hell up and sit down. Cathy spoke for a bit about her wine, her philosophy (to make artisan wines with both power and elegance that is) and her beliefs about wine. It was then that she said something that really resonated with me. She said very simply that wine means nothing until you drink it. And as I sat there sipping her wine, her gorgeous, elegant and really quite breathtaking wine, I started to think that maybe this tiny footed little vixen of a winemaker was on to something. My previous mind set of oh big deal, California Cabs, was lost in a sea of scintillating, sultry Cabernet sexiness. Somewhere around the second course, once the wine began to warm and do its thing, I finally got up the nerve to do it. I went over to Cathy and I said hey, you've got really small feet and Ive got freakishly large ones, hows about taking your shoe off so I can get a picture of our feet side by side? Now I really wasn't sure if she was going to call security or just turn and run as fast as her tiny feet could carry her for fear I was up to something fishy, but like a real sport she said okay. So we both de-shoed mid-dinner and I had Jeremy take a picture of our feet. I learned my lesson that night that Jeremy can't take pictures because the idea was to show how tiny her feet were by using my boat of a foot as a comparison. You know, like the use of a dollar bill next to a foot print in crime scene investigation, right. But I did get the photo, perhaps not exactly what I was shooting for, but it is pretty cool and I am seriously considering hanging it on the Wall Of Fabulousness in the wine shop right next to the picture of me and my hero Jacque Pepin . Thanks Cathy, you're a peach of a person, a great sport and one hell of a good winemaker!