Random Thoughts

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum! Really. I mean it. Yum (or "miam" as they say in France)! I think we've pretty much established that all I think of these days is food. Well, that hasn't changed at all. What has changed is the cravings. I figured out why I was having them, and it seemed to help make them go away. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been sick with the flu. I was pretty miserable there and most likely in need of some good pampering. Anybody knows that doesn't happen once you move out of your own mother's house, though. Worse yet is that when you're a mother yourself, you can't even get the day off to lie in bed to get better. Well, since I didn't get the comfort I needed while sick, I was looking for comfort from foods. That's improved a bit, and though I wouldn't turn down a bunch of powdered donuts, I'm not craving them like before. Instead, I'm in the mood to eat in all sorts of exotic places.

I never have done much traveling. I speak fluent Spanish (or rusty fluent Spanish, anyway), and I've just barely stepped over the southern border of the US into Mexico. That really is something I'll have to remedy one of these days, too, because I am fascinated by their culture and I love their food. I'd also love to take an eating tour of many other places. China's one of them. So, in the past few days, we've eaten in China and Mexico. I've got plenty of non-American cuisine cookbooks, so we can eat just about anywhere on any given day. It's a great way to get variety into an otherwise very routine existence. So, yesterday was some delicious Chinese shrimp with rice, while today was a funky, yet oh-so-tasty Mexican lentil soup and some tacos. Topped with shredded cabbage, lemon juice and avocado slices, the tacos really hit the spot. I figure we'll head on back over to China again tomorrow.

Oh, and I have a pie in the oven. Yeah, you knew about the bun in my oven already. Well, I'm also getting a cherry pie cooked. I figure the bun'll be there a while, so we might as well have something else baked up a little faster. So, while the oven is hot for tonight's batch of bread, I figured I'd take advantage of the heat for some yummy dessert for tomorrow. Lambchop #1 had asked for cherries the other day while at the frozen foods store (yeah, there's actually a store just for frozen foods here). We stocked up on fish, since I really like to have that on hand these days, and some frozen berries, which make tasty pregnant-lady milkshakes late in the evening. So, tonight I decided to make Lambchop #1 her very first American-style cherry pie.

Now, usually, this can be as simple as making a nice crust and opening a can of cherry pie filling. Not so when you live in France. I didn't even know what to put in a cherry pie filling (aside from the cherries and sugar, of course). So, I whipped out my ever-helpful Cook's Illustrated Magazines and found a nice recipe. Today, I am proud to say that I am making my very first totally-from-scratch cherry pie. Who wants to wager on whether it'll be better than the canned version? Can't wait!

In knitting news, I located the missing section of Lambchop #1's pink sweater (once I get those camera batteries back from my husband, you'll see the progress there). It had apparently escaped from my purse/bag at playgroup. The ladies who organize the thing found it and thought immediately of me (it's handy to be known as an obsessive knitting freak sometimes). So, we're back on track with that, and I hope to get it finished in the next few days while it's still cold enough out for her to wear it. Which brings me to bid you farewell so I can go make a bit more progress while the house is quiet.