Paris

Paris was really amazing...

even in freezing weather and gray skies. 

 I can only imagine what it would have been like if we'd gone in June

...and kind of wishing that we had. 

Notre Dame

The kids enjoyed the stories about the history of the church.  The coolest one is about the row of priests wearing crowns that you see in statues above the kids heads.  During the revolution the revolutionaries believed these statues to be of the royalty/kings of France.  To show their disdain for royalty the chopped off all of the statues heads and left them there in front of the church.  A local teacher saw the heads there and buried them in his back yard.  In the 70's they were found by someone who came along to renovate the house/yard that they were buried in.  

Shakespeare and Company Bookstore

  This is a famous English bookstore in Paris.  

It was the hangout of Ernest Hemingway and a few other 

famous English writers of his time.  

True Story:5
30 minutes before taking this photo I discovered that I had left my wallet on the train with $400, all my credit cards, ID, Georgie's passport inside and on and on and on.  We were completely sick as you can imagine and I felt, once again, like the biggest idiot to grace this green earth.  I reported it to officials in the train station, gave them my cell phone number and the address of our apartment, canceled my credit cards, hoped for the best but settled into the worst that, at best, I would get it back in the mail from the US consulate 6 months later with the money completely gone.  

Here we are at Versailles
And on with the story:

I was told to report the loss to a city police as well so the next morning I tracked down the police station closest to our apartment and walked over there to make a report.  As I range the bell and attempted to tell them that I didn't speak French my cell phone rang.  It was a French number.  I answered, "Bon jour,"  "Ahhh, yes!" the voice replied in al french accent, "Is this Ashley?  Are you still in Paris?"   I began to get excited, "Yes I am and this is..."  "I have your wallet!" the voice replied!  "I found it on the train and I must be the first one to find it because all the money is still there, it is fine and I have been searching and searching for you!"

This beautiful soul had searched facebook for my name, contacted my friends, sent me emails (that I never received somehow), searched my wallet and called every phone number that she found written in there (there were three) and one just happened to be mine.   We had planned to go to Versailles the next day and this kind womanm just happened to lived two stops on the metro away from Versailles...how positively providential!  She met us that morning (she also happened to be out of work that day!!  ha!!) at the train station and as we approached her, with a huge grin, she said, "I recognize you and you and you, " pointing to all of us.  She had seen all our pictures on Facebook (I thought I was private...ha!) I kissed her cheeks and thanked her profusely.  I am still looking for the perfect gift to send to this generous, honest woman!  Any ideas?

Across from our apartment was this awesome park:

Park Belleville

Which was quite convenient for the kids.

This photo was taken just outside of the Louvre,
 the most "Paris as you imagine it" area of Paris, we thought:

We loved the Louvre but it only made Joey and I more excited to visit the Orsay (French 20th century art)  and, for me to visit the Pompidou (modern art) both of which we never made it to.  Even if you're not an art buff, art museums are still so very interesting. I guess we have to go back!!

Juliet is posing in front of a real, live, (no wait...dead) mummy.  Joey took the kids to see this stuff while I toured some of the Louvre by myself.  Then I took the kids to the gift shop to spend their allowance and to eat some lunch in the gardens while he toured the museum.  Its pretty necessary to do the bulk of an art gallery sans kiddos;)

French history is intense (but I thought that about Budapest and Germany/Austria too...all history is intense I guess.  People do crazy things)  This was the exact spot where Marie Antoinette was beheaded after three years of imprisonment.

Our rays of sunshine, The Kuehne family met up with us for our last three days in Paris.   We're grinning from ear to ear in this photo because we had just walked out from our table at the Hippopotamus restaurant (the Chilis of France and one of the only places said to be kid friendly in Paris) for this place, Chez something or other (recommended by Bryant!!, Thanks Bryant!) to eat a good, authentic Croque Monsieur.  They sat us at Hippopatamus, we looked at the menu, didn't like it and then snuck out two by two to find something better and no one even noticed us!  But don't worry, we left a 5 euro tip;)

Isaac was a king in a sea of beautiful ladies!
The Kuehnes have 4 beautiful, sweet girls

Here they are climbing the Eiffel Tower without complaint!  It was long, exhausting and freezing cold and these kids played "Paper, Rock, Scissors" in three different languages all the way up.  The Kuehnes speak Chinese (they lived there for 2 years and take lessons to keep up with it) so they showed each other how to play in Italian and Chinese and, of course, English.

I should have edited this picture...you can't even tell who they are!

Gay Pari!!

At Luxembourg Gardens (another favorite area of Paris) the kids ate the biggest, puffiest, swirliest cotton candy I've ever seen!:

Georgies face!!

Arent' they cute!

Get it Ju-B, get it!

This photo is from our first morning at the bakery (delicious) just down from our apartment.  It was so cold it was uncomfortable taking our gloves off to eat these but once we put the first bite in our mouths we forgot about being cold.

Paris really does have the best croissants in the world.  I am not a croissant person but these...yes I am one of these persons.

YUm!!

Joan of Arc in Notre Dame...a great female role model for the girls,  cool;)

At Versailles we rented bikes and tooled around the HUGE (did I say huge?) gardens.  

The best thing about Versailles is, by far, the gardens.  Spend hours their.

This little beauty is the thing I dream about at night.  It's called Tarte Citrine and its a lemon tarte with the most marshmallowy meringue (in a good way) I've ever had.  We loved them so much I think we bought 4 before we left the city.  This bakery, on the top of the hill in Belleville is exactly what all pastry places should be.  Cute chubby grandmas working behind the counter, bread of all shapes, sizes and crustiness coated perfectly in toasted flour, exposed brick walls, stone fire places and the most delicious bread and sweets you'll find anywhere.  I owe my finding it to David Liebowitz, the official American officionado of Parisian food delicacies.  If you're going to Paris anytime soon don't go without downloading his Paris Pastry App.  Best. Thing. Ever.

A marzipan easter cake and a chocolate eclair

Falafel...yumm...

Another great Paris legend is of the headless bishop you see (second from the back) here.  Here the kids are holding their own decapitated heads.  The story goes that back when Christianity was trying to establish itself in this Roman city the Romans chopped off the head of the first Parisian bishop.  The story goes that he picked up his head, washed it off in the fountain and kept on preaching and converting the people.  This statue is on the outside of Notre Dame in his honor.  

We love Paris...

The kids loved the Eiffel Tower and the playground outside our apartment the best, so they say.  They weren't impressed with Mona Lisa and if they ever come back they want to do it with the Kuehnes!  And I agree, they make great traveling buddies!

xoxo

Ashley

Braving It Solo...It Won't Happen Again

The kids had a last minute few days out of school for the Italian elections.  We found out the Monday before and Joey had to work so I decided to try my hand at traveling Slovenia with the kids alone.  I'm not quite sure what possessed me to forget what its like traveling with children except the egotistical desire to be the kind of woman that can do that sort of thing.  So, on a whim and with Joey's consent I made a reservation!:)  I stressed up until the moment we left (should I be doing this?  Is it worth it?  What was I thinking?) but as soon as we were on the freeway I loosened up a bit;)  We had  good time  all and all but I'll be giving you a little bit of the reality of what its like traveling Europe with young children.  While fun, it can make you want to pull your hair out lots of times!!

We made our first stop at an indoor water park in Ljubljana.  The kids were quite entertained here so...no problems;)  Then we headed for Lake Bled which we've heard good things about, a fairy tale mountain/lake town that we will definitely be seeing in the summer but we thought we should check out in the winter too since it's not too far away.  We arrived safely in the evening, prepared "pasta pomodoro", read stories, dealt with a grumpy Isaac, sent him to bed early and then finally Georgie and I went to bed ourselves;)  We finished reading her Junie B. Jones book together, reading for over an hour which was fun...something I never get to do at home.

In the morning we were lazy, watched a show, played a game and then finally got out of our jammies,  and headed out to explore the town.  

Georgie and Isaac had the grand idea of pulling Juliet in the sled and since this was going to be the vacation where I was going to say "Yes" whenever it was remotely possible (and didn't cost too much money)...I said, "yes".

 It looks like we're having such a dreamy time, pulling a sled through the snow covered streets in a tiny little mountain tourist town in Eastern Europe.  But it was at this time that I gave Isaac and Georgie the warning that if they didn't stop fighting over who got to do what with the sled then I would leave it right there on the side of the road and no one would get to use it.  And it was at this time that I had to stifle every bone in my body not to tell Juliet to s*** up her whining about only wanting Mommy to pull her.  5 minutes after this we left the sled on the side of the road.  One child pouted, talked back and complained until I had to get in the childs face and tell the child to pull it together and change their attitude or there would be no **** toys for a week.  So we walked in silence for several minutes, lost, not sure how to find the trail around the edge of the lake until we were saved by a bakery.  

With food to lighten our mood we were given another chance to make a go of a happy vacation again.  And then we were doubly saved by this beautiful swan that Juliet is still talking about. 

We didn't have to fear the bird nipping at us because we were all 

covered from head to toe in snow clothes.

The view of the lake was completely hidden with a very dense fog.  

You can ever so slightly see the castle floating above Georgie's head in this shot.  

 But then it began to clear!

 We trekked around the lake trail moving about 1/4 of a mile an hour, the kids getting snow in their boots, losing gloves, intermittently fighting with each other and having attitude problems (the attitude problems aren't always present....in a particular child they are seasonal....the come for 4-5 days about 4-5 times a year and this just so happened to be the season for them.)  There were jokes and fun too but I'm focusing on the negative here because you get plenty of the positive;)

 It really was like a fairy tale here.  The lake was half frozen, there's an island you can see here in the distance with a beautiful church sitting on it and the castle literally floats out over the lake on an extended cliff.

It's hard to tell from the shot but Isaac got stuck in the snow;)  

We went out for pizza that night and I'll take my chance to brag and say that the kids were really well behaved at dinner.  They were polite, sat in their seats like we've been working on and generally had a great time.  We did a lot of walking on this trip which they're getting better at but in certain moods they (one in particular) really like to complain.  And I tend to lose my patience, something I am working on.  Back at the house we played war and UNO while Juliet climbed all over us, destroyed our cards and almost pulled a burning log out of the fire.  Traveling Europe is such dream;)  Is it wrong of me to say that I envy my friends who are living here without/before having any children?   Well, it's honest and selfish all at the same time, I guess.  At the end of the day you'd never trade them but I think it's normal to feel like they're cramping your style from time to time even though you love their guts!

xoxo

Ash

Un Ricetta

The stars aligned for Paula, Corey and i when it just so happened that I had organized a cooking class with the chef at one of our favorite restaurants on the Wednesday night that they were here!  It worked out so perfectly!  Manlio, taught us to make three different kinds of Gnocchi, the recipes of which I will post here;)  We had such a good time.  Being with an Italian chef in his personal kitchen, watching him treat potato gnocchi dough like it was his newborn baby and tell us the trail of his life cooking in Italy was just a little bit magical; If you want to make it and have questions, feel free to ask.  The ricotta one has been the easiest and least intimidating for me to create so I'll start with that one;)

Le Ricetta per Il Rifugio Ricotta Gnocchi

250 gr Fresh Ricotta Cheese
2 eggs
200 gr (a little more than 1 1/2 cups) Cake Flour
1/4 c grated Parmesan Cheese
60 g butter
2 t chives or herbs
Salt and Pepper to taste

Start a large pot of water boiling.  When it comes to a boil add a generous amount of salt.

 The ricotta used in this recipe has to be fresh and not the kind you can buy in a plastic container from the super market.  Not because I'm trying to sound hoity toity but because the two cheeses are totally different and American Ricotta won't work in this recipe. You'll want to try a gourmet-ish grocery store and ask at their cheese counter if they have this.  It should be relatively easy to find depending on where you live.

Salt ricotta in a bowl generously.  Add pepper to taste.
Add one egg whisk and then the other until completely combined:

Fold in parmesan cheese.  Add flour slowly while whisking.
*More flour makes the gnocchi more firm so I prefer to err on the less flour side
so the dumplings are more tender.

Using a spatula fold in the herbs of your choice.  Then add 2 T melted butter.  The dough should be relatively sticky.  Almost like a pasty (sp?) cheese.


 This is the part that is hard to describe.  It's better to see it.  But I'll try.  Scoop up a small mount in a regular sized soup spoon and smooth the top with a second spoon.  

  Using the second spoon, pass the dough from one spoon to the other rubbing the edges of the spoon together as close as possible.  Switch to the other side of the dumpling and the other sides of the spoon until you've formed a football shaped dumpling.

Here's Paula trying her hand at it.

 Drop it in the salted water and watch.  When they rise to the top let them boil for 2 more minutes then remove to a buttered dish with a slotted spoon.

Manlio served this gnocchi with an oily lamb sausage and melted butter (yummmm;).  When I made it at home I made a salted browned butter, cooked on high heat until slightly carmel in color and flavor, then poured it over the top and added shredded parmesan cheese all over it before serving.  Next time I want to carmelize some leeks along with the butter.  I think that would be a killer combination.  

Il Rifugios Potato Gnocchi

This Potato Gnocchi dough is on the menu at Il Rifugio all year round.  The dough is a somewhat traditional recipe but Manlio adds a filling that makes it special..special and delicious;)

Potato Gnocchi

Yellow Gold potato, 1 kg

200 grams cake flour

1 egg

Salt and Pepper to taste

Boil unpeeled potatoes in salted water.  When cooked through, peel  and put them through a ricer or mash them.  Salt them generously.      

filling:

50-60 gr Latteria cheese

30-40 gr Arugula blanched for less than 1 minute

Chop the cheese into chunks and then process all in a food processor.  

Butter the cooked gnocchi and serve with shredded, smoked Ricotta.

Add one egg in the middle, fold it in.  Add flour a little at a time, dusting the table and gently kneading it in.  Stabilize the ball of dough with one hand and knead with the other until it is the texture of play dough with a little more bounce. 

CUt off a portion and roll it out into a fat log shape.  

Make a well with your finger along the length of the log.  

Fill with filling,

pinch to seal,

roll it out thinner and slice.

Dust with rice flour and, if you need to, leave over night or prepare to boil.  BOil in salted water until it floats then promptly remove them with a mesh spoon and put them in a pan prepared with a generous amount of melted butter.  Toss to coat, top with shredded smoked ricotta and serve.

Look who's here!!!!

Look what the New York flight drug in today! Paula and Corey! And they were fresh as daisies so we traipsed right over to the lagoon and toured San Marco square. But now we're home and they are
Sleeping off the jet lag. They'll head out for dinner with Joey tonight and we'll spend the next 4 days with them talking about and eating food;). We are ago glad to have them!

I want one of these...

A man named Davide Crosetta And his father came to prepare the ground for our garden today. They drove 10 miles in this little car, across freeways and busy roads! We've seen ones similar to this driving on our country roads every once in a while and always point them out and giggle. My next stop is to find out how much one of these cost;). If we're going to have land one day this thing is perfect;). A EuroTruck...;). Davide says 13 year olds are legal to drive these things. Isaac perked up at the sound of that! After they spent the afternoon with us Davide gave us a sort of backhanded compliment (though he meant it as an honest compliment...super nice guy). He asked me " Are you sure you are American? Because we go to Americans homes their kids don't obey them, they don't take care of their yard and they certainly don't try to learn the language!" He said that Georgie, who loves all things
outdoors and stayed out watching their every move in preparing the garden, spoke to him in all kinds of Italian. When he asked her his first question in English she responded in Italian and just kept talking...COOL;).