Pear/Päron/Poire

We left Paris in September with markets that were full of end-of-summer produce and returned in October to find all sorts of fall treats like butternut squash, apples, and pears filling our vegetable baskets and the markets.  I tend to eat apples more than pears, but J loves anything pear-flavored.  I didn’t quite realize how much he loved pear-flavored things until we were in Sweden and he had pear juice or pear ice cream almost daily (it’s not just him, I was surprised by the number of pear-flavored offerings in stores and restaurants all over Stockholm).

While we were in Sweden, I managed to pull J away from pear-flavored things long enough to pick up some lingonberry paste to use as a garnish on a cheese plate.  It sat in the refrigerator for a few months, but we decided to use it for a Swedish version of our weekly wine and cheese dinner.  There is a tiny but well-stocked Swedish food store in Paris that we visited Friday night in search of Swedish cheese for our dinner.  We left the store with not only some Västerbotten cheese, but also pear juice boxes.

Our pear-fueled weekend continued when we stopped at one of my favorite produce stands at the market to replenish J’s stash of pears.  We ended our morning shopping trip by buying a gorgeous pear tart from our favorite bakery.  Though I generally leave the pears in the apartment to J (and will probably not be the one drinking the pear juice), I am looking forward to sharing the pear tart with him.

Catching up

We spent a few weeks in the United States at the end of September for my sister’s wedding.

In addition to all of the fun wedding weekend events, our time in Chicago was a whirlwind of catching up with friends and visiting an embarrassing number of restaurants.  We ate at Next, Topolobampo, Big Jones, Coco Pazzo, MK (for the rehearsal dinner), Floriole (for a pre-wedding brunch), Big Star, and a few other places over the course of two weeks.  Being able to see so many of our friends and family and visit so many favorite places was a good reminder of why we are excited to move back to Chicago eventually.  

Another big treat for me was using American-sized washers and dryers on our trip.  I washed all of our clothes before we packed for the trip back to Paris, fitting what would have been at least 6 loads of laundry (which would take about 16 - 17 hours of time in our little combination washer/dryer) into only 3 loads (and 3 hours) at my parents' house.

Packing for the trip back to Paris was made even easier by the portable luggage scale that J’s parents gave us as a gift for Christmas last year.  Besides our everyday clothes for the trip, we had formal clothes and shoes for all of the wedding events with us. And all remaining space in our luggage was packed full of treats like salsa, peanut butter cups, and Frontera taco sauces.  Having the scale allowed me to ensure that all of our luggage was under the weight limit imposed by the airline before we ever left for the airport.

We were sad to be leaving Chicago, but looking forward to a return to our regular routine after all of the decadence of our trip.  And we brought a little of Chicago back with us: I was careful to save enough room in my carry-on for a bag of our favorite tortilla chips!

Le Figou et les figues

While our usual fromagerie was closed in August I bought our cheese, milk, butter, and eggs from a stand in the covered market in our neighborhood.  One of our favorite finds from the stand in the market was a raw goat’s milk cheese called Le Figou.  It is shaped like a fig and has a fig preserves tucked into the center of the piece of cheese.  The cheese has a fluffy, light texture and a faintly sweet flavor.  It was amazing, especially with some of the Sancerre wine we bought on our trip to the Loire Valley.

After having fresh figs at a dinner party, I decided to go for a fig-themed wine and cheese dinner one night and paired the fig goat cheese with fresh figs.  The figs were delicious with the goat cheese and it was fun to try out a fruit that neither of us has eaten much in the past.

Sancerre

I realized this week that I had not shared any of the pictures we took while visiting other small villages around the Loire Valley back in July.  We spent one of the days that we were in the area being driven around the Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre wine regions by a guide and went back to the town of Sancerre for a second day after seeing how gorgeous it was.

Producer of J's favorite Pouilly-Fumé

Sancerre from afar (it's the town on top of the hill)

Garden at the Maison des Sancerre

Note the tractor cab in the garden: they had a game where you had to pretend to drive the tractor to trim the grapevines.  J was not great at it, but I was so spectacularly bad that if I had been driving a real tractor I would have tipped it over.  Twice.

Chateau de Tracy

Tasting room at François Crochet.  This was one of my favorite tastings.  I really liked both their red and white Sancerres and the owners were very friendly.  They gave us the name of a wine shop that sells their wine and a few favorite restaurants in Paris.

A few more pictures from in and around the town of Sancerre:

Picnic dinner

Our condo in Chicago had a good-sized deck facing west.  The building is one of the taller ones in the neighborhood and we were on the top floor, so the view from the deck stretched across the city.  While I saw more sunsets than I would have liked from my office window instead of from our deck, we loved any chance we had to eat dinner outside while watching the sun go down.

When we were apartment hunting in Paris we hoped we would end up in a place with a little balcony, but were not lucky enough to find one.  Without a deck or balcony, we’ve tried using the city as our unofficial backyard by finding restaurants with outdoor seating, taking long walks, and having the occasional picnic.

J wanted to try to fit in at least one more picnic before the weather cools down, so I met him on the Pont des Arts one evening this week.  We sat on the bridge and had a simple dinner of fresh strawberries, some baguette from our favorite bakery, white wine and a lentil salad with goat cheese and walnuts.  

All over the bridge there were people out for a walk and having picnics.  As we ate, the sun dipped lower in the sky and bathed the scene with a rosy glow.  It was not the same as our dinners on the deck in Chicago, but was just as fun.