Happy New Year!!!

Simone is thinking of hosting a come as you are, bring your own food, bring your own booze and leave early party to bring in the hours before 2010.

It's the lazy woman's version of a party. Simone would get to stay home. She'd get to see all her friends - well, she'd get to see the friends that drop by. And if she gets tired, which of course she will, she can go to sleep in her own bed and not worry about having to drive home in the morning.

Really, don't condemn the woman too much. She was up at 3 am. After her shower, she went downstairs and discovered that there was indeed a reason why she'd dreamed that the German Shepherd had voided in an airplane, causing mayhem, pandemonium and horrible smells all around.

She barked at the dog. She barked at her husband and both somehow ended up in the backyard for a time. Go figure. But she did manage not to puke when she slipped some of the colateral damage into the dog's food dish (empty, people, it was empty)for quick disposal in the toilet.

Perhaps this means that 2010 will be an extremely lucky year?

Sigh.

Un site sans pareil...

Simone adore les galettes des rois. À chaque Noël, elle en rêve. Surtout les galettes à la pâte d'amande. Et cette année, Simone a reçu une grande surprise: elle a appris que la confection d'une galette des rois était très simple. Et grâce à la recette de sa cousine, C., Simone a réussi à préparer un excellent dessert pour la fête de famille qui a eu lieu chez elle au Canada.

La recette est très simple. Il suffit d'acheter de la pâte feuilletée à l'épicerie et étaler une tranche dans le fond d'un moule à tarte puis de trouer la pâte. Ensuite, il faut mélanger 3 oeufs, 125 g de sucre, 125 g de beurre mou et 125 g de poudre d'amandes. Il faudra peut-être ajouter de l'extrait d'amandes afin d'obtenir le goût désiré.

On dépose le mélange dans le moule sur la pâte feuilletée et on recouvre le tout d'une autre tranche de pâte feuilletée, celle-ci aussi trouée. On peint le dessus avec un petit peu de jaune d'oeuf fouétté et hop! Au four pour 25 minutes...

Ah oui - n'oubliez pas la fève! Simone y a bien pensé cette fois et a utilisé un bouton en métal. Pas question de faire fondre du plastique dans sa belle tarte délicieuse!

www.marmiton.org

Lessons learned...

Simone recently returned from a trip to France and, after a series of unfortunate events (none of which are related to Mr Snicket's very entertaining books), learned a few lessons.

Lesson Number One: Check that (a) you have your tickets and (b) that you know the date and time at which you are supposed to travel.

Simone went to the airport one day before her flight was supposed to leave - hey, it's better than one day after the flight left. She also neglected to check that she had her high speed train tickets in hand prior to boarding.

Lesson Number Two: Bring appropriate footwear.

Simone left home with a couple of pairs of high heeled boots and one pair of thick winter boots that take on water. Simone had meant to, she really meant to, leave the house with her running shoes. Unfortunately, a 20 cm snowfall blasted her area the day she left and it never occurred to her to slip her shoes on or bring them in the car.

Several blisters later, she's back from her trip and enormous amounts of walking.

Lesson Number Three: Bring loose fitting clothes when visiting France at Christmas.

All the walking you will be forced to do won't even begin to make a dent, calorie-wise, in the amount of food and booze and snacks you'll indulge in.

Simone is going to limp her way over to the exercise corner of the house now... Have an awesome day!

Vive la France et le fromage, et le vin, et la galette, et...

Simone est revenue de France hier. Elle avait avec elle une ou deux bouteilles de vin, du fromage congelé et une recette pour faire de la galette. Mais par dessus tout, elle ramenait avec elle de merveilleux souvenirs d'un super séjour.

D'abord elle est allée voir un viniculteur sans pareil à Anjou.

Elle a été accueillie chez son oncle et sa tante.

Elle a déjeuné chez sa grand-mère, une entorse au genou avait mis fin à sortie au resto.

Elle est allée à Lyon chez sa tante, où elle a passé quelques jours avec ses cousins, leurs enfants et a fait une excellente visite guidée des traboules de Lyon avec l'ami de sa tante. Le marché de Noël n'était pas mal non plus, surtout le vin chaud. Simone s'est dit que Papa Noël risquait fort de préférer la France au Canada, si on lui offrait du vin chaud en France et un simple verre de lait au Canada.

De retour sur Paris, Simone a passé une soirée chaleureuse avec de grands amis de toujours pour s'aventurer en Normandie le lendemain. Et en Normandie, ce fut Noël!!! Toute la famille de son oncle et de sa tante cuisinait comme des petits fous, malgré la honte précipitée par le "vol" d'une poussette que Simone aurait malencontreusement emprunté pendant quelques jours à leurs voisins à la Garenne. Mais ça, c'est une autre histoire...

En attendant, Simone envoie un GRAND merci à toute sa famille, à tous ses amis pour l'avoir si bien accueilli.

Happy Holidays!

Simone is travelling tonight on a plane...

It's a long flight across the pond and she's guaranteed little if any sleep, because Little B, while a great kid, does not always travel well or quietly.

Still, Simone looks forward to spending time with her family. She wishes all of you a most excellent holiday season.

See you in a couple of weeks!

Un petit merci à Marcella Smith

La réponse fut simple et directe. Lorsque Simone envoya son mail à L'École, le restaurant où elle eut une expérience pas tout à fait heureuse, elle n'eut à attendre qu'une heure à peine avant de recevoir une réponse de la part de la directrice du restaurant.

Celle-ci lui offrait un repas gratuit tout en expliquant qu'elle espérait que Simone reviendrait afin de voir que le service de L'École pouvait être bien meilleur.

Touchée par les gentils mots de la directrice, Simone a remercié Marcella mais a ajoué qu'en fin de compte, elle ne voulait pas retourner au restaurant. L'expérience l'avait franchement déçu.

Marcella a répondu en indiquant qu'elle comprenait parfaitement bien les sentiments de Simone et que l'offre d'un repas gratuit tenait ferme si Simone changeait d'idée.

Même si ses employées ne font pas pareil, au moins la directrice de L'École sait comment s'y prendre avec les clients...

Dinner at L'École

On Saturday evening, Simone and some of her family, ate at the restaurant of the French Culinary Institute. The food was good overall but not memorable enough to overcome the problems encountered with the service. This is the letter she wrote to describe her experiences:

"Things started out badly when the front of the house insisted, even as we resisted, that we check our coats. We were travellers, had money, wallets, phones and other items that we did not wish to lose or possibly have stolen. Grudgingly, we were allowed our way. This proved lucky as we were directed (not led – we were told, “Well, there’s your table over there, go and sit.”) to a table so near the front doors that every time someone opened the doors, a gust of cold winter air blew in and walloped us.

When it came time to order the wine, the waitress argued with the guest in our party who ordered the wine. The gentleman happens to be a Chevalier des côtes du Rhone and he did not take kindly to her superior tone.

The waitress failed to replenish our water or anything else on our able or to even ask if there was anything she could do for us. We spent over two hours in the restaurant, with 30 minutes between each service.

The waitress paid us no attention but the reception ladies did, as we were in direct view of their station. They felt it important to correct us on several misdeeds of ours, including the fact that our three year old, patently bored with the length of time between dishes, climbed off his chair and sat and stretched out on the floor between our table and the one next to us. My husband left the restaurant with our son so as to prevent further confrontations and so missed his main course. And his dessert. His efforts, in any case, bore no fruit: more confrontation followed.

One of our guests, who spent a lifetime in the hotel and restaurant industries at a managerial level, took offence to the poor service and less than pleasant attitude of the staff, one of whom repeatedly mocked his accent by pretending she could not understand one of the words he was saying. When things came to a head, he told one of them that he would not return to the restaurant and she replied haughtily that perhaps this was for the best. Couching a sarcastic, know-it-all tone in the “right” words does not constitute good service.

I felt appalled by everything that happened. As we left, I approached one staff member, the one who brought me our son’s stroller, and suggested as gently as I could that working in the service industry frequently entails taking a deep breath and realizing that no matter what we believe the “rules” to be, the customer ultimately pays our salaries and should be treated royally. She asked tersely whether I was telling her how to do her job.

Perhaps it is your policy to hire staff who feel it necessary to ridicule and demean customers, who feel it beneath their dignity to take advice from the mother of a three year old and who insist that their rules must be enforced, regardless of the customers’ wishes. If so, I will end by telling you that you are indeed correct in suggesting that perhaps it is for the best that we not return to your restaurant. Life is much too short to endure such negative experiences willingly – and pay for the “pleasure” of doing so."