The Expats: Imagining Another Life @LucyBurdette

 LUCY BURDETTE: You've heard that John and I were in France for 10 days at the end of May. In Paris, we had the amazing opportunity to meet American, English, and Australian people who have moved from their home countries to France. This fascinates me! After I tell you about some of them, I would love to hear whether you would have either the urge or the nerve to move somewhere unfamiliar.

First, we had a glass of wine with a group of people who follow Heather Stimmler’s Secrets of Paris blog and newsletter. Heather is an American who moved to Paris in the 1990s. She started giving tours and now has a paying blog with exactly as the name says, secrets of Paris: places to go, how to get into a popular museum, meetups for those interested in socializing. At our table were two couples who have sold everything in the US and now rent apartments in Paris. We were interested to hear about their experience with medical care (good!), Learning the language (so hard!), making French friends (not easy.) One of the men is a musician who spends a lot of time playing with others and also listening to music so he’s met people that way. Another of the women knits and has joined knitting groups. John interviewed one of the men from our cocktail group and I know you will enjoy reading that article. 

We also took a tour with an English man who moved to Paris with his wife in the 90s. He’s built a business giving tours and doing podcasts through his website, the Earful Tower. His introduction into the world of Parisian people came through playing basketball. 

The real Emily in Paris, whom you’ve heard me speak of, came to Paris from London (she is Australian by birth) and then met and married a Parisian man. They now live in Paris with their two small children and his daughter from a previous marriage. She says her in to Parisian life is through her kids and also other expats in the city. She feels she will never be accepted totally as a French person. 

The Real Emily in Paris

Jane Bertch, who we've featured twice on the blog here, is also an American who first moved to London, and then to Paris in the banking world. She got the idea to found la cuisine Paris, and has written a memoir about the transition called the French Ingredient. She seems so comfortable in her new life! You can also read the cookbooks and newsletters of Dorie Greenspan and David Lebovitz, Americans who have mostly transplanted themselves to Paris and feel very much at home, while at the same time are aware of not being French.

Lucy with Dorie and Jane

My takeaways from meeting these folks? A big move like this is really hard! It’s important to love the city that you are joining and be patient with yourself. Parisians are not famous for easily accepting people. The truth is, much as I love that city, and would love to know it more thoroughly, I have a deep tap root that connects me to the US. Along with friends and relatives that I would miss dearly. Plus a husband who wouldn’t go. So alas, I can’t see myself joining the ex-pats. I will have to do this through my fiction.

What about you, Reds? Can you see yourself moving to another country? If you’re tempted, where would it be and what draws you there?

Gougeres aka Cheese Puffs @LucyBurdette

 

LUCY BURDETTE: This is a recipe from Dorie Greenspan (since I mentioned how I admire her yesterday,) although I think the same directions can be found in many cookbooks, from Mastering the Art of French Cooking all the way to The Joy of Cooking. I remember my mother making these puffs for parties. She was a plain cook, but this was one of her fancy company dishes. She would stuff them with tuna fish or maybe shrimp salad and serve them as hors d’oeuvres. Hayley Snow's mother Janet also served puffs like this at a funeral reception in A DISH TO DIE FOR.

Mom with party food

There are so many ways to riff on this recipe, but I decided to make this simple for the first time. But they turned out so well that I will definitely be making again, probably leaving out the cheese so I can serve them as profiteroles (stuffed with ice cream and drizzled with hot fudge sauce.)

Dorie makes a double batch of these and freezes half of them before baking to have on hand for drop in visitors. She is a consummate entertainer!

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup water

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1 cup all purpose flour

Five large eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 cups a.k.a. 6 ounces coarsely grated cheese (Gruyere is traditional but cheddar or other cheese is fine too)

Preheat your oven to 425 and line 2 baking sheets with parchment.

In a medium pan, bring the milk water salt and butter to a rapid boil. Turn the heat down and add the flour all at once and stir vigorously for a few minutes. 

At this point, you can either move the batter to a KitchenAid mixer with a paddle attachment, or try using an old fashioned mixer, or mix by hand (as I did.) Add the eggs one at a time and beat well until each egg is incorporated into the dough. 

Beat in the grated cheese.

Scoop the dough into rounds on the prepared baking sheets. (A cookie scooper is perfect for this job.) You want about a tablespoon of dough for each puff, leaving 2 inches between the puffs so they can rise in the oven.

Slide the trays into the oven, turn the temperature down to 375. Bake for 12 minutes, then rotate the pans top to bottom and back to front. Bake for another 12 to 15 minutes until the puffs are golden.

Served hot or at room temperature and watch them leap off the plate!

Do you have a go-to, standby appetizer recipe for friends and parties?

Getting Older...Really?

LUCY BURDETTE: I have a bit of a shocking birthday coming up next week and it has me pondering. How old is old? Have our expectations for what we can do as we get older changed from previous generations? (Definitely, I’d say.) We know life is finite, so how should we spend whatever time we have left? Is it all right to feel ambitious and want to work like a demon, or would it be better to adopt a slower pace and call it retirement?

All this had me thinking about people I admire who are old enough that they certainly could have retired. But they haven’t, and they keep on doing amazing things. 

Jacques Pepin, a well-known chef and cookbook author, isn’t slowing down much at 87. Along with his daughter and son-in-law, he’s founded the Jacques Pepin Foundation. (Have you read his autobiography, The Apprentice? It’s extraordinary.) This year he published Art of the Chicken: A Master Chef's Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird—we went to a showing of his watercolors at our local library in Connecticut, some used to illustrate this book. He's so lovely and humble...

Judy Woodruff, who recently stepped down as anchor of the PBS Newshour, could have retired, but instead is going on the road to interview Americans about what they want and need and how the divide in our government might be repaired. (John and I utterly adore her and clung to her nightly news reports during the worst of times in our country (Covid and politics.) In fact John wrote some of his famous doggerel during the pandemic and sent it in. We didn't hear anything back, but I like to think she loved it. It began like this:

Judy, Judy,  what would we do

On the nightly news if we didn't see you?

Your cheerful greeting is always a pleasure

You tell us the facts, and that we treasure.

You probe for answers

Extract what matters

You strive to pull meaning

from double talk and blathers.

Dorie Greenspan (75) has published 12 cookbooks, written for many magazines and newspapers, and recently founded a new Facebook group for bakers and food lovers, called Bake and Tell. 

Mystery writer Ann Cleeves is 68 and writing the best books of her career (in my opinion.) Lots of politicians seem to be trending older too. (No need to comment on politics here, but I really can’t imagine wanting to run the country at age 80.)  The New York Times also recently ran an article about older workers. You can read about them here. 

My hub recently wrote an article about this on his Top Retirements blog, and I was so struck by this poignant comment from one of his readers who’d had a stroke and now considers his career to be recovery. He said: “Well, work if you must, but keep in mind that life is short and we’re fragile beings.”

Some of the way our older years unfold has to do with health, and luck, and enough money to live on. Some might say that working to the end costs in other ways, such as family relationships. Others might say that working gives meaning to life...

I don’t have any answers on all of this, but would love to hear your thoughts on the subject!

Lucy‘s having a moment with Julia (Child, that is)

 

LUCY BURDETTE: No one would ever accuse me of being a trendsetter, including my recent obsession with Julia Child. I did watch the movie Julie and Julia (twice) and absolutely adored the performances of Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci as Julia and Paul. But I don’t own Mastering the Art of French Cooking, either volume one or two. I do have a lot of other books about Julia Child but until now I hadn’t read them.

But things changed as we watched the new mini series called Julia, focusing on the launch of her television career. Sarah Lancashire is brilliant as Julia. And now I’ve become officially obsessed.

 

 If you’ve seen it or if you decide to see it and you become infatuated with the show and the characters as I have, here are some other fun places to dive deeper.

A podcast about the making of each episode. You might think this is a dull topic, but it's not, it’s so interesting! (Including one for you Hank, about the inclusion of the black woman producer, who is one of the few completely fictional characters in the show.)

Here's Adam Robert’s interview with the Director, Daniel Goldfarb, in addition to a chat with Dorie Greenspan.

French pastry chef David Lebovitz wrote a long article in his newsletter about what the show got right, and what wrong—he has met and worked with a lot of the big name chefs under discussion so it’s fascinating to hear his take. 

Baker and cookbook author Dori Greenspan has two recent articles, one about Julia’s influence on her, and the other about the food stylist for the TV show, Christine Tobin. Both fascinating!

Because we had a discussion behind the scenes of our blog about what was real and true in the show, I finally read My Life in France by Julia Child (written with her nephew Alex Prud’homme.) Amazing book! She was an incredible woman, indomitable and totally unflustered by roadblocks in her cooking career, or in her life. It’s also a primer on having a good marriage.

And I forgot to add this photo earlier--celebrating Julia Child's birthday in 2012 with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law Lisa, who is always on trend!

Over to you Reds. Do you own or use Julia's Cookbooks? Have you watched the show? What did you think?

Crazy Rich Gift Ideas

LUCY BURDETTE: Most of the gifts I'm both asking for and giving this year are books, of course! But tis also the season for companies to trot out their most expensive gift ideas. I am on a number of foodie email lists, including one sent out by Ruth Reichl, former New York Times food critic and editor of Gourmet Magazine, and another by Dorie Greenspan, of cookbook fame. They’ve both recommended products that I drooled over until I saw the price. 

This frying pan looks amazing, and hand-made in the USA, but for $260? Maybe if I gotten it as a new bride I could’ve gotten my money's worth out of it. 

And I adore these baking pans, especially the small square one with the gray polkadots. But at $269 for the set, my old Pyrex pans do the job just fine for now. (What I am doing is writing these into the next book. Julia gave me the idea of the Scone Sisters having their own brand of bakeware, and I am running with it!)




But here’s the gift outrageous that I truly crave. This company will make either a giant stuffed animal or a golf club cover in the replica of a beloved pet ($299 full price for the animal.) I am dying to have one made of Tonka. A big one, with those pale blue eyes.

But I know what would happen: Lottie would think it was her new toy and drag it all around the house. And the whole time she'd be muttering: "This will serve that pretty boy right!"

Ok, your turn Reds, anything outrageous on your radar screen?