domesticated.

I have been quite the productive little homemaker of late, and I'd thought I'd share my latest cooking discoveries.

First I made a delicious blackberry pie with fruit from the farmer's market.

suffice to say, it went VERY fast...

Next Rémy & I invested in a bread maker and have made some delicious homemade bread. This here is multigrain.






I have also ventured into the realm of wine-making. Well, I've made an attempt at least. I won't know for 8 months to a year how it turned out, but I'm excited to see science at work!!! It's the coolest experiment I've done in a long time, and I'm learning a lot about how things work. Such as the fact that alcohol is just what's left over when yeast reacts with sugar. In the process it lets off a LOT of oxygen, hence the balloons (to keep the carafes from exploding).

these are my babies in a dark, cool cupboard on day two.
i wish i had taken a picture on day one because the color has changed completely.
i used fresh strawberries & white grapes, so the first day it was very pink.

up close you can imagine the strawberries, but the color has changed quite a bit.
yes, it's quite freaky looking for now, but it will eventually clear in a few weeks.

And last, but certainly not least, Rémy & I made homemade pasta yesterday!! It's really simple, actually. Just 1 egg for every 100g of flour. We rolled it out & cut out circles to make ravioli which we filled with mushrooms, eggplant, garlic & onions sautéed in Spanish olive oil. It was time-consuming, but I have NEVER in my life tasted ravioli so damn good.

all 52 of 'em.

as you can imagine, it took quite some time
to do this all by hand.

but boy was it worth it!

struck.

So I'm commentating a soccer match in Clermont last night. Arles/Avignon made the trip to our city to take on our team, and as I'm pedaling the half hour to the stadium I look to the skies to see if the weather report will hold true. Apparently there will be more ridiculously stormy weather - ceaseless torrents of rain with thunder & lightening that frightens even me, and I like thunder.

But at the moment the skies seem to be clearing. Not even the tiniest puff of wind and you can almost see blue peeking out in certain spots between the thinning clouds. Perhaps the ginormous umbrella Rémy and I just bought was unnecessary. Oh well, I think. Better safe than sorry.

As the match starts there are even small pools of sunlight dancing near the goalposts. I'm sitting behind the goalie for Arles, up in the top row of bleachers out in the open, at the mercy of the elements, and it looks like perfect weather for a game both for players and spectators. Especially on a beautiful grass field like we have in Clermont.

Fastforward to the second half. The ref barely blows the whistle to restart the match and I look to my right and see giant black clouds rolling in. And they're rolling in quick. I can suddenly feel a strong wind coming from behind me and can see the streaks of rain hazing the horizon off in the distance. I open my umbrella and try to concentrate on the game. As a commentator I am not allowed to lose sight of the field while the game is in play for even a second or I risk being penalized. Luckily my giant rainbow umbrella could probably fit a large Mormon family under it, so I was not worried at all about staying dry. Spectators started to file out of the area seeking cover, but I stayed put. I was determined.

Then the lightening started.



At first it was in the distance, but with rain that pounded even harder, the lightening began to strike closer and closer. I assessed the situation. Here I was, alone, at the top of metal bleachers with a giant umbrella in the middle of a thunderstorm. I felt about as smart as Benjamin Franklin with his kite & key. Was there anything else as tall as me? Yes. The giant lights for the stadium at each corner of the field, two of which were at either end of the bleachers I was sitting on. Good. At least it won't strike my umbrella, I thought.

As if mocking my assessment, a huge bolt of lightening suddenly struck from the sky, with earsplitting thunder shaking the entire stadium at the exact same moment. I could feel the electricity running through the metal rod of the umbrella, and didn't have to look to know that the lightening had struck the very light I had just been examining, a mere fifteen feet to my left. I shuddered and mumbled something incomprehensible to my contact on the phone. I. was. terrified.

I obviously was not killed; I was certainly not injured, but I was definitely marked. A few bucks is definitely not worth getting struck by lightening, and next time I don't think you'll find me counting so readily on luck.

puzzled.

One of my goals is to complete one puzzle every month. I'm sure some will be cheezy and others artistic or classy. Some might even end up on our walls. Here is documentation.

Puzzle #4: Rémy Clown (216 pieces)

A smaller one, but one of my favorites ever. Rémy's mom gave this to me when she heard I liked puzzles. It's a photo of him when he was a kid, dressed up as a clown for carnival. Pretty adorable.

Puzzle #3: Ant Parade (1080 pieces)

Some friends saw us doing our ant puzzle and wanted to join the fun so they bought one of their own. I borrowed it and put my spare time to work. Unfortunately two pieces were still at their apartment, but I did the best I could...

completed puzzle.

detail.

Puzzle #2: Paradise (1000 pieces)

I spent over three weeks on this sucker and could not finish it. It was a crappy $3 impulse buy at a cheapy CostCutter-like store here near my apartment. Every single piece fit into every single piece. Which was okay when there were patterns to recognize; the dock, boats, the borders, clouds, the skyline, even certain waves. But once it got to the same color water, I spent hours and hours and days and days just to fit a few pieces in. And then I could never tell if what I had done was right because multiple pieces seemed to fit in the same spot every time!! Eventually Tippen ate or destroyed or hid one of the border pieces & I decided enough was enough. This is what I got done.

the piece tippen ate is in the upper right border.
the rest was just too damn hard.

i'm not sure if this show just how similar the pieces were, but it was ridick.

Puzzle #1 : Seasons of Ants (1080 pieces)

the box.

the finished product.

detail.