Walt Whitman and friends

Went to the Walt Whitman Museum of Long Island a few days ago with friends.  It was great! Tour guide was drier than toast but that's okay.  We still enjoyed getting out.

The man himself, er, in bronze...

 Then we went into the house.  It was so pretty outside, and very tiny inside.  I liked the custom stairs.  The footplates were smaller as you went up to prevent falls and also to prevent children from falling down them later.

The Whitman home from Long Island.

Look at the butterfly!

Borrowed this little man from a friend...he was not as into Walt as we were, poor guy.

 Then we went to Northport and had lunch at the Copenhagen Bakery.  My Grandpop B would have been so proud of us for visiting the town where his cousin (from Sweden) resided.

If you have never eaten there, you should.  It's quite a treat (literally) and you get a chance to look out on the harbor.Not to mention that the food is really good. I liked their potato leek soup and their sourdough bread was fantastic! 


We went for a stroll in the town of Northport, even though the weather was not as nice.

Main Street of Northport

Vintage shop on Main Street

Sewing table near a store.  Thought it neat.

Had to do a picture stop in front of the toy store.  Perfect setting.  Even saw a chocolate house from Germany.

Rain buddies!

I just couldn't stop taking pictures of this little guy!  Too adorable.  Looked like a Gordon's Fisherman poster!

Such a calm smile.  So charming and sweet.

My friends

They had me get in the shot too. I felt like singing "Singing in the Rain".  It was perfect weather for it.

As we were leaving, I saw this cute bistro set. So inviting and French, n'est-ce pas?

Rain drops keep falling on my head...

We have been having weird weather today! Sunny and bright one minute, then "whoosh!" storm clouds came in. Thunder and lightning was everywhere!  Two hours later, we still have eerie light but the good news is that from my window just now I saw this:

Rainbow!!!

I love my rainbows (or my lovely refraction and dispersion of the sun's light by rain). :-) Enjoy!

It's beginning to get real busy here...

What a great day today!  Beautiful sunshine, partly cloudy, mid 80s to low 90s.  Lovely!

Mr K and I have been busy trying to get all our visa things together. Just got our certified translations of our birth certificates and marriage license back in the mail today.  Check that one off our list.  Next we need to fill out the form, one for a researcher visa (Mr. K's, but I will fill that one out too), another for a long stay visa (that one's for me to fill out, I think) and make two copies of each.  There's another form (OFFI) to fill out, but only half way.  The other half we fill out once we get to France at their prefecture to complete the visa process (make 2 copies of that for our records).  Have to keep the same form though.  We have to bring in 2 passport sized photos (but we're going to bring six), our passports (plus 2 copies of the inside info each), Brendan's work contract (plus two copies of that), our birth certificates (plus 2 copies of each), our marriage certificate (plus 2 copies) and then we'll just throw in our driver's licenses and extra pens for good measure. Good thing I have a red folder to keep it all together.
Hopefully after the appointment we'll get the visas!

On the home front in France- we have none as of yet.  Still searching.  We thought we had a nice one, but it got let to someone else. Bummer!!!  So, we're still looking. I know there's going to be a nice little home/apartment with 2 bedrooms for us.  Just have to be patient.

I've been busily trying to pack things.  We just organized our DVDs into a leather case, alphabetized by category. Next is deciding which books to bring (I'm shooting for just 10). Mr. K is lucky.  He has a kindle and is able to pack lighter. But, I like my real books.  There's just something missing when you read a Kindle. It's almost as if you're doing "reading lite" instead of true reading. I guess that's just me with my love of the feel of books, the smell, and the ability to just toss them in a bag and not worry too much about a screen cracking.

In the spirit of moving to France, I made a Tarte aux Cerises et Framboises. Very easy to make and very tasty.  You do have to bake it (but only the crust) so you do get some heat in the home...it's not too long though.  It's worth it!

Mr K said he wouldn't mind terribly if I felt I had to make this again. :-)

For the Tarte crust you will need:

1 1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup butter
1 pinch of salt
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 480F. Mix together the butter and the sugar and salt until creamy. Add the egg and mix well. Add the flour and mix until a dough. Make a ball and put in a greased tarte pan ( used Crisco to grease, no flour needed). Push the dough out to the edges with fingers and push up the sides. Make the dough pretty evenly spread out ( to help with the cooking).  Prick with a fork all over. Place in preheated oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes.  Look and see after 12 minutes if it's golden. Take out and let cool.

To fill tarte:
1 cup raspberries (washed and individually dried so as not to be crushed)
1 cup pitted and halved Rainier Cherries

Place on the tarte in any pattern you like.

I made a target! Unintentional, of course.

Glaze:
1/2 cup boysenberry jam
2 tbsp water

Heat at low heat mixing continuously until coats spoon but still runs off. Pour over entire tarte, coating each berry and getting into the crevices.

Serve with ice cream or Cool Whip. Bon Appetit!

Happy Anniversary- 3 years and counting!

Wednesday was Mr. K's and my three year wedding anniversary.  I can't believe it. It feels like I just started dating him yesterday, and yet, like I've known him all my life.  I still get those tingles when I see him from across the room. Yep, we're going to be that old couple sitting on a bench holding hands and talking sweet nothings to each other and laughing. I can just see it. *happy smile*

Anyway, we decided from early on that we would do the traditional wedding anniversary gifts (because, well, we are just so traditional.)

This year was so much fun! Three years= leather. The first year was paper; second was cotton.  Apparently, the anniversary gifts are an old German tradition dating back from the medieval ages. Pretty cool!

Mr. K was so sweet.  I came home from a very long day at work (got out an hour late due to an experiment that had to be done on garlic oil...yay...) and was met at the top of the stairs by my wonderful man.
Just his smiling face made that long day disappear immediately.

He then proceeded to present me with this:

I love roses! 18 Long stemmed, red roses!!!

If that wasn't enough, the next item made me float.  He found an anniversary card of a quote from Napoleon to Josephine (they were in love back then and his letters are quite romantic). Not to mention, French wrapping paper: Joie de vive= Joy of living/ exhilaration.

*Swoon*

 Opened the paper (which was really hard to do as I liked it so much) and I found this:

My very own leather coin purse!  So cute! 

It fits in my little clutches and is going to be so perfect abroad in France.  They have a lot more coins that they use there than we do here.

I gave him a brown leather messenger bag, which he has not stopped using since he opened it. Yay!

I love my wonderful,  loving husband, who gets me and my love of things romantic and French.

Happy anniversary, honey. Only 72 more years to go!

Poulet à la lavande et abricot (because French makes everything sound cooler...)

Okay, so it's been a while.  (I've got to get better about doing my blog entries.) But, tonight's is so much fun!

Enter, Chez Krueger for a dinner worth it's weight in gold (not to mention how easy it is to make!)

Poulet à la lavande et abricot
by Serious Eats- French in a Flash

What you'll need:

*10 chicken drumsticks with skin on
*1-2 Tbsp olive oil   
*Salt and pepper to taste
*1 cup apricot jam (Smuckers is great), pureed with 1 Tbsp boiling water (to break up the big chunks)
*Dried culinary lavender to taste (I used about two pinches of lavender)






Directions:
1. Set the oven to preheat at 450 degrees F.

2. Put the olive oil, salt and pepper in a large gallon sized Ziploc bag. Add the chicken drumsticks and "toss" until evenly coated.

3. Put some parchment paper (or foil) on a jelly roll pan and place your chicken so none are touching.

Let the roasting begin!

 4. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes.  The skin should be golden and crisp.  If it's not, broil them for about five minutes. Keep the broiler on.

5. Brush the chicken with half of the apricot jam glaze. Put back in the oven under the broiler and broil about five minutes or until the glaze starts to bubble and caramelize.

6. Turn the chicken over and repeat step 5.

7. Remove from the oven and place on a serving dish.  Sprinkle with lavender to taste. 

Bon appetit!

(Pairs well with haricots verts and fresh baguette plus a glass of rose wine.)

Yummy!

Mr. K absolutely loved these.  This is what we Southerners would call "finger-lickin' good" and you can bet your booties it is a crowd pleaser. Enjoy!