Moving to the Languedoc-Roussillon

AARP Magazine recently compiled a list of their top ten Best Places to Retire Abroad and lo and behold, number four just happens to be our home in the south of France, the gorgeous Languedoc-Roussillon.

It seems that many seeking "la vie en rose" (or la vie en rosé as I like to call it) have read the article, done a Google search or two and landed here at Chez Loulou.
Thus, the question-filled emails are piling up in my inbox.

To help anyone who is new to this site and looking for information about moving to the Languedoc-Roussillon, please have a look at the posts I've written about moving to France and the cost of living in France. 

Once you've read through all of the information I've provided I would be happy to answer any questions you have. 
Just email me at louloufrance@gmail.com

Second time's a cupcake

If there’s one flavor that I hate, it’s the aftertaste of failure. Call me a perfectionist or a spoiled little snot: either is an apt description. When something doesn’t go my way, I sulk. I’m a master of the silent treatment. I can pout so hard that my lower lip sticks out a full inch. Worst of all, when said failure involves a chocolate malted cupcake, I’ve been known to air my dirty

Home But Not: Bay Area Long Weekend with Cheese and Strapless Dress, Part I

Oh Northern California, I've been unfaithful, but you take me back every time. You meet me at the airport with Laurent Garnier on the stereo, and you give me fresh white towels and a bedful of down pillows. You roll out the brown hills of your early fall, and I speed along them, through streets and names I'd almost forgotten, to smelly cheese and good bread and bad classic rock on the staticky

Photo du Jour - European Markets

Potatoes with dirt still clinging to their skin, piles of onions, pink spring garlic and bright green sprigs of asparagus.
A familiar scene.

It looks just like the local Tuesday Olonzac market. But this outdoor market is several hundred kilometers away...in Zagreb.

Last Night's Hasenpfeffer

The hasenpfeffer was really good but the rabbit meat was a bit dry. The traditional recipe calls for hare, which I think would be better.
The sauce though...WOW! Luckily I served some rice on the side so we all had lots of sauce and rice. I also made some no-knead bread for our friend to taste. He makes his own sourdough bread every day and was impressed with the texture and flavor of the no-knead recipe.

Hasenpfeffer

Marinade:
2 cups red wine
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 rabbit or hare, cut into 6 or 8 serving pieces, about 3 lbs or 1.5 kilos
several sprigs fresh parsley or thyme, tied together
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

4 thick slices bacon or 150 grams lardons
2 cups minced onion
1 cup peeled and diced carrot
1 cup diced celery
1/2 lb wild or button mushrooms, chopped
flour for dredging
1/2 ounce unsweetened chocolate

Mix together the marinade in a bowl large enough to hold all the rabbit pieces comfortably and leave in the refrigerator overnight. (12 to 24 hours) Try to turn the pieces at least once for even marinating.
Remove the rabbit pieces from the marinade, pat them dry and strain the marinade, reserving the liquid to use later on.
Cut the bacon into pieces (not necessary if using lardons) and render over low heat in a Dutch oven or large, deep skillet. As soon as it starts to crisp remove it to paper towels with a slotted spoon. Add the minced onion, chopped carrot and celery and mushrooms to the pan and cook over medium-low heat until the vegetables are soft. Remove them and set aside with the bacon, leaving any fat or liquid in the pan. If the pan is dry, put in a bit of butter.
Turn the heat up to medium-high and dredge the rabbit pieces in flour. Brown them well on both sides, sprinkling with salt and pepper as they brown. Put the bacon and vegetables back in the pan as soon as the rabbit has browned and add the reserved marinade liquid and the herbs. Turn the heat up a bit, bring the liquid to a boil and add the chocolate and more pepper, stirring well afterward.
Lower the heat until simmering gently, cover and cook about an hour until the rabbit is tender and the sauce is nice and thick. Do not overcook the rabbit, it tends to be a drier meat than chicken.
Remove the herbs, check for seasoning and serve with buttered rice, noodles or polenta and plenty of good bread.

I will definitely make this again, but with chicken legs. I think they will be delicious with the sauce.

Mollie Katzen's Lentil Chili

It's autumn officially now I believe. The last day of September, or perhaps by the time I publish this post, the first of October. Kids are back in school, I'm back in school, I might even be TA'ing for some of your older kids if they happen to go to a certain university. If I am, sorry for not giving out very many 'check pluses' on the last response paper. Best of all, my favorite TV shows are back. My beloved Bones (I love Dr Brennan so friggin much), my also-beloved Criminal Minds (I love Garcia so friggin much), even Glee (oh Sue, I love you too). Basically, if you have a compelling female character (or three! I'm looking at you CM, at least I was before I finished this last episode. What the heck?!) I probably love you. Helps me pare down tv shows pretty quickly, unfortunately. But that's how I roll. Love the leading ladies.

So between watching great TV, working on my dissertation, and grading your little darlings' papers, I also have a part-time job. And in the middle of the day while at that part-time job, I get to have a lunch break. A real, honest to goodness lunch break, the way adult people do. So sometimes I get a salad, sometimes a sandwich, and often I get a bowl of lentil chili. Which made me think, 'why in the world am I buying lentil chili when I could just make it?' Enter Mollie (with an "ie") Katzen.

This is her lentil chili, but I have some caveats. First: there just never seems to be enough liquid whenever I deal with lentils. Maybe mine are particularly thirsty? Or just greedy? Either way, I added far more liquid than she required, and still the chili was bordering on a lentil mash rather than a stew. I'm going to reproduce the recipe I actually made below, but in the future, these are the things I would do differently:
* Cut the amount of lentils in half
* Keep the liquid the same, the tomatoes the same and probably the seasonings about the same, but you'd have to adjust them to your taste.
* Same amount of onion, too, since I love onion.

Mollie Katzen's Lentil Chili
Adopted from Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu Cookbook

4 cups dried lentils (any kind, really)
2 cups tomato juice (can replace with just water if you want)
4 - 5 cups water
1 1lb can tomatoes, undrained, but broken up (which you can do with your spoon once they're in the chili)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
10-12 medium garlic cloves (don't worry, it's not overpowering)
1 largish onion, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
Pepper to taste
6 tablespoons tomato paste
1-2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Crushed red pepper, to taste

Put the lentils, the tomato juice and 4 cups of water into a large pot or dutch oven. Bring the liquid to a boil, then put the lid on only slightly askew so some of the steam can escape. Lower the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Start chopping your vegetables.

Add the tomatoes, cumin, paprika, thyme, garlic and onions. Stir until everything is combined, then return the lid to the position it was in before and simmer for another 45 minutes, and up to an hour, if that's what it takes for the lentils to become tender. Stir occasionally, scraping along the bottom of the pot to prevent sticking. If you notice the water level going down too much, add some more.

Add the salt, pepper and tomato paste and stir again. Continue simmering until the lentils are very soft, maybe even 30 minutes more.

Just before serving, stir in the vinegar and red pepper. Adjust the seasonings if necessary and heap into big bowls.

UPDATE: Have lots of leftover chili? You could try this idea for turning your leftovers into Lentil Chili Burgers!

Sour Cherry Coffee Cake

So the other weekend, R and I took a trip to Washington DC in my continuing quest to Americanize him (just kidding, really. I like him Euro.) We were visiting friends who make living outside of NYC look awfully appealing, what with their adorable little house that actually has a backyard (!!), their ability to own and drive a car without taking their lives into their hands, and, well, all that space. They actually have space.

It was a hugely wonderful weekend, full of eating, farmers market shopping, cooking salmon on the grill in their wonderful backyard (two more !!'s for that backyard). Not to mention seeing the Library of Congress, the National Gallery, the Phillips Collection and long walks on The Mall. So you know, I wanted to bring something for them. A host gift, I guess. They're pretty into food as well, my friends, so I thought I'd bring something for breakfast, or snack time, or dessert. And a coffee cake fulfills all of those functions. And I think it would have gone over really well, if I'd remembered to bring it with us rather than leaving it on the kitchen counter.

So this cake never made it to Washington DC, but it was still pretty darn good three days later when we got back. I couldn't find frozen sour cherries, so I used sweet. But I thought the cherries faded too much into the background, and would recommend something tarter, like, you know, the sour ones I was supposed to use, or maybe raspberries, or even cranberries when they're in season. The recipe given for streusel topping makes way too much, so you could easily cut it in half if you don't need it for anything else. The rest of mine is sitting in the freezer waiting for an appropriate use.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake
Adopted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus a little more for greasing the pan
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
1 cup frozen sour cherries (or other tart berry), thawed and well drained
1 cup streusel (follows)
Milk glaze (follows)

Oven preheated to 350F. Grease a 9" tube pan and set aside. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium pan, then set aside as well.

With an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Do this on medium spead for 2 to 3 minutes. Add one third of the flour, then half the sour cream, then one more third of the flour, followed by the rest of the sour cream, an then the rest of the flour. Be careful not to overmix.

Pour half the batter into the prepared pan, then arrange the carries on top. Be sure the cherries don't touch the sides of the pan, or they may burn. Then pour the rest of the batter on top of that. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the cake is golden and springy to the touch. Let the cake cool in the pan set on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes. Then turn the cake out so that it's streusel side up and let cool completely.

In the meantime, make the milk glaze. Whisk together 1 cup confectioners sugar and 2 tablespoons of milk until the mixture is smooth. Drizzle over cake once it's completely cooled.

Streusel Topping
You can easily cut this recipe in half if you don't have another use for it

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature.

Combine the flour, sugar cinnamon and salt, then use a pastry blender to cut in the butter. The streusel should be crumbly looking. Crumble over the top of the cake as directed in the recipe.