Move along, move along. Nothing to see here, except vacation pics. (Oh noooooooooo, vacation pictures?!) This is a self-serve post–you can jump ship now, or you can take a gander at our trip. I’ve put together three different galleries, to help with a bit of context. St. Cirq Lapopie and the Sud-Ouest. Meursalt and the Rando -Gourmande. And last of all, Paris. Next week we return with something to eat.
Shouldn’t Prairie Home Companion have a folksy sponsor like the American Soup Council to tout this most comforting of all dishes? Imagine the catchphrases: “Soup – we’ve got your back,” or “Soup – a mom in every bowl,” or even, “Soup – at least the barn didn’t burn down.” That’s how I feel about this week’s spicy makeover – Lentil, Pepper and Escarole Soup. I just had a bowl. It was all the things soup should be – tasty and warm and reassuring. It certainly dispelled some of the gloom attendant on my losing this week’s photographs.
That’s right, I lost them.
Every year Jody participates in a cooking-cycling tour. People like traveling with what Jody jokingly refers to as a “GCC,” that is, a “genuine celebrity chef.” Over the course of 5 – 7 days people bike, visit local restaurants, vineyards and artisan producers of local products, and help prepare a multi-course meal based on the local cuisine with lots of instruction and guidance from Jody. Accommodations are typically cushy. The biking ability of participants ranges from novice to expert and everybody has a great time. People abandon any inclination to count calories (and why would you?) after they experience a day of pedaling about the countryside. Most people return to the US with at least one new discovery–a technique or taste sensation. The top contenders on this trip were peeled tomatoes and rabbit. My own favorite was rouget, small red fish from the Mediterranean, undoubtedly delicious in lots of ways, but I can personally vouch for them sautéed in butter with a little lemon and parsley. Runner up was smoked cod roe, which I’d never even heard of before this trip–creamy, rich, unbelievably good when spread on a fresh baguette.
Cange woman.[/caption]
In February Jody and I and our two children Roxanne and Oliver, along with an old friend and great travelling companion, Bette Ann Harris, spent five days in Haiti. Jody, who visited last year, wanted to check out Partners in Health’s new hospital at Mirebalais as well as see a bit of Haiti beyond the medical facilities. BA, professor emerita of physical therapy at Massachusetts General Hospitals’s Institute of Health Professions, wanted to see the physical therapy program in action she designed with Andree LeRoy, PIH’s director of physical rehabilitation in Haiti. Oliver, Roxanne and I were along to have our eyes opened.
If you’ve been accompanying us on our cruise through the healthy eating habits of centenarians, never fear, we still have two more ports of call, but this week we’re between Blue Zones*. Since our last post Jody’s been in Washington attending a conference on nutrition in public school lunches (Weiner-wink, where art thou?); in New York, …
The Garum Factory 