Shakin' it.. Or making smoothies..

Fig and honey shake

Since moving to Paris, it has taken some serious effort on my part to ensure that my waistline does not suffer. They say that French women don't get fat, but you throw a Canadian girl in Paris, and she might do just that if she's not careful.

I am well aware that my early months of blogging are relatively sweet free. I have always proclaimed myself a salt-tooth, if there is such a thing. I would favour a second helping of my dinner rather than save room for dessert. This wasn't a difficult habit to get into, because my brother and my parents seemed to be of the same mind. Dessert only seemed to show up when guests were coming, or if there was a special occassion. On Father's Day my mom and I would make a trip to the local donut shop (yes, my fellow Canadians, of course it was Tim Horton's) for a sweet treat on my Dad's special day. On my birthday, I would get a chocolate croissant for breakfast. Aside from that, savoury foods dominated our cravings.

Now I find myself in Paris, where sweet pastries and chocolate tease me from every corner. And you might have noticed recently, that I'm beginning to succumb to the overwhelming temptations. My sweet tooth is beginning to peak out from the shadows, and make itself known. My suspicions were confirmed when I recently received an email from my mom, where after reading one of my chocolatey posts she wrote: "Stop eating all that sugar!".

Yes, mother, but it's so, so hard not to. I'm in Paris, and resistance truly is futile. And in my defense, I did go and buy myself a fancy pants electric toothbrush so that you wouldn't have to worry about what the sugar might do to my teeth.

But after a few weeks of sugar overload and a visit to an exhibition devoted completely to chocolate (was I dreaming?) it is time for me to get back to basics. Either that, or I'll have to start undoing the top button on my pants every time I sit down. Thanks to the purchase of a new Braun handblender (oh small appliances how I love thee) I can inject some sugar-free goodness into my life again. I'm sure my waistline will thank me. And my mom will sure be happy too.


Banana Cardamom Smoothie


These recipes are adapted from a cookbook called simply "Snacks and Drinks" by Michele Cranston that I picked up in Germany because it had pretty pictures and great ideas.

Fig and Honey Smoothie (pictured at top)
Wash and chop 2 ripe figs, add 1 teaspoon of honey (or to taste) and 125g of natural yogurt. Blend. You can add ice before blending if you want, and more or less yogurt depending how thick you like yours to be.
Sprinkle toasted slivered (and then crumbled) almonds on top if desired, or whatever nuts you might prefer.
Note: I used rosemary honey, since figs and rosemary are a lovely combination and I thoroughly enjoyed the result.

Banana Cardamom Smoothie
Blend together the seeds from a cardamom pod, 1 banana, 125 g of natural yogurt.
(add ice before blending if you want).

Note: if you crush the cardamom seeds the flavour may overwhelm the drink. But, in not crushing them you sometimes get a whole seed in your mouth. As long as you just swallow it, and avoid the temptation to bite into it, you'll be fine. I'm only saying this for people who find cardamom at times overwhelming. It's for your protection only.


Cardamom pods

Rinquinquin. Chasing the blues away with a peach aperitif..

Rinquinquin, Peach aperitif

On a small shelf, in a small store, (which I have frequented before for its various olive and olive related products) a label with more i's and n's than I'm used to jumped out at me. Among the bottles of Pastis and Absynthe, there stood proudly a small 100ml (10cl) bottle of Rinquinquin. It's as spritely a name as I have ever heard. If you pronounce it as the French do, "Rahn-kahn-kahn", you may want to put a little Eartha Kitt into it and roll that r with just a little more emphasis than usual.

I have learned by now that French shopkeepers don't like to have their products handled. You might receive a loud S'il vous plait! if you choose to ignore this rule. The words may come at you firmly and indiscreetly, leaving you feeling like a child who has just been scolded for stealing one too many cookies from the cookie jar. It hasn't happened to me yet, but I have been witness to it. And sometimes, it's not pretty.

With this in mind, I carefully tilted the bottle of Rinquinquin so that I could read its fine print.
I knew immediately that this bottle was coming home with me.
Oh, and of course its matching glasses.
I mean, of course, right?

Rinquinquin is an aperitif made with white wine, alcohol, and infusions of peach tree leaves, peaches and sugar. That was as much as I needed to read to make my decision to buy it. When I got home, the internet enlightened me further.

The word Rinquinquin is said to come from the Provencal word 'requinquilhar', which means "to cheer up". This insinuates that when you are feeling blue, the cure is close at hand.
Now, I will definitely drink to that.




Rinquinquin is recommended to be taken chilled, straight up, or with a splash of cold water, and with or without ice cubes depending on your preference. But, because I was too impatient to allow fridge time, and I'm not organized enough to have ice cubes in my freezer box, I poured it out, still warm, into my new glass and enjoyed it thoroughly. It's pure peach flavour did not overwhelm, it was in fact, extremely refreshing. All I can think of is how great it's going to taste in the middle of winter when fresh peaches are just a distant memory.

According to the website for the makers of the Henri Bardouin Rinquinquin, the peaches are harvested only when they are ripe. Several varieties of peaches are used including Cardinal, Coronet and Junegold peaches. The leaves are picked during the month of September, and the maceration period lasts 6 months to a year. Henri Bardouin also makes Pastis, and it is apparently more popular in France than the Pernod or Ricard brands.

With my new drink in hand, and its matching glass, I feel very put together. As you can see, I have completely embraced the French trend of having matching glasses for every brand of drink from Orangina to Perrier, from Pastis to Rinquinquin. Since Rinquinquin will now be a regular on my grocery list, the glasses are a completely justified purchase. Really, they are.

Rinquinquin purchased at:
A L'Olivier
23, rue de Rivoli
Paris, 75003
€4.20 for 100ml. But a little goes a long way.

It is especially recommended with foie gras, and as an additional flavouring with fruit salads.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #9.. my kind of assignment..

I don't think I can recall ever having bought a Rosé wine before. But the fine folks at Becks & Posh are hosting this month's wine blogging event. And the theme, as you may have guessed, was to select and taste a Rosé wine. And I'm such a sucker for an assignment. Especially when it forces you to work outside your usual boundaries. Now I had a reason to buy a Rosé, research it’s production and pay attention to how it tasted. If only my 7th grade teacher were here to smile at me and commend me for following all the rules so well. She was the same teacher who saved me from ridicule when she helped to free my braces which had become caught in the sleeve of my sweater. There I was, an open mouth with my arm dangling from it. There were two lessons learned that day:

1. don’t bury your face in your arm to hide your laughter during class. The teacher already knows that you are misbehaving.
2. Keep your mouth closed in the vicinity of wide knit if you wear braces.

But that is just one of the many self-confidence boosting experiences of my childhood. The point of this post is supposed to be the Rosé.

So I went to a local wine store (to those who speak English in Heidelberg, it’s name is quite clever: Wein Ott) and selected a Bordeaux Rosé from Gironde, France.

Here are the details
Produced and bottled by: Chateau La Commanderie de Queyret
proprietor: Claude Comin
Vintage: 2003
grapes: 50% merlot, 50% cabernet sauvignon
webpage: www.vignobles-comin.com
cost: 5.50 Euros

I don’t think I am particularly good at describing wines, but I will do my best.

When I first smelled the wine, I could definitely smell something red about it. I guess that would be the tannins. There was a fruity element as well. The website indicates that it has a strawberry scent. I could detect the strawberries, if I held the glass a slight distance from my nose. But there was also something earthy and rich at the same time. Blackberries and pears kept coming to mind. If you mixed those 3 together with a pinch of grass, you might get this wine. But I could have been delirious by that point from all the excessive inhaling. When I started to smell Bazooka Joe bubble gum, I knew it was time to move on.

Now for the taste of it.. hmm.. the first hit had more of a tang than I expected. It had that same effect on my tongue as carbonated water does. As I said, I’m new to Rosé, and the flavour of this one did not strike me at all. I didn’t really taste the flavours that I had smelled. Everything seemed to be overpowered by the bite of it. And the bite lingered in my throat after each swallow. The website indicates that it goes well with cold meat. And I was tempted to go and buy some to see if it would improve the wine. But then I realized that would be defeating the purpose. So, my conclusion is that I would not likely buy it again. But I am curious to see how it compares with other Rosés, if this one is the norm or if it falls lower on the scale than most. It certainly gives me a reason to try another Rosé in the future. It did have a very appealing colour though. And if I just needed a full glass to sit and look pretty with, this one would do the trick.