It's Beginning to Look alot like

Christmas!

So there were lights and trees up before Thanksgiving, but I decided to hold off just as we do in America.

Our Christmas tree isn't up yet, but here is one that I saw in the mall next to our house.

A little blurry, but I was in a rush to get and out of Carrefour aka. French Walmart.

Spotted Post-It War 2

 Surprisingly my blog gets a lot of traffic thanks to the post-it war, so I decided to join in on the post-it war.

Thanks to my friend, Allison, she sent me a pack of post-its! I was going to do a multi-color one but I didn't have enough time.

My husband was like "wow are house is just like the building at the Stade de France!" There is a train on one of the buildings, I just have never had the chance to take a picture.

Happy Thanksgiving !

In France, Thanksgiving isn't really celebrated. My boss scheduled a meeting for today and I was like "Thursday is Thanksgiving" and he said "Oh I know, but that doesn't mean you get the day off!"

My husband and I will not be celebrating Thanksgiving til the weekend. I am not sure if I am actually going to cook something. I might make a pie with the pumpkins I bought in Versailles.  But I really want us to go out and eat sushi, is that un-American??

Last year we went to an indian restaurant with our Korean friend, SK. Maybe we will do that again this year. Or maybe I will buy a turkey from turkish boucherie! haha a turkey from the turks.

 Also, this has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but I signed up to make dessert for our work Christmas party. They all said they wanted baklava, but I want to make an American Christmas dessert. I know I will be making buckeyes (for non-Americans, these are peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate), because my generous Amerian friends have sent lots of jars of peanut butter. I want to make a second thing in case they don't like the buckeyes (The French are used to nutella sandwiches and not pb&j).

Do you have suggestions on what to make ???

Baklava

I finally have some time to post a recipe for Baklava, that I know people have been waiting for !
The Baklava that I have known to make is the Turkish one (I wonder why that is, haha!) I usually make baklava for special occasions like the end of Ramadan or the Eid. But sometimes I just make it to make it.

There are two different kinds that I usually make : rolled up ones that look like catepillars and regular squared baklava.

Here is the recipe for the squared :
Ingredients : finely chopped walnuts, 250g of melted butter, and phyllo (usually 40 sheets)

1. Open up the phyllo, be careful because it tears easily 

If you are not fast at putting each layer on, cover the phyllo with a towel. Because it tends to try out fast.

2. Butter the pan, preferably round. and layer 8 phyllo sheets brushing butter on each layer

3. after 8 layers, generously put walnuts on top and then do another 8 layers and lightly sprinkle walnuts.

4. After the second 8 layer phyllo, place another 8 layers on top and add the additional butter. You might have sheets left, so save those for later, I will post the catepillar recipe soon. If you get confused about the 8 layers think about this : 1. 8 2. walnuts +8 3. walnuts + 8 4. Butter and oven

5. Cut square pieces depending on how small and big you want them. A sharp butcher's knife works best. Put in a hot oven at 350°F and let cook until tops are golden brown or almost burnt. Make the sugar sauce while the baklava are in the oven

6. Sauce : For every cup of sugar add a cup of water. For the baklava that I did below I used 10 cups of sugar. Boil the sugar and then simmer the sugar also add 1 tsp of lemon juice (this prevents the sugar from crystalizing), I just guess on the time.

7. Pour on top of the baklava and cover with aluminum foil and stick somewhere where your husband won't eat them. Baklava is good the next day.

8. and then enjoy!

Guess what this is : Pumpkin Answer

It's French name is potimarron and it's English name is a Red Kuri. Thanks to this website I was able to learn more information about the red kuri.

I decided that I was going to treat it like a pumpkin anyway. A food blog that I like to check out "The Pioneer Woman" had perfect ideas on how to make pumpkin puree and roast the seeds. The only thing I have to say is that the red kuri had a lot of water in it and the skin didn't want to come off.

I ended up making red kuri pogaca (like a scone/biscuit) but I put brown sugar on top, thanks to another recipe found on "Almost Turkish" (I will post the other pogaca I made later).

I also made muffins and roasted the seeds. I bought some more at the market in Versailles, possibly I will soup or a red kuri bundt cake! or red kuri pumpkin spice lattés - since the Starbucks here is way too cool to make them.

What do you do with pumpkin ?

Beep Beep : Road Rage

Every morning when I take the train into the city only get onto another to out of the city, I have to fight the traffic. I often feel like I am in a car, I have to pay attention to my blindspots, look behind me and change speed. Changing speed is awful because I am usually running to catch my train and people are just snailing along.

The amount of people at Haussman Saint Lazare in particular is ridiculous. It's like an over-packed amusement park on a summer day, but everyday. People push and shove without a "pardon", it's like the French are becoming an Americans! Something they probably do not want to admit.

Another thing is the fact that people run towards their train when the sign says "acces interdit" meaning "do not enter the train is about to leave and the doors might just close on you". But people just go and don't look back. I always wondered how many of them really make it.

I have always wondered as well if everyone was on time (we all know the french are notorious for being 20 minutes late) for their train, would there be pushing and people running  towards trains? I guess only in the perfect world, everyone would be calm and kind. So I just kind have to live with people who are running later than I am.

Thoughts??

Clue : Pumpkin

This is no pumpkin, but it looks like one and has a similar taste 

Do you know what this is ?

I bought two of these at a market in Versailles.

Thoughts from the RER B : Suck it in

In reference to the post, I wrote earlier about the RER B and it's problems. I have a little story about why not to squeeze and shove people onto the train or even to get on unless you are ready to face the consequences.

My husband was on the train one night and it was packed. The train decided to stop in a station for over an hour, and the driver didn't even make an announcement as to why ! Anyway there were these girls standing next to him, who were trying to impress some guys next to them. The girls kept pushing him and he said "If you don't stop I am going to get sick". Well they laughed at him and were like "Right". They should've taken him seriously because two minutes later he puked on them. I would have liked to see their faces then! Thankfully there was a doctor standing right near him and was able to get the girls to move, probably with some harsh words. and I am thankful that he is ok.