Sweet Silver, Part I

I've been spending quite a lot of time over at my my photography blog, creating posts--a travelogue of sorts--about our special anniversary trip.  If you don't know yet where we went, you'll know now.  Keep reading!

We had never had a honeymoon, and this year we celebrated our silver anniversary!!  Back in March, Fernando announced to me that he wanted to take me to _____ for a week.  So we planned, researched, emailed, reserved, purchased, and went to...

...drum roll here...

this place.

Okay.  Here's a city panorama with a more recognizable sight.

Here's our trip, from the top:

Time to pack.

Waiting at O'Hare for our flight. 

Layover in Helsinki, Finland!

The door to our building in le Marais.

The inner stone courtyard of our building. Our appartement opened up into this courtyard.

Fernando had a croque madame for our first lunch in Paris.

The column at place de la Bastille, near our appartement.
In memory of the Revolution of 1830, which saw a king put back on the throne.
On the top sits the Spirit of Liberty holding broken chains.

 Le Palais du Luxembourg et le Jardin du Luxembourg.

Sanctuary of St. Sulpice.

Dinner one night!

Our first view of the Seine River was glorious!  Pont Marie is that first bridge.

Our first visit to la cathédrale de Notre Dame, at night.

Fernando locked the door to our appartement and we were ready to head out for the day.

Fernando posed with a goofy and slightly creepy street performer while we waited in line.

Tickets to the top!

Waiting for the elevator.

The Willis (Sears) Tower is that way.

Enjoying the view from the third level.

Parc du Champ de Mars.

We went to this ice cream stand on Ile St. Louis every night for five nights.  :)

Ice cream at Berthillon on Ile St. Louis.

Fernando willingly carried my tripod several different times so we could get some night shots--and some self-portraits.

We posed in a little square on Ile St. Louis.

One rainy day, we visited the church, Sainte Chappelle.  Absolutely beautiful.

Lower sanctuary of Sainte Chappelle.

Upper sanctuary of Sainte Chappelle.

We bought the cheapest umbrellas we could find, and they proved...cheap.

Fernando's umbrella collapsed on one side, and mine--well, see below.

Launched like a parachute!

Back at our appartement, armed with a rotisserie chicken and some veggies we had bought a few days earlier, we made our own dinner.

The next day, as was our little custom, Fernando stepped on over to our local boulangerie to purchase croissants and whatever other treat he felt like, and brought them back "home" for our breakfast.

Our boulangerie, 25 steps from our front door!

Here's what he rbought home this particular morning:

Croissaint et pain au chocolat.

 
And here's what I made for the rest of breakfast:

French toast with strawberry topping.

That's it for Part I.  What a special time we had!!


Back to life,
Christine

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Labor Day Parade

Here's what we did on Labor Day, in pictures.  :)

Not sure what the door was for.

 Lunch is grilled!

Back to life,
Christine

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My Farmers Market

I decided to take my camera to my local farmers market, and show you a little of what I do every Thursday afternoon throughout the summer.

Thursday farmers market at the Promenade.

 My favorite produce vendor.

I get my meat and eggs from Samantha (and Eric).  They are awesome people.

Thomas goes with me each week; I usually splurge and let him get a coffee here.

Cute teenager?  Or what?  I can't figure out why he gets so many free samples!

Channa uses organic ingredients in her treats, and boy, are they yum!

These roses are beautiful and neat.

'Nuff said.

I love the handmade pottery.

Thomas got more samples.

Back to life,
Christine

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Final Photos of Frisbee

I like the alliteration in that blog post title.  :)

This is the last game I took pictures at.  I had borrowed my brother's Canon 50D, and had fun experimenting with it.  Boy, getting the ISO up to 3200 was a treat, since my Ellie can go up to only 1600.  It was nice shooting fast action shots at night for a change.  Sorry, the photographer in me got a little technical there.  Enjoy these Frisbee images!

A friend came with her three kids; Sammy was goofing off (below).

He even tackled his little sister.  Notice the feet?  This "AstroTurf" field features finely-cut-up rubber, and it makes your bare feet positively black.

Thomas tried to, but couldn't, block this one.

I think Thomas was throwing this one to me.

A family-friendly game!

Back to life,
Christine

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Late Summer Harvest

Here are just a few images of our late summer harvest, the end of August.

Sweet red peppers, lots of red cayenne, and a few plum tomatoes.

Plum tomato and its reflection.  :)

Nantes carrots.  This variety is shorter and stubbier, but oh, so sweet.

Back to the garden for tomatoes and a few green beans.

Back to life,
Christine

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A Week's Worth of Salad

I saw an idea on Pinterest, and wanted to expand on it, maybe modify it a bit, and try it out for myself.

I needed some quart-sized Mason jars, which I already had in abundance, and salad ingredients.  The idea on Pinterest was to layer the salad into jars, starting with dressing at the bottom, then crunchy veggies (carrots, celery, etc.) which don't wilt in the dressing, then lettuce and other toppings.  Do this in assembly-line fashion with several jars, and you have ready-made salads!  Just dump them out and munch and crunch away.

I'm usually home when it's lunchtime, so I figured I'd leave the dressing out and just layer all the salad ingredients--minus tomatoes, since the jars are stored in the fridge and I prefer fresh-cut tomatoes on my salads.  I used my canning funnel, and started with celery and carrots.  I chopped all the celery, and layered it in the bottom of each jar.  Then I worked my way through each ingredient, layering them one layer at a time in each jar:

1.  Dressing.
2.  Celery and carrots -- crunchy veggies on the bottom won't wilt in the dressing.
3.  Sweet peppers
4.  Chopped lettuce
5.  Cucumbers
6.  Tomatoes -- this is where I'd put them so they don't wilt the lettuce.
7.  Olives
8.  Cubed cheese

Here's what my jars looked like:

Another note on salad dressing:  If you really don't like the idea of the dressing being in the jars, use a small jar such as a clean spice jar.  If you find, like I did, that the jars aren't completely full, you can put the dressing jar on the top of your salad.  Or, fill snack-sized zip-seal sandwich baggies.  Even smaller are the craft-type zip-seal bags (I have some that are 2x3" that will hold about two tablespoons of dressing, which should be plenty for one salad).

If the jars don't seem quite full, let me say one thing:  If you fill the jars to the top, you will have an awfully massive salad to eat.  What is in one jar above filled an 8" luncheon plate, piled high.  It's all vegetable, except for the cubed mozzarella cheese on top.  Very filling.  Remember that the lettuce gets compacted, so just be careful about filling the jars.  Unless, of course, you enjoy a very large salad!  (Or want to use these for dinners, with a layer of chopped, cooked chicken--another great idea!)

I love opening the fridge, pulling out one of these jars, dumping it on a plate, quickly cutting up a garden tomato on top, and adding dressing.  I have a great salad in just a minute!  At the end of the week, even the last jar--I usually make about five at a time--is fresh!


Back to life,
Christine

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Late Summer Canning

"Welcome back!" I say to myself...

I've been busy over at my photography blog lately, posting tons and tons, and I've sadly neglected my family blog.  We really have been busy, and I really have taken pictures!  So I'm back again, ready to share some quick posts to cover these last several weeks.

Here are my lovely jars of crushed tomatoes and jalapeños, ready to be put up for winter.  I love seeing all the jars.  Enjoy these images!

Crushed tomatoes with basil and salt

Pickled jalapeños

Back to life,
Christine

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