Destin

Destin (Fr., masc.)/ Destinée (Fr. Fem.)/Destiny (Eng) noun: The events that will happen to a particular person or thing in the future. The hidden power believed to control what will happen in the future. Fate.

"Any little desire, so long as you truly feel it, will get you started on the path toward your destiny."
- Martha Beck, The Joy Diet

In my mind

Alternative

Alternative (Fr.)/ Alternative (Eng.): one of two or more available possibilities. A situation presenting a choice. (it is the same word in French as it is in English)

Last weekend I went to the Keep Portland Weird festival/exhibition at Gaîté Lyrique. It was incredible to watch all of the Parisians marvel over the things that I considered a normal way of life. Portland's coffee shop culture, the outdoors, the environmentally sustainable mindset, creativity bursting at the seams, the foodie mecca, and healthy lifestyles.

 I was proud to call it my other home. And it found me a little homesick. At one point, my friend commented that we should leave the festival immediately for fear that I become emotional and decide to leave Paris to make my way back to the other city that I love.

 Rather than take such drastic measures, I pondered about the things that I miss the most, aside from my peeps. It was the healthy lifestyle, particularly Barre3, vegetarian culinary possibilities, and alternatives that are available no matter what sort of food preferences you have. So I have decided to make a concentrated effort to recreate that bit of Portland here in Paris. First up? Not just cutting out the gluten and grains whenever possible, but making my own delicious alternative recipes since Paris doesn't have a Back to Eden or Proper Eats (that I am aware of). So I went to the market to find alternatives to flour and sugar in order to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

(Organic honey, crunchy peanut butter, mini dark chocolate chips and baking soda)

Here is a recipe that I have made several times over the last week (yeah, I better keep this in check) which is super easy and uses ingredients that I usually have on hand:

Flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies 
1 c. peanut butter (prefereably organic)
1/3 c. honey (preferably local and organic)
1 egg (preferably local and organic)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips (mini's are preferred)

Mix it all together (add the chips last). It will be much stickier than regualr cookie dough but don't worry, it will totally turn out.

Scoop them onto a cookie tray that is lined with parchment paper and cook them at 350 F (175 C) for ten minutes.

Then you must let them cool for at least ten minutes so that they can firm up.

Et voila!

Just as good as any cookie I have had in Paris or Portland for that matter. In fact, better!

Tout

Tout (Fr.)/ Everything (Eng.) pronoun: All things of importance; a great deal. All of the things of a group or class.

Last week I was lucky enough to experience Lauryn Hil live in Paris. It wasn't advertised and I found out about it by sheer luck. Seeing her perform live has been on my bucket list since The Fugees hit the scene in the 90's. Seeing her perform after such a long hiatus from the public eye, in Paris, was everything to me. Like a dream come true.

There are lots of rumors that have circulated in the wake of her hiatus, and I found myself having to get caught up on all of them right before the show. Not because I really care about what everyone thinks about her and her departure from the public eye, but so that I could connect the dots in case she made any reference during the show.

What I found during my search were a couple of quotes from her that struck a cord with me:

"The less I have, the freer I am to do whatever I want."

(Ms. Lauryn Hill performing Everything is Everything in L'Olympia, Paris, April 16, 2012)

"I don't need anybody to market or promote me. If people don't want to hear this music, then it's not for them. You cannot please everybody."

Hear, hear. I think these tidbits of wisdom apply to life in general and especially resonate with me as I continue my journey of life in Paris.  I don't know about you, but this music is definitely for me.

Rêves

(An image from my inspiration board)

Rêves (Fr.)/ Dreams (Eng.) Noun: A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind. A condition or achievement that is longed for, an aspiration. 

I have the good fortune to receive daily email notes from the Universe. Here is a recent one that made an impression:


Good morning darling, 


Here's a question for you:
If you could take a daily pill that would profoundly speed-up the manifestation of all your dreams, would you take it without fail? 

I thought so. 

What if it was a big, ugly pill that took 5 minutes to dissolve on your tongue, and it tasted like medicine. Would you still do it?

Yes, all of your dreams... 

Thought so. 

But what if during those 5 minutes each day you couldn't watch TV, or talk with friends, or distract yourself in any way from your chore?

Wow, you must really want a fabulous direction and clarity in career path, and all those other awesome life changes! 

OK, what if you could skip the pill bit entirely, but instead you had to set aside 5 minutes a day to visualize, in a dark and quiet room, seeing your life unfold as if all your dreams were coming true, and for good measure you had to say or do something, each day, that implied the same? 

No, you can't go back to the pill idea. 

Yours, The Universe

Chou-fluer

(Cauliflower crust, with a dollop os tomato sauce because I forgot to take a photo before I enthusiastically began adding my toppings)

Chou-fluer (Fr.)/ Cauliflower (Eng.) noun: a garden plant related to the cabbage and grown for its compact edible head of usually white undeveloped flowers.

In an attempt to prove that there is something as seemingly complicated as navigating the French government, or even removing French wall paper from my apartment's walls, I decided to embark on this recipe:

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

It seemed impossible, although on paper it shouldn't be. You should know that I made this in Paris' smallest kitchen, using just one burner and a toaster oven. And when the recipe called for a food processor, I had only a hand blender, and when it suggested a fine mesh strainer, I got crafty and used my coffee filters to line the inside of my large holed strainer.

The good news is that I did have a thin clean towel to strain out the excess water*, and also had the foresight to buy parchment paper during yesterday's trip to the market.

The bad news is that I forgot to switch the setting on the toaster oven from broil to bake. So the bottom of the crust didn't fare as well as I would have liked.

Since this is not a cooking blog, you may be asking yourself "why is this significant?"

You see, just as I was trying to blend up the cauliflower in my Bodum Coffee Press (don't ask) using the hand blender and not having any luck whatsoever, I paused and thought "this is going to turn out horribly, make a huge mess, piss off my crazy bi polar neighbor with all the blending sounds, and waste 1+ hours of my evening, so I should cut my losses and go for sushi takeout."

But the thought of actually eating the cauliflower crust pizza that I had been craving all week, was somehow giving me some much needed hope. And when it didn't work out I certainly would have been very disappointed.  Yet while the thought of takeout was a surefire way to eat successfully before midnight, the thought of it  gave me a blah sensation.  Not too mention it would have been a denial of the inspired challenge I had scheduled for myself yesterday when I purchased three heads of cauliflower. I took these two opposing sensations as my intuition saying that I should go for the thing that gave me energy (the prospect of cauliflower pizza) even though it would almost definitely fail, and turn away from the option that drained my energy (sushi takeout) which would be an easy sure thing.

I am happy to say that in spite of my sketchy kitchen tool improvisation, my pizza was everything that I had hoped for. It reminded me that I can still eat the way that I enjoy even in my teeny tiny Paris kitchen. And it gives me a good reminder of what it feels like to let my inner voice be my guide.

(toppings: tomato sauce, arugula, mushrooms, and buffalo mozzarella)

I am going to consciously look for these types of inner voice signals over the course of the next week and see where that guides me.


 *Alas I should have let it cool first before scalding my hands by squeezing it tightly.

Pratiquer

Pratiquer (Fr.)/ Practice (Eng.) verb: to do or preform something repeatedly in order to acquire or polish a skill. Repetition or exercise of an activity in order to achieve mastery or fluency.

Last night I met a very cool woman who was here in Paris for Fashion Week. She is a Parisienne, although she lives in Madrid for her work as the Studio Coordinator for Loewe (pronounced Low-ev-ay). She is fluent in French, Spanish and English (without any trace of an accent).

She joined our table as she was the friend of a friend. And during introductions, she asked if I spoke French.

"Non, Je ne parle pas très bien le français." I said, with my head hung in shame.

"How long have you lived in Paris?" she asked.

"One year" I whispered.

Embarrassed by my answer, I explained that I didn't speak it very well because I spend all day working in English. And when I do go out, I always end up speaking English everywhere I go, because I am too tired to bumble around like a cow, and just want to be able to communicate effectively.

"Zat eez bullshit!" She barked. "You MUST practice! Over and over and over. Or you will never get any better."

This was the same advice given to me by my taxi driver last weekend. He tried to soften it by encouraging me that my accent, or lack thereof, and my errors are charming. "Talk to yourself and repeat everything you hear on the radio. I learned how to speak English from Larry King" he told me. "I would watch CNN and repeat everything that Larry said. It taught me pronunciation, phrases and sometimes I learned something more than just English" he said.

I really need to get over my fear of looking like a fool. I really really really want to speak better French.

Thanks to this little guy for some inspiring words of wisdom: