Happy Memorial Day!

May your hot dogs have the right amount of char,

May your beer be chilled,

And may you take a moment to give thanks who have served our country.

*Photo from art.com.

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It's in the chips

To me, one of life's most perfect foods is the chocolate chip cookie.  It's a delightful snack that can be eaten without your hands and readily quells my sweet tooth.  My Mom was the queen of homemade cookies when I was growing up and often had a platter of warm cookies waiting whenever I had friends over.  To this day, one of my dear friends still speaks of her cookies. 

To me the best part of a chocolate chip cookie is variation....in the chocolate that is.  I love a cookie with both chips and chunks and different types of chocolate.  My favorite combination is a chopped dark chocolate bar with milk chocolate chips.  The varying textures and flavors adds a little somethin somethin to the cookie.  Delish!

Just make sure you have some milk on hand!

*Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart.
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Carpet savings

Hubs and I are replacing the carpet in our den, finally!  I expected this to be a quick,easy and very inexpensive home "upgrade."  What I didn't know is that carpet is surprisingly expensive.  So after getting 2 estimates that were significantly more than we were prepared or wanted to spend, I started making a few phone calls.  First stop was my Mom.  I shared my frustration over the unexpected costly nature of shagalicious floor covering and she shared a tip with me.  Instead of going for the fancy, super plush, soft carpet, go with a lower grade carpet and a higher grade padding.  The differential in cost in the padding is significantly less when you upgrade, sometimes just a few cents per square yard vice a multi-dollar difference in higher grade carpets.  The other savings trick we learned is to rip out the old, icky carpet ourselves.  In the end, it only saved us about $50, but hey fifty bucks is fifty bucks....and after doing manual labor, we'll probably be ferociously hungry, so our savings may pay for a fabulous lunch!

*Photo courtesy of Lecaflor.
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Roll with it

Recently I made a tasty little dinner with a few of my favorite ingredients - basil, mozzarella and red peppers.

Mediterranean Chicken Roll-ups

• 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 Roasted red pepper, cut into 1 inch wide slices
• 1/2 lb mozzarella, sliced
• Handful basil leaves

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Place each chicken breast on plastic cutting board, sandwiched between large pieces of plastic wrap.  Using a meat tenderizer, pound the chicken into flat, thin pieces.  Cut each piece, longways in half.
3. Place each piece of chicken on a non-stick baking sheet.  At one end, layer red pepper, cheese and basil.  Gently roll up the chicken and hold together with a toothpick.
4. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until cooked through.  Serve with a spinach salad and rice.

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A happy home is a clean home

I used to be much more of a compulsive neat freak when I was single; my apartment was usually pretty much spotless.  Now that I have hubs, Paddy and Flurrie, I am always finding more fun things to do than clean or tidy up the house.  Very quickly I learned that I needed to have a "schedule" or else our house would be fit for pigs!  After a few weeks of spending Saturday mornings cleaning and tidying up the house, I had had enough.  I felt like I should be able to focus on other weekend chores or tasks that I couldn't do during the week (like major projects or yard work) or spend some QT with hubs and the animals....not time scrubbing our toilets or kitchen sink!

Hubs and I evaluated our schedules and decided to pick one night each week (a school night) to clean the house.  If we buckle down, we can pitch in and have our house spic and span in an hour, which is a pretty minimal commitment.  We decided on Mondays since they area night of the week that was mutually agreeable for both of our schedules and...let's face it, Mondays are crummy to begin with.  We've been sticking with this schedule for a few months and it works like a charm.  I also usually reward us with a yummy dinner post clean and we crank some tunes while we're scrubbing and dusting.  Sure, I find myself doing some intermittent tidying on the weekends, but I love that our house is clean prior to, freeing up some of our precious weekend time.

So this probably isn't a groundbreaking tip, but it works really well at our home and hey, it's the little things...

*Photo courtesy of Real Simple.

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Culinary Adventures in Paris - Part 2

So after my excessively long post detailing my obsession with French pastries, you're probably expecting something similar here.  Wrong again, my friend.  I promise I'll try to breeze through some of my other obsessions with brevity.

Coffee aka Cafe

In France, a "coffee" is really an espresso.  If you're looking for a drip-brewed, American style coffee, you want Cafe American.  Being ever so diligent to try to immerse ourselves in our surroundings, we enjoyed the espresso, something neither hubs or I often drinks stateside.

Wine aka Vin

The wine was fabulous.  In almost every establishment, we found a wine of the month or a particular vintage being featured, which was usually slightly discounted and very good.  Hubs was a big fan of robust Bordeaux and I favored a lighter Beaujolais.  Another option for the budget minded is the carafe alternative.  Many eateries featured a house white or red, to be ordered in varying size carafes.  We tried this once or twice with more casual dinners.

Picnics aka la picnique

Unfortunately, it ended up being unseasonably chilly on our trip, but we still managed to enjoy a picnic in the Luxembourg gardens on our last day in the city of lights. Many bakeries and sandwich shops offer reduced prices to do "take out." It was a much more festive way to enjoy lunch and helped our travel budget.

Champagne aka Champagne (duh!)

We took a day trip to Reims, which is famous for 2 reasons - champagne caves and it was the location of the German surrender in WWII (we didn't find this out until we got there...you can tell our priorities).  We booked a tasting at Martel and it didn't disappoint.  We learned about how champagne is made, took a tour of the caves and then had a tasting - yum!  We tried three different varieties of champagne, one made with chardonnay grapes, one made with pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes and lastly a rose.  Our favorite was the Blanc de Noirs, made from the pinot grapes.  We enjoyed it so much, we bought a bottle and enjoyed it with some late afternoon pastries (are you sensing a theme to our Parisian vacation yet?).

New frontiers
Both hubs and I were devoted to trying new things.  On our list: fois gras, smoked haddock "sushi", fresh Roquefort, authentic French onion soup, bas fish, tartare of fish and others.  Hubs was definitely the more adventurous of us...a true testament to our personalities I suppose.

And alas, we're back in the states and working on our waistlines again after 9 days of gluttony!
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What I learned on my summer vacation

Recommendations for a fabulous vacation in Paris, Europe or anywhere for that matter where you'll be a legit tourist

Hoof it.  You'll discover much more if you walk, rather than take a cab or public transportation.  We found our legs and feet tired at the end of every day, but we were able to experience and see much more of the city than we ever imagined.  We also enjoyed "walks" through various neighborhoods, identifying key landmarks that are unrecognizable to the average tourist.  Just don't bring 4 inch stiletto heals and expect to traipse all over a foreign city...

Take advantage of public transportation.  Seems like a contradiction with my previous piece of advice, doesn't it?  Know your limits for walking, but take advantage of public transportation.  It's reliable and very inexpensive.  We hopped the metro many afternoons after we were already beat and it was a welcome alternative to a long walk home.  If you don't understand a subway or bus map, ask.  We found the subway (aka le metro) relatively easy to navigate as routes are identified by color and number and the direction is identified by the last stop. 

Take the road less travelled.  Our "best" days were those not spent in museums or gawking at Parisian monuments, but exploring neighborhoods or experiencing local things.  We headed to local markets on Sunday morning, and it was one of the best things we did- mostly locals and not in the tour books...at least not in the first few chapters.

Know where "home" is.  Be readily familiar with the location of your hotel.  That means the street name, key landmarks nearby and a nearby public transportation stop.  This avoids the inevitable where are you going debate with a cab driver or identifying the quickest route home after a long day of sightseeing.

Ask for help.  We realized after a wayward train adventure (read: frustrating, exhausting experience) that we needed to ask for help or directions more often.  Both hubs and I, with strong independent streaks, tried very hard to be self sufficient.  I was readily capable of communicating with my high school/college French, but there were still things to learn.  Don't hesitate to ask if you don't understand a train schedule, a menu or a ticket machine.  Even with broken English to French translations, we were much happier when we knew what we were doing rather than guessing.  Exploring is only fun if you want to explore; it can be downright exhausting otherwise.

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Culinary Adventures in Paris - Part 1

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you've noticed the heavy emphasis on food.  I love to eat.  I think I'm a fat girl at heart; and lucky for me, somehow my metabolism and fondness (seriously) for the gym help combat that battle.  But I digress.  Paris is a city that is alive with food.  Around every street corner, there are bakeries, butchers, pastry shops and produce stands.  It makes your mouth water and made me long for a small kitchen in our little Parisian hotel room, just for the week we were there.  Regardless, I found myself taking in the sights and smells of delicious cuisine and ingredients everywhere we went.  Let's start our adventure with my favorite subject in French cuisine - pastries.  In French baking, a chef may "major" in either pastry or bread and not both.  This appears to be one of the reasons that above all else French pastry chefs are highly regarded around the world, because they train within this discipline so specifically.

It's safe to say that I consumed an inappropriate amount of pastries in Paris...I may or may not have had a rule to consume at least 2 per day.  How could you not?  They stare at you in those long glass cases looking all delicious and beautifully decorated.  They needed me.  So I helped them out.  My favorites were usually of the chocolatey variety - eclair with chocolate cappuccino filling, chocolate cupcakes, mini chocolate cakes - and it's no secret that one of my favorite desserts of all time is profiteroles, which are a round pastry, cut in half, filled with ice cream or creamy filling and topped with chocolate.  Deelish!

Another of my favorites were the macarons.  Now, these are not synonymous with macaroons that you find in America - the ones that are a light fluffy cake, predominately flavored with coconut.  French macarons are a treat sent straight from heaven.  They're a sandwich cookie/cake of sorts, based on a meringue-esque recipe and are filled with butter cream frosting.  Many bakeries had larger varieties and minis.  In all cases, I preferred the minis because I could try more flavors.  While at Angelina's (recommended by my friend B at Our Pile of Bricks), my hubs and I shared 4 minis - chocolate, vanilla, caramel and Irish Coffee, with Irish Coffee and vanilla being our favorites.

Alas, we arrive at my favorite, which was the millefeuille (pronounced meal-FAY).  Literally it means a thousand layers.  It's a rectangular treat with thin, wispy layers of flimsy pastry sheets layered together, filled with creamy, custardy filling of varying flavors.  I preferred the vanilla with a thin layer of vanilla butter cream, marbled with chocolate on top.  The picture also includes hubs's treat (in the front), a Foret Noir, which means dark forest.  It was a chocolatey cake with cherry flavors and yummy frosting.

Stay tuned for more on other treats in future installments of our culinary adventures in Paris!

Disclaimer: When I started writing this post, I intended to address all of my favorite foods and culinary adventures in Paris, but upon writing about pastries, the post grew...and grew...and grew some more.  Hence, the need for parts 1 and 2!
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Tour Books - not all created equal

We were pretty lucky to escape the endless quest to find the perfect tour book when planning our trip to Paris.  My Mom gave us Rick Steve's guide for Christmas and also lent us two books she already had in her tour book library - Top Ten Guide to Paris and Paris City Guide.  A friend from my office lent us the Frommer's guide as well.  And what I learned when flipping through all four were very different things and each had and area where they outshone the others. 

Rick Steve's Paris Guide: Rick Steve writes with more humor and human interest than most other tour books.  I felt like I could read through sections of the book without wanting to flip around - sort of like a novel.  He is best for sightseeing.  We really enjoyed some of the additional information we took away from the book when at museums and monuments, especially since much of the amplifying information at the site was in French!  And my high school/college French isn't strong enough to translate historical context for very much!  The other thing that we really liked about this guide were the walks.  We quickly discovered that we were more interested in exploring rather than museum hopping so took advantage of some of the walks, mostly those focused on specific areas or neighborhoods.  They're structured and identify many things that we would have missed without the tips.

Frommer's Guide (2009):  Not that great for sightseeing in the sense that it didn't provide the details that we needed - metro stop, hours, high points, etc.  But this guide was fabulous for eating and shopping!  They break out restaurants by neighborhood and grouped them by price (very expensive, expensive, moderate, etc.).  We found some great restaurants and one of my personal favorites (from a previous trip), Chez Andre was featured in here as well.  We also had great success with picking out some fun spots for shopping, in particular J.C. Martinez, which is a small shop that features antique prints and engravings.

Top Ten Guide to Paris: This guide was pretty thin, which had it's added benefits.  Another thing that I really liked is that it breaks out specific neighborhoods and addresses top 10 attractions, restaurants, shops etc within those neighborhoods.  In addition, for those neighborhoods that are famous for something, it identifies top 10 lists for those.  For example, Montmartre is famous for it's art community in the 19th century- in that section it listed the top 10 artists who hung out there and some relevant stops to see where they lived or caroused.

City Guide to Paris: My least favorite - just not comprehensive enough or specializing in any one subject.  However, it had a fabulous map that you could pull out of the book.  One perk to this book is that it was thin and also had a plastic, sleeve-like cover to protect it.

These books are all readily available at Amazon, and possibly your local library.  Rick Steve's guide at $19, Frommer's guide at $20, Top Ten Guide at $15 and City Guide at $19. 

*Photos courtesy of Rick Steves and Frommer's.
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Before you pack it up

In honor of our trip, I've decided this week will be "travel week."  One of the things I've learned from my Mom is to take care of business at home before you leave for a trip.

Clean up.  I make it a habit to clean the house the day or two before we leave.  It makes it sooooo much better to come home to a clean house. 

In the same vein, change and replace your sheets before you go.  There's something fabulous about hopping into your own bed after time away.  It's even better with fresh, sweet-smelling linens.  You'll have enough laundry without linen duty when you get home!

Pay it forward.  Your bills, that is.  Nothing is fun about coming home to a stack of overdue bills.  I try to make it a point to pay bills and deal with any other time sensitive material before I go.

Clean your fridge and stock your freezer.  Get rid of any fresh stuff - produce or dairy that will go bad while you're gone.  I also usually toss any lingering leftovers or throw them in the freezer.  Returning to science projects in your fridge, ain't cool, yo!  I'm a huge proponent of keeping a really, simple meal in the freezer, like a pizza or a skillet meal or a good Tupperware full of leftovers.  I never feel like cooking after being on vacation and usually our fridge is bare.

Trust me, when you get home at 11PM and need to go to work the next day, you'll be relieved the house is in order...and you have something to eat!
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Where is PT Happy Homemaker?

Well for all of my 5 readers out there who have been wondering where I've been...I've been a bit of a Full-time Happy Traveler for the last week and a bit.  My hubs and I were in for a little r&r here:

More on our trip coming soon!
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Shot in the dark - laundering your darks

Ever find yourself with faded black pants?  Well fear not, there are a few small things you can do to help keep your less gray-looking and brighter for the long haul.

First of all, always turn dark jeans and/or your favorite black (or dark-colored) pants inside out.  The rubbing and friction during washing is one key element that will dull the color, so keeping them inside out at least slows down this process.

Second of all, wash like things together, for goodness sakes!  You don't need to wash dark purple towels with black trousers - this will result in a lot of annoying lint issues.  I have "nice" clothes that I was together and casual clothes...and then any dark towels, which are completely separate altogether.

Lastly, for your nice duds, use a dark color detergent like Woolite for dark colors or Tide for colors.  I'm not sure they actually help, but hey, I feel a little better about the whole thing!

*Photo courtesy of JCrew.
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