Crossplanet

 The theme of the month could be this song, Danzen aan see, from Blof, a dutch musician. I've heard this song some years ago, at a moment when my spirit wasn't so high up... In this version Cristina Blanco adds her beautiful voice and some lyrics in Portuguese. I remember that years ago a Dutch friend had translated the dutch lyrics for me, I don't recall the whole thing but I remember that it was beautiful. Surely a bit nostalgic, thinking of dancing by the sea, but beautiful just the same.

Sometimes I get tired of white rice, even if it's a tasty basmati one. So I've found this recipe, with cashews and green peas, really easy and fast to cook. The result is tasty and nice to look at.

---------------------------

3 cups water

1 ½ cup basmati rice

1 ½ tsp salt

1 tsp turmeric

2 tbsp ghee of olive oil

1 cup toasted cashews

¼ cup chopped fresh coriander

---------------------------

1. Bring to a boil the water, salt and turmeric in small saucepan. Cover and reduce heat.

2. Heat the ghee in a larger saucepan, add the asafetida powder, stir briefly, add the rice and fry for about 2 min, till the rice turns a little transparent.

3. Pour the simmering water into the rice, return to full boil, then cover and reduce heat. Simmer the rice for about 15 min, then add the peas and cook for 5 min.

4. Remove from heat and wait for about 5 min, then add the cashews and chopped fresh coriander.

Years ago a crazy man planted a few wine plants in big pots on the sidewalk in front of his bar, in Paris. Years later came the time for the harvest. And it happens every year at the beginning of september, the occasion for a big neighborhood party.

The tradition is: women climb up the ladders to cut the grape, while men secure the ladders (and take a good look at the women's legs). Then barefoot kids smash the grape in the barrels.

There is music, laughters, a huge picnic on the streets, and loads of empty bottles at the end of the day.

More pictures are here.

From a indian cookbook, here is a vegetable curry, simple and fast to cook.

---------------------------
1 small cauliflower

250 gr of green peas (frozen)

3 tomatoes

1 onion (chopped)

1 tsp of garlic paste

1 bsp of ginger paste

¾ tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tbsp ground vindaloo (or sambar powder)

2 tsp sugar

2 cloves of cardamom

1 yogurt

---------------------------
1. cut the clauliflower in small pieces, steam or cook it in water until just tender.

2. in a pan fry the onion, add the turmeric, coriander and vindaloo, add the garlic and ginger paste, sugar and cardamom, then the yogurt, and cook for about 4 min.

3. add the tomatoes cut into chunks, cook for about 4 min.

4. add the cauliflower and green peas, cook for about 4 min.

Serve with white rice.

This is one of the goodies of my life in Paris. This week-end a friend of mine asked me to stay at her pace, as she was going away for 5 days and couldn't leave her old kitty alone. So I moved in on Thursday morning and stayed over till Monday afternoon.

First that's a nice feeling to go over for the week-end on your own city, it's like local tourism (and very local in that case since my friend lives 2 subway stations away from my place!). Second, it's also a nice feeling (at least I like it) to be alone in someone's appartment as if it were my own, sort of slipping in someone's slippers. Third, and that's the goody, my friend lives on the 13th floor with a wonderful view over Paris, from Montmartre to Montparnasse! So I brought my computer, to work there, enjoying the sunrise over La Bastille, the sunrise on the towers of La Défense, enjoying the variations of daylight through the day, watching the clouds passing over the city, the city lighting up at night, trying to recognize the monuments and neighborhood... Those were wonderful days, thanks to Tosca, the old cat-lady.

---------------------------

2 beetroots (cooked)

1 clove of garlic

1 tbsp of olive oil

2 creamy yogurts (Fjord or greek yogurt)

¼ cucumber

1 small onion (optional)

---------------------------

1. Cut the beets and the cucumber in small cubes.

2. Add the yogurts, olive oil and garlic.

3. Mix with a liquidizer, temper with salt and pepper.

First day at the beach house. Having my first breakfast in the patio. The wind blows, the doors closes, the key inside… I don’t know what came to my mind, but my first thought was to climb by the neighbour’s roof to enter the house through my bedroom’s window.

And here I am…first climbing to the low part of the window, then on the top of it, reaching the edge of the roof, getting support on my arms to pull up myself on the roof… loosing my balance…and falling down, 2 meters lower, on the concrete…

The chock took my breath away. For a few seconds I couldn’t breathe. As far as I remember, I don’t recall having such a chock. That’s a real strange sensation, feeling the whole weight of my body, trying to feel where it hurts, trying to evaluate the damages… can I move my legs, my arms? My back and hips hurts a lot… my right foot too. Can I get up? It seems so… I got up of my feet, and tried a second time! Successfully this time.

During the whole day, the pain was killing me. Luckily for me, my friend arrived and comforted and pampered me, that’s what kept me out from despair.

The day after I felt better already, pain was bearable, and day after day I learned to be patient, to stay quiet and to use my body differently to avoid pain and useless efforts. The holidays were happy ones, filling myself with energies from the beach, then sun and the ocean.

Today, five weeks later, I finally resolved myself to get X-ray, and I happened to know that a little bone (the 4th metatarsis) had been broken...