Betwixt and Between
Bienvenue and welcome back to Musée Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art. I hope you are luxuriating in this lovely liminal week, betwixt and between an old year on its way out and a new year getting ready to begin. For Christmas, as Nicolas prepares to make a new life in China, he gave me the best gift of all, the gift of time. Over three nights, we enjoyed three dinners, two brunches and one walk together. On the eve of Christmas Eve, he picked Ginevra and me up at Gus’s where a 7 pound bone in/skin on pork shoulder was waiting as were 2 pounds of shrimp. We bought something simple to eat that night - a roast chicken, an Acme baguette and a pint of Maple Cream ice cream from Straus Family Creamery. Our plan was to swing by Trader Joe’s on the way home, to pick up some basics which are just as good and always cheaper than anywhere else. Expecting a crowd, we were surprised when we didn’t have to wait for a space in their parking lot. Turns out, the crowd had been and gone. The shelves were nearly bare - no russet potatoes, no eggs, no heavy cream, no butter. We bought what we could, like turkey bacon instead of real bacon which didn’t bother me since the 7 pound pork shoulder I ordered actually weighed in at 9 pounds. Buying more pork just didn’t make sense.
Our dinner on Monday was a light prelude to the heavy eating that lay ahead. Gus’s roast chicken is better than the poulet roti that I buy at the marché in Paris. But, oh dear oh dear the Acme baguette was such a disappointment. Back in the day, I thought it was wonderful. But that was before I had my choice of the best baguettes in France, at a clutch of boulangeries only a few blocks from my apartment. (Fig 1)
Brunch on Christmas Eve was Alison Roman’s always delicious buttermilk pancakes. Which we ate with real maple syrup and ersatz bacon. I wasn’t sure how many eggs I would need in the days ahead, so the pancake bacon eggs that I promised became pancakes and bacon. Complaints all around but no actual suffering. Fresh citrus fruit salad from the farmers market a few blocks away saved the day. Since Ginevra was busy taking photographs, Nicolas and I set out on our own. The morning clouds had all burned off and the afternoon sky was a brilliant blue. For a girl who grew up in Pittsburgh, sweater weather on December 24 is a gift!
We went to the library first where I snagged a copy of Jaqueline Winspear’s final Maisie Dobbs book. Over the past 21 years, Winspear has written 18 Maisie mysteries. The series begins before the Great War and is concluding as England copes with the damage done to the country and its people following WWII. I didn’t come to the library empty handed, I was returning the most recent book of another favorite author of mine - The Gray Wolf by Louise Penny. It’s the 19th Inspector Gamache book, from a series Penny began writing in 2005. It’s nice to follow authors and appreciate the characters they create for us, like Maisie Dobbs and Armand Gamasche. (Fig 2) After the library, Nicolas and I walked through Golden Gate Park, past the Bison Paddock, over to Queen Wilhelmina’s Windmill (Fig 3) and along the Pacific Ocean.
When we returned, Ginevra had finished taking photos and we all shared the final chocolate of our advent calendar. This last one was a dark chocolate peanut butter cup, not from Paris but from See’s. This was the first time since moving to Paris that I have put See’s chocolates in an advent calendar. I foolishly abandoned See’s in a fit of misbegotten snobbery. As we enjoyed the peanut butter cup, Ginevra reminded me of the taste test we had a decade ago, yep, of peanut butter cups. We compared Reece’s, Paul Newman’s, See’s and Recchiuti pucks. There were several criteria, but See’s won on the most important criteria of all - taste. Ginevra observed that I have a knack for making everything into a learning/teaching moment. I guess it’s true.
To augment the one remaining advent calendar chocolate, I brought out a maple syrup chocolate bar from Plaq, a tiny chocolatier in the 2nd arrondissement in Paris. It’s their riff on a maple syrup tart from a patisserie close to my Paris apartment called Tapisserie Patisserie. They named the chocolate bar after the patisserie. As we sipped Plaq chocolate tea, (Fig 4), made from cocoa bean shells, we also nibbled chocolates I ordered from Dandelion which arrived while Nicolas and I were out. The chocolate covered caramelized almonds are Dandelion's take on the familiar chocolate-nut pairing. I insisted that everyone concentrate to discern and appreciate the three distinct tastes and textures, the cocoa dusted dark chocolate layer, the crackly caramel layer and the almond itself.
I love chocolate covered caramels. The tiny caramels from Dandelion were perfection, "vanilla bean fleur de sel caramels enrobed in dark chocolate.” As you taste, they ask you to “imagine specks of vanilla bean floating in rich fluid caramel enhanced with delicate, minerally, unrefined fleur de sel (handpicked off the coast of Brittany, France).”
The Halva Bonbons which I denied myself last year, because of their price (7 pieces for $48) were exquisite. Dandelion describes them thusly, “we cut Seed + Mill halva into squares; layer them over creamy, mellow … chocolate-cardamom ganache; then enrobe the cubes in our classically chocolatey 70% House Blend chocolate. Each bite progresses through smooth, flaky, and sweet: Sesame melts in the mouth, and cardamom notes in the velvety ganache unite nutty and chocolatey flavors.” (Fig 5). I have loved halva since I was a kid and this bonbon takes it to another whole level. Enamored as I was of the halva itself, I bought a sampler directly from Seed + Mill - pistachio, cardamon and dark chocolate with coconut. (Fig 6)
Our Christmas Eve dinner was easy and delicious. The Feast of the Seven Fishes was our inspiration. I thought it was an Italian tradition. Turns out, it’s an Italian-American one. The 7 might refer to the Seven Sacraments or the seven hills of Rome or maybe something else…..We have never made it to 7 and we have never eaten the fish suggested for this feast. We concentrate on shell fish - shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, lobster, etc. This Christmas Eve we had two fish - Alison Roman’s simply perfect shrimp scampi pasta. And bagna cauda, the classic Italian garlic, olive oil and anchovy dip. I served it with puntarella, the hard to find Italian chicory that was the star of the pre-Christmas box of chicories from Dirty Girl Farms. (Fig 7)
For dessert, it was another Alison Roman recipe, lemon cream pie that I made using Meyer lemons from our neighbor’s tree - gifted not grabbed! Alison ditches the traditional crust and calls for a graham cracker one. It tastes much better and it’s way easier to make. Instead of meringue, Alison calls for heavy whipped cream mixed with sour cream. I substituted Greek yogurt and felt very virtuous. (Fig 8)
Since December 25 was the first day of Chanukah, I planned to serve latkes and smoked salmon for brunch. Yes, I know, Chanukah doesn’t really start until sundown on the first day but I decided that was a technicality. What wasn’t a technicality was the extra pound of shrimp in the fridge. Only one solution, a riff on the lobster rolls that my mother-in-law made for us whenever we visited my husband’s parents in Maine. Buttered brioche buns with big chunks of sautéed shrimp in a light lemon mayonnaise dressing with minced celery and shallots. A delicious way to use the unexpected bounty of shrimp and save the latkes for after sundown. A win-win.
Following Melissa Clark’s recipe for Pork Porchetta, our skin on, bone in pork shoulder had been marinating overnight. We began roasting it at noon. The first 35 minutes at 450°, the next 6 hours at 300°. Melissa’s recipe estimates the total cooking time as between 2 3/4 and 4 hours - the longer time for bone in-skin on. The first time I made this, I followed the recipe exactly. I expected our 7 pound boneless, skinless pork shoulder to be done in about 3 hours. I put it into the oven at 4:00 p.m. and told my family we would eat at 7:00. By 8 p.m. the roast wasn’t done and everybody was hungry and cranky. Cheese and crackers for Christmas that year! The next year, again following Melissa’s directions, we roasted the meat until the internal temperature was 180°. But, like the year before, we had sliced pork, not pulled pork. That’s when I began reading other readers’ comments. Now we lower the temperature to 300° (instead of 325) after the initial 35 minutes and we let it roast until the interior temperature is at least 195° (not 180°).
We spent our afternoon in congenial parallel play. I read the book I will be reviewing for next week. Nicolas studied for his TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate which he will need if he wants to teach English when he gets to China. Ginevra took and processed photographs - among them one of all of us wearing the black watch plaid robes I bought at LL Bean. (Fig 9)
The roast reached an internal temperature of 200° at 7:00 p.m. The one thing I have learned about cooking these roasts for the past 6 years is that unlike other cuts of meat and so many other things, the longer you cook a pork shoulder, the more succulent and delicious it becomes. After all that time in the oven, the roast needed to rest. Trationally we used that time to make Yorkshire pudding with pork fat. This year, we made latkes sautéed in pork fat instead. (Fig 10) Please don’t tell anyone! Ginevra made mini tartes tatin (Fig 11) using another Melissa Clark recipe. They were perfectly delicious and the perfect size after such a rich dinner.
The best part of too much meat has begun. We’ve been feasting on tacos and burritos and nachos. Our pulled pork sandwiches with melted provolone on top was devine as was our Pulled Pork Pasta using a Colu Henry recipe and a jar of tomato sauce from Dirty Girl Farms. (Figs 12, 13) When they don’t have enough fresh vegetables, they just nestle a jar of strawberry jam or one of tomato sauce into the box.
Our Christmas tree is especially festive this year with four new ornaments - three from Gaudi buildings and one from Giverny. As I look at the ornaments, I can recall the hows and whys and when most of them joined the curated collection that we have accumulated over the years. The oldest ornament is from a Christmas party I was invited to when I was a Smithsonian Fellow living in Washington, D.C. It has been with me for nearly 50 years. In the mid-80s, before my husband and I left for Australia, we lived just off Sacramento St. in Pacific Heights. There was an empty store front that became a pop up Christmas ornament shop from Thanksgiving to New Years. That’s where I began to build our ornament collection. From the first Christmas we spent in Australia, we have simple wood and felt ornaments from the Marimekko boutique in Sydney. There’s a gondolier we bought one year in Venice and a ballerina and Nutcracker from years we saw The Nutcracker. There are beaded figures from a native American shop on Union St. and a tin angel from the Mexican Museum in Fort Mason. In 1995, we bought a special ornament at Gumps, the crooked street, on which we lived when we first moved back from Australia. A couple years ago I brought home about 50 Eiffel Tower key chains. Sprinkled all over the tree, they glimmer when the sunlight catches them. Last year, Nicolas made handblown ornaments and gave me a few. Ornaments are a joyful chronicle of my family history. (Figs 14-17)
My initial plan for this week’s post was a ‘this year in photos.’ But trying to keep the images to two or three a month was impossible. I traveled a lot in 2024 - often Proust related - Cabourg in February where I stayed at the same hotel Proust stayed from 1907-1914. I went to Illiers-Combray to visit the home of Proust’s Aunt Leonie. Nicolas and I went to Berlin in May. Ginevra and I walked the Camino and visited Barcelona in October. In between, for one week, I stayed in Dives-sur-Mer, which is located between Cabourg and Houlgate where Proust’s grandmother had a house. I spent another week in St. Malo and finally saw Mont Saint Michel. (Figs 18-23)
In Paris this year, I saw so many exhibitions - at museums I visit a lot, like the Musées Carnavelet, d’Orsay, Louvre and Pompidou; the Marmottan-Monet, Jacquemart-Andre, Picasso and Cognac-Jay; the Fondation Louis Vuitton and the Bourse, the Petit Palais and the Luxembourg. And museums that were new to me, MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie), Musée de la Chaise and Bibliothèque Forney.(Figs 24, 25). And for months, Paris was Olympics City. The opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics were so visually rich and provocative. (Fig 26) I am so grateful that I could share some of all of this with you. Thanks for being here and reading these posts, it means the world to me. Looking forward to sharing mostly art, often eating adventures with you in 2025. Gros Bisous and Bonne Année, Dr. B.
Thanks to everyone who took time to write through the year, your Comments are much much appreciated.
New comment on Tornados and Misers and Fools, Oh My!!:
How about a tour? I would do Paris, Provence and ? with you! P.S…If I listen to another woman talk about her husbands prostate, I’m going to run screaming into the ocean. I look forward to your Musings. Joalle, Wilmington, NC
Oh, Cher Beverly! What a clever metaphor: “I’m sure that some of the trees whose branches fell or whose trunks were compromised have been in the park for a very long time. If nature hath no fury like a woman scorned, you guys better stay on the straight and narrow …..” and it beautifully segues into fools and foolery. What a brilliant writer you are! And that reminds me of something that I thought while reading your description of “A Whynot Christmas Carol,” a personal thought, perhaps idiosyncratic: I had so much rather read the story and enjoy the play in my head than sit in a theater watching actors portray it! Morris, N. Carolina
I appreciate the many historical ', linguistic insights into the works in this edition. In not sticking to just art, you give a great insight into the art and social happenings of the time, Harriet, Massachusetts
I’m with you on the tornado. Who would have thought? Did you see the video from Scott’s Valley near Santa Cruz? I am in Walnut Creek; about ten am, there was a vortex of wind and leaves pulled right off the trees on a big grassy area on my lawn. Fast, furious but mercifully short.
Thanks for all of your writing offering content, humor, critique and family sharing. A very Joyeux Noël and Happy 2025. Barbara
Beverly. Merry Christmas.Thanks for a year of fun and artful reports. John, Miami & Paris