Valentine’s Day in Providence and Gearing up for Paris

Well we got our January thaw in February. Better late than never I suppose. Anyway, it made many of us remember with fondness and longing that there is a season called Spring and it’s really around the corner. But, since the temps dropped back to a more normal range a few days back, that means we still have chunks of ice hiding here and there, camouflaged as curbing or sidewalk.

In less than a month Susie will be in Paris. That’s a fact. I’ll take her to Logan airport in Boston on Saturday the 14th of March and she arrives the following day after a quick connect in London’s Heathrow. I’ll join her three weeks later.

Her plan -- and already I envy this -- her plan is to go back to Alliance Francais on Boulevard Raspail in the 6th arr. where she’ll take French lessons every weekday morning for the first two weeks. On March 30 she begins “Entremets,” her first professional development course at Le Cordon Bleu.

I arrive on April 4 and on April 7 she begins her second course, “Chocolate and Confectionery" and the following week she tackles “Plated Desserts and Viennoiserie.”

Aside from a quick trip to Siena one weekend -- yet to be determined -- and a train trip to southern France to see Richard and Pauline in Mouchan, probably from April 27-29, at the tail end of our journey, we have no other plans. We return to the U.S. on April 30.

Already it doesn’t seem like enough time -- but how incredibly lucky we are to be going at all.

And speaking of luck, work at JWU has been good -- the university’s website keeps evolving and changing, which means there is work to be done. Like Brad says, websites are living documents and indeed they have the uncanny tendency to take on a life of their own. The web presents itself in print-like form, it is true, but it is so much more at the same time. Incredible evolution in our species I’d say.

Susie’s work has been very demanding lately, particularly getting ready for Valentine’s Day. The good news, for Gracie’s and for the local economy one hopes, is that the restaurant broke all their previous records on Saturday, February 14. More than 200 people came to eat, enjoy life and try to put aside the unpleasantness of the moment, vagaries of life that often bring discomfort.

Anyway, Susie’s piece de resistance was a dessert tasting for two consisting of:

• Chocolate macaroons with salted caramel filling
• White chocolate toffee espresso tart
• Passion creme profiteroles
  
• Dark chocolate raspberry terrine
• Chocolate orange pot de creme

As for us, well we had a quiet meal at home that evening -- after more than 11 hours doing pastries I thought I would cook and let Susie relax and just BE. So I grilled a couple of filets, topped them with Stilton butter and we had a side of mini-casseroles of mashed potato, sautéed mushrooms with balsamic and bacon, layered into ramekins and baked off at the last minute. Paired with a 1996 Silver Oak, it was not half bad.

Sunday we hosted a small family get together at our place for dinner: Susie’s sister Mary and her daughter Mallory, and Dick and Dorothy. Dorothy brought a tasty peppers and feta cheese salad, followed by my salty-sweet flank steaks on the grill with potato galette and a Brunello di Montalcino.

As for my dad's saga, we have agreed to have my older brother Don tested, just to rule out any mathematical issues. That will happen in the next week or so. Closure, for want of a better term and that is a pretty good one, closure is at hand we think.

Life is, all in all, pretty good right now.

Life is good indeed, but life is short.