Snow stom and Flood in the North of France

I have only realized today that the North of France is 200 km long, as much as the distance from Ottawa to Montréal.  For those who live in the North region, they would say : "I'm from the South of the North, or the North of North."  (je vis dans le sud du nord ou le nord du nord).  That's how long is the region, it is narrow as well. 

You can have two different weather conditions in the same region.  Yesterday was terrible.  In Lille, they had snow storm and blackouts.  From were I am, almost of the tip of the North region (near Dunkerque), we didn't have snow but pouring rain all day long.  We were flooded!

This is a little cascade in the garden.  I couldn't even get my mail.

When I woke up this morning, most of the excess water has disappeared.  I must say, I was relieved.  I could have been worse, we didn't have any blackout.

Asian Feast

Since I live in France, I do less and less asian cooking.  I get frustated for not finding all the ingredients I want.  I live more than 45 min away from Lille, and that is pretty much the only place I can purchase asian products.  Also, asian cooking takes a lot of time.  Chop chop chop, mix mix grind grind grind...My mom usually cooks meals 1 hour ahead.  My French MIL, would take less than 15 minutes to make a savory meal.  I would even get stressed out for her, for not starting making dinner at 6:45pm.  So from then on, I've decided not to spend so much time cooking.

Yesterday I was in Lille, so I got my ingredients to make an Asian feast! lol

I just made fried dumplings.

For my filling, I just put whatever vegetables I have on hands: shitake mushrooms, cabbage, leeks, shallots and onions.  

Then I chopped all the vegetables in the mixer.  I have cooked the vegetables and let it cool first before adding 500g of ground beef.  I made the dumplings with some store bought sheets.

When you are done with all the wrapping, you fry them.

I like some vegetables to go with the dumplings.  I boiled some bokchoys.

There you go, the finished result.  We had sake to wash them down.

I also made dessert: this is tapioca pudding with bananas.  Ingredients: tapioca pearls, one can of coconut milk, sugar to taste and 3 bananas.

Have a nice Sunday.

If you want a more authentic dumpling recipe, here's a link to one of my favorite food goddess:

http://userealbutter.com/2007/10/04/chinese-dumplings-and-potstickers-recipe/

Merkozy

I just saw on TV that Mr. François Hollande, the Socialist front runner for the French presidency, has been snubbed or even worse boycotted by Angela Merkel, and her Italian, Spanish and English counterparts.  They will not welcome the Socialist Candidate in their country.  They are not happy with the idea that François Hollande, if elected, would  renegociate the fiscal treaty for the Euro zone bailout plan.

I don't think that it is appropriate for Angela Merkel to interfer with the politics of France.  We all know that Merkel and Sarko are a team, also known as Merkozy.  Sarko wants to hold on to his power and he is willing to do whatever it takes to stay in power, even with the helps of his friends.

Here a link to a funny picture of the Carnaval in germany:

http://www.duesseldorf-blog.de/tag/karneval-dusseldorf/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/nicolas-sarkozy/9064363/Angela-Merkel-openly-backs-Nicolas-Sarkozy-in-political-storm.html

http://www.publicsenat.fr/lcp/politique/ps-d-nonce-boycott-hollande-merkel-homologues-italien-espagnol-britannique-219092

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/02/28/cameron-snubs-hollande/

Sarko hué à Bayonne

ooooh!  excusez-moi si je parle beaucoup de politique en ce moment mais, c'est bientôt les élections.  Le 22 avril,ce sera le premier tour des élections en France.  Ensuite, le 6 mai on connaîtra définitivement le nouveau président.  En résumé, les Français voteront 2 fois.  En ce moment, les candidats à la présidentielle se livrent une lutte sans merci.  Les accusations fusent de toute part.  La dernière en date, provient de Sarkozy.  Je vous mets en contexte, le président sortant décide d'aller à Bayonne, soit disant le fief des autonomistes Basques.  Sarkozy a pris un bain de foule, et contre tout attente, il s'est fait hué comme un mal-propre.  D'habitude, on lui sélectionne même les individus qui auront le privilège de lui serrer la main.  Il a alors attribué cet incident aux socialistes, et les a accusé d'avoir organisé avec des indépendantistes basques cette manifestation de rue.  Il cherche à faire des amalgames et n'accepte pas qu'il ne soit pas adulé partout où il passe.

Est-ce qu'ils ont l'air de vrais terroristes basques? lol

Writer's block

I haven't posted since last Saturday.  There is nothing new worth writing about. I have the writer's block.   I am not in any way a writter.  The purpose of this blog is mostly to write more in English.

All I can say is that the sky has been grey for several weeks in North of France.  At least, it's not raining.  I hope the weather will be nice this weekend, so I can go to the shore, De Panne, in Belgium.  It is not too far from were I live.  http://www.depanne.be

photo from : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:De_Panne_Dunes_et_plage.jpg

My husband and I enjoy going further North, (Belgium and Netherlands,..).  It is closer for short  weekend getaways. I have relatives in Dijon, in Bourgogne region.  It takes more than 5 hours to get there by car.  And taking the highway is expensive: it could cost us up to 80 euros of tolls for roundtrip.  You can also take  the high speed train, but it will cost you as much.  It is not cheap to travel across France. So for now, it will be Belgium and the Netherlands.

Anyway, Happy March to all, hope it will be sunny!