I took a crepe lesson with a friend 2 weeks ago.

It was taught by the very same instructor who taught the French Cooking class that I took previously. As usual, she prepared wine and more than enough food for everyone. It was a fun night experiencing the different types of crepes.

We usually think of crepe as dessert. But there are many different types of crepes, though I'm still not very used to it, savory ones are also very popular.

This is a rye crepe with smoke salmon, red radish and cream cheese with dill filling.


Our instructor prepared 5 or 6 different kinds of batter for us to taste (and make). Each was different and I enjoyed them all very much. The use of not just buckwheat but also corn, rye, whole wheat, orange zest, herbs...etc. in making the batter to match with different fillings was something new to me.

I particularly liked the sweet batter with herbs. It was delicious and went well with simple fillings like tomato and cheese. Other than just wrapping it into a cone (that's the very typical scene we see in Japan), we also baked some with cheese, ate some like an open sandwich, and so on and so on. .

We wrapped spinach and cream sauce(close enough) filling in a buckwheat crepe, rolled them up and topped it with some cheese and baked for 15 minutes.


If you wonder how it looked it, this is it. Rich in flavor so it's really a dinner dish to me.


We had a lot of fun making our own crepes. We started off with some fairly thick and ugly looking crepes but we improved as we made more and were able to achieve making thinner ones towards the end of the lesson. The next thing would probably be to bring home a crepe pan and start making them at home! haha


There were so many crepes that we couldn't finish trying every single type so we brought some home for the next day. Here we have a whole wheat or buckwheat crepe with ham and cheese, the other one is a corn crepe with chicken filling (see below). I also brought home some crepe suzette for hubby.




Actually speaking of the crepe suzette we made, there was a little incident while our instructor was playing with fire. With a bit too much grand marnier in the pan, the flame got a bit aggressive and caught on her hair (just a little bit). So we learn not to be too greedy or we'd have a new hair style by the time we can sit down to taste our crepe suzette.

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我がキッチンでは３種類の塩を使っています。



普通の塩、海塩、そしてKosher Saltという種類(実はただの粗い塩だけどね）です。

去年フランスに行ったときモンサンミシェルから当地の塩も買ってきました、確かに料理も違う味がしたので、料理によって違う塩を使うと味も奥深くなるんだと実感しました。

しかし・・・種類が多すぎて使い方も全く分からないのでそこまで研究する精神がないと思います。（＾＾；；

とにかくこの3種類で頑張っています。

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These are the 3 different kinds of salt I've been using at home.

Regular salt, sea salt, and kosher salt.
kosher salt sounds like something that's kosher but it's actually just normal salt that's not as fine (smaller rock salt). They call it kosher in America because they make things kosher.

There are so many different kinds of salt available out there but 3 is enough for me at the moment. I yet have to learn to maximize their flavor in different cookings.

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この季節になると、どこに行ってもハーブを売っていてついつい自分で植えたくなってきます。
前からやりたかったので、この前Ｂｅｌｍｏｎｔのfarmer's marketでいくつを買ってきました。

lavendar, thai basil, Sweet Basil


mint (spearmint?) and rosemary


greek oregano, golden thyme


tomato


thyme と oreganoの香りは本当にいいですよね。
そのうちこれらは使って料理を作ります！ｐ（＃＾ー＾＃）ｑ

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My first time planting herb. Well, it's nothing like planting them from seeds but it's fun enough!
You see so many of them on sale this time of the year making you want to be part of the party.
Actually it's much cheaper to grow your own than to buy them from the supermarket. Plus they taste much better when cut fresh before cooking. So this is my first attempt, see how it goes!

My first mission is to keep them alive!

The little flowers of thyme are really cute!


Oregano may not look very pretty, but it smells great! And Greek oregano is the must have in any kitchen (based on a book that I read).

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アメリカはカナダと違って、一年の中一番大きいセールがThanksgivingの後にあるBlack Fridayに行われます。

カナダではクリスマスの次の日にBoxing Day Saleが行われるのです。

ここではBoxing　Dayの話をしても、「何それ？」と聞かれたりしますので、やっぱり近くても文化が違いますね。

さてさて、Thanksgivingの後は早速クリスマスの飾りが街中をいい雰囲気にしましたが、New Yearの後はなんと早速バレンタインデーの品物が売り始めたのです。

この前（1月4日）ホテルの近くにあるCVSに行った時撮った写真です。
とても広くて綺麗なCVSだったので、思わず写真を沢山撮っておきました。

ピンク、赤の列が凄い！


見てみると、バレンタインスペシャルのチョコが沢山。
まずはM&M's、そしてKisses,Crunchなど











変わった商品も沢山あったけど、レジに近かったので写真を撮りませんでした。
アメリカと日本はやっぱり似てるところが多いですね。商品が違っても、売り出すスピードを考えると、日本よりも早いきがするね。

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