About to Depart

This will be a slightly sad post. On Monday, Graham and I have to leave Paris. And we can’t stop talking about all of the things we’re going to miss.

But instead of writing a mopey little post full of nostalgia, I’ll try to cheer myself up by (of course) talking about food and thinking of the nice things about returning home.

I do have a little problem: we haven’t been cooking much. Graham’s seminar has been taking place, and I’ve been working pretty hard to do most of the travel planning, while trying to write a bunch of lectures and a couple of dissertation chapters. But we’ve cooked a little!

We’ve made some wonderful tomato-basil pasta with almond parmesan,

some avocado, vegusto and pistou sandwiches,

more polenta with roasted asparagus and carrots,

and gomasio noodles, with avocado, broccoli, smoked tofu, sesame oil, and chili oil.

We’ve also been taking advantage of a lot of the (surprisingly healthy) packaged food that’s available, like these little vegan leek quiches, made with cashews,

and pain des amis from Du Pain et Des Idees.

It’s so good!

One experiment I did recently that totally worked out was gluten-free chocolate blinis.

They’re basically like little brownie pancakes. I haven’t yet figured out how to make then really pretty–but they would be great with some fruit compote, or under ice cream!

I used

-chickpea flour
-corn starch
-sugar
-cocoa powder
-baking powder
-salt
-water
-chocolate chunks
-shredded coconut
-veg butter

As usual, I have no recipe. But I used enough chickpea flour and water to get the consistency of thick pancake batter, and enough cocoa powder to make them really, really dark. The dough isn’t so fun to eat raw (uncooked chickpea flour tastes a little like raw green beans), but for some reason once you cook them the green-beany taste is gone and you’re basically eating a brownie. A brownie filled with protein!

This allows you to see the little coconut chunks.

So, even though there are things I’m looking forward to about heading back to the US, we’re going with a little trepidation, since we have a very long journey ahead of us. Our itinerary:

1) Go to Barcelona for 4 days (so that Graham can attend a conference);
2) Fly to Savannah (by way of Philadelphia and Charlotte);
3) Drive to North Carolina;
4) Drive all around North Carolina, for about 3 weeks;
5) Drive to Arkansas;
6) Drive to Indiana;
7) Move into our apartment.

In the grand scheme of things, all of these stops along our way are privileges to make, so I definitely won’t complain. But it’s a lot. And did I mention we both are teaching for the first time in the fall? And that we’re writing dissertations?

But there really are things I’m looking forward to. We get to attend two weddings, one in Savannah, and one in Durham, both of which I think will be really fun. In between those two weddings, I’ll get to visit with my mom on the North Carolina beach, while also visiting with my paternal grandfather, who I haven’t been able to see in a very long time.

I’ll get to see my dad and his family (which is now one member bigger) when we head to Arkansas. I’m very excited to see my little brothers again, and to meet my new sister!

We’re also, of course, looking forward to being able to see our Hoosier friends. It’s hard to socialize living in Paris while your French is so bad!

And, perhaps one of the greatest treats of all will be spending some quality time with our favorite little Hoosiers.

Oh, and real nutritional yeast! That will be fun, too.