Tricksters & Treats

Well, there's been a staggering amount of stuff going on these past few weeks, which has meant precious little time for blogging.

For starters, we've seen a good number of great plays and concerts of late. Two fantastic plays were Christoph Marthaller's Winch Only and Olivier Py's Illusions comiques. I'm tempted to say - in fact, I will say - that they were among the very best I've ever seen. But then again, they're in a lot of great company, so... So on to the concerts! Père Ubu (of the inimitable David Thomas. I went to see this one thanks to Manu's stopping by early that evening with a ticket and a good shove in the right direction. And David Thomas was in a great mood, to boot!), Matt Elliot (Jean-Philippe's turn to hang out with Manu and sway to great music), Divine Comedy and Calexico(-oh-Calexico). I'd never seen the other two in concert, and was very very glad to have finally done so. But I'd been waiting a long while for Calexico's return. And they did not disappoint. Ah, no! Not one note of anything but pure pleasure.

We never take the camera to concerts (nor to plays, for that matter), so there's none of the above to show. But! We did take the camera to Caroline & Fred's Hallowe'en party. And then to Berlin. Pictures from the former can be found below. Pictures of the latter will have to wait another day or so...

p.s. That's a monster finger I'm being fed by my mummy-friend and finger cook, Anne-Sophie. Mmmm!

p.p.s. I went as Teenaged Sister of the Swamp Thing(s).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRAMMA!

It was SO good to talk with you the other day - although obviously, given the choice, I would much rather have been there with you a few days later for the birthday celebrations. Snif! Many squillions of hugs and kisses to you from me & the Beinert Boys Three.
(These are pictures from the day before and the evening after Ellen & Donnie's wedding, in May. I didn't have any pictures of the Fantastic Four Hogan Wimmin together, so there's a bit of collage-ing going on.)

Pumpkin Muffins & Eating Local

I was thinking that we were doing pretty well with the the concept of eating local (and also organic), but didn't realise just how well we were doing until Ellen blogged about it recently. (I don't yet know how to link things within the blog, so if any of you do, feel free to tell me all!) Since then, I've realised that we're doing much better than we'd thought, and most of the time without really thinking about it. Take the dinner we put together Wednesday the 18th: Everything we ate and drank was from Alsace or just over the border in Germany. I popped the pumpkin for the next day's escapades into the oven as I began to prepare a dinner of Potato Pancakes, Salmonised Trout,* Roquette leaves with Fromage Blanc Sauce & Jenny's Own Apple Butter. Even the sugar and the butter were locally made! & on the liquid side, our boys had organic Raspberry Drink and we had half of one of the last bottles of Alsatian Tokay Pinot Gris on the market (since Hungary won their case, and got the name Tokaj (or Tokay) back. It'll all come from the same vines, so it really doesn't matter. Except that it does. To some. It's a long story).

* The boys ate their portion of trout while we were waiting for Dally's return, then dipped into their knacks (Alsatian hot dogs, in a way) when we were all together at the table. But they didn't like them half as much as the trout, so they helped themselves to our portions of the "fiss," too.

The next morning, I wheeled out in a rush before the males of the household had even got their socks on, in order to get to school in time and get everything set up and ironed out for... Muffin Making! Leo & Tomi's class was learning about taste this week, and Hallowe'en was creeping up. So their teacher, Muriel, and I got our heads together and came up with the idea (pure folly) of making Pumpkin Muffins with 24 three/four year olds. And we did it! With the help of Christine, without whom I'm not sure we'd have done half so well. The only thing I forgot was my camera, and I've only got a couple photos from Muriel so far, but these should give you an idea of the scene: (That's Leo, stirring. The boy in the picture with me is neither of my children...)

Walkyries & Big! Boys! Beds!

To begin with, I keep meaning to mention the following:

The second or third day of thist first school year, our neighbour and I were walking out with our children at noon, when we heard this blast of music over the in-&-outdoor loudspeakers... Wagner's Ride of the Walkyries!

We laughed and laughed, and figured it was a one-off joke or something. But a couple of days later I heard it again, and figured out what it was. It's their version of the school bell! The second time I heard it, we were out in the courtyard. When the Walkyries began their ride, all of the children who'd been blitzing around came to and formed orderly queues in front of the lunchtime supervisors, who began ticking their names off and then tooko them in for lunch.

I've heard this blast of music many times since, and it still results in a bubble of laughter from the pit of the stomach...

And now, on to Big! Boys! Beds!

BEFORE About ten nights ago, the boys were monkeying around in their cribs, when: BLAM! half of the bottom fell out of Tomi's (the other half was still hooked in above). We weren't happy about it, but then again, the crib was still useable; Tomi would just be much closer to the floor. But then, a few nights later, there was an unusual amount of blanging and blunking around in there after we'd kissed the boys good-night. We investigated. And found both boys furiously jumpng up and down in Leo's bed. When they saw us, they happily screetched: "BREAK! BED! CASSER! LE LIT!" We put a momentary end to that behaviour, but decided that it was time to make a trip to Ikea...

DURING

AFTER So, yeah, we're awfully sad about the beautiful cribs being dismantled and waiting further orders in the hallway. (uhm... Speaking of which: anybody need a crib?) BUT! we are happy that they are SO HAPPY to have "BIG! BOYS! BEDS!"; happy that we can sit or lie down with them on their Big Boys' Beds; and happy to have been able to toss the changing pad and begin using their dresser-top-changing-table as a dresser top, rather than as a changing table. (It had a piece that made it the latter unless you took it off, at which time it became the former.)

Leo & the Badger & Then Some

This past weekend was spent destroying all of our best laid plans, which only means what it means, since the revised plans were at least as good as the originals.

Saturday was spent walking about Strasbourg, from the model car store on our street that provides a daily dose of obsessive pointing and screetching from our little monkeys...
to the farmers' market at Place des Rohan...
to an art market at Place de Zurich (none of the market art in the pictures, though. Just local architecture and a look at our leavings from the coffee we had there on our way back through after lunch)...
to a late lunch at our erstwhile favourite neighbourhood restaurant, Al Boustane (that is, we used to live in the neighbourhood and used to eat well there often, despite the definate lack of aesthetic pull - and that's putting it very lightly), to a lovely little courtyard that invited us in...
to the toilets and the courtyard at the Rohan Palace...
to the carousel at Place Gutenberg...
and back home to an evening of chatting with Eric & Joël (of which the only existing pictures are of my attempt at an Eva Longoria smile)...

Sunday was meant to be spent mushroom hunting, but things didn't turn out at all as we'd expected. Here is an overview of the odd meal on the strange terrace of Au Boeuf, in Barr; followed by the antics on said terrace; followed by a walk into the vineyards, at which point half of us realised that the other half was missing (and vice versa). There was a long wait among the grapes, a reunion and a walk back down towards the train station, with a stop in ye aulde favourite Winstub, Au Tonnelet.











And here, at long last, is the Badger! Tomi had been staring at something to my right for a few moments, when he suddenly turned and grabbed my arm, saying, "Mommy! Look!" then lapsed into this silent scream face. After another moment or two, he said, "This!" and pointed to the stuffed badger in the corner, then did the (now recognisable as the badger) face again:

Strasbourg's 1st Eat Local Challenge

Voilà! A page dedicated to Strasbourg's 1st Eat Local Challenge, held chez nous on the 5th of October 2006. For more information, please see my sister Ellen's Friday Night Fun blog entry (on the list to the right of this blog entry).

Here is Marion, a.k.a, Cuisine Queen, hard at work buttering and spicing apples to be slid into the oven and baked as a side dish:

And here is Anne-Sophie, buttering up the chefs & spicing up the evening with her whopping tales, all the while sipping an (Alsatian) Kronenberg beer:


Well, we tried. And we almost succeeded. The unsuccessful parts were my fault, actually, since I hadn't mentioned the Challenge before the others' arrival (though the dinner was supposed to be Tuesday night, but was changed to Wednesday night because of the farmers' market - a pure coincidence!), and I changed my dessert idea at the second-to-the-last second, forgetting for that second that bananas aren't grown in Alsace, and rum is not distilled here, either. Eek! & Manu would have brought Alsatian white wine, except that my original plan was for a meal that went with reds. The seemingly minor addition of pork Kassler to the menu was made at the third-to-the-last second, so... so half of the wine came from a bit further than the 150 miles stipulated. Still! The bacon used in the fig & bacon roll starters, the pumpkins and the fresh corriander used for the purée, the pork Kassler, the apples, and the cabbage used in the salad were all from local producers, and all bought that morning at the farmers' market. The white wine was Alsatian and so was the horseradish. And the figs (see above) and the rum & bananas used as dessert were organic. Does that count at all, despite the fact that they had to be sent via pollution-prone airplanes? No? Shucks. Okay, well... We'll do better next time. But here's the truly local part, in any case:

As the remaining diners were gearing up for the brisk ride or walk home, Anne-Sophie's swank helmet came out (she got herself a beautiful white Vespa to go with it. Ehm... or was it the other way around?). And here's the result of our collective try at provding pictures of her eldest daughter for my mother, who complained very sweetly just recently about a perceived lack of same:

And here are Jimmy & Manu:

And here is... Jimmy?!

p.s. Jean-Philippe was washing wee boys at the beginning and readying himself for a trip to the Land of Nod when the camera came out again towards the end. But he and his taste buds were most definately there. The boys made a quick appearence after their bath, giggled & zoomed around, and were whisked away to two much needed beds.

Memory Game Champions

So this morning we woke up to torrential rains and a definate drop in temps. The boys' spring/autumn light rain gear seemed inadequate, so I pulled out their winter Columbia shells and (of course) the lovely rain boots that Ellen's mother-of-twins friend had kindly passed along to us. & then, as I was putting Tomi's jacket on him, he chirruped: "Ennen jacket!" & yes, their aunt Ellen had given the jackets to the boys. But you know, they hadn't seen these jackets since... well... last April, I think. & no, I hadn't said anything about them being jackets from Ellen today, and probably hadn't said it since some while before the last time they wore them.

Children's memories are so impressive.

Here they are, all gussied up & leaving school last (because Tomi escaped while I was dressing Leo, and had to be tracked down - out in the rain on the playground! - and then they both had to pee and to wash their hands as many times as they could get away with in the cool, round, porcelain kiddy sink):

Fathers & Sons... & Godfathers

Monday through part of Wednesday were spent being sick and getting better, and then...

27 September > Dally took the afternoon off, and we took a beautiful autumnal walk along the quays, not far from our place:

After which, we decided that it was a good evening for a rare takeaway. Jean-Philippe & Leo took a quick detour to the bank, and Tomi & I ordered at our favourite local Thai takeaway and waited for the other two. The light outside had been beautiful before, but it had turned to an eerily gorgeous green. I tried unsuccessfully to get it on film, then did a better job with Tomi, who crouched when I crouched, and then decided that if we were going to wait, he might as well really take a load off:

29 September > Before his dally left for work, Tomi asked if he could help him find a t-shirt for Teddy. He was very happy when Dally actually found a discarded doll outfit that fit perfectly, and set about afterwards finding places to set his teddy down and admire him:

Later, at the park, I heard a familiar voice call my name out, looked over, and there was the boys' Aunt, Tata Théma. Oncle Laurent & Cousine Ariane were not far behind...

And even later, we stopped by the first of this year's Panimixes.* If it ain't obvious, Friday's theme was Panimix vs. the Godfather.

Manu D, Christophe, Nadia & Guillaume.

Manu S. handing out their collectors' cards (to Angela).

* Panimix is a group of friends who put together a (once-monthly, now) every-two-months-ly evening of DJ-ed music, film & animation, food & drink & fun at a café/bar nearby. The running theme is football/soccer, and each soirée has a different set of teams or themes. It's somewhat hard to explain, so I don't know if that makes any sense to anybody who's never been...

01 October > The day begins with a B Family Gathering at our place. I made the fig & bacon balls and the pumpkin soup starter, and Jean-Philippe made the lamb & onion curry and the pear pie. Mmmm! The wines were thanks to all of our vacations. Mmmm x 2 ( !! ) Mémé Renée, Pépé Roland & Cousine Ariane

& dinner was followed by a tram ride to Place Broglie, where a sprawling flea market was winding down. Unfortunately, my hands were full of our finds by the time we found Candice's stand, so I got no pictures of her & her butterfly rainboots. Pépé, Tonton Laurent, Mémé, Ariane, Théma, Jean-Philippe & Tomi

The Majorette (French Hot Wheels?) garage was the Big Deal of the Day. It wasn't in anything close to mint condition, but was worth the 4 Euros for the excitement and fun it's given the boys for the past 24 hours. Can't beat that with a licorice stick! Leo was so intent upon getting it home that he refused to entrust it to anybody's but his own hands