It was a buh-last playing for all those nice folks on Friday! The evening was a success. I’d like to that the Showboys and the Fills for playing before us and captivating the audience. Also I’d like to that Orange for having us. I’d like to thank the neighbors for not calling the cops even though we left the door open; it was a tiny room, boy, was it a hot night–in Dresden terms. And most of all, I want to thank all the cool folks who came, cheered, danced, patronized our illegal bar, got sexy, and simply made the whole affair worthwhile.

For y’all who missed it, and for those who’d like to reminisce, here’s the whole DDC set uncut (runs approx. 2:05).

Look behind you!

Red Bean Veggie Burgers

This is a recipe I came up with last July 4th in Paris.

1 can red beans, drained (but keep the liquid)
Approx 1/2 – 1 Cup bread crumbs (about 1/3 of 4 day old baguette)
1 onion, diced
1- 4 Garlic cloves, cut up way tiny
1 small hot pepper, minced
approx 1T cumin
Salt and Pepper
Worchestershershirestershire sauce
Oil
Flour

I wanted to add egg, but they were 86ed and it turns out weren’t necessary anyway.

Take half the beans and pulse them shortly in the processor to make some chunks — don’t puree. The other half can be chopped up quite nicely with the garlic, onion and chili, cumin, adding just a tad of the bean can liquid to help things along.

Those, along with the breadcrumbs mix very quickly with a spoon in a large bowl, adding the salt and pepper, a little splash of Worchestershire and maybe a tad of olive oil. Just a little sprinkling of flour helped make it stick together a bit more.

This mixture makes about 4 or 5 patties, which you can let chill for a few minutes while getting a few other things ready.

We had a few red potatoes that looked pretty pitiful, so I made fries out of them. Hamburger buns are more readily available in Paris than, say, Dresden, but they are not very good. I used a pack of four small mini chiabata rolls, the prebaked kind. Liberally sprinkling them with milk before baking them makes them not quite as tough.  If you have time, the best buns you’ll ever have are homemade ones: use a regular bread recipe and half – half bread flour and whole wheat flour.

The patties fry on each side for maybe 6 minutes, but handle them carefully as they are somewhat fragile.  Or brush with olive oil before grilling.

We didn’t have much in the way of standard condiments, but this turned out to be a good thing. After all, no matter the recipe, veggie burgers will never be the same as real meat, so why not take it in another direction? We had them on the toasted ciabata rolls with strong mustard, sliced cornichons (there were only 3 left) and lamb’s lettuce (Mache, Feldsalat)

Here’s a video from some footage I took back in March. That water was cold. Julie went swimming anyway. The bécasseau (calidrid) went on with their game of cat and mouse with the tide. From the top of the lighthouse, the ground looked like a miniature. Then a helicopter exploded.

Julie has joined a drum troupe (70 djembes strong, woah) and they are rocking out in a couple weeks at Halle aux Grains.

Animator Hans Bacher entry over Easter weekend.  I would have liked to have been aware of this during last weekends trip to Amboise.
loire « One1more2time3’s Weblog

as I mentioned in some earlier post, the idea at disney was to have the BEAUTY AND THE BEAST story take place in the french LOIRE-area. there were some earlier locations like the black forest in southern germany and the neighbouring french alsace, but – maybe because of the french author CHARLES PERRAULT – everybody seemed to be happy with the loire area with its beautiful castles.

I also have a few pictures.

French private health insurance co Groupama  (grooooooupama/ toujour toujour là/ pour moi) has pulled it’s third advertising coup in 3 years.

Just a year ago, they reinvented their brand heroine, Cerise, (fr. Cherry, not a “real” name) from a frantic Amelie-esque thiry-ish girl…

To a graceful blonde in a green polka dot dress.  She pops up when you least expect it.

It’s not hard to see that the newest Cerise has a certain something that the second one lacked, namely, she’s way hotter. But seriously, ladies, do you really want your insurance company sending her to your home when you least expect it? No. I think Doc agrees with me on this one: we liked the second one better.