This is a bit of a life update on some of the things that we've been doing the past few weekends in January.
Gallette des rois
It's a tradition in France during the month of January to eat Gallette des rois or "Kings Cake," in English. I believe that it's a tradition shared by many European countries.
The name relates to the three kings of the Christian Bible and the cake is made of puff pastery that is filled with frangipane (almond paste). It also contains a small object hidden inside in the form of a trinket or tile.
Whoever finds the tile is crowned king for the day and gets to wear a paper crown that comes with the cake when you buy it. The person may also win a prize or have to buy another cake for everyone, if it is being served at the work office for instance.
The trinket can be small at times so you have to be careful when eating the cake so that you don't chip your teeth on it. It's also pretty common to cut in the exact spot of the tile with your knife when cutting the cake. This happened for us.
We were told that the cake is typically served with cider as well, so last weekend we got together with some friends and ate Gallette des rois and drank some cider. My wife also made some cookies for the occasion, a new recipe containing molasses, ginger and white chocolate, they are very good.
The cake was quite good too and the evening was a lot of fun. The cakes come in different sizes and we also bought a small cake just for ourselves which we ate the next evening.
An Empty Theater
A few weekends back my wife and I went to the theater to watch the new Spiderman movie.
The best thing about watching a film in a foreign country is that not many people go to the English version, so the theater is almost always nearly empty. There were maybe 12 people in the theater by the time the movie started which is the most I've seen so far in France. It was almost like having it all to ourselves really.
The movie was fine. It was a Marvel movie, so entertaining, basically just like all of the others.
Homemade Pasta
Every once in a while my wife will make homemade pasta. It's a bit of a process and takes her a few hours but from a taste perspective is definitely worth it. It's much better than anything we buy at the grocery store. One day I'll do a post on how she does it.
She makes the pasta and I always make an Alfredo sauce to go with it. This time we also had some mussels as an accompaniment.
I did the mussels simply, in a white wine broth with lemon, garlic and butter.
Broken Water Heater
Two weekends ago now our water heater broke down during the peak cold of winter. The radiators weren't working at all so we only had the fire place to heat our house. When you live in a foreign country where you can barely speak the language, everything you do is much more challenging. I won't get into the details but trying to hire a service technician to do repairs was pretty much a nightmare.
The house that we rent is quite old and the windows and doors are super drafty. Often it feels colder inside than it does outside to be honest
For a few days I was dressed in layers, with a winter hat on and walking around with a blanket over my shoulders. At one point I grabbed a coat rack from our closet and started using it like a staff, pretending to be Gandalf from LOTR's.
The cat loves having a fire though. She spends pretty much all of the day, curled up on my lap under a blanket whenever we have one. Actually she does this regardless of whether or not we have a fire.
The dog is the same of course.
But the heater is back up and running now, thank God. The house is still cold but at least we can take off some of the chill.
Walking in the Woods
We have some woods by our house and we go for daily walks there when it isn't raining. Here is a picture of my wife standing out as a Canadian, you can tell by the flannel shirt that she's wearing. It's not just me who wears flannel.
The cat found a good spot to sit before our walk that day. Why sit on a cold bench when you can sit on some warm shoulders?
Well that has basically been our month of January thus far. We haven't done any traveling since the Christmas Markets in December and we don't have any specific plans for the coming weeks so we haven't really done anything too exciting and there's nothing on the horizon at the moment. We are still having fun though with daily lives and that's what really matters.
iHeart fettuccini and steamed muscles. Like.. a LOT.
Cat people are like Nascar... Before I murder this analogy ima stop.
Fettuccine and mussels are a good combination. It's hard not to like it.
🤣🤣 I can only imagine where that was going
Ya'all look happy.
!CHEERS
Thanks! Have a good weekend 👊
You seem to be living in quite a scenic and calm space - this is the second time I observed mussels in your post - do they taste very good ? In my place its not available, the lower class people eat the country variety which is not something others would even think to try. Seems mussels do have very good health benefits based on what I found out from google search. Enjoy the time.
Yes I think mussels taste quite good.
It's funny, but a lot of shellfish type foods were once considered food of the lower class because people were able to go to the shores and fetch them themselves. But somewhere along the way, decades ago, they became foods of the upperclass. Maybe not Mussels specifically but things like lobsters and crabs and oysters are quite expensive generally.
I'm not familiar with "country" Mussels.
Ya, I have tried Lobsters once - pretty expensive here.
Pretty expensive everywhere I think 😅
Nice update of your everyday life, broken water heater and all. Also fun for the cat to get some screen time!
Yeah the cat should get more screen time than she currently does. I need to work on that a bit.
What a life :) Wait, I have a question. Who is the Leaky? hehe as there 2 of you in the picture :)
I love muscles..!! Your foods look yummy ^^
The Leaky is the man in the picture. yeah I can see the confusion. I am the one behind the camera so it's usually me taking pictures of my wife. But since she is featured in the photos it probably seems like it's her running the blog. But no, it's me, the male in the photo haha.
Haha I got it Thank you Leaky :)
I like how you can review so much of your last month, and then you have a record of it. It is just like journaling. The more I write, the more I am coming to think of blogging of journaling. I am not so great a keeping a record of things, so finding hive and "writing" things down has become comforting to me because I won't lose the memories.
I would love to hear how your wife makes pasta. I have never done it, but I do enjoy baking. Also, an empty theater in a foreign country for listening to it in English! LOL. It makes sense, but somehow the thought had never occurred to me . Thanks for sharing!
Yeah Hive is definitely a great platform for journaling and keeping ones memories or thoughts online.
I'll make a point to create a post the next time my wife makes the pasta. It's not a hard process but it takes some time.
Nice to see a different side of your adventures! Enjoy your time, cheers!
Thanks man, I appreciate it 😁
Hi :-) this reminds me of the house I lived bevore! It was a little old house and I really loved to be there. But in winter ... uuuhhhhh. About 16-18 degrees except near the fire place lol there around 25 degrees.
But isnt it funny that we get used to this.
Dindt know kings cake tradition. Looks very fine and so do the noodles.
Wish you soon coming spring time and warmer weather :-)
Yeah old houses tend to be like that. Old windows and doors that don't hold in the heat, cracks that are drafty. I'm looking forward to spring. It's a bit warmer this weekend, luckily.
My landlords changed the windows in the first flor the second year i lived there. It was warmer then but lost a little bit of it's charme. It was the last time I saw ice flowers on a window. :-D
Yeah we have those windows and doors right now I think. They are charming. But in the winter I'd be willing to give up some of the charm for some heat lol.
Haha yes I can totaly understand what you mean :-)
I want a piece of the Kings Cake 🎂
I noticed something @leaky20 in your post
Instead of:
Good eye. I'll have to correct that mistake. Thanks!
Hello.Thanks for sharing 😊
You're welcome 😊
Felicidades por hacer un escrito tan bonito, y las fotos son un sueño, la torta es de manzana? se ve muy rica
The cake is frangipane which is an almond paste. Its actually not very rich at all.
a ok, esta bien