A really lazy night

Last night I was tired of fancy food. I've been making, or buying, French cuisine since I got here and DH's DNA is 100% Italian after all. He's grousing, talking about getting pizza! Ok, ok, I'll do something Italian. He just wants pasta...with a nice bolognese sauce. Well my kitchen is pretty poorly equipped and tomatoes are just not nice at this time of year (I don't want to talk about those poor insipid hot house things!) At home I rely on the tomatoes I put up during the summer. I don’t have access to those here. Also, I’m feeling lazy. Just plain lazy. I know I have a bottle of “bolognese” sauce here. It’s the ultra cheap one from Carrefour (have you noticed the drubbing the dollar is taking, and this bottle was bought before we had Euros). It’ll just have to do. So I’m warming it up and tasting it and boy does it taste blah! Let’s see, what’s in the fridge? Aha! Some leftover paté de campagne! Why not crumble that up and toss it into the sauce? No sooner thought of than done. It wasn’t bad at all! DH thought it was a bit livery, but not too bad.

So there’s my cooking tip for the day. If you’re stuck in France (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and want an easy Italian dinner, add some leftover paté de campagne to some bottled tomato sauce. Drink lots of red wine and it’s still a great meal because you’ve got DH there and life is good after all.

After dinner we watched a bit of French TV. DH is attempting to learn to speak French and we figure that watching TV is a good way to total immersion. (I’m so bilingual that I actually have some difficulty understanding English when I am immersed in French.)

So far DH has found 2 shows (other than the news and soccer) that he likes. One is Kaamelott, a French send-up of the Arthurian legend done with a lot of Asterix-style plays on words. This is a real challenge for DH but it’s entertaining enough that it doesn’t matter if he gets it all. You can find Kaamelott episodes on the internet (which helps DH because he can play them over and over until he gets it). You can also get their DVDs but I don’t know if they exist for our “region.”

The other show he likes is actually a Canadian show titled “Un gars, une fille.” This is just banter between a man and his wife. Lots of plays on words, some of them sweetly risqué. Obviously this is done in French Canadian. Now, here’s the thing, in France it appears with French subtitles. At first I was offended, but then I realized that it’s actually necessary. The French Canadians have made the best of both worlds. Whenever there’s a lack of a French word to adequately describe a situation or state, they either find an English word and just drop it in or they make one up. For instance, there’s no French word for slush. When you live in Quebec, slush is a big deal after all. Think about it, slush is slush! The subtitles translate it as “neige fondue,” (melted snow). That’s just not representative of slush now is it? What DH likes about the show IS the subtitles. He says he can understand what they’re saying because he can read it at the same time he hears it. We haven’t found it on the internet yet. We’ve found the French version (done by French actors) but without subtitles…

So there you have another exciting evening in Montpellier, France! You all have a wonderful day.