Cocktail du jour: The French Fizzy

This evening I had a cocktail conundrum.  You see, my lovelies, I bought a bottle of booze based merely on the pretty label. It turns out, Lillet is a French aperitif made of white Bordeaux wines and orange liqueur.  How bad could that possibly be, right? Mixed with a little gin, a touch of citrus and a bit of bubbly tonic water, the "French Fizzy" is a most delicious late summer cocktail featuring the lovely Lillet.

Paris by the Page

“There is never any ending to Paris, and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. Paris was always worth it, and you received return for whatever you brought to it…”
Ernest Hemingway, in A Moveable Feast

Southern Living

“You learn to forgive (the South) for its narrow mind and growing pains because it has a huge heart. You forgive the stifling summers because the spring is lush and pastel sprinkled, because winter is merciful and brief, because corn bread and sweet tea and fried chicken are every bit as vital to a Sunday as getting dressed up for church, and because any southerner worth their salt says please and thank you. It's soft air and summer vines, pine woods and fat homegrown tomatoes. It's pulling the fruit right off a peach tree and letting the juice run down your chin. It's a closeted and profound appreciation for our neighbors in Alabama who bear the brunt of the Bubba jokes. The South gets in your blood and nose and skin bone-deep. I am less a part of the South than it is part of me. It's a romantic notion, being overcome by geography. But we are all a little starry-eyed down here. We're Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara and Rosa Parks all at once.” -Amanda Kyle Williams

Back to School

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.” ~ Plutarch

 

I've mentioned before that I am an educator.  I adore my career as an art historian.  It is precisely what I was meant to do.  I am always challenged, constantly learning, and immersed in a field that never ceases to delight me. 

Even though I teach adults and not kindergarteners (though some of my students do conduct themselves as the latter and not the former), I find myself getting especially excited for the "first day of school."  My "first days" happen every new semester, but there is an extra special energy in the air come August.  

I fancy myself a Katharine Watson (Julia Roberts) in Mona Lisa Smile kind of art history teacher.

Flowers for Friday

"The Amen of nature is always a flower." 
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

Joyeux Anniversaire, Julia!

"... thinking back on it now reminds that the pleasures of the table, and of life, are infinite – toujours bon appétit!" 

-Julia Child 

from My Life in France

Dinner in Provence

“Why not make a daily pleasure out a daily necessity?”

-Peter Mayle, A Year in Provence

Well...truth be told, I didn't jet away to Provence for dinner, darlings (ahem, Dom Pérignon taste on a Bud Light budget?).  But, I had experienced a serious case of Francophilia earlier in the day and needed to prepare something French-inspired to satiate my hunger and wanderlust.  With a mix of fresh summer produce and Mediterranean flavors, voilà: winner winner chicken Provençal dinner!