Shameless...

I have these food moods.  I don't believe I noticed them until the year I was interning at CCF, but there are times when all I can think about is one particular food and I'll have to eat it a number of times before I'm over the craving.  It makes me fear the days when I am pregnant because I seriously will go to any means to eat that magnificent food.  My condition has been thwarted a bit since we moved abroad; things like Arby's mozzarella sticks and Tin Drum's pad woon sen are non-existent.  You may have noticed (if your that weird) that sushi kept coming up in the blog a couple of months ago.  From December to early February, I constantly thought of raw fish bound in seaweed and rice sliding down my gullet (from the Latin gula meaning throat and/or esophagus).  Kyle was preparing maki rolls sometimes twice a week because I had become possessed by my desire.  Well, I had recovered from that spell and continued living as a free woman until about a week ago when I was struck by my next flavor affliction....

The simple and glorious potato chip.  This particular chip was homemade by Kyle.

For days I have been begging Kyle to go to the grocery store and buy me some chips.  We have tortilla chips and crackers in the dorm, but they just don't quite hit the spot.  Kyle, being the culinary caper that he is, couldn't help not trying Alton Brown's recipe rather than buying a bag.  His first round was tasty.  Oddly enough, the dorm started smelling like soap which made my snack of crisps become quite repulsive.  I mentioned to Kyle that it reeked of suds instead of spuds...good eats?  I think not... Somehow the water from the taters mixed with oil can turn into something like soap, according to Chef Brown.

Chips in the making

In other news, I had thought about wall art above our sofa for a while.  White walls are boring, but even Ikea doesn't make a super affordable something to hang in our blank space.  Meanwhile our cards from home were clustered all on top of our bookshelf~we could only see the front row.  I had a "gee, why didn't I think of that before" moment and turned our Hallmarks into a colorful display.  Happy day...

I call it Cards above Couch

Quite a diverse array of greetings

This leads me to request that you, my friends, send more.  It'd be really great to cover the wall and then do something terribly dorky like post a picture on facebook and tag each card with the name of the sender.... In all seriousness, Kyle and I developed a dependency on going to the mail room and finding a treasure from the U.S. Since our birthdays and Christmas are long gone, it's unlikely we'll see anything again until Easter.  After Easter, what occasion will there be to send a card?  Happy Bastille day?  I'll make you a deal.  If you send Kyle and me a card, note, postcard, letter, drawing, receipt from Moe's, lock of hair, or anything; I will send you your choice of art created by one of my french students.  I've posted pictures of practically everything ever given to me so you should find something you like in older blog entries.  I hope that is a reasonable trade...

Our address is~

ALOES, chambre G205

4, place Edouard Branly

57070 METZ

FRANCE

Just imagine, this inspirational squirrel (as Keight says) could be yours!