French Funnies Online

Tetesaclaques.tv - check it out if you speak French. Our "French girl" for the summer introduced me to it. French Canadian. Weird and funny videos. If you aren't fluent in Quebecois, I'd suggest using the SOUS-TITRES button - it sub-titles it in "international French" - translating some of the more obscure "regionalisms" for those of us who learned our French in France. Worth checking out.

Update: also (newly) in English at www.tac.tv. Very funny!

Reynald's Almost There...

Send Reynald good vibes! He just called from France and is going down for the night, getting up at 6 a.m. to start his crazy triathlon: 1.5 mile swim, 115K bike (~70 miles) in the Alps, 22k running (~half-marathon/~13 miles). See the "Long Course" here for the gory details: http://www.alpetriathlon.com/

Reynald Getting Ready for Alpe d’Huez Triathlon

Arriving in France, unpacking his bike and getting ready for the big Tri in Alpe d'Huez.

Alaska Summer 2009 Trip

Axel, Luka and Eve just got back from a three-week trip to Anchorage. We had a fun time with Grandma, cousins, aunts and uncles, and friends. Here are some of our photos.

For more photos from our trip, check out our Flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bodeux/sets/ and click on Alaska Summer 2009 or other photo sets.

Pictures from Moab on Mem Day and Reynald's 40th Birthday

Pictures below from Reynald's 40th Birthday (!!!) and our recent Memorial Day trip to Moab. If you want to see more pics, go to our Flickr account and click "Reynald's 40th Bday" or "Moab 2009".

My Other Blog - New: Bilingualism

Wanted to post a quick note about Eve's new blog on bilingualism. Discussions for parents and others interested in encouraging bilingualism in kids. See bloggingonbilingualism.com. Thanks for your support!

Chocolat Rôti

Axel and Luka received new stuff animals / teddies (no, not that kind!) / nounours / doudous at Easter.

Axel received a bunny he named Chocolat rôti. So, in his little head, does that mean roasted chocolate (sounds kind of good), or just chocolate - roasted, or chocolate followed by thoughts of roast pork or chicken (ick). Axel is an imp, so I vote for the last one.

He also had a darling little curly sheep from Easter Bunny (that would be Nat) that he named Mouton Volant (flying sheep). Maybe he is trying to count sheep at night? With Axel, I don['t think so ("No, not tired!") Don't know where he comes up with this stuff.

Luka's first bunny: Fraise (we were eating strawberries at the time). His second one--from Easter Bunny Nat (cuter than the old one I dug out of the closet, I must say), he is still thinking about. Ah, what a thoughtful little man.

Easter and Skiing

We had a very fun Easter weekend with our friends Nat, Jeff and Max. We had raclette on Sunday night at our pad in Leadville, and then yummy crepes at theirs Sunday morning.

The boys had lots of excitement discovering what the Easter Bunny had brought them. (Now that we have curtains installed at the condo, Eve had to wake them up at 8:30 a.m. and tell them we'd had a "vistor." Previous weekends [sans curtains] Axel was happily waking us up at 5 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings - argh!)

They also had tons of fun with the egg hunt that Easter Bunny (that would be Nat and her mother-in-law) hid for them outside in the snow. Max (our 8-month old buddy) waited patiently inside for his pals while they located their loot.

Good skiing at Copper Mountain. Luka did five (count 'em!) black runs with Reynald, Nat and Jeff. Axel did awesome right and left turns and snow plow on the bunny hill (look Ma, no teather!) with Eve. He chased Mommy while she ran down the hill - go, Ax!

Recipe: Quick Bibimbap

Quick Bibimbap

3/4 cup soy sauce
6 TBS toasted sesame oil
4 TBS light brown sugar
1 lb. ground turkey, beef or pork
2 TBS vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 cups cooked rice
Assorted veggies (shredded carrot, canned baby corn, spinach, bean sprouts, red onion, etc.) steamed or raw
Toasted sesame seeds

Mix together the first three ingredients; set aside.
In a pan, brown teh meat in half the vegetable oil, about 5 minutes. Add half the soy-sauce mixture and continue cooking until the liquid is absorbed, 3 - 4 minutes. Remove from heat a cover.

In another pan, fry the eggs in the remaining vegetable oil, 4 - 5 minutes.
Divide the rice among 4 bowls. Arrange some veggies, some meat and an egg in each. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, then drizzle the remaining soy-sauce over the top.

Recipe: Tomato Fish Stew

Tomato Fish Stew

Onion, chopped
Garlic, minced
fresh thyme
white wine - 1/2 cup
8 oz chicken broth or clam juice
28 oz of diced tomatoes
white fish filet with skin removed (approx 1 lb) such as cod, tilapia, hake, haddock, halibut or sea bass (estimate at 1/2 lb for each adult and 1/4 lb for each kid)
optional: shrimp, mussles, clams, mini-scallops

In large soup pot, sauté a chopped onion in 3 TBS of butter over medium heat.

Add minced garlic to taste and chopped fresh thyme.

Sauté until onion is golden, about 5 minutes.

Add 1/2 cup dry white wine. Cook for 2 minutes.

Stir in 8 oz. of chicken broth (or clam juice) and a 28-oz. can of diced tomatoes.

Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Cut the fish tino 2-inch chunks. Add them to the broth; cook for 3 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook until the fish is cooked through, about 5 minutes. You can also add up to a pound of assorted shelffish (like shrimp, mussels, clams, etc.) in which case cook until the shrimp are opaque and any shells have opened.

Try serving with garlic bread. Yum!

New photos

We posted some new photos to our Flickr account and to Eve's Facebook page. Sledding, skiing and general fun. Can't believe school year is almost over for Luka! 2 more months to go, and they will go fast. Winter is winding down and summer will be here soon. (Good and bad...it gets too hot for me).

Speak French or Die?

Funny commercial for a French language school - watch and you might be convinced to take language lessons in Paris (oh, you really needed a lot of convincing, right?). In French with English subtitles.

La bise - kissing in France

If you speak French or want to practice your listening skills, watch this amusing and perceptive video on the social rules (or lack thereof) when it comes to la bise (to greet someone by kissing - I think we call that "bussing" in English - see definition of this word).

Pizza Party

We had a party to celebrate Reynald summitting all the 14'ers in Colorado with a bunch of friends. We served homemade pizzas. Here are the pizza topping combinations we had - yum:

Crust we use: Eve's whole wheat pizza crust.

Pizza 1
- cut ham
- pineapple
- tomato sauce

Pizza 2
- goat cheese
- fresh spinach
- tomato sauce

Pizza 3
- olive oil
- feta
- fresh spinach
- fresh garlic, cut up small
- red onion
mix oil, garlic - rub on dough. add feta, spinach, onion.

Pizza 4
Olive Oil Garlic
- chopped garlic
- fresh parsley
- mozarella cheese
- artichoke hearts
- fresh tomatoes
- olive oil
mix oil, parsley, garlic - rub on dough. add other items.

Pizza 5
- fresh tomatoes
- fresh mozarella cheese
- tomato sauce

Pizza 6
- coooked, bulk sausage
- cooked yellow/red peppers (carmelized)
- tomato sauce

Pizza 7
- pepperoni
- mushrooms or black olives
- mozarella cheese

Mom's Famous One-Bowl Fudge Cake

Mom's Famous One-Bowl Fudge Cake

1-2/3 cups Wondra flour (long skinny blue cylinder – sold to thicken gravy)
1-1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup cocoa
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
½ cup shortening
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

350 degrees. Grease and flour pan. 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan. Or two 8” or 9” round pans. Or cupcakes.

Measure all ingredients into a large bowl. Blend half a minute on low mixer speed, scraping the bowl constantly. Beat 3 minutes at high speed, scraping occasionally. Pour into the pan. Bake oblong pan 35 – 40 minutes. Or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on rack. For cupcakes, use paper lined pans and fill half full; bake for 20 minutes.

Samsam Fan

The boys are currently in love with Samsam. A French superhero whose motto (translated) is: "The smallest superhero." There is a TV show (episodes of which we watch on DVD), books and magazine. The love it and play "Samsam" often. Luka even made his own "Samsoucoup" (Samsam's super duper flying machine - "SamSaucer" in English) out of paper, cutting out his great design, along with a hole for his head, so he could tape it to his head.

Here is Samsam in French:


I found an English version of Samsam here for you non-French speakers:


-

You can get the scoop on the English (British) site about Samsam and his friends: SamSam, SuperTeddy ("Samnounours"), SamMummy (SamMaman), SamDaddy (SamPapa), SuperJulie and others. See Taffy's site (English-language media company for Samsam) for full list of the creative and fun characters.

Late Summer and Fall Fun

Axel funny face

Luka confetti hay

Ooo! Scary dudes!

The family at the record-breaking Denver rally for Obama with 100,000+ attendees

Luka's birthday with fellow-birthday boy Connor

Luka at 1st day of school!

Leadville Boom Days Spiderman fun

Axel's 3rd Birthday Party

The Ax Man having fun on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall

For more photos of our last few months and Halloween fun, check out our Flickr account. You can see a slide show or just view a few. The most recently posted photos are Fall 2008 and Late Summer 2008.

Here are some photos of late summer and fall fun this year. We celebrated Axel's birthday (August) and Luka's too (October). We had a great time in Leadville where we have our new condo and also some great camping.

Reynald finished his 12-year quest to climb all 59 14'ers in Colorado (peaks over 14,000 feet) and we (Eve and the boys) hiked in 2 hours (the boys hiked by themselves on the way up) and camped with him at Geneva Lake at 10,900 feet, from where, the next day, he started the the S-Ridge route for summitting Snowmass mountain. He carried in a bottle of champagne (along with the dehydrated spaghetti and tuna salad!) to celebrate with some friends who met him there and one of whom was also finishing his 14'er list. For more pictures and description of this event, written by Reynald's fellow 14'er finisher, go here: 14ers website report.

In October, we decorated lots of pumpkins, went to the pumpkin patch, did lots of trick or treating (the night of Halloween and the weekend before), went to the mountains and had other fun.

Luka and Axel were both excited to be Black Spiderman (Luka) and (red) Spiderman (Axel) again for Halloween. We did save money on costumes that way!

The Christmas season has started already. Perhaps a bit earlier for the rest of us, but the kids were excited to see snow flakes, stockings and toy soldier lights hanging from lampposts already near Luka's school. Axel keeps asking if he can go skiing -- we just need more snow!

More to come soon from our winter adventures...

Palin SNL Video and Anchorage Comments on Palin

If you missed it on TV (like I did), here is the Saturday Night Live skit with Tina Fey as Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary in its entirety. It was hard to find in full on the Internet, so use this link.

Go here http://www.hulu.com/collections/99 and click on the first video. (It doesn't seem to allow embedding so just click on the link.)

HILARIOUS!

Also check out this Anchorage-based women blog for some (anti) Palin commentary. It is interesting since the writer has an "inside" perspective.

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/

As a born and bred Alaskan now living in Colorado, do not get me started on Palin or you will need a few hours. Life and background are complicated matters that shape our views--I guess you can't escape your roots. I am not voting for her (her stance on social issues are too way out there for me among other things), but do think she is impressive and have some perverse Alaskan pride in her rise.

You gotta love this election!!!

Eve

Lost in Translation

Clever film showing the risk of using web-based machine translation.

The original text was translated through various languages and back to English. Here are the hilarious results.

Popsicle Report

After visiting our friends near Lyon, France this summer who made lots of yummy homemade popsicles, the boys were into them, so I have been experimenting with popsicles since our return (see our earlier entry about our France trip report and photos!)

Here is what we went through to find the successful recipes stateside, below!

Experiment #1: A lot of recipes suggest using vanilla yogurt and mixing with various things. First experiment was to mix with mini chocolate chips and also, separately, with fresh, mashed strawberries. Result: the choc chip one was weird. It was too hard and when it started to melt, it was, well, like yogurt. I like the strawberry ones (taste is really good), but they are too hard for the kids.

Experiment #2: Second experiment was "chocolate pops" cool whip (to make popsicles softer when frozen, as I would never buy this normally - ick), some milk, and 3 oz. pack of instant chocolate pudding, from a recipe online. I should have gone with my first instinct, because these were yucky. The chocolate had that fakey taste, like instant chocolate pudding, I guess. My kids' taste buds are too sophisticated I guess, because they were not too keen for them either. ;)

Success Story #1: Then, I made the tried and true approach that Cathy in France had used. Went to liquor store to get fruit syrups (very common in France, and you can buy at liquor stores in US). I bought grenadine and orange syrup. They have lots of other flavors. The kids really liked these. They are a bit hard too, but not so bad and more appropriate for this type of mixture.

Recipe for Fruit Syrup Popsicles
2 cups water or fizzy water
1/3 cup fruit syrup

Pour into popsicle molds and freeze overnight or 4+ hours.

Success Story #2:

Watermelon Raspberry Popsicles
2-1/2 cups seeded diced watermelon
1/2 cup fresh raspberries or frozen unsweetened, thawed
6 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon crème de cassis (black currant-flavored liqueur) or light corn syrup

Combine all ingredients in blender or food processor; puree until smooth. Pour into popsicle molds or paper cups, dividing equally. Freeze overnight. These worked really well--the consistency is also very good--and are so tasty!

Variations: use strawberries instead, use jam if you have no fresh fruit, add some fresh mint. Use chambord instead of cassis. Leave out liqueur if for kids (I guess - would one TBS really matter?).

Tips:

Consistency: I read on the Internet that the main problem with homemade popsicles is that they are too hard, which our experiments have born out. The use of corn syrup (or liqueur) is used to counteract this (see watermelon recipe above).

Molds: I ordered shooting star molds and they are nice. But, they are also kind of big (big serving for kids for sure). I also have used kid-sized paper cups. You can either freeze part way and then insert wooden popsicle sticks, or cover each filled cup with plastic wrap. Cut a small hole in middle of plastic wrap with point of a knife and stick popsicle stick in there. It will hold it in place as popsicle freezes. Make sure the sticks are straight up after you place them in the freezer.