Bonjour Never Land

Maybe it’s not so strange after all. After living in the good old US of A for many years, Stella and I decided to make the jump…back to France, our birthday land. Oops, quite a surprise. I guess it is the same for anyone going back to their stomping grounds after years of absence. It was like walking on the moon; even people we knew then were like Martians.

We were unable even to recognize that our old stomping changes came from us, not from them. Those folks in the old country haven’t changed; we, on the other hand, certainly have; for best or worst, it will be left to history to tell.

Stella & Phillip Lemarque

Is winning the big one everything?

What about the story of that guy who spent 42 years at the Beverly Hills Hotel Pool?

Irving V. Link, for forty-two years, at seven o’clock every morning, wearing a perfectly fitted bathing suit, would stroll over from his house in Beverly Hills, enter the hotel, turn right in the lobby, and land in the Polo Lounge. After ordering breakfast, around nine, he would stroll through the hotel one more time after weaving hellos to the barber and the pool crew while one of the pool boys would set up a chaise for Irving, after lunch in the Patio Club or sometime at the Bistro Garden. After lunch, Irvin will return to the pool for sunbathing and sometimes play cards with some guests until sunset. While spending more than fifteen thousand days by the pool, I had never learned how to swim.

Unfortunately for Irving, the new owner, the Sultan of Brunei, decided to close the hotel for two years for remodeling. Where will Irving go for a free tan?

Ingredients For the sauce: 

1 cup seafood stock or clam juice 

1 cup heavy cream 

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons good white wine, such as Chablis, divided 

3 tablespoons tomato puree 

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads 

8 ounces raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cut in half crosswise 

8 ounces raw halibut, cut into1-inch chunks 

8 ounces cooked lobster meat, cut into 1-inch chunks 

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided 

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour 

Kosher salt 

Freshly ground black pepper 

3 cups julienned leeks, white and light green parts (2 large) 

1 1/2 cups julienned carrots (3 carrots) 

1 cup Panko (Japanese dried bread crumbs) 

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan 

2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley 

1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves 

1 tablespoon minced garlic (2 cloves)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place 4 individual gratin dishes on sheet pans. (If the recipe is doubled, serve it in a 14 by 9 1/4-inch oval gratin dish.)

Steps For the sauce:

Combine the stock, cream, 1/2 cup of the wine, tomato puree, and saffron in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and add the shrimp. After 3 minutes, remove the shrimp from a bowl with a slotted spoon. Add the halibut to the stock for 3 minutes, until just cooked through, and remove to the same bowl. Add the cooked lobster to the bowl. 

Continue to cook the sauce until reduced by half, about 12 minutes. Mash 1 tablespoon of the butter together with the flour. Whisk the butter mixture into the sauce along with one teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Simmer, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Set aside. 

Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a medium saute pan. Add the leeks and carrots and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of wine, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until tender. Set aside. 

Combine the panko, Parmesan, parsley, tarragon, and garlic. Mix the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter into the crumbs until they’re moistened. 

Divide the seafood among the 4 gratin dishes. Strew the vegetables on top of each dish. Pour the sauce equally over the seafood and vegetables and spoon the crumbs evenly on top. Bake for 20 minutes, until the top is browned and the sauce is bubbly. Serve hot.

Why does this Well-to-be couple end up working for Crazy Rich and Famous?

The answer is up in the wind, my friend… Sophie, the hard-hearted, temperate woman, will not let the trophy wives run her life. Who is the boss? Maybe not the obvious one. Maybe money is not the definitive answer to happiness. 

The scoundrels, who soon gained their sobriquet by the way they treated their employers, realized that they too, were involved in the middle of this tantamount pile of intricacies, tied up with Gordian knots. It wasn’t for them after all.

Why did Alexander the Great want to untie the Gordian Knot?

An oracle had declared that any man who could unravel its elaborate knots was destined to become ruler of all of Asia. 

According to the ancient chronicler Arrian, the impetuous Alexander was instantly “seized with an ardent desire” to untie the Gordian knot. He did it by slashing the knot with his sword.

How can you apply the same resolve in your life? Obstacles are too big, preventing you from getting where you need to be. Turn around the obstacles, follow the down slope, and take your foot off the gas pedal. It’s all downhill.

Complications are not the best answers. Often, the easiest way is the best way.

The Recipe

Ingredients

Butter 5  to 6 oz

2 Cloves of garlic chopped

1/2 Shallots chopped

S & P to taste

Small bunch of green onions chopped

1/2 cup Japanese Panko

4 to 5 oz of sour cream

1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

Fresh dill chopped 1 1/2 tablespoon

1 Sheet of puff pastry store-bought

1 filet  deboned of salmon

1 egg well beaten to brush on the pastry dough

Steps

Oven pre-heated at 425o

Melt the butter in your best pan. Add garlic, green onions, and shallots. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

Add Panko and parmesan cheese, stir the mixture, then set aside.

Smooth the pastry dough on your cutting board. Place the aloe on the pastry dough.

Fold the edges over the salon. Trim the ends and brush the dough with your better egg.

Transfer the salmon to a baking sheet. Score the top of the preparation.

Bake 25 minutes until the pastry is golden

Next step: Serve to amaze guests

More great Recipes coming soon

Recipes

Paper Bag Turkey

Sweet Potato Roll

Pumpkin Soup

Salmon in Fluffy Dough

Stuffed Zucchini

Yam

Scientists have demonstated that if we use the tongue to exchange a kiss, it allows the verification of our capacity to be able to exchange sensations with the safeguard of our genetique systems and can insure our offsprings.  Le French Kiss transmit traces of testostérone which increase desire of the partner.

From the scientific side, people share 40,000 parasites and 250 different bacteria when they kiss each other. Enough to become paranoid. Hang on to your panties it ain’t as bas as it sounds. Those bactéries are born in our immune system.

Loose weight with torture machines like home bicycles and others of the like are from the past. French kiss can help to loose weight, there are more than 34 facial muscles involve in any French kiss. Keep on kissing it’s healthy you loose about 5 calories each and every time.! 

More on why we wrote the series Bonjour Never Land

We would never have wanted to write a memoir if it hadn’t been for our friend Harris reading our journal. We would probably never have written any novel.

But here it is, in full production, with the closing chapter of the series Clint just about to be published. All it needs are a few weeks here and there, and you have it in its entity, the final chapter of our story, ready for the big screen.

I won’t tell you it wasn’t without tears and cries—no, sirree, it wasn’t one, two, three—more like a lot more than I could ever count. Now it’s your turn to let us know what you think about our story. We’d greatly appreciate any comments; this will help with the sequel.

Yes, there is a sequel, but the title has yet to be chosen. Our working title is “Bonjour Provence.” Why Provence? The story is set in Provence, where the scoundrels have purchased their nest, a watermill by the river in this small Provencale village.

The story is about rare wine bottles. Yes, you read it right—a rare wine bottle. They are involved with their ex-boss, who deals with those prized bottles of wine.

If you have an idea about the title we’d love to hear your suggestions. We’ll talk some more soon.

That’s a question that is asked all the time. People are intrigued by the title; they also want to know why we joined efforts to write our story.

It all started on a stormy night…, ah, ha. A very original line, would you say? After Peanuts, mind you.

That day, Stella walked into my studio in Santa Monica. I had spent a horrible sleepless night…, thinking why I was there, now penniless, having lost all of my fortune.

The first thing Stella saw entering the room was the gun on the nightstand. A look at me unshaven haggard, with a nervous twist of the mouth…, and a look as far away from the disorderly room with the mattress half pulled to the floor, the sheets crumbled in a pack stretched to the bathroom door.

An angel had perched itself on the edge of the kitchen counter. An angel was there for me, and from then on, a new life would guide my steps for incredible adventures; I could have never imagined it possible to hatch in the corner of the nightmare I was heading for.

“Let’s get out of here…, it’s lunchtime.” 

I stared at her without answering.“Wash your face and put up a shirt…; let’s go––” she said, shaking me up like a dead leaf.

The gun disappeared from my small apartment. Stella dropped it in her purse before pushing me out the door.

Did I answer the question laid out in the first paragraph of this blurb? No, not yet…; hang on to your panties. The answer is a come-in’.

Stella & Phillip

Q – Guess who wrote this paragraph? Stella or Phillip?

A – Both, we always work as a pair. One starts with an idea, the other brings his or her bit.., and here we are with a full paragraph, more or less readable. Whad ya think? We’d love to get your five cents on the subject.