Last night we had our first date night in almost a year. We went to a French brasserie called Anisette in Santa Monica, just a few blocks from the beach. Despite the reviews on Yelp, I booked a reservation anyway — I had a good feeling about it. People on Yelp write that it is a “theme park version of a French brasserie” and “Disney does brasserie”.

About the Disney comments — whatever! I loved the atmosphere. Similar to Balthazar in New York City. Very authentic. We felt like we were in Paris. And isn’t that what you want on a date night? To feel like you are in Paris, sipping Ricard and nibbling on a cheese plate while waiters in black ties scurry about on tiled floors?

I’ve loved Julia Child for as long as I can remember. She’s always been an inspiration, and let’s be honest, a hero to me. Today I’m very proud to be featured as the official Blogger of the Day on the new Julie & Julia movie website. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the film, which premieres August 7th. Not only for my love of Julia Child, but also because it looks like a fun movie. Plus, Meryl Streep is one of my all-time favorite actresses. I am also a fan of Julie Powell’s wonderful book, Julie & Julia. Blogger Julie Powell ambitiously cooked and blogged her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days, and lived to write a book about it.

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This month I’m still focused on spending as little as possible and cleaning out the fridge and freezer. I did buy a few things at the farmer’s market, like eggs and apples, plus some oysters and mussels which we had last night. I made moules frites with oven-baked potato chips last night (with butter). The [...]

I’m sitting by a cozy fire in snowy Seattle, sipping a margarita and eating chips and salsa. We’re having Christmas tamales tonight. Tamales I brought up from Los Angeles. Last night, we had a traditional English Christmas dinner. Actually it was inspired by Southwestern France — so it was really more of a hybrid English/French [...]

Kate and I got to go to lunch today with Seth. We went to Lilly’s, a French restaurant in Venice where you can eat outside. Seth and I both had moules frites (mussels with French fries) and Kate had duck liver terrine, olives, onion confit, and cornichons. She ate some mussels, too.

It’s so hot. Way too hot to not have air conditioning. It’s so hot in our house that we had to get out. We fled to the mall so Kate could play at the indoor playground. Look at those girls next to Kate. They are 2 years and 18 months old, respectively. I can’t believe [...]

We had Steak Frites tonight. Wow — was it good! I got the steaks (grass-fed) from Rocky Canyon at the farmer’s market this morning. They were melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I served the meal with Lillet Blanc (a French apertif that tastes like orange) on ice, watered down with a little Pellegrino and a slice of orange. [...]