November, November

It's been a bit since my last entry. This week was long, quiet and relaxing. I guess that's what happens when you have 3 weekends in 9 days. How is that possible? you may ask. Well, Thursday was the 11th of November, a jour férié, so no school. Following Wednesday's usual day off, it was like another weekend after working only Monday and Tuesday. Then Friday seemed just pointless (especially since an unprecedented number of my 5th-graders didn't do their homework... and had a slew of bizarre excuses...).

This weekend was spent sharing various meals with assistants, taking my weekly tour of the Saturday market, helping Louise, an assistant, move into her new, adorable apartment, and then ended today with a good couple of hours in the kitchen roasting pumpkin seeds and making an incredible pumpkin-curry-coconut-milk risotto. Killer!

The cheese I picked up at the market this week is a tomme de brebis from the southwest. Passing by the vendor's stall, he offered me a taste of another cheese, and when I paused to look at his array of varieties of fromage, he suckered me in with a taste of this one. It's flavorful and creamy and goes marvelously on some more of the great sesame-sunflower seed bread. Certainly worth the pretty penny I paid for it! (ie: ~45€ per kilo. Thank god I only asked for a sliver!)

Dinner salad with my latest batch of roasted pumpkin seeds: salt, pepper, cumin and a dash of cayenne pepper.

On to a full week now. Busy with conversation lessons, lessons for little girls, regular school lessons, language exchange café, dance class, and pulling together the necessary bits and pieces to host a Thanksgiving dinner for the assistants in 2 weeks! Exciting!