Strickbombe, the Sequel

Finally... Mystery Food with Rice

Mr. Bojangles

We know we were negligent in posting pictures of Mr. Bojangles, therefore two treats today.



We also ate. Being inspired by going to France, we made reblochonade.

Chicory with Ham and Cheese

We made it back home safely, in case the picture above did not give this away already.

Lunch at Le Sarment d'Or

The next day we went out to taste (more) wines, and we found another Bib Gourmand to have lunch at: Le Sarment d'Or in Riquewihr. Only 14 euros buys you a wonderful entree and amazing main course for lunch!





And even the decor is quite beautiful:



Mission Alsace accomplished.

Aux Armes de France

Ellen is visiting us for a few days, and since that also means we have access to poppamomma's car, we decided to take a trip to the Alsace.

The trip did not start off so well, because we left home at noon, and then did not stop for lunch. So we were starving by 3 o'clock and of course everything was closed.
This did not amuse Ellen.

Fortunately, we did manage to amuse her with dinner at Aux Armes de France. In addition, Frans managed to look over 60, and had the senior menu.

Pizza!

Zoo Day

The sun was shining today, so I decided to bother animals other than Mr. Bojangles.

Female Monkey Day (aka Cunday with a t)

Being white does not impress people much here, but being a female scientist is still something that can attract crowds.

Hence, I got to display my female scientistness to the curators of our institute, which included heads of industry and government. I had the honor of being one of two young scientists (out of an institute of about 180 people) who got to talk about their research. Cool? Maybe, but...

Don't get me wrong, I do realize that as a female scientist in a male-dominated area, I am actually getting more opportunities than my male colleagues. And I know this is something I should be grateful for, and I am grateful for the opportunities I am getting right now.

But I also feel slightly annoyed, that I have been hired as the token "we are making an effort to attract female scientists" woman, but nobody has bothered to ask me what my opinion is about the obstacles that women in academia face.

Because there are obstacles, and one of these is that women in academia have highly educated partners who also need interesting employment. Something that my current employer does not even seem to acknowledge. Among the ten or so women I met in a recent seminar, three had unemployed husbands with PhDs. A fourth thought she would give up science because her boyfriend had a career that was already further advanced than hers.

And, hence, I feel like the efforts they are making to promote female scientists may be missing the key issues somewhat...

But don't tell my boss, because I still need him to write me some good recommendation letters...


P.S. The photo shows what my unemployed-husband-with-PhD prepared for dinner today.

P.P.S. Tuncay wins today's "most loyal reader" award for his guess on the mystery food. We still have not gotten our act together to actually cut it, so it is still sitting there on the table, as you can see on today's photo.

Cunday

Otherwise known as a late Caturday.



We'll also give away the answer to last week's quiz. The correct answer is that Mister Bojangles is so terrified of the vacuum cleaner that he will become completely unresponsive, and will not even run away anymore.
We did not have the heart to vacuum clean again this weekend, so I guess Ellen will have to add "try not to be bothered by the filthy state of Team Franke's apartment" to her list of mental preparations for her visit this week.

We have not yet used the item that was the topic of our third quiz yet, because it is such a bitch to cut. So please leave your responses to what these coming days will be eating we? in the comments. It is not yeast, we can say that much...

Eggplant Curry

James Oseland's recipes rule! This curry was awesome!

Looking for Answers...

Mr. Bojangles has not found the answers to our two pop quizes either, but he as you can see, he is actively looking for them.

Today we put some frozen salmon with leeks in puff pastry:



... and made pictures of Mr. Bojangles:

Lyoner and Potato Salad

And, even though we did not get any responses to our previous pop quiz, here is a new one: what these coming days will be eating we?

Eating well

Yesterday, we ran out of food, and, it being Sunday and us living in the old world, we could not run to the supermarket to buy some. So we made do with some dried fruits and couscous.



Today, the duck we bought because we could not afford chicken (which, surprisingly, appears to be more expensive than duck in France), was a day over its use-by date. So we had overdue duck for dinner.



Sad stories indeed. Shopping malls closed on Sunday, chicken too expensive for our meager income, and duck past its due-by-date in its stead. But, oh, are we eating well nonetheless!

Finally, since we know that you are all very disappointed you did not win our "most-loyal-reader" award, here is another pop quiz: Why was Mr Bojangles so upset yesterday, that he froze into a completely unresponsive kitten-shaped log with huge eyes?

P.S. Recently, our food has really been much more delicious than normal. I just realized that this may be the reason why.

Meatz are back!

Unfortunately, none of our readers seem to realize that Anke tends to cook mainly vegetarian food whenever Frans is sick.

Fortunately, Frans is feeling a little better today, so, yesterday, we made up for the lack of damage we have done to the environment in the past few days...

Caturday

Mr. Bojangles was a little wild, which made this caturday quite a challenge.