Food that bring back memories of our ACP, Paris and France

Glenda mentioned "Baguettes! Stinky cheeses, ham sandwiches, Escargot, roasted chestnuts, etc." and Barbara brought us back to "...all the bread, les Parisiennes, Pain au Chocolat, crepes with butter and sugar from those little street crepe stands, a warm potato salad that I think was called Pommes a l'huile, Pate de la compagne, almost all the cheeses with Saint Andre, Brie and... Montrachet being among top choices, Bearnaise sauce (still have my recipe from a little French cookbook I bought over there), Escargots which I used to make frequently in NYC, Bouillabaisse which I made the night I met my husband on a blind date and have never made since!, onion soup gratinee of course ... yes carbs are a challenge! Am sure more will come to mind ... and favorite Paris restaurant meal memory: "Taverne du Sargeant Recreuteur" on the Isle St. Louis...", and more. I think both my pocket book and palate trained on boiled potatoes, cabbage and bread and dripping limited my exploration, but I do remember well the Crepes Grand Marinier (from the same stalls as Barbara probably), Eclairs au Chocolat, Pain Chocolat, Brioche and Croissants hot from the Boulangerie, the steak hache that I cooked up on my Camping Gaz with some onions and steamed white rice. The mini-bottles of Courvoisier, Armagnac, Grand Marinier, and other liqueurs to round out my cuisine. The muck we were served in the college Cafeteria, the Petit Suisse that we loaded with crunchy sugar down at the student cafeteria during orientation down by Porte d'Orleons, that I still love to this day. Many tastes bring back memories of more than the food but also of the places and events coupled with them. I remember well the cafe on Ave. Rapp where I first tried espresso and cafe creme. I had been feeding myself Nescafe in my room. Never again! I can see the thick cup and saucer, the cubes of sugar and the stamped metal spoon for stirring it in. I can picture the chair with the colorful plastic webbing that left its mark on the back of thighs but never absorbed water to leave the back of your legs itching after a spring shower. The waiter bringing my receipt in a little black plastic saucer and tearing it half across on payment and throwing it in the air if my tip was not to his satisfaction (no "service compris" in those days!) The big, wide leaves of the "Platane Commun" trees that lined the boulevards but were black skeletons during most of the low season. The Soupe à l'Oignon that we burned our lips on when we went, usually it seemed in the rain, to Les Halles at midnight to consume with the Pommes Frites as we ogled the pour souls on display in doorways, windows and on the streets. I remember a butcher waving around a huge, erect bulls penis as he came into a cafe for some coffee with eau de vie to the guffaws and hoots of his fellows. So now my mind pictures that image as I dig into a rich Soupe à l'Oignon where ever it eat it. So many memories come alive with just a whiff of a dish from our past. Do share yours including any recipes you may have or still serve and any photos you have too of dishes you enjoyed there, then or anytime in the subsequent years. Peter

The ACP - Early Years FaceBook Alum Group

I have been remiss in not posting this a bit earlier, but have been waiting until I feel we have mastered the FaceBook basics on how to keep the new ACP - Early Years FaceBook "Group" closed and private for everyone but invited participants. I think and hope that Barbara Williams Thorsen and I have managed to do that. We not have 11 Alum members and hope many more will join. The Alum Association with Jessica has been working with us to promote both the new site www.acp-early-years.com that covers, well, the early years of ACP with photos mainly but some memories as well, this blog and now the FaceBook Group. It is interesting how fragments of memories from one person triggers long forgotten memories in another. Get a bunch of us together we can actually start to reassemble memories we had thought long gone. And photos are beginning to come in from members that will find their way to the albums on the site as well. Before you know it, we will be stirred by ancient, long forgotten urges to drink cheap wine and tear open our palates on sandwiches Jambon. So those ACP Early Year Alums, do contact us on FaceBook and join if you have to (set your privacy settings very carefully for those new to it and don't list all your personal information!) and join in. Peter

Our Favorite Music, Singers and Songs from Paris of the '60's

At the behest of Barbara (Williams) Thorsen, I am opening a new Blog Thread. She, Cameron Watson, Glenda (Johnson) Cooper, Joan (McCullum) Rasool and Cynthia Hale have had a tread going on our FaceBook ACP Group page about their favorite songs, who sung them and with what accents and, more important, how to try to find them now and download them for nostalgic regurgitation. So please join in the piecing together of bits and pieces of memories. Peter