Maxence

Today we had 4 of Estelle's friends over to introduce everyone to "Saint Patrick's Day". One of her friends is Maxence. We love Maxence because she has the blue eyes that Estelle doesn't, because she has funny funny hair sometimes, and because she always smiles and lets Estelle steal her toys and give her kisses.
Maxence is 4 weeks younger than Estelle but she is bigger, go figure. Maxence and her Mom and Dad have to move back to Paris, and they leave on Friday. This makes both Estelle and me very very sad.

The List

I've been thinking a lot about shortening lately. 6 years ago, people used to say "What do you miss eating the most?" It was the question everybody asked me. I used to get on the plane twice a year and make my list on the napkin of all the things I had to remember to eat while I was home. Bagels and Ben & Jerry's were always at the top. Hot dogs, root beer, creullers (though recently I seem to have rectified that), mexican, crunchy peanut butter, Kraft Mac & Cheese. Then there were strange family things that no one else in the world eats, like salmon pea wiggle, my sisters' wierd holiday salads, and chipped beef and gravy. Essentially, the best American has to offer.
Now, the things I always try to cram into my suitcase are different. Bags of chocolate chips, cranberry sauce, canned pumpkin, crushed pineapple, holiday-themed M & M's, and Crisco.
Cooking and baking in France should be, by all rights, a piece of cake. This is the land of gastronomy after all. But when all your tried and true family recipes call for things you can never find, it leaves you wistful. Between changing everything from cups and ounces into grams and milliliters, and farenheit into celcius, sometimes, all you want to see is a can of Crisco to make things feel familiar.
I've posted inquiries about it on the local anglophone site. People say "just use margarine". It just doesn't cut it.