Happy St. Patrick’s Day. If you want a few St. Patty’s Day recipes you might want to look HERE, HERE, or HERE.

But if you’d rather hear about our weekend in Paris… yes, Paris!!! … then keep reading.

On Friday at 5 AM our adventure began. We took the Barcelona metro, with a transfer, to the Placa Cataluña to catch the Aerobus to the airport. It was less than 2 hours in the air to Paris Charles de Gaulle. From there, we got on the RER train and then onto the metro and finally to our hotel – just a couple of streets off the Champs-Elysees. The Helzear Hotel was within sight of the Arc de Triomphe.

After we checked into our modern Paris apartment and had a few minutes to refresh ourselves, I led the girls on a wild goose chase in search of Jardin de Tuileries. We got off track and wound up taking the long route.

We stopped at a corner café for lunch and then finally found the Jardin.

We then walked the full length of the park up to Musée du Louvre.

After spending a couple of hours seeing such works as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Michelangelo’s Captive, and The Wedding  Feast at Cana by Veronese, we’d about worn ourselves out.

We walked a few blocks and had dinner before heading back to our apartment to crash.

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Thursday was our “church day.”

In the morning we toured La Sagrada Familia which is architect Antonio Gaudi’s most famous work. Gaudi began his lifelong project of the church at the age of 31 and continued to work on it for 43 years, until his accidental death in 1926.

The church is still under construction. There are currently four spires or towers. Once finished, there will be 18 towers. The hope is to complete the church in 2026, on the 100^th anniversary of Gaudi’s death.

Just as the sun rises in the east, representing birth and the joy of a new day, the east side of the church is the Nativity Facade. It is intricate, full of life and joy.

And as the sun sets in the west, the west side of the church is the Passion Facade. It is starker in nature, as you might imagine since it tells the story of Jesus’ passion and death.

There are two elevators that take you partway up the towers for a great view of the city: the Passion Facade elevator and the Nativity Facade elevator.

We went up the Nativity Facade elevator and then took a very narrow and tight spiraling staircase all the way down.

One of the beautiful features on this side of the church is the Tree of Life. It is a cypress tree and represents everlasting life. The many doves in the tree represent the true believers who flock to Christ.

I loved listening to the audio program and learning about all the symbolism in the design of the church. And one of the most touching moments was when we were going out one of the doors, to listen to the next station of our audio program.

As we were walking out, a few of the construction workers who you see inside, outside, and all around the church, going about their work day were coming in the same door. One of the men made the sign of the cross as he crossed the threshold of the door. It really moved me to see how he was so conscious of where he was, not just “at work” but in a place of worship, a holy place. As a tourist, it is something that so many of us forget to keep in mind.

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I consider myself a “seasoned traveler.”  If anyone knows how to start a trip off on the right foot, it is me!

Let me give you a prime example of my expertise…

On what was to be our first non-zombie day (as Lorraine called it) I woke up at about 6:30 (after going to bed at 7 PM the night before) and stayed in bed for a time, formatting photos for this blog. I decided I needed some tea, so I put on a pair of socks and walked toward the kitchen, making a slight detour to set my computer on the coffee table as I passed by it.

I know — how exciting, you’re thinking to yourself!  But here, my friends is where it all went wrong…

I ran directly into the coffee table with my left socked foot so hard that it took every ounce of self-control and determination to NOT scream out in pain… which would have promptly awoken my two sleeping beauty friends. I hopped around, sucked in a ton of air, and tried not to moan and cry.  Here is the result of my clumsiness…

A possibly broken middle toe. No, that is not a manicure gone wrong, that is not pink nail polish on my skin. And yes, that is the coffee-table-culprit in the background.

Now that is how you start a nearly two-week European vacation, heavy on the walking, off with a bang! If you think a broken little toe is going to keep this girl down, you are wrong.

For Day Two in Barcelona, we got ready and walked toward the Sagrada Familia, where we planned to jump on a double-decker autobus to tour Barcelona.

We stopped and had breakfast first and then popped into a corner farmacia to buy some tape for my toes.

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That is “Happy Birthday” in Japanese. You are in Tokyo and I am in Barcelona. That is even farther apart than we usually are, 6,470 miles.  When I’m in Arizona, it’s only 5,800 miles.

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By the time you read this, we will have already been in Spain for more than 36 hours. Just know that as I type this it is still Tuesday night in Arizona and it is Wednesday morning in Barcelona, but I’m setting this to post on Wednesday morning in Arizona and when it does, it will be Wednesday night where I am. I always have a hard time figuring out and communicating time differences, so from here on out, I won’t worry about my time vs. Arizona time!

Our flight on Monday morning from Phoenix to Philadelphia was packed, sold out. Sky Harbor was overflowing with travelers at 5:30 AM when we arrived. We then had a 4+ hour layover in the busy Philly airport, which we spent in the US Airways Admirals Club lounge. We drank too much free wine and ate their complementary snacks as our late breakfast.

The best news of the day came when we boarded our flight to Spain… it was empty! Just about everyone on the plane could have had his or her own center row to lay down in… and we did!

Bad news, even with the luxury of having a place to lay down and sleep the flight away, I barely slept a wink. No matter, it was a joy to have room to stretch out. Trust me, I tried to sleep, but after much tossing and turning, I ended up watching two movies instead; 2014 Best Movie Academy Award Winner, 12 Years a Slave and Enough Said with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the late, great James Gandolfini, in his last film. Recommend them both!

When we landed in Barcelona, we were shocked at the emptiness of the airport. I think our flight may have actually been the first of the morning, arriving at 7AM. It was a virtual ghost town. There were no departing flights scheduled for hours! Spaniards know how to live right!

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Remember the Twins Baby Shower I had in January for my friend, Tram?

Tram and Steve had their TWINS yesterday!

Sweet Tram sent me a text at 2:06 AM on Monday morning saying, “MY WATER JUST BROKE!!! Heading to the hospital soon!!”

I already had an alarm set for 4:15 AM since I had to get ready to board the flight to Barcelona, Spain via Philly that morning.

When I landed in Philly, I sent a text to Steve, asking what was happening… and he responded with this photo.

“Zak first then Zoey- 4:04 & 4:05 AM  weighing in at 5.7 and 5.8 pounds.”

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By the time you read this, I will be on a plane heading to Barcelona, Spain!

The photo was taken in February 2013 at Peggy’s 50th birthday party.

Anne, Lorraine, Connor, Peggy, Stevo, Natalie and Samantha (standing)

Peggy, Lorraine (Peggy’s sister-in-law) and I are going for a nearly two-week long trip to visit Natalie, Peggy’s daughter, who is studying abroad in Barcelona.

How lucky are we?!?

There is supposedly internet in the house we’ve rented.  If so, I shall blog from there… if not, I hope to be able to blog at least intermittently.

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Let’s begin with a little history of our neighborhood Progressive Dinners. The first dinner was held in April 2005 and the second in November of the same year. I was a participant in those first two dinners, not a planner. I became involved in planning by the third dinner, held in April 2006.

The one person who has planned these events for all nine years is my friend and neighbor, Ronnie. She is the real expert in how to pull off a successful Progressive Dinner, but since I have a blog and I’m the one writing this … I shall be your expert for today.

Last Saturday, we had our 10th Neighborhood Progressive. Here is a list of the ten we’ve had thus far:

As you can see, a couple of times we held two in one year and then there were a couple of years we missed getting it together.

It takes a lot of work and organization to put on a party of this nature for a large group. We have 118 homes in our neighborhood and every single household receives an invitation. If everyone showed up, there would be over 300 party-goers. That has never even come close to happening. I believe our largest group has been about 58 participants or 29 households.

The most difficult task is picking a date. It works best in the spring or fall. We generally avoid the winter since the holidays are already jam-packed and the summer as well because it is not only too hot but also too many people are out of town.

The problem with the spring is working around the various school spring breaks and the fall becomes difficult because around the time the nights get cool enough (late October) it seems as though the holidays are right around the corner and people’s calendars fill quickly.

Once you get over that hurdle and you have your date … here is our organizational structure and our step-by-step instructions:

We begin the evening all gathered at one home – this is the “Appetizer House.” The Appetizer Hosts provide bottled water and non-alcoholic beverages. Additionally, they decorate according to the theme and set the ambiance with theme-appropriate music and such.

Each participating couple brings a bottle of red wine and a bottle of white wine along with them to the Appetizer House. A few select couples are asked to bring two cases of beer (light and regular) instead.

When the invite is sent out, there is a call for “Dinner Hosts.” Participants can check this box if they would like to host 10 people at their homes for dinner. They set the table and ambiance and let the party come to them. In the past, we haven’t required the Dinner Hosts to provide any of the food, but we’ve decided to change that and will now let them have the first choice at what they would like to provide, instead of being assigned a dish, which is how all other participants discover what they will be bringing.

Finally, there is a “Dessert House” – this is where everyone joins back together after being divided up for the dinner hour. The Dessert Host is responsible for coffee, and liquors (if desired) and for making sure the leftover beer, water, and other beverages from the Appetizer House get to their house before everyone descends upon them after the dinner hour.

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Saturday night was our 10th annual neighborhood Progressive Dinner. The theme this time was “Speakeasy” and we had so much fun with it.

We started with appetizers at Ronnie’s beautiful home, then split up to have dinner at the various host homes and finally gathered back together at our house for desserts.

This was what greeted guests when they entered our house.

At Joanne’s, my “dinner host” home, I enjoyed a wonderful meal where we indulged on Lemon Drops and…

… not only delicious, but beautiful Chicken a la Rose, made by Kim…

… along with Waldorf Salad and Rosemary Potatoes…

… all in a perfectly jazzy dining room! Pictured are Flapper Ronnie, Cool Cat Scott (with his faux cigarette) and Flapper Kim. Can you even imagine a more perfectly themed dining room than this one, with its life-sized jazz band mural?

It all began at Ronnie’s and her beautifully set hor d’oeuvres table!

I made the appetizers for Ronnie’s house and she provided the desserts for mine. I made Piglets in a Warm Puffy Blanket, Bacon Wrapped Cheesy Mushrooms, Spinach Deviled Eggs, and the following recipe for Shrimp Canapes.

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This is the third installment of my Friday Q & A, also known as “Questions from Lori & Answers from Linda.”

Myself, Lori, and Amy

If you recall, my sweet and dearly missed friend, Lori, asked me four detailed questions when I first challenged all of you to pose them to me. Lori stepped up to the plate and I’ve already answered the first and then the second. This is the hardest of the four, but I don’t want to shrink from the task at hand any longer.

Lori and her adorable husband, Jonathan, have been doing business and living in Tokyo, Japan since September 2012. Lori is a fabulous cook and had the most gorgeous, huge, well-equipped, workable, and enviable kitchen imaginable when they lived here in Scottsdale.

This is Lori’s Tokyo kitchen! Can you imagine? When I wrote about how much of a closet Marissa’s San Francisco kitchen was, Lori wrote to say that she envied it, now you can see why! Here is what Lori emailed me at the time:

“I have attached pictures of our charming little Tokyo kitchenette. And when I say “charming” – I use that term in the loosest of senses . . . the charm quickly wore off … and we are left bumping into each other, cursing at each other and are at our wits end to figure out what to cook on our 2 miniscule burner cook top.

No oven (regular, toaster or otherwise) but a decent microwave, but little else to work with in terms of pots, pans or cooking implements. And clean-up! Did you see the size of that dishwasher? Although I have to say it is very àpropos given the fact that we have exactly 4 plates, 4 salads, 4 glasses and cereal bowls.

So, with information and visuals in hand- what the heck would you cook here? Oh-and of course I forgot to mention, there is no access to “normal” foods, spices, condiments, etc. So, Miss Linda – if you were in my slippers and kimono what would you do?”

The exact question Lori put forth on that Friday, three weeks ago, was this:

Is there a way or rule of thumb to adapt any recipes for the oven to a microwave? I literally never used the microwave except for re-heating in the US, and sadly that is all I have to use here in Japan (along with my tiny stove-top).

My problem is that I too, only use the microwave to thaw, melt and reheat food. I do not use it to cook. So onto the cooking, I tested the theories on a few small items, a chicken breast, a rice casserole, and a piece of salmon. I found all the hints and tricks below to be spot on. Lori, I hope this helps. Please keep me (us) posted on any successes and on the failures too! You have a knack for writing amazingly hilarious “fail” stories!

Here are my Dozen best tips for Microwave Cookery

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