The food at the wedding was delicious. I bet the food outside the hotel grounds was spectacular too, but I wouldn't know, and I have guilt about it. In light of this, I have decided to try to make up for missing out on the local cuisine of the Cote D'Azur by making a couple of French classics here at home.
Croque Monsieur(adapted from the Barefoot Contessa in Paris)
Serves 2
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1.5 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup hot milk
1 pinch kosher salt
1 bit of fresh ground pepper
1 bit of ground nutmeg
6 ounces grated Gruyere cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 slices white sandwich bread
Dijon mustard
4 ounces baked Virgina ham
Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Melt butter over a low heat in a small pan, then add flour and whisk for 2 minutes. Slowly pour the hot milk into the mix and continue to whisk until thick, about 5 minutes. Take off the heat and add salt, pepper, nutmeg, two handfuls of the Gruyere and all of the Parmesan.
Toast the bread for 3-4 minutes in the oven on a baking sheet. Brush half the bread with mustard, add a slice or two of ham to each and sprinkle with another two handfuls of the Gruyere. Put the sandwich together and slather with the melted cheese sauce, then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Bake for 5 minutes, then put under the broiler for 2-3 minutes until lightly browned.
Radishes with Herbed Butter
Serves 2-3
1 bunch of radishes with tops on, washed
sea salt
sliced and toasted baguette
1/2 stick room temperature unsalted butter
2 teaspoons minced scallions
2 teaspoons minced dill
2 teaspoons minced parsley
1/2 of a lemon's worth of juice
1 pinch freshly ground pepper
Combine the butter, scallions, dill, parsley, lemon juice, 1 pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl and mix together. Scrape into a small serving dish or ramekin. Place the radishes on a bed of sea salt.
Serve! Enjoy with a good
rose, some greens and a friend.
Open House New York is a fun annual event that opens the doors of the city's most interesting places to the public for tours and educational events. This year, I went inside the nation's largest waste water treatment plant, and one of 14 in New York. The Newtown Creek Water Pollution Control Plant was designed by the Polshek Partnership and is undergoing the finishing stages of a $4.5 billion upgrade project to increase capacity and effectiveness to meet Federal Clean Water Act standards. 
The design of the plant is interesting. The architects color coded the different functions of the facility: orange for administrative, blue for water treatment, green for crew access. The entire project was designed to actually stand out in the neighborhood instead of hide from it. It actually harks back to the days when civic architecture was meant to educate the public, inspire trust in government, and foster interest in the technical workings of one's city. 
These are the huge "digester eggs" that are actually modeled on the human stomach and detoxify the waste water. Kind of gross, but also totally fascinating.
The view from the top of the eggs down at the facility and Greenpoint beyond.
The original treatment plant was built in 1967 in what was then a declining industrial neighborhood on the shores of Newtown Creek. Since mid 19th century glue factories, oil refineries, ship builders, rope manufacturers, and tons of other industries also worked on the banks of the creek, making it one of the most polluted waterways in the entire country. There is an effort to clean it up, and part of raising awareness of the creek's plight (or just its existence) is the natively planted park along the shores of the treatment plant.
Here is a sculpture of the outline of the creek and surrounding watershed before it was developed. Today all of these inlets and creeks are channelized, filled with 80 year old toxic sludge and seeping oil, and can often be smelled from miles away. The good news is it is moving toward being cleaned up, slowly. Someday more parks like this one will exist along the forgotten, abused waterways of New York and people will marvel that we ever treated our own city, our home, with such disrespect.
Access for kayaking, which I someday hope to do to explore further up the creek, like these guys. No swimming yet though.
The Luberon is not the Cote D'Azur. Instead of glamour, yachts, and Belle Epoch villas, you get mountains, forests, farmhouses, quiet roads and, in this case, a former monastery turned into a fantastic home for Daniel Vial. He restored and made livable this 11th and 12th century priory surrounded by the forests of the Aiguebrun Valley. His summer living room, above, is the former chapel. This Provence is more my speed.
The pool has been built below the priory so it doesn't disturb the harmony of the original design.
He may not be from the 
