Meet "Rif" and "Raf"—a couple of French gastronomes that I met while photographing Roquemaure yesterday… Please share their funny story, below, with a friend… and be sure to check out the comments box to this edition, where readers have been asked to share their favorite potato recipes!
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et patati et patata (ay pah-tah-tee ay pah-tah-tah) expression
: and so on and so forth
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A Day in a French Life…
by Kristin Espinasse
I overhear the funniest conversations while photographing these neighboring villages. Yesterday, after a lot of ruckus coming from a window above, I stopped in my tracks… and chanced to look up.
Incroyablement, this is what I heard:
Rif*: Dude, what's for dinner?
Raf*: Patates!
Rif: But we had patates last night…
Raf (showing a slight distasteful look reserved for "commoners" a.k.a. "Plebeian Pigeons"): No, Rifford. Last night we had gratin dauphinois and the night beforethatwe had purée à la truffe.
Rif: And tater tots before that…
Raf: No, Rifford. Our class does not eat "tater tots". We dine on Les Tots de Tator (that's "tah-tor"). It has a better ring. You must keep apprised of the ring of things—and quit talking like a commoner!
With that, Raf strutted off, his feathers decidedly ruffled or ruh-felled, as Raf would have us say.
And Rif… Rif took advantage of a back-turned Raf… to stick out his tongue at the snobby bird—and not miss the chance to get in the last word:
"And don"t forget Friday's fried potatoes in eggs or—as you'd have me say: "frih-tah-tahs"…
Or Thursday's hash browns (or "pommes sautées"—have it your way)…
…et patati et patata! Potatoes today, potatoes tomorr'ah!
*Rif (short for "Rifford"—a name that his "refined" friend (Raf) gave him… for use whenever Raf's around… fancying himself King of the Town.
Raf: (short for "Rafael de Roquemaure" a self-appointed name that this pigeon uses when he struts through the neighborhood, pressing ahead of the simpletons or "Plebs").
Oh, and speaking of potatoes… here is a favorite book of Rif's, one that he finds exceedingly eatingly helpful for his nutritional well-being. Highly recommended! Buy a copy for a sugar sensitive, moody pah-toody friend (like Raf, for example!):
Potatoes Not Prozac: Solutions for Sugar Sensitivity (Paperback). Lose weight, heal depression, and stop cravings. Check out all the enthusiastic reviews, here!
Did you enjoy this story? Let me know and maybe we'll bring Rif and Raf back for another laugh! Also, long live potatoes! Today, share with us your favorite potato recipe. If you don't have the recette, no problème, tell us what you love and we'll Google it 🙂
French Vocabulary & Sound File
Listen to my daughter pronounce the following words: Download Wav or MP3
incroyablement = incredibly
une patate = potato, spud
un gratin dauphinois (m) = a potato gratin with (more or less): milk (or cream) and cheese (such as gruyère) and muscade (nutmeg)
et patati et patata = and so on and so forth
Shopping
In film: French postcard: American exchange students come to Paris to study the language for a year…
English Grammar for Students of French: The Study Guide for Those Learning French
Tune Up Your French! Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Spoken French
The Williams-Sonoma Collection: POTATO
Raclette Grill — just boil up some potatos… and add toppings to the grill
Discover more from French Word-A-Day
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Bonjour Kristin, et a tous,
My favorite potato recipe is Potatoes Au Gratin, but I’m always watching my calories so I found this rich, and creamy recipe that doesn’t taste low cal!
Recipe by: Rosey Daley
Serves 8
Calories per serving = 126!!!
Light vegetable oil cooking spray
3 med. baking potatoes thinly sliced
2 TBS all-purpose flour
1 med. onion, trimmed, thinly sliced, and separated into rings
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 TBS freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 small zucchini, trimmed, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp Spike seasoning
12 oz. evaporated skim milk
2 TBS chopped fresh parsley
Preheat the oven to 400º degrees.
Coat 10 inch gratin dish or glass pie pan with 3 sprays of vegetable oil spray.
Layer a third of the potatoes over the bottom of the prepared-gratin dish, overlapping the slices in a spiral pattern. Over the potatoes, sprinkle 1TBS of the flour and arrange the onion rings. Dust with the cayenne pepper and 1/2tsp of the paprika.
Layer another third of the potatoes, adding the remaing TBS of flour, and the black pepper, and 1 TBS of the Parmesan cheese.
Scatter the zucchini, dusting with the nutmeg and Spike seasoning. Top with a spiral layer of the remaining potatoes.
Pour the evaporated milk over the gratin and add the remaining paprika and Parmesan cheese.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes.
Remove foil, lower the oven to 350º degrees, and bake for about 15 minutes more, until the top is golden brown.
Remove gratin from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Garnish with chopped parsley.
It really is super easy to assemble once you have all the spices out, and vegies sliced.
I’M HUNGRY – WHERE’S MY POTATO’S !! Kristi is having a “Candle lit dinner party”tonight. I asked her to video – hope she does so we can all see her cooking skills progress. Remember the wonderful photo of the French plow horse with the crocheted doiley (sp?) covering his eyes…his owner is coming to dinner.
XOXO
JULES
Kristin
Thank you for a great gift idea! I just ordered the raclette grill for my French son-in-law who will soon be moving to Massachusetts. Last time we visited his parents in France we were about to have raclette for Sunday supper but out son-in-law had to leave to go back to Paris for work the next day. Before he left he wistfullyl said “j’aurais bien mangé la raclette..” (I love this way of saying “I would have liked” to do something, such as eat the raclette) He is going to miss a lot of the dishes he loves when he leaves France, so I was excited to be able to make sure he can have raclette here.
Bonjour Kristin!
I truly enjoyed your story of Rif and Raf! It was a refreshing laugh that lightens the heart! I also very much enjoy your tales or “tails” of a day in the life of Smokey and Braise! A great imagination is a treasure, and reminds us to not take life so seriously. I always look forward to seeing your French Word-A-Day emails in my inbox! Your stories bring joy to my day!
Merci mille fois!
I love your imagination, Kristin. You see something of interest in things, people, and animals where I wouldn’t even have given it a second thought. A simple photo of these birds and you are off and running with possibilities and humor. That is such a wonderful gift.
I will be entering every one of these recettes into my files. I’m on a low-carb diet always but a little bit never hurts and the family will love these delectable alternatives to my boring mashed potatoes.
I don’t have a recipe to add but while watching the British show “As Time Goes By” on Public Broadcasting they mentioned using leftover potatoes for a recipe they called Bubble & Squeak!! I looked it up and here is the link (It also has a video clip of Paul McCartney making mashed potatoes):
http://hubpages.com/hub/Easy-Bubble-and-Squeak-Recipe
As always, thanks for the french words, cute stories & for the great recipes. Gosh, I love this blog.
Guess what I made for dinner last night?! 🙂
Hi Candy – so happy to see that I’m not the only one back here on Sunday morning. I would never want to miss a comment. Are you snowed in? It’s going to be a lovely 80 degress here in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico today.
XOXO
JULES
I like the Rif and Raf and I think you have a good idea there for a collection of stories, maybe a kids book with French on one side and English on the other.
I read a lot of children’s books and I think those two characters are funny. Mind you, I think you’d want to look into whether the names Rif and Raf are already used somewhere. The Swedish characters Olof remembers are, I think, Ric and Rac.
But I liked the idea a lot.
Wonderful picture of the bag of potatoes in the window!!
Whoops! Posted comment on the wrong entry, so here it is again.
How about The Pioneer Woman’s Crash Hot Potatoes
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/crash-hot-potatoes/
It’s 28 degrees in Woodstock, IL and we have lots of snirt on the ground (snow+dirt)
Current: Cloudy
Wind: SW at 10 mph
Humidity: 84%