Rachael Ray

When I woke up this morning, I knew I wanted to get high, so we headed to the highest area in Paris, Montmatre. On the top of the hill is the incredible Sacré-Cœur Basilica The view from this church was outrageous, all of Paris was laid out before us. It was amazing. Along with the incredible view we also saw one of the most bizarre street acts I have ever seen. Check it out the video below and you be the judge. After these two girls completed their grand finale which included audience participation from 3 unsuspecting guys including one painfully shy teen boy, we gave them 2 euros because it was just that bizarre. Then [...]...

I have never tried Indonesian food, but tonight, in Amsterdam, I had one of the most delicious meals EVER. I would say that the taste is kind of cross between Thai food and heaven. Believe it or not there are tons of Indonesian restaurants in Amsterdam because Indonesia until 1945 was occupied by the Netherlands. We headed to a restaurant called Bojo, one of our guidebooks called this place “delicious and affordable”…say no more. And before we knew it we were hoofing it crosstown via foot and tram to this local spot. When we arrived the restaurant was so quaint, bamboo slat roofs and paneling and Indonesian table cloths. Kind of a cross between the shacks on Gilligan’s Island, your [...]...

After a 3 hour 136 Euro Thalys, the super fast train, ride through Belgium and into Holland we arrived in Amsterdam. We scheduled the earliest train possible, leaving the Paris Nord Terminal at 6:20 am, which meant that we had to wake up and be out of the house by 5am. A Ferris Wheel in Belgium Centraal Station- Amsterdam We arrived at Amsterdam’s Centraal station which is just that, completely Central and I could not believe how everyone as soon as you walk out of the station was riding a bike. Seriously, everyone, young old, in business suits and in jean shorts. Bikes are outfitted with all sorts of accessories, kid seats in the back in the middle at the end, baskets, stickers, [...]...

Waking up in Paris this morning I only had one thing on my mind. Crepes. If I had to put my top ten foods in order, crepes would be somewhere between an Eggplant Parm hero and my Mom’s beans. Here are my top ten: 1. My Mom’s Pasteles 2. Pizza! 3. Eggplant Parmigiana Hero 4. Crepes 5. My Mom’s Beans So after a nice stiff mug of French coffee, Cat and I headed out to check out 1. The Musee de Moyen Age (the museum of the middle ages) & 2. To get me my long awaited crepes. In college during a semester abroad in Nantes, France I LIVED on Crepes. My main course was a gallette avec champignon et fromage , a buckwheat savory crepe with mushrooms and cheese [...]...

I’ve always been that type of person that loves adventure, but today, I may have gotten a little more than I bargained for. When I came to Paris I expected there would be lots of coffee drinking, people watching and museum going, but when my friend, Cat, who I am staying with, told me about going to the catacombs under the city, I jumped at the opportunity. How often do you get to see something like that? A Little History of the Paris Catacombs The Catacombs around Paris where originally built as ancient quarries where the limestone to create most of the amazing Parisian architecture was mined from. Most of the excavations are located at the base of the three “mountains”: Montparnasse, [...]...

I arrived in Paris this morning after a 6 hour red eye flight from NYC. Unbelievably I had a great sleep on the plane, mostly thanks to a tablet of Benadryl…don’t judge. Believe it or not I slept through the entire flight, even through the midnight snack and the early morning breakfast, they still remember how to treat passengers on International flights! When I arrived safe and sound and went through customs where unfortunately I wasn’t able to get my passport stamped :(, my friend Cat was standing at the exit, and greeted me with a resounding “Dude!!!!”. It was great to see her, we hadn’t seen each other in at least a year, and the last time I did we [...]...

I was in London for the first time recently and while my expectations regarding British food were (unjustifiably) not too high, I was more than pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed much of the typical British fare. Yum. While London has some of the best restaurants in the world, I didn’t partake in any fine dining but stuck with pubs, local tea shops, and cafes. I needed a translator initially to figure out what exactly some of the items on the menu consisted of, but by the end of the trip was quite familiar. Heavy on potatoes and other stick to your ribs dishes, here are some of the meals I enjoyed: Bubble and Squeak - I guess a term for leftovers [...]...

Our dear friends recently moved to England and my two daughters (ages 7 and 9) and I went to visit them last week. The trip was great in all aspects and if I learned nothing else, it’s that when sightseeing with kids, less is more. While planning the trip, I shared some books on London with the girls (side note - my 7 year old picked up on the British use of “Cheerio” as a greeting and started to use it - incessantly) and was up front with them as far as what much of the trip would consist of - lots of walking, waiting in line to see castles and other tourist spots, looking at buildings, etc. - all activities [...]...

How do you define a British pudding? What makes it different from the sweet desserts you get around the rest of the world? Some might call our desserts stodgy, but not me. When cooked properly our puddings can be as delicate as they are sweet. Take our famous Bread and Butter Pudding (see above photo) for example. Fine slices of buttered brioche, liberally scattered with plump juicy sultanas, drenched in creamy vanilla sweet custard and baked until crisp on the top and suitably oozing custard from underneath. Cooked badly on the other hand it can resemble a squidgy brick. Many of our puddings have had makeovers over the years. From the 1970’s, a layered sherry trifle springs to mind. For years I [...]...