http://www.tomatokumato.com conquering the world one tomato at a time Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:13:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Most of the time, I love my job. Sure, I often have to write articles about things that I really, really don't care about (if I have to write one more article about organic farming, I might chew my own arm off), but I know that if I go to ... http://www.tomatokumato.com/?p=1018 "You don't know how to live with people!" my sister says in a somewhat exasperated tone of voice. While most of the things that my sister says in an exasperated tone of voice get taken with a heaping tablespoon of salt, this time, I can't help but wonder if ... http://www.tomatokumato.com/?p=1011 Sometimes, people happen to be interested in really useful things, like my ex, the Parisian, who was really, genuinely interested in fixing computers. So much so that it didn't even bother him when I would stop working, point at my computer, and make high-pitched wordless sounds until he fixed whatever ... http://www.tomatokumato.com/?p=1008 My first morning in Paris (OK, my most recent "first morning in Paris") was tinged with excitement and nerves: I took the RER C from Breuillet into the city--a trip that used to feel normal and slow and easy turned strange, a 50-minute voyage that I used to make nearly ... http://www.tomatokumato.com/?p=1003 Apartment hunting is definitely not my favorite kind of shopping. I mean, sure, it's fun if you have all the time in the world or all the money in the world, but seeing as neither of those conditions are generally true when a student is searching for an apartment in a ... http://www.tomatokumato.com/?p=994 It's four o'clock in the morning, and I've slept two hours. I don't have my contact lenses in, but I can't be bothered to find any. Instead, I just pad down the stairs with the rest of them: the little Americans, the Country Boy, and I sit down in one ... http://www.tomatokumato.com/?p=986 It's strange how quickly you start to intuit cooking for a large group of people, once you've got your groove. Our trips to the supermarket were epic: five whole chickens, packs of chicken breasts and chicken legs we threw at one another to amuse the locals, who likely thought they might ... http://www.tomatokumato.com/?p=993 When it comes to dessert, I'm in the minority: I've found that most people, the kids in Paziols included, are in the chocolate camp. I, meanwhile, could just as easily forgo chocolate entirely, but when it comes to a fruit-based (especially lemon) dessert, watch out, I'm likely going to eat ... http://www.tomatokumato.com/?p=992 We have made a habit, in Paziols, of eating off-season food. I'm not talking about ingredients--you've never seen so many tomatoes and zucchini in your life until you look in my Paziols kitchen--but because we wanted to introduce the kids to as many traditional French dishes as possible, it's not unusual ... http://www.tomatokumato.com/?p=989 Working in Paziols is unlike working anywhere else: at most jobs, you arrive and you know approximately what your day is going to look like--make some calls, finish a project or two, meetings... In Paziols, however, there is nothing out of the ordinary when, over your morning coffee, you are ... http://www.tomatokumato.com/?p=984