French Girl Friday La Qualite'

Happy Halloween! 

Week three... chapter Trois ( three) is all about La Qualite' ... adding quality not only to your daily life, but your daily diet, It is something I have been working on in both areas for a while now, even before picking up this book. Not because I want to add a bit more of a French twist to my life, but simply because with everything I have been through in the last few years, I want, need and desire more quality to my daily life. I got some disturbing and upsetting news about my health, after several months of it being pretty good, and there is so much unknown about what is happening to me, the one thing I have control over that is a known to me is that I can add more quality to my life and so upon opening the book it was like a beacon shining a message to me.  So, with the chapter's theme in mind, I went to the market to choose my meal for today to eat to get in the mood before writing my post. My youngest works at a local fine food market and just so happens to work in the cheese department, so I had her guide me through creating a little lunch time treat that was of fine quality and all with a French theme.

With Sunflowers, to dress the table, I dined on a fresh crisp Gala
apple, cranberry pumpkin crisps, almonds with Provencal seasons,
a French hard cheese, cherry fruit paste, and local honey and of course
a pumpkin black sesame seed French macaron all paired with a sparkling water
served in special glass.... quality food, eaten while reading a quality book.

"It's a funny thing about life; if you accept

anything but the very best, you will get it."

W. Somerset Maugham 

The very first sentence in chapter three states " In the French way of life, quality is everything~our book's third secret."  It is something that us American's with our super sized, bigger/more is better, hurry up, fast paced, grab and go attitude often ignore and never add to our lives. I am guilty. I own a lot of what is termed "disposable" clothing, a dozen low cost pieces of make up and even have a habit of wearing cheap sneakers on my feet.  I have a habit, more and more with my husbands work hours, and my health issues of the prefab food being the go to meal wise,  and more times than not I grab a diet bar for lunch and I do love a bit of fast food and I drink my coffee on the run half way through my walk. I want to and have been trying to change that. Quality is important to me, but I have let that part of my life take a back seat. It is time to add that back to my life. I knew that before I opened to this chapter of The French Twist, that though I do not have a budget to change everything to be more of a higher quality level, I can start to make small changes at least to my eating habits. I have switched out my diet bars to be all natural, unaltered ingredients, have also begun to eat them slowly while sitting and watching the world go by, maybe not the lingering way the French take lunch, but at least I am eating quality food. I now take time to sit and drink my coffee before continuing on with my walk, I snack on high end, high quality food, such as in the photo above, it is more costly, but I can make the items last so it is worth the investment, and on a side note, I am upgrading my clothing, and make up, just looking for sales when they happen and started going to nice resale shops to add that quality, and getting rid of the more disposable side of all those items. It is all about baby steps, taking my time and adding that quality to every part of my daily life. I have even begun to wear my Channel No. 5 more often. But back to the book. 

" The world has changed from quality 

to quantity and so have we." 

Santosh Kalwar   

Chapter three shares stories of people who have experienced the quality of life the French lead and how it has influenced their lives, changed how they want to live their lives, their way of shopping for, what they buy, preparing and eating food.  The author also goes over how to get what to stock your fridge, your pantry and counter top with, how to get the nutrition you need from real food, and what fresh, quality food an do for you and your body, hair and skin.  She even includes a nice little recipe for a Champagne Vinaigrette. Of course the chapter then also ends with the standard homework of what to work on next, one of the assignments, in "Practicing Your French", is "Upgrade three foods that you eat on a regular basis....." again, baby steps of adding quality and a French Twist to your day to day life and diet. I am on board with that, how about you??? 

Quotes from the book The French Twist by Carol Cottrill available HERE