Tracy Chapman

Joelle and I had such a wonderful time at Tracy Chapman's concert Friday night here in Paris thanks to AMERICAblog reader Joe Gore. There was so much emotion and love in the music and having the wonderful opportunity to meet everyone after the show confirmed what we felt during the show. We appreciated the invitation so we invited Joe and the band to join us for a home cooked meal last night. The weather gods were with us so we popped some of our friends' wine and dined on the terrace.

Joelle often tells me that food is love so we tried to share a bit of it with the band who gave us so much the night before. I lucked out and found some yummy early season figs and poached them in wine Karoo style, stuffed with Roquefort. (We had them at a restaurant in the Karoo called the Blue Fig so for us, that's "Karoo style.") The main course was a modified daube (Provencal stew) cooked for hours and hours. I love adding in red peppers and eggplant which aren't traditional, but the taste is hard to beat. (Again...any time you put tomatoes, peppers and eggplant together, it's going to be good.) Even better though was just talking around the table, nestled in our little garden. What a great bunch of people and a total pleasure to meet. The fact that they all liked cats, better still.