Bacon is tasty, but it is not photogenic. Least of all bacon sputtering in a pan of fat. But it sounds good! This recording was inspired by a link Andy sent me earlier this week to Sleep Phones—soft head-band-phones you can plug into your mp3 player and wear as you drift off to sleep. On their site they have some specially engineered sound samples to download, one of which, Breakfast Sizzle, caught my eye. In that vein, here’s a little taste of the BLT+Avocado I cooked up for dinner tonight.

This post originally appeared on White Noise Lounge.

On the way back from Italy we stopped off in Monaco, like you do, went to the castle, saw the exotic garden, stumbled upon the changing of the guard, and walked through the church.

Panorama of Monaco’s harbor and waterfront

On Thursday we had lunch in Saint-Laurent-du-Var with two of Stephanie’s friends from high school, both of whom she’d reconnected with via Facebook. Then we had a lovely dinner with Stephanie’s mom and aunt prepared by her momma. Tomates à la Provençale, gratin dauphinoise, and longe de porc au miel (braised pork loin with a honey-shallot glaze). I took pictures.

Stephanie told me that during college in Nice, when funds were low, she would occasionally treat herself to an “American Sandwich” because it was cheap and very filling. The funny thing is, the Sandwich Américain doesn’t really exist in the US, outside of the occasional TGI Friday’s promotion. Which is all the more reason I HAD to have one during our recent trip to France.

So what’s a Sandwich Américain? Start with half a baguette, cut open and filled with lettuce, tomatoes, Gruyère or Emmental, add browned ground beef (steak haché), and finish with french fries—on top! Fear not, I took pictures.

Update: My sister Katie had her first sandwich américain in Saint-Malo.

I can’t believe I didn’t post anything about this on my first trip to France. Socca is sort of a chickpea crepe popular in and around Nice—particularly in the Vieux Nice.

I can’t say that I’ve ever seen the flower of a zucchini before.

In France they’re sold with the flower in order to make beignets de fleurs de courgette, or fried zucchini flowers. It’s something of a specialty in Provence.

We got the ones above at a place near our apartment, but they were mostly fried dough, so we’ll have to find some better ones on our next trip. Or maybe I’ll luck out and get some zucchini flowers in my veggie box this summer? This Fleurs de Courgette Farcies recipe looks pretty awesome.