Dinner For One

For a long time, I felt like nothing could compare or be better than a New York City summer. There would be no city as electrifying, the pulse of no other city could match up to the beat of New York's, and the pace never outmatched. As a result even after seven years of living in Paris, I always craved a New York City summer until this summer. The coronavirus curtailed my usual summer of traveling, which led me to lean into French summers, and while different from New York City summers, gave me a newfound appreciation for l'èté a la français.

Meal made: salade niçoise

This is part two of the pandemic centered episodes. In the last episode, I talked about how the pandemic helped me realize that I need to be more proactive about dating. In this episode, I dive deeper into how my views around dating have evolved, a few revelations I had around my pre-COVID dating habits, and how I plan on being a better dater in the future. I spoke about all this while making mackerel patties.

In this episode, I share the unfiltered truth around my experience living alone and cooking dinner for one during the lockdown period of the coronavirus pandemic. I talk about how the loneliness affected me and how this experience changed my outlook and approach to many ways I was living my life pre-corona.

What does that even mean? No, I am not talking about becoming a French citizen.

In this episode, I discuss how I've come to the conclusion that the best way to experience life in Paris and lead a happy and successful expat life here is to create my own kind of Frenchness.

I'm back in my kitchen, toute seule and in English, making one of my top 5 pasta dishes.

To be completely honest I didn't expect to still be cooking dinner for one, but here we are 3 seasons later. In this episode, I will talk about how I've tried to keep my optimism and guard my "softness" while simply trying to be a good person in this sometimes cold, harsh, sad, digital world we live in.

I'm back after an extended break. To kick off this season I decided to do things a bit differently by recording the entire episode in French! My good friend Nathalie joined me as we had a chat and shared a few giggles over a very Parisian apéro dinatoire. The rest of the season will continue in English with sprinkles and dashes of French thrown in here and there, as usual. ;)

Donc, pourquoi en français?

J'ai décidé de faire ce épisode en français parce que pour moi ça représente une étape naturelle dans ma vie à Paris, ma vie en France, d'être capable de m'exprime en français avec confiance et des moins d'erreurs possible.

La première saison de Dinner for One j'ai beaucoup réfléchie sur mon situation actuelle, a l'époque, ce t a dire "Comment je vais et est-ce que je peux survivre ça, cette nouvelle vie de divorcée, célibataire, dans ma trentaine, dans une pays et ville qui ne pas le mien?"

Saison deux j'ai été un peu perdu, est-ce que je vais rester? Est-ce que je vais partir? J'ai décidé que je vais rester pour le plus long possible et donc voilà on arrive à saison trois. J'espère que pendant cette saison je vais explorer comment je peux vraiment construire une vie ici, et le première façon est de parler français, non?

This week my friend and fellow American, Léonard aka Lenny joined me in my kitchen to talk about life in Paris, living this experience as a young black person and his idea of the adult trifecta.

Lenny is a fashion stylist and hails from Brooklyn, NY. He has been living in Paris for 3 years and always has funny and interesting insights into life here. Also be sure to follow him on Instagram because he is hilarious. @lennyoffduty.

Enjoy!

Music: Eternity by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Producer: Lory Martinez, lorymartinez.com Logo: Tiffanie Delune, https://www.tiffaniedelune.com/

Living abroad, and living in Paris in particular, isn't always a perfect Instagram story and I hope I've done a decent job of showing another kind of American in Paris story. That said, even when Paris is bad, it's never THAT BAD.

Why? How? Because of the "P" word, Pleasure. In this episode, I talk about how Paris taught me to embrace and expect pleasure in all aspects of my life.

Music: Eternity by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Producer: Lory Martinez, lorymartinez.com Logo: Tiffanie Delune, https://www.tiffaniedelune.com/

This week Paris based writer Lindsey Tramuta joined me in my kitchen to talk about all things French and food. As the author of the Amazon best-seller The New Paris: the People, Places & Ideas Fueling a Movement and host of the podcast The New Paris podcast she has a lot to say about France, French culture, Paris and food.

Lindsey's favorite dinner for one is a simple yet filling omelette that is trés French in its simple elegance. Sit back and enjoy as we talk about the importance of self-care while being an foreigner in Paris and I share a pretty funny (read:embarassing) story about cheese and butter)

Lindsey's book: The New Paris: the People, Places & Ideas Fueling a Movement,

Lindsey's podcast:The New Paris Podcast

Music: Eternity by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Producer: Lory Martinez, lorymartinez.com Logo: Tiffanie Delune, https://www.tiffaniedelune.com/

It has officially been 1 year since I launched Dinner For One! Doing this podcast, sharing my story and living this experience. the most important thing this project has thought me to do is to be more open to life's experiences.

In this episode I talk about being more open to experiences and adventure, and also share a little short story about what happens when I let life just happen.

On the menu: Turmeric rice with tomatoes and roasted salmon