October 4, 2007

I woke up this morning and got my work done! ok...well i procrastinated on packing, but I cleaned my room, and vacuumed, and then went to the post office. I then went to school for my last day of healthy cooking. Today was Healthy desserts...but they were DELICIOUS!!!! We learned 5 of them. 1) strawberries with a balsamic reduction and yogurt with spices 2) grilled pears with a vanilla caramel mousse 3)French toast with wine and coconut cream 4) duo of sauteed mango and pineapple with a yogurt and fromage blanc mix and 5) mini bananas with green peppercorns and caramel cream flan. That being said....and all so YUMMY...I made 3 of them in class. I made number 1 and 2 and then for my third I sorta made a twist on number 4. I played around a bit and tried to focus on plating cause the recipes were SO simple. I think i did an ok job with my plating. We started at 5:30 because we got done so early from the Demo. We also finished around 7:30. It was nice. We did a bunch of talking though because it was Dzintra's last day :( We had champagne and stuff too.



After class she drove me home and i said my goodbyes. I wont see her for atleast 3 weeks as she is off to the states! I then came home and packed, showered and got read for the DAM...AMSTERDAM!!! off to bed cause i can't wait for tomorrow :)

October 3, 2007

Fernando had to leave for work at 9, so i woke up with him and then went back to bed til 11. I woke up and still was exhausted but I had to get things done. I checked my email and Sarah had emailed asking to do lunch. I said ok. Well long story short, we were gonna meet at 1 at a certain metro. The metros out here have more than one exit...usually 4 or 5. So i waited at the one I knew for about 40 min. Eventually I left cause I didn't see her. Oh yah...AND i forgot my phone at home (but i figured it didn't matter cause she didn't have a cell phone!) so I go home and she left me a message saying she was at the restaurant (but didnt leave directions so I still wouldnt have known where to go) so i wrote her an email saying this prolly wasn't our week to get together since this happened to us sunday also! Oh well! Anyway, I come home, eat a quick bite and then leave for school. ALSO...I had 3 bathroom incidents today...why me? 1) I saw a little boy pull down his pants on the street and start peeing against a wall 2) I saw a mom changing a kid in the middle of a sidewalk 3) in the dressing room at school, someone was peeing with the door open! WHAT?!! crazy day! Anyway, in class today we learned meats. Quail piccata with pea cappuccino, rabbit stuffed a la grecque, Duck breast cooked en papillote, citrus jus and 3 vegetable flans, and THE BEST was veal with soy spiced sauce and avocado. That dish was SOOO amazing (i think the BEST i have EVER eaten at LCB) that when we got to practical we were supposed to make 3 dishes and I said to chef, sorry I'm making this one only and a LOT of it :) It was SOOOO good. So that's what I did. Chef also took a silly picture of me in class. I'll post that as well. We got done around 8ish today. Pretty easy. And we worked individually.


Dzintra drove me home and then I tried to fall asleep at 9:15 and before i knew it, it was 10:15 and i still hadn't fallen asleep. WHY can't i get better?!?! ARGH!

October 2, 2007

I woke up this morning feeling horrible, so going back to the gym was WAY out of the question. I pretty much tried to lay around feeling better, although it didn't quite work. I eventually got myself to school (because i felt so bad that i missed the first two days I wasn't about to miss anymore!) And today we learned fish. But GOOD fish. We learned Hake with a green sauce and clams, sole with little gems and a jus, Risotto infused with smoked milk and haddock with asparagus, Skate escabeche and fennel in a salt crust. I didn't like the sole very much, but the rest were outstanding! In practical we made all of it except the sole which I was happy about. We worked as a group again. Dzintra went home again. We got done by 8:30. And today I gave Fernando my camera for a bit, so he took some fun picture. I'll post my favorite one!




After class Fernando walked me home. He grabbed some beers and we wound up staying up til 4 am talking. Then we just both fell asleep. good talks though...so worth it :)

October 1, 2007

HOLY MOLY...it's october! I can't believe it. Anyway, this week is healthy cooking. It's so funny because there are things like low fat butter and skim milk on the recipes. Who knew that would be in a french cooking school ;) I woke up and felt like death still. Can't breath. Not to mention my sleep was distrupted by loud people in the morning. Anyway, I layed around all morning trying to relax...but I couldn't breath...which means I couldn't sleep. Eventually I showered and went to school early. I had some appts and then some printing to do. At 3:30 we had healthy cooking and today's class was based on tapas. We learned 5 things. Vichyssoise with smoked haddock, Tuna made piperade style, Mackerel marinaded in a cider sauce, Potato cake with fennel and smoked salmon on top, and salmon wrapped in dried beef with a ginger sauce. All SUPER tasty...although i'm not one to say since my taste buds were still out of commission! But i ate a lot of it :) HEY...it was healthy cooking...i'm allowed!! heehee. So during class, it was just the 3 girls. We were supposed to do 3 recipes but i didnt like the mackerel so none of us did it. So we did the Vichyssoise and the potato cake. We worked together and finished around 8:30. I was so happy I just wanted to go home.


When I got home i drugged myself and for the life of me I COULD NOT BREATH! It took me an hr to fall asleep. I think i finally fell asleep around 10:30.

Sushi!

I woke up at 8 after a good nite sleep and I definately have a cold. Bummer. I went to the gym anyway and had a great workout. I came home and layed down for an hr and a half, but couldn't breath so it was pointless. I then showered. Then I read a book and was waiting for Sarah to call cause we were supposed to go to a museum, but she never called. So eventually I went to Dzintra's around 6ish and she ordered sushi as well as cooked a GREAT meal. We ate and chatted and then watched Gordon Ramsey's new TV show Kitchen something...can't remember the name. Then we watched a Lifetime TV movie about a chef and it was a thriller. REALLY good. At 11 I took the metro home after Dzintra LOADED me up with drugs. I could have been busted I had so much cold medicine in my bag!!! I came home...drugged myself and went to bed around midnight.

Dernier Jour

Kaili and I woke up at 9 and then layed around til 10. SO thats somewhere between 2 and 3 hrs of sleep. Nice! I felt the start of a cold coming on...or it could have been last nites festivities with the smoke all around!!! We then got up, she got dressed then we went to my house so I could get dressed. We met up with Josephine, Cara, Andrew and his girlfriend Sophie for breakfast in Montmarte. It was a GREAT breakfast. After that, Kaili, Josephine and I went shopping for scarves. I actually bought one. It's pretty. That's a huge thing in Paris...so i have to fit in. After that at around 4 pm Kaili and I went back to her house and I snagged a few things that she didn't want to take home with her. We hung out for a while and at 7 pm we bid our goodbyes. I was very sad. I left her crying. And she was too. I can't type about it anymore or I'll get more sad. SO i came home and ate some dinner. I didn't do much, except some laundry, and at about 9 I went to bed!

September 28, 2007

Since i had a late night the night before I slept in a little late. I then got dressed and went to my training appt with Sebastien. WOOH! He worked my a$$ out! i was a sweaty girl when I was done. he made this plan for me that consists of a crazy up and down mess on the treadmill, then stairmaster, then bike and then 4 machines. I told him I don't like machines too much, so he figured out a plan for me where I would enjoy doing it. And i like this one ;) Anyway, I was at the gym for a little over 2 hrs, plus I saw my friend Ben so i chatted with him for a good while. I then came home and layed down and read some, ate some, did some laundry. Eventually (way later) I got dressed because I was going out for Kaili and Rick's last nite on the town. How sad! Anyway...it was a GREAT nite. We started out at Kaili's. Then we went to the Highlander (a bar). It was me, Kaili, Rick and his friend Anne, Jackson, Cara, Josephine, Dane, Rodolfo, and Alex. (plus Andrew and his girlfriend Sophie at Kaili's house) Let's just say I prepared myself for next weekend, Amsterdam ;) Oh...and it was national makeout day...and I succeeded at that too with a french guy named Matthieu! He took my number...but we'll see! We stayed there til around 4ish.

I stayed with kaili the entire nite. We then took a cab back to her place, but walked around for a bit to try and find food. What made us think Mcdonalds would be open at 5 am?!?! HA! So we got home at 5:35 and Kaili cooked. Ok...not really...but we made a frozen baguette, 3 mini pizza bagels, polenta left over from dinner, and Kaili made french fries. HAHAH! random, but fufilled our hunger. We went to bed around 7ish. Enjoy the pictures below :)