Miserable/Horrible/Worst

I didn't think life could be like this. I think this was the worst day since i've been in Paris...let me rephrase that...worst day of my life! NEVER been in so much pain.

So I know Friday was my big update for you. And only half of the update came. So here goes. I decided to end my current stage early. So Friday, yesterday, was my last day. I was very bittersweet about it all...but I am working it out to come home earlier. I will keep you posted of further plans when i find them out.

Anyway...I woke up on Friday morning and I couldn't hear. Now the past few days my ears were pretty stuffed but Thur my hearing came back and when i woke up I thought it was just because of the bad weather. So i made myself some tea and then i missed my metro which brought me late to work on my last day. Well I got to work around 6:30. I continued to work until the pain in my right ear became so unbearable and I SERIOUSLY could not hear a THING that I couldn't stand or sit or work and I didn't know what to do. So i felt horrible, but around 8:30 I said my goodbyes for my last day of work and i left. It made me feel so bad to leave early...but like i said...I have NEVER felt this amount of pain in my life. I called SOS Medecin, where the dr comes to your house. He came shortly after I called and told me I had an ear infection. I told him 1) the pharmecy wasn't open for me to get the medicine yet and 2) even if I take it right now it's not gonna kick in...so what can you do for my unbearable pain? SO...he shot me up with Morphine?!?! i mean what? that was a first for me i think! Anyway...I was so dizzy and high as a kite that I fell into bed around 9:30ish. The rest of the day went like this. I woke up at 12 to get my medicine. Took it...got back in bed til 2ish. Made lunch. Which took me 2 hrs to eat (which i was nibbling and sleeping on and off) because i was SOOO nauseas but I felt that I was hungry. Anyway...around 4ish I went back to bed for good. And i mean GOOD! My friend tyler came over to make dinner and the thought of food made me ill. I was SO nausiated that I couldn't move. Everytime i moved in my bed i was in pain and felt so sick. So i just slept. Asima checked on me a few times throughout the night but all I wanted to do was sleep. SO i slept until 8:30 am the next morning. So i guess you can say I slept almost 24 hrs straight. Now you may ask am I feeling better? Well I still can't hear :( And it's the WORST feeling ever. I'm taking my meds and I hope to get better...but like i said...i'm umemployed so I have nothing but time to rest for now until I get some news. So...that's what i'm going to do til i get better!!! I don't feel like watching a movie, talking on the phone, listening to music or hell...even eating because it reverberates in my ear TERRIBLY! So...all i can do is lay in bed and sleep :( Leave me a message. And I'll talk to you when I'm better! WHY ME?! argh.

What a mess!

I'm talking about me! Work today was kind of amusing because everything that could have gone wrong did! But i laughed at it. So i will go through the day and tell you. I am just going to list them because I don't necessarily remember them in order...i just remember them all!

1) I forgot to make the baby brioche which I do EVERYDAY!!!

2) I dropped a tray when Chef Mulot was there and I didn't realise it and when I looked up I saw him and I go "ca va" (meaning all is well) and he goes "ca va pas" (meaning no it's not) and then kept on going. So i just apologized. After he left, Birke looked at me and was just as confused as I was as to what the problem was. But we laughed it off.

3) I forgot to make the second round of Kugelhopf which I do everday as well!!!

4) Alex said to me "deux seau blanc" which I heard "deux cent blancs" (which if you say them outloud they sound a LOT alike!!) so I weighed out 200 grams of egg whites and brought them to him and he was so confused. Then he repeated it...and EVERYONE in the room...including me just laughed. It was hilarious!

5) Alex also told me to weigh 1 kilo of amande...which I thought since at the current time i was weighing almond powder that's what he meant. So i weighed it and gave it to who i was supposed to give it to. Well he asked me and i said yes. He asked if i put it in the oven and i said no why? Then we laughed again because he meant blanched almonds not almond powder!!! OY!

6) I don't know where to start counting the amount of things I spilled today :) But i DID clean them up like a good worker would.

And today's boring job was...chopping almonds in half. And they had to be precise. WHAT?!?! that's a HORRIBLE job! prolly the worst one yet! But I stayed late to finish it. It's fine.

Anyway...it was an odd day for me. It was like I was wide awake...but I was zoning out and forgetting everything! So strange!! Talk to you tomorrow :)

busy few days!!!

I wanted to say on Monday night I made dinner. The recipe follows below. However instead of using monkfish (which i LOVE- but didn't feel like cleaning it! haha) I used cod and it worked just as well.

Roasted monkfish with curried lentils and browned butter cauliflower

Sauce
4 1/2 cups small cauliflower florets (from about one 22-ounce head)
1 cup whipping cream
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons (or more) water

Lentils and Browned Butter Cauliflower
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped peeled carrots
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1 cup French green lentils (lentilles de Puy)*
3/4 teaspoon curry powder
3/4 teaspoon paprika
2 3/4 cups water, divided

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
4 1/2 cups small cauliflower florets (from about one 22-ounce head)

Gremolata
1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 1/2 tablespoons grated lemon peel

Fish
4 6-ounce monkfish fillets (each about 1 inch thick), skin removed
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preparation For sauce:
Bring first 4 ingredients to boil in medium saucepan. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until cauliflower is very tender, about 17 minutes. Cool slightly. Transfer mixture to blender; add 3 tablespoons water and puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Rewarm over medium heat, stirring, and adding more water to thin sauce, if desired.)

For lentils and browned butter cauliflower:
Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, and celery; sauté until soft, about 8 minutes. Add lentils, curry, and paprika; stir 1 minute. Add 2 1/2 cups water; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Uncover; stir until liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, about 2 minutes. Add cauliflower; sauté until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add 1/4 cup water; cover and cook until cauliflower is crisp-tender and water evaporates, about 3 minutes longer. Stir in lentil mixture. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Rewarm before serving.)

For gremolata:
Mix parsley and lemon peel in bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

For fish:
Sprinkle monkfish with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish; sauté until just opaque in center, about 6 minutes per side.

Divide sauce among 4 plates. Spoon lentil mixture alongside. Place fish atop lentils; sprinkle with gremolata.

Anyway, the dish was DELICIOUS!!!! It was a last minute decision because i had bought lentils and I didn't know what to do with them...so i found this recipe and it was perfect! Try it ;)

So yesterday was the busiest day I've had in a LONG time! I worked from 6-3:30. It was once again a pretty lame day at work. I got to make some tarts in the morning and then once again lined tarts and made kugelhopf. The big part of the day was when I couldn't eat lunch. It was a stuffed tomato with pork (ham) and 1) i dont like cooked tomatoes and 2) i dont eat pork products. So i was s.o.l. (shit out of luck!) So i ate some almonds and cough drops. After lunch I learned how they make the pizza dough and then made some coulis. Then when they started to clean the fridges (around 3:20) Lisa let me go because I had to be at LCB at 4 pm. So I rushed to get over there. Bruno Lederf (the chef who I went to see win the MOF competition- My blog Nov 5th 2007), was giving a demo at school. So I had to go!!! Anyway...here are the pictures of the stuff he made.

It looked really good. I didn't taste it though. In anycase i saw my friends and it was nice. The demo ran REALLY late. Got out at 6:45. By the time I got home i had to snag some leftovers from the night before and then leave at 7:30 to go to an 8pm mtg. This mtg also ended a little late. We finished around 9:30ish. I got home around 9:50ish and at 10 pm I was so exhausted I fell into bed! I was pooped. Not to mention I hadn't been sleeping because I couldn't breathe!!!

Chef Lederf!

Something he made for the MOF competition

Verrine au chocolat, caramel exotique, et croquant de noisettes du piemont

Bonbons de chocolat: Tendre Passion

Entrement Sauveur Yusu
Anyway, today I had a day off but I had a lot to do. I woke up at 7 am and couldn't sleep anymore. My alarm was supposed to go off at 7:30 so it was fine. I got dressed and then took the train to some place called Sceaux. After getting lost, I finally found the house! I met with my mentor and she said I was on the right track for my thesis! She liked my outline and gave me some sources. She also told me another addition to extend the paper. She told me now I just need to start writing! So i left. However when I left I didn't know how to get out of the front gate so after a few minutes of trying to get out...I finally just hopped the fence! hahaha. Now i have bruises all over my leg! I finally got back to Paris and it was raining. I went to the library and ran some errands. Then finally I had to come back home cause it was just nasty out. I took a short nap and then made some cranberry sauce because I had many cranberries in the house! Now I'm going to do some cleaning and maybe work more on my paper. Check back on friday for a big update!

Asima :)

So Asima is my roomate. And i have to send a BIG thank you out to her. For many reasons. One is that I am sick. On Saturday night I went to bed around 9:15. At 10ish I woke up coughing and choking. She knocks on my door and asks if everything is all right and if i was throwing up :) haha. I told her i just had a tickle in my throat. Well she offers to make me tea. So she did. I sat in my bed waiting for her. I took 3 sips and then she goes "are you tired? go to bed. You don't want to miss the boat" Meaning the if you are tired the sleeping boat. It was ADORABLE. So she took my tea and put me to bed. I mean...NO OTHER roomate i have EVER had has done that for me EVER!!!

Not to mention she is the BEST cook ever. I dont even have to ASK for dinner. I come home and she goes...dinner is ready...I just have to finish cooking it. And they are gourmet meals! I can barely compete! Just wonderful. And at the end of dinner she makes tea! I don't even like tea...but i like hers!

And recently I have been having some personal issues and she is like a g-dsend. She listens to me when i need to talk and she doesnt question it. She understands it all. And she genuinely cares. I am SOOO lucky to have her. SO Asima if you read this...you don't know how much you mean to me as a friend. I am thankful to have you in my life. Thank you and I wish i could give you everything back that you give to me! BTW- check out her blog....it's on the right hand side of my page!! Toodles

Learning

This week at work I learned that French people are selfish. I know you are thinking...you JUST learned this?!? Well i guess i always knew it...but this week it bothered me more. And it was something REALLY stupid...but enough to tick me off! I was cutting pamplemousse (grapefruit-but it sounds better in french!). And at the end there is juice that comes from it. And people come up and take the juice. And OFCOURSE i was going to pass it around...WHEN I WAS FINISHED. And the worst part is people would come for seconds. And I said, "but other people haven't had any" and they said "so?" And then I said "well what about chef?" (who always has like 4 glasses) they said "he'll get it next round" and it just bothered me. Same goes with coffee. When I make coffee people want a LOT of coffee in their glass when i have to serve everyone which then makes me have to make a second pot. AND...someone who reads this blog wants coffee when he isn't working!!!!! NOT FAIR :) But i always make him a pot anyway!

Other news...I went to see Sweeny Todd finally with Manuel and Chris (it only came out on the 23rd of jan here). LOVED IT! I was very impressed by Johnny Depp. Who knew he could sing?! However I am used to Mrs Lovett being played differnetly but I liked her interpretation. And the boy who played Toby i LOVED. And a LOT of people told me it was too bloody...but i didn't think it was THAT bloody. I could have eaten through that entire movie...although i didnt't :)

Um...that's it for now. Like i said...this week is a week for life planning...so keep checking regularly for updates!