behind

I am SOOOO behind on blogging. I think i'm just behind on life in general. I haven't been at the computer much. I had to respond to 7 emails that I was slacking on! EEKS! that's SOO unlike me. But i think i'm back on track. AND i forgot to mention last weeks movie that I saw. Asima came with Manuel and I this time. We saw Razzle Dazzle...but in France they changed the name to Dancing Queen. Stupid idea because 1) then you think it's about a bunch of queens running around dancing (meaning gays!) and 2) No one is gonna want to see it then! Anyway...it was a mockumentary about Australian dance teams going to a dance competition! Hilarious! I love mockumentaries. Same line as Best in Show and a Mighty Wind style. SOOO good. But that was last Sunday...oops! See...i told you...I'm slacking!

Ok...so I had two days off. I tried to take advantage of the sales. I didn't do amazing...but i got a few things. i tried on this dress but I wasn't sure i loved it. But i can't stop thinking about it...so i think I'm gonna go get it tomorrow after work since it's on my walk home. It was a cheapy cotton one...not like a super expensive fancy one. And there were a pair of boots i liked too...but i'm still debating those! ARGH...sales :)

OH...and the highlight of my days off was on wed morn I met Edwige (the woman in charge of my HEG-gastronomy program) for coffee at Starbucks! We chatted for a while. It was SOOO good to see her. She looks great...even with her new accessories :) heehee. I have to apologize because I didn't bring my camera and she wanted to be on my blog....next time! PROMISE! But anyway...it was a great time.

Other than that...it's been a hectic two days off. Running around a bunch. One of these days I'm just gonna lay in bed and do NOTHING! Yah right! I can't imagine myself doing that! Oh well. Back to the grind tomorrow. For now...more thesis work. Off to read! toodles

1/15/2008 or 15/1/2008

Depending on where you are living! Anyway...this was a big day for me. It was the day that I realised why g-d brought me to Paris. It took me over a year to realise it...and it was a LONG journey...but I figured it out. From here...I have an even LONGER journey to go. It's pretty personal to post on my blog...so if you are my friend and care to know...shoot me an email. However I thought I would post that i feel good about where things are going and it's good when that type of realisation comes about. That's it!! Hope everyone is well.

cake!

So work has been great! I've been obviously working on galettes a lot! Here are a few pics (i did NOT make this one...chef did! DUH!)


That's me serving coffee! hahah. Chef said to me (in french ofcourse) "is there a strike on coffee?" because I was SO busy with making galettes i didnt have time to make coffee! It was funny. Then the next day he was clapping his hands and going "du cafe, sil vous plait" it rhymed. GREAT!!! Ofcourse i made him coffee!
Other than that today(oops...posted a little late) I did a LOT of peeling...mangos and pears. I think I peeled for an hr and a half total! eeks. But i'm still loving it!
Today wasn't the best day though. My metro was late so when I arrived everyone thought I wasn't gonna show up! But i did :) Then I hit my finger with the rolling pin! Ouch! Then eventually I cut myself with the peeler. And to top it all off...it was "joke with penny" day. Ok, not really, but two people made me believe something that wasn't true! I laughed in the end...but argh! The whole french/american speaking thing can be annoying sometimes! Oh and two new people started today. I dont know if they are interns or workers...but yah.
And the pictures below are of Alex decorating a cake (well styrofoam). I took pictures of the progress and then him at the end with it. It was BRIGHT pink. Who in their right mind would order that?!?!





So as i said I posted late...but yah. Now i have two days off. More posts to come!!!

weight.

Sorry...it feels like forever. But it was really just my two days off ;) Which were really nice. I went to the gym both days. But Seb is on vacation in Thailand so I am alone. Oh well. And Asima (my WONDERFUL new roomie) has been making dinner, so I made dinner on wed night. I made pasta with grilled calamari and endives with a lime and dill wine sauce. It wasn't horrible. I didn't follow a recipe. I tried to just go with it. It worked. I'm trying really hard to be creative! Anyway...I also went out wed night. Me and Fernando went out to a bar to drink some beers. I LOVE hanging out with him. SO MUCH FUN! went to bed at two and still didn't sleep enough on Thur morn. Woke up too early. But i had to because i had to go to the library! ARGH! I spent 3 1/2hrs there (i think the most time i have EVER spent in a library my whole life! hahaha). After that I was DONE for the day. But I got a lot of work done. I also went to school on wed to drop something off, and i went to the bank.

Anyway...my header. Well on wed I had 4 people compliment me on how thin I look AND i had GOD knows how many people hit on me. And that continued onto thurs. When I went to buy fish on wed, the guy said to me (all in french of course-because i can have conversations now) do you want fish or do you want the fish seller? I was like...uh...fish. Then he asked if the fish was for me and him because he wanted to invite me over to cook it for him?!?! I MEAN WHAT? I told him my boyfriend in the states wouldn't be too happy about that! haha. Then on thurs a guy at my market hit on me TWICE! I saw him two times and the second time (after a change of close-1st time was nasty after the gym) he still remembered me. WEIRD! I don't know if it's the weight, or my overall feeling about myself and i'm giving off this vibe...but men are flocking to me! WHY NOW? Couldn't this have happened in Jan 07?!?!

Anyway...I'm reading this book...Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink...it's for my thesis...but it's helping ME more than the thesis. I owe him my lost pounds :)

Well...im off to finish some more research! have a good nite. toodles

PAID?!

So today at work was another long day. Supposedly, we have to do galettes til the end of the month! WHAT?!?! ARGH! But...my special skill of being fast came in handy today :) I knew it would at some point. We did like a galette line and I had to be SUPER fast! I was! heehee. Anyway...my back hurts terribly. I also didn't realise that I was going to be there for Valentines day! another great pastry shop holiday! I am SOOO lucky :)

So...quick boy update. Asshole is still asshole...but now he flirts. It's SO funny. Today he blew a kiss at me and I guess he said in french that he wanted to sleep with me?!! I don't know...still and asshole though :) my A guy is still adorable and we got to talk a lot today. He said his nickname is "horse". I'll leave you and your imagination :) And the friend of A has a girlfriend (i may have said that already). And then there is teddy :) No update as of now. He stopped calling. Smart guy...makes me more interested.

So...the big news...Chef was passing out paychecks today and he gave me a check. I was expecting one for 3 months of my metro pass. But instead there was a big amount on there. I was so confused. I asked someone and they said I get paid monthly for being a stagiere! WOOHOO!!!! GO ME! Who knew?! But i am SUPER excited. HERE'S TO THE PARIS SALES IN JANUARY :) heehee. Have a good day peeps!

Galette De Rois

So today was the first day at work that I felt like I was working an assembly line. I felt like I was a slave worker. I actually heard my chef yell and things were mad!! It's because of these Galette De Rois. Those were the cakes I mentioned. I have pictures and I did some research on them as well. This is the explaination (translated into english from wikipedia france)

"Is a cake celebrating the Epiphany and traditionally sold and consumed a few days before and after that date. The cake is made from puff pastry filled with frangipane "similar to the pithiviers (filled cake), or not (dry cake), Belgium and northern France. In half South of France, she is brioche. In Occitania, the galette des rois (called cake of kings) is a pastis, a kind of brioche, flavoured with orange flower and containing fruits and sometimes called kingdom. In Provence this dessert is called cake of kings and consists of a sort of brioche scented with orange flower covered with sugar and candied fruit. Traditionally, it is an opportunity to "draw kings" Epiphany: a figurine is hidden in the cake and the person who gets the bean becomes king of the day and will provide the next cake.
This practice is rooted in Saturnalia of ancient Rome. The Romans used the bean as ballot to elect the king's feast at these festivals. The beans were replaced in 1870 by porcelain figurines or - more recently - plastics. The collection of these small objects is called favophilie. To ensure a random distribution of the shares of cake, it is customary that the youngest is placed under the table and appoint the beneficiary on the part that is designated by the person in charge of the service.
Previously, the practice was that we shared the cake in as many shares as diners, plus one. The latter, called the "hand of God", "part of the Virgin" or "share of the poor" was intended for the poor who are the first to submit homeless. Although it is now increasingly hard to find, the cake of Besançon was once used to draw the Kings. It is a dry cake made from puff pastry covered with sugar and butter."

Now in american it is called the King's Cake. This blurb was taken from Wikipedia US.
"A king cake (sometimes rendered as kingcake or kings' cake) is a type of cake associated with the festival of Epiphany in the Christmas season in a number of countries, and in other places with Carnival. It is popular in Christmas season in France (galette/gateau des rois), Portugal (Bolo Rei), Spain (Roscón de Reyes and in Catalonia called tortell), Greece (vasilopita) and Bulgaria (banitsa). In the United States, which celebrates Carnival ranging from Mobile, Alabama to East Texas, centered on New Orleans it is associated instead with Carnival traditions.
The cakes have a small trinket (usually a small plastic Baby Jesus) inside, and the person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket has various privileges and obligations.In southern U.S.A., the tradition was brought to the area by colonists from France and Spain. King cake parties in New Orleans are documented back to the eighteenth century. A little bean was traditionnally hidden in it, a custom taken from the Saturnalia in the Roman Empire: the one who stumbled upon the bean was called "king of the feast." In the galette des Rois, since 1870 the beans have been replaced by porcelain and, now, plastic figurines; while the gâteau des Rois often contains both a bean and a figurine. Samuel Pepys (whose wife was French) recorded a party in London on Epiphany night, 6 January 1659/1660: "...to my cosen Stradwick, where, after a good supper, there being there my father, mother, brothers, and sister, my cosen Scott and his wife, Mr. Drawwater and his wife, and her brother, Mr. Stradwick, we had a brave cake brought us, and in the choosing, Pall was Queen and Mr. Stradwick was King. After that my wife and I bid adieu and came home, it being still a great frost."[1] The choosing of King and Queen from the pie, usually by the inclusion of a bean and a pea, was a traditional English Twelfth Night festivity (see there for other early English references)."

So...as you can see...these are SUPER popular. Anyway...we've been making over 500 a day. and i'm NOT exaggerating. So i took some pictures.

First the dough is rolled out. Then I (sometimes- or someone else) puts on egg wash on the outter edge and then pipes on (depending on the type)only almond cream or almond and pistachio cream. At the top is the heart that we put in as the trinket. On the back it says "mulot paris". Then my other job is to put on all of the nuts. I have to put them on in a round. ARGH! And i have to be quick about it because then is the next step.

Someone else puts on the top and then i dust the flour off the top and then make indents on the side three finger widths apart. Then after this is done (a certain amount) there is a HUGE process for storing them. I can't explain it all because even I am confused. But it's timed and you have to put things and out of the freezer. It's crazy.

This is Birke cutting out the circles! EEKS...see the leftover. WOW.

This is the store. and that is NOT the half of them!!!!!!

These are the heart ones :)



I brought two of them home. This is the pistachio one after it's cooked. They are soooo yummy! Chef and a few other people get to do the lines before they are cooked.

Anyway...today was a LONG day. I was happy to leave work :) But enjoy the galettes...i know i am!!!

me...hard at work :)

So....Today I got to do a few new things (amongst the boring same ole!) I made an apricot tart. Here are the pics.


I also decided to take a picture of myself today working! Well my friend took it ;) So enjoy me hard at work!!! hahaha


That's about it for today. I want to post this brochure i have...but i can't figure it out. when i do...i will post it! have a nice night. toodles