The Riviera

I hear a lot of the people who read this think i died in europe.. Heres a short update. This past weekend I went to Nice, and to Monaco. Both remind me a little bit of California, but with older buildings. While we were there I basically lived off of cheese, tea, and sweets. Everyday I had either a goat cheese salad, or a crepe with cheese and vegetables. Best of all was the onion soup in Eze on the way to Monaco. In Nice, we walked around a lot, and shopped. In Monaco we did a lot of sight seeing, went to the aquarium, and then to a street market in the morning. There I had paella, and halfway through i realized that the shrimp had not been deveined.. a pleasant surprise ;) We got back to Yssingeaux last night, I just woke up about an hour ago. I slept for 13 hours.. I must have needed it.

Pastry kits can be dangerous.

Sorry for the lack of update. I'll start with Thursday.

Thursday morning we went to the big market in the center of Yssingeaux that only happens on thursdays. The first thing we saw were caged pigeons, geese, hens, chicks, and rabbits to be sold to be eaten. The rest of the market had a lot of fresh produce, cheese, sausage, fish, flowers, clothes, you name it. later we went to our usual coffee spot, and then headed to class. we were in the kitchen, and pretty much everything that could go wrong, did. My eclairs and choux didnt rise (I put too much butter in my dough.. they still tasted super good after they were cooked though.. mmm butter.) I put wayy too much water in with sugar when I was making syrup for my buttercream frosting so it took about an extra 30 minutes of boiling time to get it up to temperature before I could add it to the egg whites. When I was checking on the egg whites to see if they were at stiff peaks yet,  I was using a stand mixer I hadn't used before. This one had a lever on the left to start the mixing, on the right to bring up the whisk. After my whisk was up I was doing to push the lever to lower it again. Instead I turned the power on and meringue went everywhere. I started laughing, chef saw it too and started laughing as well, so I didn't feel too bad. Lastly, while I was reaching into my pastry kit, i cut my finger on a knife (second class in a row.) It was a very frustrating day.

On Friday everything was going a lot better. Chef helped me remake my pate a choux so my choux and eclairs turned out. The day before we had made brioche dough and it had risen from the day before. It turned out really well.  My pastry cream worked out. My genoise batter cooked well and my moka cake turned out to be very tasty. We then rolled out some salted dough to make crust for quiche, that was really good too... If I sound like I'm tooting my own horn its because of what happened next.. I was, yet again, reaching into my pastry kit and i really really cut my finger. I almost fainted. Typical accident prone me.. and yes, thats 4 classes in a row.

Today, during the day, Kwen, Wendy, Cheryl, Ching Yang, Eric, and I went to St. Etienne. We went to Ikea again (same as the Ikeas in the US except instead of cinnamon rolls, they have macaroons. They also have wine in the cafeteria.) We also stopped at an Asian Grocery store and got lots of things. Kwen already made some spicy sprouts with some of the things she bought there, they were delicious. We also went to the mall and bought some warm clothes for the winter. Then back to Yssingeaux to relax.

Tomorrow, time to clean my messy room (those of you who have seen my rooms in college or at home, its hard to believe its messy, isnt it?)

My sister had her baby, as I'm sure all of you know :) I wish I could be there to meet him!! Congratulations, Katie and Chris! 

For school today we have a guest speaker from a factory that makes flavorings for food. Then off to the factory. Kwen is making us breakfast and we're going to get coffee and/or chocolat on the way to school. 

bad and great

bad..this was lunch today.....  ick.... that is all...


Great....Staying up to hear about my new nephew who will be born any moment :) i can't wait!!

Dreary Monday

On Friday we did a lot in class. We finished our eclairs and our choux, and made creme anglaise. We made chocolate ganache tarts with chocolate pastry cream in them as well. We also made cookies with toasted hazelnuts out of the leftover tart crust. 

On Saturday we took a trip to Lyon and went shopping. It was a lot of fun, but tiring. For dinner I had a delicious crepe with cheese, sundried tomatoes, and chicken in it. The crepe was huge! But me, being a member of the clean plate club, finished the entire thing. So good. We got back at around 9pm and I went right to sleep. One of our friends, Wendy, was sick so she couldnt go on the trip. Both of her roommates left and took both of the keys. You can't just unlock the door, you need a key to get out. So poor Wendy was stuck in her apartment all day Saturday.. It's a good thing we didn't stay until Sunday as planned. 

As I said before, there is nothing to do on Sunday in Yssingeaux. We went to the fruit market and I roasted some butternut squash for a little taste of fall that reminds me of home. Last night Kwen made another great meal. Spicy pasta with ham and mushrooms, cauliflower soup, and roasted potatoes and green beans. Oh, also it snowed in the morning! Ick. 

This morning, We went to school and talked one on one with the French teacher to see which class we would be in. I made it easy for her and said that i know absolutely no French. So back to class at 2pm, after having lunch. 

The internet in my apartment finally works, so I'll be able to skype and talk to everyone on facebook, easily. The 6 hour time difference with no internet was difficult. I'll talk to all of you soon. And for those of you that aren't on facebook, here is a link to my France photo album. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3117549&id=2300233&l=751e20a267

Eclairs and Chocolate Mousse Tarts.

We were told there was internet in out apartments yesterday, no such luck. Its working in every other building, but not ours. It's starting to get very cold here.. I think its mostly the wind. It's 3 degrees celcius today.  Yesterday, we spent another 7 hours in the kitchen. We made chocolate mousse and ended up filling our empty tarts shells with it. We also made pastry cream and Pate a choux. Pate a choux is what cream puffs and eclairs are made of. We made half of the pastry cream vanilla and half chocolate, filling the choux (cream puffs) with vanilla and the eclairs with chocolate. Later today we will be making the fondant to top the choux and eclair. We are also going to be making fondant (chocolate and cream) to fill our other empty tart shells.

Tonight Lotan, and Odysseus are having a party at their apartment, so that should be fun. Tomorrow morning we're all going to Lyon. Some students are staying in Lyon until Saturday, but I'll be staying until Sunday, as there is nothing to do in Yssingeaux on Sunday. Time for lunch!


ps ill try and add photos of my walk from class later. (its being slow now)

First day in the kitchen.

Today was another foggy, wet day. Its still beautiful though, maybe even more so. Lunch today was french pizza.. It had green beans, and roasted peppers on it. It was actually really good. The first day of class was today, 7 hours in the kitchen. We made 3 different kinds of pate Sucre (sugar dough,) and creme d'amandes (almond cream.) Today was frustrating which is to be expected on the first day, I suppose. 2 of my doughs turned out pretty wet which just meant I had to add more flour and keep the dough in the refrigerator for longer. We ended up making pear tarts with the almond cream and 2 of the pate sucres. My little one got chosen to be one of the tarts that will be in the buffet on friday. The buffet shows what each class has been working on all week. We made one of the sugar doughs into a pastry shell that we will be filling with chocolate mousse tomorrow. I am very very sleepy and hungry, lab ran long. I'll update tomorrow.. and add photos (still no internet int he apartment, but they will probably be up before you wake up in the morning.) Miss you!

Love, Annie

Sorry for not posting again sooner. I have class in a half an hour so I'll make sure to try and fit everything I can from the past two days in this quick one. This weekend when we all got to our apartments I met all of the other students. There are some from Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Greece, Israel, Canada, the UK, Brazil, Mexico... and I know I'm missing more. On Sunday absolutely nothing in town is open. It was hard for us to find anything to do. Some classmates and I walked about 30-45 minutes to a car rental place to try and get a car to go to St Etienne. The rental place, like everything else, was closed. Next we walked to the bus station and we had already missed the bus. So we went back to the apartments and hung out.  At night my roommate Kwen (from Malaysia) cooked some of us real Chinese food. It's very different from the chinese food at home. She also gave a bunch of us "psychological evaluations" from drawings we made, and how we answered questions she asked us. She was spot on with what she said about me.

Yesterday, we had orientation. We learned what we would be studying while we're here, we met the chefs who would be instructing us, and also received a survival guide for Yssingeaux (pronounced ees-en-joo.)  After orientation we had lunch in the cafeteria. Some of use got the vegetarian option, and I dont think they were expecting that. 3 of us had eggs over medium with green beans and potatoes, everyone else had beef lasagna and the last vegetarian to be served just got a plate of peas. For dessert they served a cold apple torte, and a chocolate torte with caramel on top.
At night, we had a group dinner. They first served lentil salad, and baguette. Our main course was either duck with green beans, beets, and mushrooms, or a roasted tomato with the same sides. Everything was delicious. For dessert we had a cheese course. I've learned that the smellier the cheese the better it tastes. And dessert was  chocolate mousse on top of a chocolate wafer with wine jelly on top. They also served a local wine with dinner. Food heaven. Time for class! I'll talk to all of you soon.

Flying away.

Thanks to everyone who came out last night! The idea to have one nice glass of wine at the party did not go according to plan.  I do remember some delicious chicken lemon rice soup though. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to see everyone before I left. I'm at metro airport right now waiting to board the first of 3 flights. First I fly to Charlotte then to Frankfurt, and finally to Lyon. I'll add more at each stop.

Now I'm in North Carolina. The flight to Frankfurt leaves at 4:20.

The flight from NC to Germany was looooooong, about 14 hours. The flight from Frankfurt to Lyon was only about 50 minutes. So I'm now in Lyon, killing some time. The shuttle to my apartment picks me and the other students up a little after 1pm (its 10:45 int he morning here now.) I'll post again when I get to Yssingeaux.

Almost that time.

Today, my visa arrived in the mail, so its all real now. It seems crazy that on Saturday, I'll be in an entirely different country.. and for 7 months! It's exciting and terrifying all at the same time. I'll miss my friends and family a lot. I've already had my ridiculously irrational moments of fear when I've thought about leaving. Change was scary before. Now, change is exciting. I promise all of you, no tears in the next few days. This is the biggest commitment I've ever made to anything in my entire life. It's time to become a grown up. I can definitely say, its perfect time to leave and have an adventure.  Enough about me.. it will be exciting to see what is happening in the lives of my friends and family over the next 7 months. So whoever is reading this, keep me updated!

~Anna
(Skype: Anna.Lynn.MacKinnon)