Bits and Pieces

Triomphe de la Concorde at Les Place Des Quinconces

Hello everyone out there in the blog-o-sphere. I'm sure you all think I have dried up and blown away...again. Just to let you know, I am alive and kicking. Erm, let me alter that a little, trying to be alive and kicking after FIVE incredibly painful, awful, flu infested, cramp ridden days of agony. OMG the new flu in town is a killer. Well at least it did a number on me. I keep telling myself there is a bright side to all this. Surely I lost some weight through this ordeal? *grin*
Today I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. My eyes are finally acceptinng the light of the computer screen and I even felt hungry today. I am still immobilized though so plenty of time to type away on the computer ^^
I have been very busy the last few months.

La Place de Victoire

1. I met a fellow expat that lives here in Bordeaux shortly after my birthday and we had a pleasant visit. She is very nice but unfortunately I STILL haven't had time to see her again. (I promise I will rectify this soon)
2. I received my temporary Carte de Sojour! I am now able to work in Francce AND they can't kick me out :p
3. I went to a fancypants restaurant with D and his stepfather and had The Fanciest Dinner In My Life! Yes it deserves caps. It was one of those restaurants where you dont have to order. The 9 course menu was titled "Surprise". A little taste of what we had for dinner that evening: The waiter brought out a rack of testtubes and three spoons that were filled with a substance. He instructed us to put the contents of the spoons in our mouths and then drink the liquid that was in the testtubes. The spoon was filled with peanuts and poprocks (yes, you heard me) and the testtube? Roast Chicken Broth! Believe it or not, it was incredibly delicious.


4. I climbed the tallest dune in Europe, "The Great Dune of Pyla" it was so exhausting I thought I would die :p but D kept encouraging me and I made it to the top. I Have Conquered!

5. I failed at my attempt to recreate The Zen Chef's Gateau Basque. It still tasted very delicious but needless to say...I wont be posting any pictures :p

6. Country Boy came to visit for a month and we had an awesome time. We went all over the southwest of this country:



a. We went to the pyrenees for a week which is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. While there we visited a local artisan who makes carvings and Country Boy bought a very unique purse made out of horn for someone back home. It was so nice, we were invited into the back to his workshop and got to see first hand how he does his wood carving and statue making.



b. We visited the cheese museum again :p (well Country Boy hadnt seen it)



c. We went to my first junk shop here in France. It was so much fun looking through all the different items piled everywhere. The funny thing? I found a souvenier plate from Illinois on the shelves! Haha.



d. We spent a week in Moirax visiting the family and just had a wonderful time eating, drinking and talking. I really love D's family.

Country Boy loves ice cream!

e. We went mushroom hunting (no we didnt find any)

f. We also went to my first garage sale here in France. Seems that the French dont do little when it comes to garage sales. They get the WHOLE village together and everyone comes to the town center and all of them sell their junk at the same time. They even had a big food area where they were serving meals. Now thats a yard sale! I bought the coolest boots ever there for 4 euros! Yes indeed, I was a happy camper. ^_^

My new boots!

g. We wondered all over Bordeaux several times showing Country Boy the sites, and of course having to sample the beer in a few places :)

Country Boy and D hamming it up at the Water Mirror

Place de la Bourse, Bordeaux

h. I went to a big village plant sale and Marie bought me two tomato plants, a lemon thyme, a rosemary and a lavender! She is such a sweetheart and I am so blessed in the MIL department!

i. Went and toured a castle! (I'll try and post more pics of that soon)

Chateau fort de Rouquetaillade

7. I went to my first meeting for my Carte de Soujour and they assigned me 300 HOURS of French Lessons. Do you think my French might be a little bad?



8. Was on the tram when it hit a car! You think that wouldn't happen often but D has been in three tram wrecks. o0

Well just a quick recap of my latest adventures. I'm sure there was plenty more but this poor brain is recovering ya know? Hopefully I wont have to cover so much ground the next time!

A wonderful venetian glass shop in downtown Bordeaux

(click the pic to get a better look)

Of Winter Blues and Homesickness

It was my birthday this week, D was working HARD on finishing his project for Uni. It was due the day after my birthday...so he was hard at work till late the day before my birthday and on my birthday. I really let myself have a big pity party. My best friends ever both have birthdays right around mine. All I could think about was how we would be whooping it up big time in Seattle if I was there. I spent the day alone. No one back home remembered my birthday but one person. No emails. No phone calls. It was the worst birthday I've had in a LONG time. It made me realize something. I have no friends here. Not one. No one to talk to when D is busy. No one to go have coffee with...or a drink. Hell, I can't even speak french well enough to go by myself and order one. I REALLY need to get better at my French. Ah well, this is something I'm sure I'll get over in time.
In the meantime, I made myself another stain glass to go with the other one. I like it and so does D. He says I need to make a third now LOL!



I also made this awesome treat from some of the food blogs I read They all try out these recipes from Dorie Greenspan and this one looked too good to pass up. It was super rich and with a deep chocolate taste. I made mine with a dark chocolate orange bar and added a bit of orange extract to the batter. Yummi!



So I am working hard to get out of my slump. D hates to see me this way and really there isn't much he can do about it. I have been needing a coat, I have a heavy wool sweater that I wore this winter and a nice black wool cape, but nothing that is medium weight that I can just throw on to go to the store or a walk. I have a nice chunk of black fleece that I had bought to make D a coat with. His Mom gave him a nice one for Christmas though so I think I will make myself a coat this week. That will give me something to do to take my mind off all this dreary stuff.

Hope you are all well ^_^

Letting in some sun...

Since the sun refused to shine my way this week, I did some shining myself!

Spring Fever

I'm seriously developing a bad case of Spring Fever! It was so nice in February that I expected it to just continue to keep getting nicer. Instead it's been cold, wet and blustery. I should have known better. It is March. Well I am finally starting to recouperate from my illness and trying to get back in the swing of things. I found this wonderful recipe for Tarte Bordaloue.
I first made it according to directions and it was DIVINE. So divine it disappeared. So I decided to make another but didnt have anymore pears. So I made one with strawberries and kiwis. D said it was just a good.
I also made a wonderful Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake

Wonderfully moist scrumptious carrot cake adapted from Tammy Elliots recipe

Recipe Details

Prep Time:	30 min
Cook Time:	1 hour
Servings:	18

Ingredients

• *4 eggs
  
• * 3/4 cups vegetable oil
• * 1/2 cup applesauce
• * 1 cup white sugar
• * 1 cup brown sugar
• * 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• * 1 8 oz can crushed pineapple drained
• * 2 cups all-purpose flour
• * 2 teaspoons baking soda
• * 2 teaspoons baking powder
• * 1/2 teaspoon salt
• * 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• * 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• * 3 cups grated carrots
• * 1 cup chopped pecans
• *
• * 1/2 cup butter, softened
• * 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• * 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• * 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. 2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, white sugar, brown sugar, pineapple and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
3. 3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. 4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

All the guys love this one. They seemed quite surprised when I told them it had carrots in it. I guess they dont make carrot cake here in France, but then you should have seen D's face the first time I offered him a piece of cheesecake. He didnt know what to think of it. Now I have to make them often :)

*^_^* Have a great day everyone!

Adventures in food land

I have been quite ill these last two weeks. I was diagnosed with GERD and have had MANY terrible nights waking up feeling as if I was having a heart attack. The attacks are becoming more infrequent as the medicine takes affect and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. I have still been quite busy in the kitchen, making lots of goodies for my honey.
I still face the weekly frustration of not finding what I need for a certain dish at the supermarket. I really am constantly surprised at what isnt available here. I'm not even sure why many of the things arent available.
Like what is the problem with finding baking soda and cream of tartar? I know they are here (I finally got some baking soda) but it's like people over here dont use them. Why not? Do they just not bake a lot of cookies and such as we do in the US?
And chocolate chips...only ones you can find are those little bitty ones in a package half the size of the one Im used to (if you are lucky) ...and the price!?! Coconut...shredded coconut?..nope they have something like, I dunno, grains? Its great, I like it, but why dont they have shredded coconut? Marinated Artichoke hearts...I guess that was really too much to ask wasn't it?
Black beans? It's not happening. Period. (Update: I FOUND THEM...in a weird little african hair salon/grocery store in Agen. We went there to meet D's mother and sister who was getting braids in her hair...and there on the shelf...A BIG BAG OF BLACK BEANS YAYAYAY!)
Brown sugar? well I found something thats sorta dirty white, that technically could maybe be called brown sugar, but its not.
A decent salsa? NO way. The only salsa they have here is the kind that you sometimes in the states desperately buy at that all night mini mart on the corner...that never really tastes as good as the stuff you normally buy. I CRAVE southwestern salsa from Safeway. CRAVE IT!
Cilantro? They have no idea what it is.
I find mself cringing now when I want to try out a new recipe that has an ingredient that I havent yet had to search for. Especially since D still almost always goes with me to the grocery store. I can just imagine how much patience he has to exert when I go one more time on that unending quest for ANOTHER elusive ingredient. Most of the time he jumps ahead of me. "They wont have it" he says. "I'm sure of it!" :(
So some of my 'much desired to try' recipes sit and linger on the shelf without much hope of ever getting tried out, amd that chicken chimichunga recipe sounds SOOOO good! I have become the queen of making up things to replace ingredients. A few weeks ago I spent the day trying to recreate chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Nevermind that there is no way to GET chipotle peppers here. I used some dried peppers that D's mom had given me and toiled away to make the stuff...I guess it was ok. but I really wonder what those fish tacos would have tasted like if I had really used Chipotle mayonaise. LOL!
So the next time you pick up a brick of cheddar cheese at the grocery store...or a container of sour cream....Italian bread crumbs....herb and garlic feta...stewed tomatoes with italian seasoning..liptons onion soup mix...reeses peanut butter cups...mint extract...hot wing sauce...think of me.