We've Reconciled!

Bonsoir y'all!!  I sincerely apologize for leaving you with such a melancholy post for the past couple of days, but I haven't had ANY time to update!  Don't worry, I haven't holed up in my apartment with all of the lights off, rocking back and forth and sobbing uncontrollably because I miss the US of A.  I have actually been super busy with class (shocking, I know) and my visit with Mom!!!  Paris and I are officially friends again, and I really  appreciate all of the warm wishes concerning last Wednesday.  Y'all will be happy to know that the melodramatic mood passed, and I had been quite happy and even more in love with Paris ever since!  So, my wonderful glass of red wine (I finally upgraded from the 1,86 euro bottle of wine vinegar.  Note: nothing good in life costs only 1,86 euros -- except croissants!) and I will update y'all on everything that has been going on across the pond since last week.

My Thursday practical went MUCH better than Wednesday (ugh -- I am still bitter about it!), and I think that had a lot to do with the chef we had.  He was really nice, but stern, and made sure that everyone understood exactly what we needed to do....AND he did his best to communicate in both English and French, which helped IMMENSELY because most of the chefs speak solely in French.  He is the youngest chef at the school, so maybe they haven't influenced him too much yet on the yelling and stuff.  Anyway, he started out the demonstration making a couple of different quiches because our lesson today was on various cuisine pastry doughs.

Rolling out the dough for puff pastry -- which we started today (along with quiche) and will finish in our next practical

His beautiful quiches.  The closest is Quiche Lorraine, and the middle is a mushroom quiche -- magnifique!

And voila!  My Quiche Lorraine!  It looks similar, right?!

And just for fun, I think I have found the BEST croissants in Paris, and the bakery is across the street from the school...which is very dangerous!

Mom flew in on Friday, and as I had previously lamented, I had class essentially from 08:30 - 21:30 (with a little break from 11:00 - 15:30).  It was a pretty hectic day, as you can imagine, but it ended up working out well!  It started out with pastry demo at 08:30 (of course!), where the crazy and very loud chef made Saint Honore --- it is a classic French cake, but it isn't even really a cake...more like thin pastry and LOTS of Chantilly cream.  YUM! 

The chef piping the Chantilly cream into the Saint Honore

The closest cakes are the St. Honore, and the middle cake is called a Paris-Brest

After class, I rushed over to meet Mom at her hotel room...check out the view, it was pretty awesome from the 27th floor!

Can you spot my friend peeking out from the top of that building??  Trust me, she is behind there!

And I definitely have the BEST mom in the world because she brought me the laundry list of stuff that I forgot, along with some other fantastic goodies...including the GREATEST SURPRISE EVER!!!

Chick fil A in Paris!!!

That's right!  She hauled 3 chicken sandwiches allll the way from the Sugarloaf Chick fil A...and I'm pretty sure I inhaled that thing in less than 30 seconds (big shocker, I know!)...and had another one for dinner that night!!!  So, after we dropped off all of our stuff at my apartment, we headed over to school because she was going to sit in with me and watch my 15:30 cuisine demo!

The chef made a puff pastry filled with leeks and a poached egg, and let me tell you, he made it look a WHOOOOLE lot easier than it really was.  I was scheduled to make it on Saturday morning (at 08:30...can you see there is a pattern here?!), and it was quite a chore...but more to come on that later!

The leeks, eggs, bell peppers, and sauces all awaiting their puff pastry

Mom and I in demo!

After demo, it was time for me to go to my last class of the day at 18:30 and make the Saint Honore cake that I had watched in demo a million hours earlier that morning.  That was the absolute LAST thing I wanted to do on a Friday night, but I did, and it was fun because we were able to make a couple of different doughs and play with screaming hot caramel!  I thought it turned out pretty good in the end!  The chef kindly informed me that my pate a choux (the exterior ball-like things...see below) turned out well, and I did a good job dipping them in the caramel, however, he said (in rather broken English) that he would rather close his eyes than look at how I piped the Chantilly cream.  I asked him to please open his eyes and look at it, and he shook his head and walked away.  What does that even mean??  I guess I need to put piping on the list of things to practice...or maybe the chefs just tear us down to build us back up or something...who knows.

Who cares about the piping?!?! It was SOOO good -- I still have some in my fridge, so if you want to come visit in the next few days, it is ALL yours!!

Funny side story --- see all of that Chantilly cream?  Yeah, we had to whip it by hand.  When it was time to get started on that part of the recipe, everyone grabbed a flat bottom metal bowl and a whisk and started whisking...and whisking...and whisking!  It was not until we all finished (and our arms were about to fall off) that the chef pulled out a rather large round bottom bowl and a giant whisk and told us that is was much easier to whip cream with those tools, and we would never make that mistake again!  Isn't he sweet??

As I headed down to the locker room after that crazy practical, I spotted Mom and my old friend Nicole (she is now considered my "old" friend because we met the day before class started --- are going on 3 weeks!) were sitting at a table waiting for me with wine, flowers, and a house plant!  It was glorious...and the 10 hour day was over! 

Aren't they beautiful?!

So, that pretty much wraps up Fridays festivities, but there is much more to come about Saturday!  Stay tuned for that update!  Before I sign off for the night, though, I figured it was probably time to show y'all how ridiculous our uniforms are...so please keep the mocking to a minimum...

WWII nurse meets Waffle House short order cook...the hat kills me!!

Anyway, there you have it...it's definitely not my best look, but whatever, I'm not here to impress!

Coming up: More of the weekend with Mom!

- à tout à l’heure!