First thing's first... I have a new apartment! I'm finally out of my french grandparents home and into a place of my own and I couldn't be happier about it. Once Ali and I stopped looking for a place a miracle turned up. Isn't that always how it happens? We moved to the 17th arrondissment and my new address is:
10 Ave de Salonique
Paris, France 75017
.. for those of you who want to start sending me care packages because mhmm.. I haven't received any yet! The apartment is beautiful. It has 2 bedrooms, a living room, an amazing kitchen, an American style bathroom and the best part; a huge balcony overlooking La Défense. We live on the 8th floor, the very last floor so we like to say we live in the penthouse. We are very grateful for this find and can't wait for all of our upcoming visitors to enjoy it with us! For those of you who can't make it, here are some pictures:
 |
| My Bedroom |
 |
| Our beautiful kitchen! |
 |
| Our living room + precious Ali Banks |
 |
| The wonderful terrace! |
 |
| The view from our terrace |
|
|
The first thing we did in our new apartment was have everyone over for Easter dinner of course! It was so much fun. It was a great mix of people; culinary school friends, friends from home, new friends, and Ali's hilarious very Italian uncle. We roasted two chickens in our new oven, made garlic mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, pasta with homemade red sauce, ate lots of cheese, bread, and wine. Also, Bradlee was kind enough to bring mini desserts from Ladureé. It was a great evening so thanks to everyone who came!
 |
| Our princess getting ready for the party |
 |
| Another princess, Bradlee |
 |
| MORE princesses |
 |
| Shan in the buffet line |
 |
| Ladurée desserts, yum. |
 |
| The delicious cheese that Shannon brought! |
 |
| All the girls. There were boys there.. I promise. They just aren't as photogenic so we left them out. |
We celebrated another holiday here in France... Passover. We had a Seder dinner at our friend's apartment; Dani and Lee. I've never been to a Seder and it was so much fun and I loved being apart of it! Elana, Ali and I made frozen banana's and chocolate mousse for the night. We also had matzah, did readings, drank red wine, and ate lots of great food. Thanks Dani and Lee!
My mama came to visit this past Sunday and we had a great day. We started off with brunch at our apartment for the Royal Wedding; Chicken salad sammiches, mushroom quiche, salad, & mimosa's.
Delish. Then we napped for 3 hours... food coma style. For dinner we went to
L'entrecote which is a restaurant that only serves one thing; steak frites. When we got there at 9pm the line was halfway into the street and when we left it looked the same. The food was yummy. First, we were served a petit salad and baguette. Then our waitress came out with a family style plate of food and dished it up for us; juicy steak with a green sauce that we are still determining the ingredients of and hot, crispy french fries that were almost as good as Micky D's. We had a half bottle of wine and a raspberry/strawberry sorbet with meringue for dessert. We were very satisfied. My only complaint is that my mom had two lemon seeds in her green sauce and that annoys me. I feel like straining your lemon juice is not a difficult thing to do. Other than that I loved L'entrecote and will be going back. Do I sound like a food critic? I hope so.
School has been getting progressively more interesting which is nice. I really love my group of 10 that I cook with. We all work together and have been learning
from each other. The dishes are getting more exciting and tasty too. I have less than a month left in Intermediate and then it's on to Superior. I cannot wait. We have our written exam in two weeks and I've heard it's difficult so I've been telling myself I'm going to start studying soon.. we'll see if that actually happens.
Kirsten, Molly & Rob get here in 2 days! I'm so excited. My next blog entry could get a little crazy so stay tuned...
I'll leave you with a quote and a picture of what we like to do in my apartment:
 |
| Absolutely.. nothing. |
|
"If you're happy, you eat. If you're sad, you eat. You lose a job, you eat. You get a job, you eat. It's, you know, it's addiction." - Barbara Cook
xoxo, al
