Food Porn

I have accumulated some food pictures in the last couple of weeks that I think are worthy of sharing. All of these were created in mine and Ali's kitchen except the last two. Brace yourselves.. 

 xoxo, al

Home Sweet Home

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

lebanese sandwiches & parisian sunsets

So much going on in my life lately. Park trips, picnics, cheese, sunsets, pizza, toddlers, gelato... to name a few. (Was half of that food?) Although, these 2 weeks have had some less than glorious happenings as well; American Hospital in Paris & dreadful apartment hunting.

I got a babysitting job 2 weeks ago with an American family living here in Paris. The kids are adorable. Adele is 4 (almost 5... as she likes to remind me 24/7) and Cole is 5. I watch them about once a week and they pay me 10 euro an hour which is really nice. The first thing Adele said to me when she met me was "You are soooo beautiful"... how could you not love that?! I've taken them to the park down the street to play and last time I watched them I made them dinner, played chutes and ladders (they beat me) and put them to bed. And I am currently at their house right now... I've put them to bed already, promise! They are just the cutest things ever and they are learning french so fast! They already speak it better than me and they have only been here for about a month. It's truly amazing.

I've been spending a lot of time at parks and gardens because the weather has been so beautiful here. Also, going to the Bastille market every Sunday with Brian and eating gelato with Elana and Ali. See..

Tullerie Gardens

Soccer Skills

The view from where I babysit

Invalides

Lahmajeen Lebanese Sandwich... Possibly the best thing I've put in my mouth since I've been here

Gelato Night

 

I went to the American Hospital of Paris this morning. No, it's nothing serious. My tonsils have just been really swollen the last 2 months on and off and nothing seems to make it go away. So, I figured I'd go get some drugs. It's on the very edge of Paris so getting there was not fun and those of you who know me know that I HATE going to the doctor.. so obvs I've been in some pain. When I finally found the place the receptionist told me that I had to come back in an hour because she needed to go get lunch. Oh, okay? Plus... I thought it was the American hospital, why did no one speak English? After waiting an hour on a park bench outside (it was really nice out... I can't complain that much) the doctor finally saw me. He was very nice and very helpful. All in all I ended up having 3 separate infections and 3 different prescriptions that cost me 135 euro plus 4 hours of my life. I better start feeling better asap.

School has been just fine lately. I feel like I've been learning a lot but not really enjoying the things we are making. We've been stuffing a lot of stuff with other stuff. Not so great. I did learn how to make sausage which was pretty cool. I also learned how to remove all the bones from a chicken without removing the skin or changing the shape then stuffing it with various other meats. This is called a Ballotine. Think: Turducken. I haven't given you guys a recipe in a while and although I haven't liked a lot of what I've made.. I did think one recipe was worth sharing. It's delicious and easy to replicate. It's called Flammenkuche or "Flame Cake"and it's a savory bacon, onion and cream tart. Yum. It comes from the L'alsace region of France in the East. It has a lot of German influence because they border each other. 

Flame Cake, Serves 8

Dough

400 g flour

1 pinch salt

10 g fresh (compressed yeast)

5 tbsp peanut oil

200 ml luke warm water

Disolve yeast in the 200 ml of water and add the peanut oil. Put the flour in a large bowl and mix the salt in, make a well in the center. Add your wet ingredients into the dry and mix with your hands until smooth. Flour your table and roll the dough into a ball on it. Put it back in the bowl and let rest in a warm dry area while you make the garnish.

Garnish

2 large white onions

2 tbsp oil

200 g bacon, diced

200 ml heavy cream

200 g cream cheese

1 egg

25 g starch

Preheat the oven to 400F. Thinly slice the onions and cook them in butter in a medium sized pan. Add the bacon about 2 minutes in and cook until the onion has softened and the bacon has crisped. In a bowl mix together the egg, cream cheese, and heavy cream until smooth. Add the starch to the cream mixture and incorporate. Put this in the fridge. Roll out the dough very thinly into a a rectangle the size of your baking sheet. Flour the baking sheet and lay the dough on top. Top the dough with the bacon/onion mixture. Then add the cream mixture on top of this and spread it out as evenly as possible. Put in the oven and bake until the bottom is golden brown. You'll have to lift the dough and peak to make sure! Cut into squares to serve! I hope you guys like it as much as I did. 

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly. -M.F.K Fisher

xoxo, al