Julia Child's "My Life in France"

So as most of you probably know, in the US there is a movie coming out called "Julie and Julia" which is based on Julia Child's infamous cook book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Before all of the hype about this new movie, I hadn't paid much attention to Julia Child nor her cooking. But, during my stay back home, I went into my local Border's store and just saw a whole table lined with books dedicated to Julia Child and the new film. Among the books that decorated the table was of course "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" but also the book, "My life in France." I didn't know that this book existed and was instantly fascinated by it. Being the 'frugal' girl that I am, I went home and ordered the book off Amazon.com for half the price. I received it in the mail the day I left to go back to France. This is what I've been reading ever since I came back to France.

I'm half way through and I love it. It talks about her life in Paris, attending the famous cooking school, the Cordon Bleu, and beginning her career as a cook. Now, I've fairly recently took an interest in cooking (the past two years) so this book just furthers my interest and makes me want to try new things. It also makes my stomach grumble with hunger everytime I read it. (Note: do not read this book on an empty stomach!)

One inspiration from this book was making one of the most well known French dishes, Canard à l'orange (duck with orange sauce). We had a French couple over for dinner and I decided to attempt it. It was fairly successful but I had slightly over cooked the duck (it's eatten almost rare in France).

Books about people's lives in France are among my favorite type of books to read. I love to compare their experiences to my own. Some of my other favorite books include: "Almost French", "A Year in the Merde", and "On Rue Tatin".

So to anyone who has a little free time at the moment, I highly suggest reading this book. It'll make you want to become a French chef when you're through with it!

Salade de chevre chaud au miel and my new job!!

Today I was really in the mood to attempt to make a goat cheese salad. Every time I go out to eat and order one it's so delicious! I thought that today would be a opportune moment to try it out because Christophe isn't here (he HATES goat cheese!) because he's at a teacher's meeting! La rentrée is tomorrow so all the kiddies are going back to school! Woo-hoo! Anyways, here's what I used for my salad (I 'm not listing any exact amounts of ingredients because I don't know):

*goat cheese
*baguette sliced
*lettuce
*tomato
*honey
*Walnuts and raisins

I put the goat cheese on top of the sliced baguette and drizzled some honey on top. Then I put it in the oven for about 10 minutes. I got the salad ingredients together and stirred up my own vingrette.

For the vinagrette:
*Honey
*Vegetable oil
*Balsamic vinagrette

I stirred it all together and voilà:
A yummy salad just like the kind you can get in a french restaurant. haha ok not quite the same. It still needs a little work.

Just to add one last thing: I got the job that I wanted at the language school! They called me up yesterday and told me that they wanted to hire me! Now I just have a pound of paperwork to fill in and send to Strasbourg so that I can sign the contract! I won't be poor anymore! :)

C'est les vacances!!

These past few weeks have thankfully passed by very quickly. I'm finally on vacation! Woo-hoo! Unfortunately to begin the vacation, I have 6€ which won't go very far. Thankfully February is a short month and I'll hopefully be paid within the next few days. I'll need it to go to Normandy for the following week. Christophe and I and a friend are planning on doing a France road trip from the east to the West coast with a stop over to Versailles. Last year I did a similar trip to Brittany to visit Rennes and the Mont St. Michel, but this year we're driving a few kilometers farther to visit the Beaches of Normandy from WWII and to also visit some museums and well known cities. On the agenda is visiting Caen, Deauville, and maybe Cherbourg. Other than this voyage, a ski trip might be in order this week. The monthly budget will have to be strictly followed during this vacation or I'll quickly find myself with 50€ for all of March.

In other news, Christophe and I bought a mixer/food processor to facilitate our cooking. We also bought electric beaters so I think i'm going to attempt to make a soufflé of some sort. I found a video cooking blog on the NY times website and I've fallen in love. I'm going to attempt some of his recipes. I need to remember to document my attempts so that I can post pictures to the blog.

Lastly, this week, my students celebrated Carnavale, the annual event where people dress up in crazy costumes and faire la fête (party) in order to prepare for Lent. It was so cold but the kids had a blast. I also ate one too many beignets, a traditional Carnavale snack, which I guess is the equivalent to small pieces of sugary fried dough. I had a pretty bad stomache ache at the end of the day...

To those who are en vacances (on vacation), enjoy!