This is quite a random sunday afternoon post. I have been "collecting" photos of most of the "amazing" creations we cook in kitchen class. Now some of those things look a bit peculiar but I put my hand in the fire (Maybe just an italian saying... uhm..) that everything tastes delicious.
We make everything ourselves with the advice of our chef, most desserts though are already made aside from the one bakewell tart in March :)
I wish I did those month per month.. well I will do now for my last 2 months.
I must say that I thoroughly enjoy kitchen class and I was considering taking a culinary path here at school but honestly I can't see myself in the kitchen, I enjoy cooking yes, baking too but working in a kitchen full time.. hell no !
Let cooking stay a hobby !
Top Left: Risotto with spring green pesto, roasted vegetables and pine seeds, beef.
Top Right: Black Forest Gateaux.
Bottom Left: Tiramisu.
Bottom Right: Lamb stew, green beans and swiss rösti.
Top Left: Pangasius skewer on rice with vegetables.
Top Right: Pork roast stuffed with plums on cauliflower.
Bottom Left: Feta on salad with nuts with lemon truffle oil and fruit bread.
Bottom Right: Some meat (sorry..chicken?) on french fries, broccoli with mushroom gravy.
Top Left: Beef Stew on Rice Pilaf with peas and watercress.
Top Right: Beef on green beans with roasted tomato and mushroom cream sauce.
Bottom Left: Homemade bakewell tart with roasted almonds on warm custard
Bottom Right: Beef carpaccio with lemon oil, parmesan and watercress.
Hope you enjoyed this culinary intermezzo on my blog :) More to come soon.. well.. end of the month roughly.
Since I'm on a culinary scholarship you might see some more food sooner than the end of April. Stay tuned.
Back from where, you might think. Well I spent last week in the most amazing city in the world.
From the very first moment I set foot in there I was back in love. Maybe I was literally seeing "La vie en rose" I saw art everywhere, I was speechless from seeing poems written in the metro, having big mosaics inside the stations, violin, trumpet and other instrument players playing to get some money, the style of the french.. just everything.
Paris. My home (someday).
Present from Edie.
It's my spring break tradition now... doing something twice makes it a tradition...right ?!
Anyway.
I had the great luck and pleasure to stay at my friend Edie's flat, it's not the biggest nor the comfiest, nor the closest to the city centre but hey! free accommodation given in exchange of doing laundry and well I did food shopping and invited her for lunch and well.. my delightful presence is payment enough ;) jk
Walking behind them, was not fun.
I had a well set plan of things to do and see this week and I'm glad to say that I did most of them. I arrived on a saturday evening, quite late so that day was pretty much lost. Sunday I went on a solitary walk through Paris, heading to the Champs Elysees, which turned out to be quite a bad idea. A demonstration PRO-gay marriage was going on so several metros were blocked and the Champs were crowded like it's nobody's business. Hence why I headed back home quite early and spent the afternoon sitting on Edie's bed, watching "The Switch" (new fave movie) and several episodes of "Friends" while she was working, with a
classmate of hers, on a Chanel project. Edie's a fashion design student. Which might explain while I was sleeping next to balls of yarn and piles of different kinds of fabric.
On monday I went to Disneyland with the kind soul who back inNovemberallowed me to see the backstage of Disneyland. He had an itinerary in mind by which one could fit as many attractions in one day as possible by switching up fast pass and queues. I guess it would have worked if many attractions weren't having "technical problems", half of the park was pretty much closed so we couldn't quite try out the system.
When we went on space mountain, or tried to, we had quite an "adventure", not only the queue was rather long but the second it was our turn, we entered the wagon, a loud noise began and we had to
Train stuck in launch tunnel.
leave the train. Moments later 100 (slight exaggeration) cast members arrived, one of them in a mountain climbing harness and well few minutes later we had to evacuate the building. From the outside one could see that the previous train was stuck in the launching tunnel. To be quite honest.. I would have loved to be stuck there. I mean they were not upside down and they probably had to leave the train by going through a peculiar passage not everyone's allowed to see.
Anyway we spent the rest of the day doing other attractions to pass the time until "Dreams!" was on. We saw the show with it's small variations so the addition of "The Lion King" and "Brave".. I must say that I liked the new bits. I'm a massive "Mary Poppins" fan so I was quite sad that they took it out but the new scenes are more lively and the music's much nicer especially the scottish music <3
Tuesday my mission was to sell my Canon 550D which I had been trying to sell for weeks now. I found a cash express shop, I must admit that I didn't get much for it but my parents were happy so.. I'm glad. Also.. with that money I can buy a new camera which on amazon is quite "cheap" so that's good. Aside from that I went to eat at "Chez Clement" with Edie, which is kind of our staple restaurant and maybe the only good thing I learnt during my disastrous Nanny experience in Paris.
One of Henry Dargers art works.
In the afternoon I went, alone, the "The Museum of Everything", now the name is an overstatement but it was a great place, sadly the exhibition is over now, but it's a touring museum so if you have a chance, give it a go. I saw quite a few peculiar pieces but the one who caught my eye the most was the work of Henry Darger, sadly it was not allowed to take photos but if you are interested google "The story of the Vivian Girls".
And in the afternoon I had scones and tea at another tea salon suggested by the lovely french blogger Valentine, called "A Priori Thé" it was quite a small place but the people there were super nice and the scones and tea were delicious. I called it a memorial for my uncle, I happened to have ordered his favourite tea "Orange Pekoe" which I never had before and he loved his scones like every normal britishmen.
Tea time at "A Priori Thé"
I spent Wednesday wandering around Paris, buying a few bits and bobs I had in mind, visiting tea salons I wrote down from somewhere and Starbucks became my second home. My 3G, although paid, wasn't working for the first 2-3 days so I needed wifi, also to figure out where my next destination was.
L'OisiveThé
Thursday was a bit of an annoying day to be honest, I was due to meet Edie in a tea salon but because
her phone died and she couldn't charge it anyway, there was no way to get in touch with her so when I eventually met her, slightly pissed off I just dropped off the keys to her place and left to go to Val D'Europe, because I was already quite late.
I went to the Magic Circus to meet my ex colleagues, sadly I found no one at first. But after a long and nice conversation with one guy from Sixt I went in the back office to find my Manager and one of my favourite colleagues so.. day saved. In the evening then was the goodbye party for one of my ex colleagues, another favourite of mine. A lot of people came, we ate, danced salsa and just had a super merry time. Loved being around those people again.
Friday started with an art exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay, which was for free because I passed as student from Edie's school... sure.. couldn't care less about fashion but why not if it's free.
It was called "The angel of the Odd" I wasn't much amazed by it, I liked the short films that they showed there, which were quite creepy or.. well.. Odd. I was super happy when I found out the title of a scene that I knew and had been searching for years. It's called "Un chien andalou" here is the video.. it's not really for the faint hearted but I find it mesmerising. Sorry for the crappy quality, blame youtube.
In the evening I finally met Laura, an au-pair girl I was supposed to meet 2 years ago and last year but we never got round to it so yea we finally met and I'm super glad. I had a great evening with people I didn't know before.. the rest is history.
Thanks to the barista for the smiley,
my mood improved slightly before
leaving Paris.
As always I was shattered when I had to leave, knowing what's expecting me back in Switzerland. What I found comforting (kind of) was a girl that I met friday evening, I only introduced myself to her and after a short conversation she started counting how many months were left until I would be moving to Paris, which I found quite adorable. I'm willing to do things the way I did them back in June 2012, graduate and leave for Paris the day after.
If things go the way I planned them, which so far is the case (almost), I should be back in Paris in July for Bastille Day, would be amazing to actually live it and not work through the day, get home on a super crowded bus and watch the fireworks in Disneyland from my balcony. I'd not go to Disney that day but I'd stay in Paris.. definitely another experience.
One last thing I NEED to mention. I hate ticket controls on the train cause I always listen to my iPod and therefore hate taking out my headphones when control comes, anyway this time due to a long night ,before, I fell asleep on the train and got woken up in the sweetest way by the control guy. He kind of tickled my shoulder, an adorable elderly (but not too old) man.. he also said something, which in that second I woke up, I didn't understand but he wished me a 'good night' once he left :)
This was it, I hope you enjoyed this long post. Stay tuned.. there's more to come, more in depth and specific topics :)
Love & Hugs
PS: If you are interested my instagram is: Joolscat ^_^
this is a very difficult post to write. I still can't quite believe it... last night I lost my adorable uncle Trevor.
Not being home makes it so much harder, I only heard from my mam how he pretty much got worse and worse by the day and how he was weaker and everything was not going well at home anymore.
I met this uncle quite late, to be honest, but it was an immediate bound between me and him. He was such a joyful and happy person, spoke italian with his strong english accent and when he spoke english it was just a lot of fun.
5o'clock every afternoon he had to have his "cuppa tea" even in summer with 40° in the shade.. "It refreshes more than water, trust me." he used to say every single time.
How he dropped by to talk about his and my cats and have a glass of wine, how he used to love the german food we cooked, how he used to be so happy about the same presents every year.. classical music, a cat calendar, tea, mince meat (for mince pies) and a christmas pudding.
I knew my passion for the english language came from somewhere, knowing that someone from England was a little part of my family, got me more than excited. That little part is gone now. I wish I could have said goodbye one last time.
Goodbye Uncle Trevor, you are and always will be loved. You won't be alone up there, have a cuppa tea with the family and give Lillo and Paula a cuddle from me.
