Iced coffee

On these hot days an iced coffee tastes juuuust right after lunch :-)
To make one here's my MilkJam ice coffee recipe:
- 1 sachet if instant coffee (or 2tsp)
- cold milk
- sugar (I used agave syrup because it dissolves better, could try maple syrup or honey maybe?)
- ice, or frozen coffee cubes like I so as not to water down my frappé
as they melt...

Stir well making sure you fully dissolve the coffee granules and enjoy!

* the red heart Ikea ice cube trays are not a requirement but sure are fun! ;-)

pacs-a-versairy!

Today was Mystery Guest & my PACS-a-versairy! Yea! Neither of us really is planning on celebrating this, I'd rather celebrate when we started dating (in December) since this was more a paperwork formality than anything else..

But any excuse to try a new recipe! Chocolate & Sweet Potato Cake - I thought it could be an amazing combination of 2 things we both love, chocolate cake and sweet potato pie! So after work I came home to quickly make it (had cooked the sweet potatoes earlier that morning) and stick it in the oven so it would be done when MG got home from karate class later. It turned out really well! I used gluten free flours which can be dry and compact but with the sweet potato the texture was amazing! It was a dense chocolate cake but not too heavy or rich and the sweet potato flavor wasn't really there although it really contributed to a silky texture.

I was chomping away at my piece when MG noticed a little something in his... it looked like a piece of egg that didn't get fully mixed, or sweet potato perhaps... but alas, it was indeed a maggot! EEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

My first maggot, how on earth it got in there we're still not quite sure (perhaps a sweet potato? I find it hard to believe it would have been in any of the other ingredients, maybe the rice flour?) but it totally put me off finishing my piece. Maybe I'll try another piece later but I'll probably spend so much time picking through it that I won't enjoy it... EW!!!!!

Mystery Guest seems to think that there was only one in there, otherwise I would have noticed - which is probably true.

Anyway I highly suggest you try the recipe, just leave the maggots out.

happy new year!

Bonne Année et Bonne Santé!!

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! I can't believe that we'll be ringing in 2009 in six hours! What a year it's been... This time last year I was having a quiet New Years with the family, sitting outside digging in to a huge lobster on Kangaroo Island... yum! Unlike Christmas, if I don't have major plans for New Year's it doesn't bother me, especially since I think I might be coming down with something :-(

This year things will be different, 1 extra second, no 35C weather, more like -35C lol, no no but it is cold out there! Between the busy fall and then all the weather problems especially in the US I'm so happy to not have gone anywhere far away during this vacation! Just staying at home is perfectly fine with me! Plus our home is so cozy it makes it hard to leave!

At the last minute (as in last night) Mystery Guest and I thought about going out to one of the two awesome creperies near town, but they're both closed tonight. So when we did some grocery shopping at lunch I asked if he wanted anything special for dinner.

His request?

Brinner.

So we're having pancakes & bacon.

Don't worry, I've got some poiré chilling in the fridge for a true americo-norman dinner :-)


ps. what do you guys think of the new layout??

hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday I went to Caen to work and then stayed the night to catch up with friends and to avoid paying for another round trip ticket before my meeting Friday morning.

After the meeting Sarah and I walked back to her place through the remains of the Friday market there, to our dismay most of the stands were closing up shop for the day but as we neared her house I saw something I have never seen in France (save growing in fields)

CORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yes, ladies and gents CORN ON THE COB - TO EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only other one I have seen was pre-cooked and vacuum packed in Monoprix (although I have heard rumors of decent corn to be found in Picard... never tried that though).

Not looking at the price I snatched up three, a huge smile on my face as I told the vendor that this was the first time I had ever seen them (I think she thought I was a little crazy for jumping for joy upon seeing corn...)

I brought them home and took a picture for you to see, I love how they look in the bowl next to my basil plant, cherry tomatoes, market pumpkin (waiting to be soup...) and free market parsley from last week)
Then I shucked those bad boys, look how pretty they are! I chose pretty well, trying to see the tips through the husks and silk. I got 2 beautiful ones, big plump kernels and on so-so one.
The water is on the stove boiling away and I'm about to go chuck them in!

I'll give the taste report in a bit - and Mystery Guest's reaction to corn on the cob - he's never tried it!

**Update:
Ok, so verdict is that it was very tasty but the corn itself was kind of...gummy which is weird. Maybe it sat a bit too long after being cooked waiting for Mystery Guest to get back from work? Who knows, yummy nonetheless!!!

Oh, and I added a new post to my cooking blog: gluten free apple pie! And with my spaghetti sauce recipe I made gluten free lasagne! (the noodles were gluten free, the rest naturally is...) I'll try to post that recipe soon :-) No pictures though... Mystery Guest and I scarfed it down!

summer food

Yesterday was our weekly market so I went off in search of good summer produce. My favorite stand with locally grown veggies was having the same sale on beautiful ripe roma tomatoes they had last week - 1.50e per kilo (that's about $2 for just over 2lbs). So I bought 3 kilos! With Mystery Guest being gluten free and store bought spaghetti sauce containing wheat starch as a thickener I decided to make my own spaghetti sauce.

I made it last week with the same yummy tomatoes and it turned out so well I went back for more! The tomatoes are just too good and ripe to pass up, and I'm not sure about the price in the states but most tomatoes in the stores here run for about 2e or 2.5e a kilo, unless you buy the really tasteless ones you can't really find a good deal. Plus the house smells so fantastic when you're cooking up some homemade spaghetti sauce!

Actually yesterday I was on a cooking spree, 2 weeks ago I bought a cheapo ice cream maker online because I thought it would be fun to try and again most ice creams sold in stores contain gluten... Last week I tried David Lebovitz's Vanilla Ice Cream which was to die for!! It took a long time to make because you had to make the custard first and this little mini ice cream maker gets it going pretty well but doesn't completely freeze it either..

The ice cream was really rich though, so I thought this week I'd try his Strawberry Frozen Yogurt with some of the last strawberries of the season. Delish!! Plus I think that recipe could work well with any other fruit... there are some yummy plumbs - the little mirabelles in season, or maybe some end of the season peaches? We'll see... ;-)

It's so much fun cooking and blogging about it but my memoire is still calling, I've got to get my butt in gear! So if I'm missing from the blogging world it means I'm working.. if you see me posting more often yell at me cause I'm procrastinating... just like I did with the new header (like the cow?? anyone notice??) ;-)

whew! busy weekend!

Wow! I had such a busy but fantastic weekend! Only just recovering now so I thought I'd make you all jealous with some pictures of the funness. :-)
It all started on Saturday when Sarah decided to "drag" her boy out to the countryside for the weekend. They reserved a night in a B&B not far from here and invited us to dinner. We already had plans Sunday/Monday with the fab duo Charlie & Kristina so I invited Sarah & Mat over to our house for dinner, lets call it our first crémaillère! It was great to see them and we had such a laugh!!
Then on Sunday morning Mystery Guest and I got the house picked up for the 2nd round of guests to arrive. They came late morning and after a guided tour of the apartement we headed off to lunch. Since Sarah and Mat were still in the area they joined us at the fabulous creperie where we celebrated my birthday in October and where Mystery Guest and I brought Charlie and Kristina back in May. This time however we ate outside in the sun and we knew it was summer!

I ordered la Normande, a galette stuffed with camembert, potatoes, mushrooms and ham with carmalized apples on the side... heaven on a plate!
Mystery Guest was tempted last time by the "big hunk of meat hanging on a stick" that we saw pass by our table last May and ordered it this time around.
After a loooong lunch (in which they forgot to put in our order for dessert so even longer!) we parted ways and left Sarah & Mat. They went off kayaking and we drove off in search of geo-caches! We found one near the old Moulin that we couldn't find last week! It was Charlie and Kristina's first successful find and I think we got them hooked ;-)
After a quick stop at the cookie store we drove along the coast, taking random roads and exploring until we found the most unbelievable beach. It was covered with sand dunes and with the low tide I swear the water was miles away! It was a bit windy but sheltered by the little ledge we lounged about for several hours admiring the view, trying to remember how to do a cartwheel and other fun stuff :-)
In the evening we made it back to the apartment in time to make some dinner and have a intense match of Catan! We all crashed pretty early after a long day in the sun - we needed our strength for Monday!

In the morning we got up slowly and made pancakes for breakfast. Instead of making them in the kitchen we used Mystery Guest's raclette/creperie to make them right at the breakfast table! That was the best idea ever, cooking your own pancakes right there, with a side of bacon and all of it doused with maple syrup! Heaven again!

We drove out to Saint Sauveur le Vicomte in the late morning and managed to squeeze in a multi-geocache and a picnic before hitting the river to go kayaking!
It was amazing! The river didn't really have any rapids, but it was so peaceful being on the water which meandered through farmland... that is until Charlie decided to have a waterfight! :-) No, but it was an excellent afternoon, we spent 4 hours paddling up the river 4km and then back again. We all got a little sun, Kristina tried to pet a cow and we all had a great time. Plus this kayak rental really isn't too expensive, we paid 17e per boat (2 people in each boat) which really isn't bad at all for a 1/2 day rental!

When we got back we attacked the leftover chocolate cake and then had 1 last game of Catan before our guests had to leave. What a weekend! Thanks to everyone who braved the 1 hour drive to come visit! ;-)

moooovin' in!

Well things are finally getting calmed down and organized around here! It was complicated in the beginning because we didn't have any electricity, gas (for the hot water heater) or internet (tee hee) in the first few days that we "moved in" so we stayed with the beaux-parents.

That meant doing the 20 minute drive in and out of town early each morning so Mystery Guest could get to work and so I could get to unpacking. I was totally physically and mentally exhausted the first few days - not used to physical labor like that! I scrubbed this place down from top to bottom (the building had been sold in between tenants thats why the electricity and gas were actually cut and why it was so dirty, we have no idea just how long it sat empty) and put together all the furniture and moved stuff around the place.

By Thursday we had power and internet (yea Neuf!) but still no hot water so we spent 1 last night at the parents. Then Friday morning the same guy came to turn on the gas (don't get me started on why the same technician can't turn both the electricity and gas on at the same time but hey go figure...). So Friday night was our first night in our new home. It's great! It is so big and full of light and quiiiiet! Well mostly, we live above an automated lavomatique which is open from 8am to 8pm and when you're in the living room you can hear people's conversations down below. Most of the time it just cracks me up :-) And honstly doesn't bother me that much knowing that it will be nice and peaceful come 8pm. Our bedroom is totally quiet and the last two nights I've slept like a log!

Since Mystery Guest works in a local shop he has his weekend Sunday/Monday so today we slept in and made some gluten free pancakes for breakfast - yum! Then his mom came and we made our way down to Bayeux for the Medieval Festival. This is my third time going and Mystery Guest enjoyed it so much last year that we ventured out of the house to go back :-) The weather wasn't that great so we didn't stay all day but we did stick out the wind for a few hours to check out some of the stands. It's so much fun to see all of the different things being sold, people dressed up etc :-)

It was still raining when we got home so we just vegged on the couch sunday-style with a little X-Files and a nap, can things get any better?

Everything is pretty much up and running around here, there are just a few more boxes to unpack and then some decorations to put up ... pictures to come!

movin' and shakin'!

There has been a lot going on around here but since I try not to post too much personal stuff on here I've been holding back.

But never fear dear readers things are happening around here! Mystery Guest and I went to the agence immobliere today to get the list of documents needed for our apartment rental. We'll be moving out of Caen to V-town at the end of June into a great duplex apartment! (hint, come visit! there's plenty of room!). If you take a look on the map V-town is on the Cotentin peninsula on the way to Cherbourg. Yes, it is tiny town but on the main train line and has everything you really need downtown. Plus Mystery Guest starts his full time job July 1st and can walk the 500m to work every day and I'll start my job probably in October. I found a job teaching English at a private school in Caen and am able to arrange my schedule to only work 4 days a week. I'll be taking the 45 minute train ride those days to go teach. The best thing is that my job will give me a CDD for the first year and then if all goes well I'll get my grubby little paws on a CDI! Yippee!

For you Caen peeps no worries, I'll be in town a lot, promise! This summer will consist of finishing my memoire, passing my drivers license and preparing lessons for next year, I won't be bored but I'm sure to get sick of sitting in front of a computer all day!

I am however preparing myself for the internet withdrawal I'm sure to have when we move until we can get a line set up. I said to a friend the other day that I think that blogs are the Soap Operas of our generation and I really feel it when I miss a post! But they are such a wonderful way of exchanging information - for example Mystery Guest might have an allergy to gluten and having already read GlutenFreeGirl I hopped over there to take a look at things to eat and different symptoms to understand more. He's giving a gluten-free diet a go this week to see if it helps. I made a yummy veggie dish last night, totally just my own creation but it wasn't half bad!