The Voyage Home

Our last view of Rennes: the train station.

We took a direct train from Rennes to Charles de Gaulle Airport and we're very glad we did. After our horrible experience trying to drag three huge suitcases up and down stairs in the Paris Metro on our way to Rennes in August, we were not going to repeat that. Our train got in around 5:30 and we checked into the Ibis hotel at the airport. We spent some time re-packing suitcases, trying to balance out the weight so that we wouldn't have to pay an overweight baggage fee. Around 7, we took the Paris commuter train into central Paris for dinner. We thought it would be depressing to eat our last meal in France at a crummy airport restaurant and that we should go into Paris one more time before we left.

Lisa's risotto at L'Ardoise Gourmand.

Since we didn't want to spend a lot of time traveling in the city, we decided to find a place near the Gare du Nord train station (the biggest, oldest, and busiest train station in Paris, by the way), the first stop the train made in central Paris. I looked up some places on-line before we left the hotel and once we got to the station, we wandered up a big street but didn't see anything too appetizing. So we turned down a side street and came upon L'Ardoise Gourmand, a restaurant I had seen on-line as being pretty good. It seemed reasonably priced so we decided to check it out. It was a pretty small place and very crowded and we got one of the last non-reserved tables. The service was a bit slow because one of the waiters didn't show up for work that night so there was only one waiter for the whole place. Beyond that, though, it was fantastic, easily one of the two or three best restaurants we've been to in France. It was full of local regulars who clearly knew the owner, Francois. He walked around the room talking to almost everyone since he knew them all. The food was fantastic. I had pesto bruschetta with a mixed salad with delicious dressing (a rarity in France - they don't know how to make interesting salad dressings for some reason) and for my main course I had a very tender cut of beef with an amazing wine/vinegar/shallot sauce and pureed potatoes. Lisa had a green bean salad and a tasty mushroom risotto. Lisa said she felt very classy eating there, despite being tired from so little sleep the last few days. It was definitely a restaurant we'd go back to next time we're in Paris - and next time, we'll make reservations!

Speaking of which, we saw a Chinese tourist couple in the restaurant who figured out how to defeat the waiter's excuse of "no reservations? we're full, sorry!" When told that there were no tables, the couple said (in English, of course), "We'll wait for a table." The waiter said, "But there are no tables." The woman said, "No, you don't understand. We want to eat here. We'll wait till there's a table available." The waiter had no idea what to do because in France, you don't wait for a table; if the restaurant's full and you don't have reservations, you leave and find a different restaurant. So he quickly found an empty table for them! Similarly, a man came in shortly after they did, was told there were no tables, so he made a reservation on the spot for a table in half an hour or so. He came back half an hour later only to find that the table he'd reserved had been given to someone else. So he calmly explained to the waiter, "I reserved that table and I would like to have it please." He waited patiently in the doorway for about ten minutes with his wife and daughter until the waiter moved the people at "his" table to another one. It was all a very interesting lesson in French restaurant etiquette, although I felt bad for the waiter since he was clearly overwhelmed that night.

Gare du Nord at night.

We left the restaurant around 11 and getting back to the airport proved to be an adventure. When we got  back to the Gare du Nord, we discovered there were no more trains out to the airport, which meant we might have had to take a very expensive cab back. But we saw a rather lost-looking young Chinese woman with a suitcase on the platform. Lisa approached and asked if she was going to the airport. She said she was and said that, as far as she understood, we could take a train close to the airport then take a shuttle bus the rest of the way. She didn't sound entirely sure, so we found a security guard and asked if that was true and he said yes. So, with the Chinese woman, we took a train to Aulnay-sous-Bois then found a bus to the airport. Unfortunately, the express bus was completely full by the time we got out of the station, so we had to take the "slow" bus that made all the intermediate stops. (Apparently, this is all necessary because of night-time track work on the line to the airport.) We didn't get back to the hotel till around 1 am, much later than we anticipated. We had a nice chat with the Chinese woman, though; she was leaving the next day for Russia where she was going to study. She was also so amazed that we were Americans returning to the US. I think we were the first Americans she'd ever met!

We essentially took a nap in the hotel, since we had to be up a bit after 5 in order to get to the check-in desk for an 8 am flight. Miraculously, we didn't have to pay extra for our bags, even though we had an additional checked bag and more weight than we should have had under Iceland Air's policy - but hey, we're not complaining! We flew through Reykjavik, meaning our first flight was about three hours long and our flight on to Boston was about five hours. We had an hour in the Reykjavik airport which we spent tasting Icelandic doughnuts and yogurt in the food court area. We saw two young tall Icelandic women with long blond hair each buying a big bottle of beer there, too. It was only 9:30 am, but, as I said to Lisa, these people are the descendents of Vikings, so of course they're going to start drinking first thing in the morning!

Iceland.

We also began to acclimate ourselves to being around Americans there, too, as the flight to Boston was almost all Americans. In the Reykjavik airport, there are no gate announcements of any kind - you just go to your gate, they eventually open the door, and you get on the plane. This caused a great deal of confusion for an older American couple behind us in line: "What's going on?" "The door's open. Are they boarding?" "I don't know; I didn't hear any announcement." "Well, people are going through. Should we go?" "I'm not sure. What rows are they boarding?" "I don't know, there was no announcement. Are we supposed to go?" And on and on. It was annoying and funny all at the same time. Also on the plane, there was a young British man sitting in the row behind us and we're pretty sure he didn't stop talking the entire flight, except when he was eating. He talked to the man next to him (whom we never heard speak) about everything under the sun: his job, flying, British monetary policy, the Icelandic language compared to other languages, living in a foreign country. It was amazing that he wasn't hoarse by the end of the flight!

Icelandic volcanoes.

From what we could see from the plane and through the airport windows, Iceland is a beautiful country. It's very flat, except for the many volcanoes, without a lot of trees or plants. Many of the volcanoes seemed to rise directly out of the ocean. We both think it would be a fun country to visit and hike around in for a week. Plus, since it's only about half-way to mainland Europe, flights are less expensive and Iceland Air has direct flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Reykjavik, which might come in handy for us next year!

Icelandic coastline.

Once in Boston, we went through customs, which really didn't take that long. Again, it was like an overload of Americans. We just weren't used to interacting with so many native English-speakers and so many overly-friendly people! On the customs form, we had to fill in all the countries we've visited since we last left the US. We actually ran out of room and had to write below the line to get them all in (for the record: Iceland, Ireland [airports only for both of those], France, the UK, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Greece, Switzerland).

After customs, we indulged in some good trashy American food by eating a burrito and a burrito salad in the food court. Immediately, we were struck by how much saltier our food was than anything we'd had in France. Then it was off to our flight from Boston to Pittsburgh, where Lisa's mom was waiting to pick us up and take us back to their house, thus ending our wonderful nine-and-a-half-month European adventure.

Matt's Visit and Packing Up

Meeting Matt at the train station.

We returned to Rennes from our travel-ganza late on a Friday afternoon and my brother Matt was waiting at the train station to meet us. He was in the midst of a month-long European adventure across Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, and the Netherlands. His bus go to Rennes early that Friday morning so he had about seven hours on his own to explore Rennes and we hope he did. He said that he tried to take a nap in one of the city's parks because he didn't get much sleep on his night bus from Spain to Rennes.

Part of the map-covered bedroom.

Lisa and I both felt bad that we couldn't provide Matt with the same kind of hospitality we've given other guests because, after returning to Rennes, we had three days before we had to vacate our apartment and return to the US. That meant that we had a lot of packing and last-minute errands to do. It also meant that every day Matt was there, someone came by to pick up pieces of furniture they'd bought from us. So every day, we changed what piece of furniture we sat on or ate off of! It was a little sad to pack up everything we own, especially all the maps we'd hung up in the bedroom and the postcards we'd put in the toilet room. In every city we visited this year, we got a map from the tourist office and, when we returned home, hung them on the bedroom walls as decoration and as a reminder of all the amazing trips we took. Similarly, in the toilet room, we hung up a postcard from nearly every city we visited. Returning to bare white walls was a bit depressing!

On the other hand, it was exciting to know that we were just a few days away from returning home to the US and our friends and family. It was stressful few days, though, of canceling our utilities, cleaning, and trips to the post office to mail boxes of books, maps, and brochures home because it was cheaper than paying the overweight baggage fee on the plane. Also, once we started boxing and mailing things, it was surprising how much we had accumulated in France - admittedly, not much by American standards, but quite a lot in proportion to how much we brought with us. Mainly it was maps and books we had purchased, but then again, this blog is called "Running and Reading in Rennes" so you shouldn't be surprised we bought a lot of books.

Our cheese-mongers.

Our apple-seller.

Amidst all the packing and selling and moving, we were able to do a few things with Matt in our area. On Saturday, we took him to the market where we were able to buy some last good fresh French produce and cheese and say good-bye to the many vendors we had become familiar with over the course of the year. They were as sad to see us go as we were to say good-bye to them! We were very happy the cheese-mongers agreed to pose for a picture for us.  We also went into central Rennes that afternoon to go to a record store. Since had Matt hadn't brought any good-sized sturdy luggage, though, he didn't want to try to take records home with him so he bought a few cassette tapes instead. Also downtown, we saw part of what passed for Rennes' Gay Pride Parade and Matt listened to and recorded a good gospel choir singing to advertise their church.

Gay Pride Parade, French-style.

UK Trip: Edinburgh, Day One

The last stop on our whirlwind tour of the UK was Edinburgh, Scotland. We woke up early at our airport hotel in Cardiff to catch our morning to flight to Scotland, another turboprop plane. (It was in the Cardiff airport where we realized that, in the UK at least, they don't announce the gate for your departing flight until 20 minutes in advance. We think this is because they want to keep people in the main concourse with the duty-free shops where they can blow more money, rather than sitting quietly at the gate to wait for their flight!) Once in Edinburgh, we took the very convenient bus from the airport to central Edinburgh for a half-hour ride.

The Old Town of Edinburgh.

We got off at the train station in order to visit the tourist office for our free map and advice on what to do and see in our two days in the city. We then walked to our hotel, the Frederick House, to drop off our bags (since our room wasn't ready yet). Just walking to the hotel, we both quickly decided that Edinburgh felt like a fantastic city. It's very different from almost anywhere else I've been. The Old Town (the medieval and early modern city) is situated along and south of a ridge between Edinburgh Castle and Arthur's Seat (all that's left of an ancient volcano). On the north side of the ridge is the train station and the New Town, built in the 18th century on a nice grid pattern and full of neoclassical business buildings. Our hotel was in New Town and it was amazing to see how many people were out on the streets, shopping, going to work, etc. The city had a very energetic feel to it and the landscape was also very beautiful.

Lunch in a church basement.

For lunch, we chose something called the Undercroft Cafe, located in the basement of the parish church of St. Andrew and St. George in New Town.It was quite an experience! Basically, it was a dressed-up fellowship hall with food coming out of the small church kitchen and the clientele was mostly elderly Scottish women and a few middle-aged businessmen who must have worked in the area. The food was about what you'd expect from a church basement kitchen - good, but not great. Also, it was Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday) and the tradition in the British Isles is to eat pancakes on this day. So after we finished lunch, I went back to the counter to order a pancake for dessert (it was more like a crepe than a pancake).

It was while waiting in line for the pancake that I had an experience that confirmed for me that Edinburgh is a great city. Behind me, a middle-aged Scottish man asked the guy behind the counter about the soup on offer that day, something called "crofters' broth." Here's what happened:

Worker: Well, it's a broth....
Man in Line (laughing, to me): Well, I guess I asked for that one, didn't I? (While we both laugh, he points to the sign reading "crofters' broth) It says "crofters'" - it looks like there's more than one crofter in the broth, doesn't it? (Again, we both laugh.) I'm a pompous ass, I'm sorry! (To the worker.) What's in the quiche today?
Worker: Cheese and onions.
Man in Line and me, almost simultaneously, while laughing: No crofters in that!

Eating a homemade pancake on Shrove Tuesday.

After I'd finished my pancake, on the way out, the man came up to me again and said, "The broth was pretty thick, so there must have been a lot of crofters in it!" Then, in honor of it being Shrove Tuesday, he offered me one of the small homemade pancakes that his wife had made that morning and which he had in a little plastic baggie. It was very kind of him and the pancake was pretty good, much closer to American pancakes than a crepe.

The National Gallery of Scotland with Edinburgh Castle in the background.

Following lunch, we walked to the Scottish National Gallery, situated near the train station, and spent most of the afternoon there enjoying their very extensive art collection. We next decided to climb up the hill to Edinburgh Castle. It was quite a climb, but at the top, there were some fantastic views over the city of Edinburgh and the hills beyond. At the ticket office to the castle, they told us they would be closing in about an hour and that we really needed two hours to see the castle, so we bought tickets for the next day.

Lisa on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle.

The birthplace of Harry Potter.

 We then walked from the Castle down the Royal Mile (the street running along the top of the ridge from Edinburgh Castle to Holyroodhouse, the Queen's residence in Scotland) and into Old Town. We passed the Elephant House, where J.K. Rowling first started to write the Harry Potter books, and we ended up at the National Museum of Scotland. It seems very much like the Scottish version of the Smithsonian so there were plenty of generic exhibits on evolution, the history of technology, basic forces of physics, etc - in other words, exhibits we could see at plenty of museums in the US. We were interested in the parts dealing with the history of Scotland and, while the museum closed about 45 minutes after we got there and we had to leave, we were able to see some Viking remains and some artifacts from the 15th and 16th centuries. Plus, we saw Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.

Dolly the Sheep.

Since she was born in Scotland, on her death, she was stuffed and put in the museum.

The Lewis Chessmen, National Museum of Scotland.

The Frederick House Hotel.

After that, we walked back to the hotel stopping in a Charles Tyrwhitt store on the way, a company I'vebought many shirts from on-line. The store was a bit disappointing, though; they didn't have any of the patterns I wanted to try on. The hotel was one of the nicer places we stayed on this trip. It's a four-star hotel in an old building, but we got a great deal on it on-line. The room was big (for some reason we were in a triple room with an extra bed), we got an actual closet for our clothes, and lots of free tea (we took it all with us when we left).
 

Oatcakes.

We then headed out for dinner and found a great place, Henderson's Bistro, that was entirely vegetarian and organic and mostly local. I had an onion and pepper quiche with a chutney sauce and salad, plus an organic Scottish beer that was quite good. We also ordered oatcakes (a traditional Scottish food, of course) but the kicker was they had a vegetarian haggis which Lisa, of course, tried. It was lentils, beans, oatmeal, mushrooms, carrot, onion, and garlic, served with the traditional clapshot sauce (I honestly don't know what this is!) and red wine gravy.

Vegetarian haggis.

(You can find the recipe for this delicious treat on the Henderson's website.) Speaking of vegetarian haggis, we were both surprised at how vegetarian-friendly the UK is, especially compared to France. We had no difficulty finding vegetarian dishes for Lisa and they were usually pretty good. Anyway, for dessert, we split a very yummy cherry pie with an oat crust. Henderson's was an extremely tasty restaurant and if you're ever in Edinburgh, we highly recommend a visit.

Scottish 5-pound note.

When we paid for dinner, we got a Scottish 5-pound note in change, which said "Clydesdale Bank" on it and had a picture of Alexander Fleming (the discoverer of penicillin), not the Queen on it (as the English pound notes do). Upon asking, we learned that Scotland retains the right to print its own money independently of the central bank of England (although Scottish notes can be refused in England at the discretion of the merchant). Along these same lines, I should note that the couple days we were in Edinburgh came right after David Cameron had met with the prime minister of Scotland, who is demanding a referendum on full Scottish independence. So many of the newspaper headlines were about various promises and threats made to the Scottish pm to get him to not go through with his intention to hold the referendum.

This first day in Scotland was amazing. Edinburgh is beautiful, the weather was good, and the people were very friendly and nice. Our second day, though, was even better and confirmed that Edinburgh is my second favorite non-US city (after Rome, of course).

A Bit about Rennes

It's been over a month since you've heard from us!  We've been so busy doing things to put on the blog that we haven't had time to do any blogging!  We're starting back with a brief post about Rennes and Cesson-Sévigné themselves since we don't often talk about them and since we have visitors coming soon who might want to know what activities and attractions are nearby.  We are very much looking forward to everyone's visits!

The gathering, with Andrew, our fellow
American teacher in the background.

For starters, here's a picture of our Thanksgiving feast at Todd's house.  He organized a wonderful meal, and we had the opportunity to meet lots of new people.  We didn't have too many extensive conversations with the new people, however, because the dinner table ended up being divided between Americans and French!  We brought dried corn (recipe on Two-Burner Meals), which the French appreciated but didn't love, and which Andrew, our fellow American teacher, said he did.  We also had a Thanksgiving potluck the following week on campus, and I made green bean casserole from scratch.  It was delicious and worth the effort!  Our colleagues from all nations ate every bite!

Marché de Noël at the Place du Parlement in Rennes.

Carousel (I love carousels!)
at the marché!

Most of France does not celebrate Thanksgiving, so that means Christmas decorations and advertisements can begin much earlier than in the US.  The one really fantastic thing about that is the presence of marchés de Noël (Christmas markets)!  There were two in the city center and one in our little town, and we visited them frequently, getting a cup of vin chaud (hot, spiced wine) and walking around admiring all the artisans' wares and selecting gifts for friends and family.  The marché, pictured to the side, in Rennes had lots of international, fair trade items, and the marché in Cesson had all local artisans and artists.  In addition to finding lots of gifts, we bought some fantastic raspberry-chocolate jam and a watercolor of our town to hang when we have a home in the States!  

Après le bain, Louis Henri Nicot.
Medium: marble.

Sculpture from the time
exhibit.

Since we were already in the city center exploring the Christmas festivities, we thought we'd visit the local art museum.  They had some amazing sculpture, a very interesting modern exhibit, and some mediocre paintings.  There were some good Picassos, to be fair.  As for the modern section, it really was very impressive.  Local artists and art students from the humanities side of the Université de Rennes had worked with members of group homes for people with developmental disabilities to create visual art about their perception of time.  Each piece had a totally different feel and a lot of different contributors, but they still came together into fantastic pieces of art.  

Here in France, most of the
Santas wear a long coat and
give candy to children.

In Cesson and in our apartment, we started preparing for Christmas as well.  The Père Noël (Santa) visited our market, and I completed our Christmas tree!  I'd been collecting all the green sections of advertisements that come every week in the mail and taping them together.  Here is the result!  A 4-foot by 6-foot Christmas tree adorning our wall!  We did not get around to decorating it; I only managed part of a paper chain.  We may end up leaving it there all year and decorating it for each holiday, because we really put a lot of effort into it!  If you're visiting us this year, we hope you like creative Christmas the whole year through!

We hope to have some more entries up soon about our time in Normandy, Paris, America, Vitré, and ping-pong with the Mormons.  As always, thanks for reading!

Christmas Tree.  Lisa Bevevino.
Media: advertisements, one roll of scotch tape, and one envelope for the trunk (not shown).

Tarte Tatin aux Poires

Translation: upside-down caramel pear pie.

We've been quiet on here for about a week since we started our "full-time" jobs, and we thought we'd wait to share what those are like with you.  However, we realized we already did that a few entries ago, and there's not a whole lot to add yet.  We have mostly pleasant students both in class and in the interviews, and we're learning a lot about the French educational system.  This week, we also designed scenarios for the students to enact later this semester--one about genetically modified food, one about immigration in the UK, one about binge-drinking, and one about renewable energy.  We'll let you know how they go once they start!

What we did do was make a Tarte Tatin aux Poires, and it was fantastic!  Unlike in the US where pears take at least a week to ripen, pears here are ripe in two days and MUST be used.  The best use for almost any fruit is of course to make an upside down caramel pie.  How could anything be better?

Think about caramel for a minute.  Think how simple it is.  It can be just one ingredient even: sugar.  You heat it until it melts and then continue until it's just at the point where it would start to burn, and voilà!  Caramel.  Now, let's add an ingredient to that, sea salt perhaps.  If you like chocolate-covered pretzels, then you know how wonderful salty-sweet is as a flavor.  Let's go ahead and add one more ingredient: butter.  Oh, now that's just mouth-wateringly delicious.  Butter, sugar, salt, all cooked together until you have one thick, gooey mixture.  You can even choose from a variety of textures!  Sauce, chewy candy, harder candy.  Ingredient four: pears.  We're on our way to having a pie.  Ingredient five (and six): flour (and water).

Dismantled frying pan.

With these five simple ingredients, you are ready to make your pie.  We were certainly ready to make ours!  We talked a bit about the overly sugar apple version earlier.  This time, I was not going to fail.  I examined the frying pan, saw the screw that held on the handle, and I realized that if I ruined the pan, that would most certainly NOT be the worst thing that ever happened!  I dismantled it with no problem at all (I even got it back together, too).

Tarte pre-flip.

Following Brad's instructions, I melted salted butter in the pan (just a couple tablespoons), and then I sprinkled that with white sugar.  I let that cook until it all melted together, and then circled slices of pears (three pears in all) on top of the sugar.  This cooked for over an hour before everything started to caramelize.  Oh, the heavenly smell!  Then I put the pie crust I'd made on top and put it in the oven for another hour.  After letting it cool a bit, I turned the pie onto a plate.  For those of you looking forward to making this yourself, here's the best part.  You, the baker, get to take your spatula and scrape the best caramel that forms out of the whole process and eat it all yourself (there's only about a teaspoon, so it would be hard to share).  Pear-infused caramel with sea salt.  This is good.

Then you get to share it!  It was fantastic, and made a wonderful beginning to the fall season.

Finished pie, complete with crispy, caramel crust.

Next time, we'll tell you all about the biggest yard/garage sale/flea market we've ever seen!

Success!

 It's been just a week since we first tried to make Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies, and we succeeded in finding the proper (well, mostly proper) ingredients with the help of many friends.

• First, baking soda was found.  Michèle told us it does exist here, and Elizabeth told us it was indeed in Europe but used only for health purposes.  Someone else's blog told us it's found in the spice section of the grocery store, and that is where Aaron found it!
• Second, Todd told us that brown sugar here is called "sucre vergeoise."  We'd been told that "cassonade" is the same, and a google search shows us that is true, but that it is also the word used for what we call "raw cane sugar" in the US (in fact, since having tried both the dry cassonade and the moist vergeoise, the cassonade tastes more like our brown sugar, but the texture is different.  The next time, we'll replace the white sugar with our cassonade and use the vergeoise again.  Perhaps eventually we'll find moist cassonade.).  Our local grocers (G20 and Carrefour) only sell the dry, raw cane sort and not the moist brown sugar.  Galeries Layfayette Gourmet had sucre vergeoise, and U Express downtown has it, too.  It is easy to find now!
• Third, we did find chocolate chips, but their quality is a bit too high for what these cookies need.  We found some bars of semi-sweet chocolate on the bottom shelf at G20, and their taste and texture is almost identical to a Nestle chocolate morsel.  
• Fourth, we found with Michèle's help that flour #65 is not too hard to find, but for this round of cookies we are just going to use up the rest of the #55.  That seemed to be the least of our problems from last time.
• Fifth, we found actual vanilla extract at U Express (even Galeries Lafayette Gourmet didn't have it), but we had already started making our own in rum according to Elizabeth's recipe.  Thus, we are going to use the rest of the vanilla sugar while we wait for the vanilla beans to soak for a month.  

Now, onto the actual baking.  We still had to add the extra quarter cup of flour because our flour is a bit fine.  We shaved a bit off the block of butter to get it closer to 8oz, and we measured two cups of chopped chocolate.  When measuring the white sugar, we first put in five packets of vanilla sugar and then filled the rest in with white sugar.  We followed the rest of the recipe here: Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.  (Ok, even Aaron doesn't follow the recipe exactly.  We skip the nuts.)

We've illustrated again below.  

The players: 2 eggs, 225g unsalted sweet cream butter, 37.5g vanilla sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 3/4 cup sucre en poudre, 3/4 cup sucre vergeoise, 2.5 cups #55 flour, 2 cups chopped semisweet chocolate.

2 cups semisweet chocolate.

5 sachets of vanilla sugar.  This was
still not strong enough, but our homemade
extract will be ready in just 28 days!

Creaming 3/4 cup sucre en poudre,
3/4 cup sucre vergeoise, 225 grams  warm
butter (sweet cream, unsalted.)

Gradually adding premixed salt,
flour, and baking soda.  This was
teamwork.

Mixing in the chocolate.

Shaping the cookies.

These cookies were a much better replica of those we miss.  Please come visit and try some soon!  We'll add a picture of the actual cookies to this entry soon.  (On a side note, the apron was a parting gift from my friend Carrie, for which I am very thankful for multiple reasons (in no particular order): (1) I had forgotten to leave one out when I was packing to put everything I own in storage (my parents would probably object to the term everything, and I'd have to agree based on the piles of book boxes in my bedroom at home), (2) it's adorable, (3) it's really nice to have something from a friend to remind me of home, and (4) it keeps me from getting as messy as I might otherwise.)


Soon, we'll do an entry on our work here, lest you think all we do is bake cookies and go to the beach.

A whole-hearted, yet feeble, attempt...

At Aaron's favorite cookie recipe.  The one, the only, THE Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Let's begin with a history lesson.  The first version of what we now know as Nestle originally began in Aaron's home state, Illinois in September of 1867.  The Page brothers founded the company as one to produce condensed milk.  That same year, just one month later, Henri Nestlé of Switzerland developed a milk-based baby food, which involved dehydrating milk.  In 1868 Daniel Peter began developing a process for producing milk chocolate and needed his milk to be completely dry, thus bringing the Nestlé's work to its ultimate heights.  The Pages and Nestlé competed on the market for baby food and condensed milk until the early twentieth century when they merged.  They now own over 6,000 brands and are based in Vevey, Switzerland.  (Lesson paraphrased from Wikipedia.  We must cite our sources as good and honest academics.)

The company started in Aaron's homestate.  Switzerland is close to France.  Nestlé owns more brands than I own books.  So why, why, why can the brands necessary to producing NESTLE Chocolate Chip cookies be so far from Cesson-Sévigné, a mere 850 kilometers from Vevey?  Why?

This is not to say that we failed at making cookies.  This is not to say we produced bad cookies.  We just did not produce what we know and love.  Normally, I love a challenge at making substitutions.  When I'm out of eggs, out of butter, out of sugar, out of flour even (it turns out ground-up Cheerios function much like flour and impart a lovely oat flavor to a baked good.  But alas, even normal Cheerios aren't available here), I can usually get by, but not this time.  This time we produced something very akin to a cookie version of chocolate chip quick bread, and this time we are in mourning.

This mourning shall not last long, I do declare!  We will rise above this setback and triumph over our loss!  We will enjoy this country, and we will show it THE NESTLE TOLLHOUSE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE if it takes all year!

In the meantime, see the illustrated kitchen experiment below.

1. Consult recipe, brought
from the USofA.

2. Purchase semi-sweet chocolate
from Ikea to replace 12oz semisweet
chocolate chips.  

3. Chop what turns out to be bitter-
sweet chocolate from Ikea.

4.  Soften 250g unsalted butter.
(of course it's cultured, not entirely
sweet, like in the US.)
5.  Purchase parchment paper to put
on broiler pan (no cookie sheet.)

6.  Assemble ingredients
from store.
a) Levure chimique=
baking powder (baking
soda is hard to find.)
b) Vanilla sugar (extract
is hard to find.)
c) Flour #55 (somewhere
between cake flour and
regular flour.)
d) Raw cane sugar (brown
sugar as we know it does
not exist here.)

7.  Let cage-free, organic eggs from
market come to room temperature.
(Some things are the same!) 

8.  Cream butter and sugar
by hand. (We did not bring
a mixer to France.)

9.  Add chocolate chunks.

10.  Drop cookies onto
parchment with tablespoons.
(Spoons brought from the US.)

11.  Attempt to enjoy cookies for
what they are.

Nota Bene... 

Unmentioned steps include, but are not limited to, the following:

2a) Use 3.5 Ikea bars.

6a1) Use 2.5 teaspoons of baking powder to make up for 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

6a2) We have since found baking soda.  It's located in the spice section, not baking section, here.

6b1) Use 2 packets of vanilla sugar to replace one teaspoon of vanilla extract.

6b2) Discover after tray one bakes that this is not enough vanilla, so sprinkle tops of remaining batches with more vanilla sugar.

6c1) Decide that you need to find flour #65 after using 2.5 cups #55 flour to make up for 2.25 cups American flour (a courser grind).

6d1) Use 1.5 cups of raw cane sugar to make up for 3/4 cup white sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar.

6d2) Discover this is not quite sweet enough and does not have nearly enough brown sugar taste.  See 6b2 above.

8a) In a separate bowl, mix together flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, and baking powder.

8b) Add eggs, one at a time, to creamed butter and sugar.  Mix well.

8c) Add dry ingredients, gradually beating them in.

8d) Stir in chocolate chunks.

10a) Preheat oven to 190C (=375F).

10b) Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

10c) Cool on plates instead of cooling racks like at home.

11a) This is only half of the recipe we made.  We ate the other half over the last few days, so they really weren't that hard to enjoy.