Mousse au Chocolat

So, by popular demand of Elise's mom :), here is the world famous recipe that I received from a friend in Strasbourg. It was her mother's recipe, so you know its good!

Mousse au Chocolat
Serves 4 people

Ingredients:
125g of dark chocolate
1 big chunk of butter (directly translated my recipe calls for "One fat nut of butter"....just put in a fairly large slice and you'll be fine)
4 eggs
1 pinch of salt

1. Melt the chocolate and the butter chunk on low heat
(I used the whole "boil water and place another pot in the water" thing that acts like a double boiler)

2. When the chocolate is soft and melted, take it off the stove

3. Separate the egg whites and the yolks (keep both parts!)

4. Mix in the yolks with the chocolate using a wooden spoon (I don't know if the wooden part is all that important, but its the recipe....)

Attention! This part is important: Make sure not to cook the yolks!!!!!! The flame can't be too high when you're melting the chocolate!!!!!

5. Put the chocolate/yolk combination in a medium sized serving bowl

6. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt.

7. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate little by little.

8. Let the mousse sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours, which means you can't eat any of it for at least 3 hours. This is the hardest part....

Et VOILA! Mousse au Chocolat! Hope it works out for you guys!

Side note: I'm messing around with flickr to see if I like it. Here is the site for my pics if you're interested.

7h26....boooooo.

So, just waved good bye for the THIRD time to Hank (this time, admittedly, was a lot easier than the last two) as he headed off to Germany to start an internship working on engines and turbo thingymabobs. I just finished doing some random cleaning things around the house that I'd been putting off for awhile, because my host family gets home from Australia at some point today or tomorrow. I, of course, forgot when Hugues told me they were coming back so it will be somewhat of a surprise. Now its about half past seven and I'm not sure whether to sleep or brave the day. As a compromise, I decided to write a petit blog in bed.

Hank's visit was pretty uneventful, but fun. In typical Bretagne fashion, the weather didn't co-operate with us for most of the week (lots of rain), but we managed to get out and enjoy the moments of sunshine. I had the week off from school, so it was nice just to relax and hang out before he starts work. Because his internship goes til August, we'll have spent a whole year abroad and apart by the end of all this and I'm happy to have any opportunity to spend time with him! We weren't complete lazy bums though. We went on a couple runs, rode bikes to Cesson (a nearby town)...On Sunday Leah, Hank, and I went to Stade Rennais to watch Rennes battle it out against Lille. It was a good game, and I had high hopes for Rennes! It was tied 1-1 for most of the game, but in the last 5 minutes Lille got a lucky shot off and beat us 2-1. Oh well.....Rennes beat Bordeaux earlier in the season and that's all that matters! Even with the loss and the inevitable rain during the match, it was a fun night.

On Tuesday, Leah hosted an Olympics party at her place to watch figure skating. Unfortunately for us, France insists on making everything live, so in order to watch any of the cool events, its necessary to stay up until about 3 or 4 am. Skating started at 1h30, so we spent the majority of the evening eating pizza, chips, and cookies (Leah, Hank, and I made sugar cookies in the shape of the Olympic rings....epic) and drinking red, white, and blue drinks in the spirit of America. Yoann was the sole Frenchie, so while he tried to cheer on his country during events, he was usually drowned out by the USA! USA! USA! chants. We managed to stay up long enough to see the first American skater before calling it quits and sleeping in til noon the next day.

This week was a week of culinary endeavors because, with the bad weather, there wasn't much else to do. Hank made me lots of yummy dinners (I think Hank enjoyed the food a little too much by the looks of the picture on the left...) and I made mousse au chocolat from scratch! I was very proud of myself and it was super yummy. Maybe I'll post the recipe on here sometime as its really easy to do. I took Hank to the marché des lices, and I think he was impressed with the size of the market and also the quantity of cheese. It definitely rivals the farmer's market in Madison. We got some goat cheese with Mexican spices on it and fresh baked bread plus lots of fruit and veggies. And I made Hank try a galette saucisse, which is basically a brat wrapped in a galette (the really yummy wheat crêpes that Bretagne is famous for). Not the most nutritious thing, but delicious.

Yoann challenged Hank and I to play 2v2 soccer against him and his little brother on Thursday (we tried several times of the course of the week, but the weather didn't clear up until then so we profited bien of the break in the rain). It was an epic battle, really, the stuff legends are made of, duked out in the mud and mush (which was slippery and lots of fun), USA vs France, and in the end.........USA PREVAILED! By a lot. Final score: 20-10. Although, I did accidentally kick Yoann's brother (who is like 12) and he told me he would never be able to run again. Whoops. But, hey, all is fair......

Leah and I are in the middle of planning April break and its really exciting! Bruxelles, Amsterdam, Copenhagen/Aarhus, and possibly Belfast! I think Hank might try and meet up with us for one of the weekends too. We leave for Barcelona in 2 weeks....AH! I wish I would have traveled more last semester, even though I couldn't have really afforded it, because there's really no time left this semester! We've got most weekends taken up by CIEE trips or trips of our own and my travel wish list is wayyy too long. I have less than three months and I'll be back in Madison for the summer. Crazy. Side note/complaint: For our return flight, Leah and I planned on taking a train at 6h10 from Rennes straight to the airport. It was perfect because with all our bags, navigating Paris would just be a nightmare. Normally, there is a train EVERY DAY (except Sundays) at 6h10. EVERY MONDAY. So, when the tickets went up a couple days ago, Leah and I went online to buy our tickets. No train at 6h10. May 24th is the ONLY Monday without a train at 6h10. Tuesday has one. The Monday before has one. Of course, the day we need a train is the day they decided to let the conductors sleep in? I talked to a guy at the gare and he didn't know why. He said to check in a week and see if any new trains get put up. Otherwise Leah and I will have to go in the night before and spend money on a hotel room. Boo France.

I think I'm going to try and take a mini nap before heading to the market this morning. Talk to you soon! Bisous!

So, just a quick update. Hank got to Rennes today (he had to quite literally run through 2 airports to make it here) and we had a lovely lazy afternoon eating pizza and watching Disney movies :)

Its 11pm now, and the jet lagged boy is sleeping so I don't want to make too much noise.

A la prochaine!

¡¡¡¡Aye Mexico!!!!

Or Barcelona. Because I'm going there in March with Leah. Bought the tickets AND booked the hostel today. Go us!!! Too bad neither of us speak Spanish. Una assietta por fovora?!?

Getting back down to business

So, all my visitors are gone, I'm back in school (at least until the end of February when we get another week of vacation....), I've actually got homework (for once), things are starting to get back to normal here in Rennes, France. Yesterday was another one of the world famous CIEE excursions, which usually end up with us spending wayyyyyy to long in the most random of places and then sleeping on the bus. We went to Saint Malo and Mont Saint Michel, and even though I'd already been both places, they're really interesting towns, so it wasn't too bad. The only downfall was the weather, which decided to be gray, cold, and windy. And a sad change from last semester, CIEE is only doing one overnight excursion (to the Loire Valley) in lieu of 2, but now we get two day trips (the one yesterday and another to Vannes/Carnac). I always had a lot of fun on the overnight trips, and it was a good way to get to know the other kids in the program. Ohhhh well.

Leah and I recently tried to plan out our trips for the upcoming semester. So far we've got: Barcelona in March, Amsterdam and Copenhagen/Aarhus (maybe Brussels/Belfast???) in April, Bordeaux (who knows when), Paris and Versailles in May (we already bought the tickets for this one!), and then we want to try for Rome/Prague/Dublin at some point in the semester if money holds out. Although you always hear about cheap travel in Europe, it never really ends up being all that cheap.....You have to get to the airport, usually Paris (or Beauvais for RyanAir, which is a HUGE hassle), and then the cheap airlines don't really fly into the main airports, so you have to get from the airport to the city you want to go to, if you don't know anyone in the place you're visiting, you have to pay for a place to stay, food, cool things to do, etc. It adds up fast. But, Leah and I decided we have around 100 days left here, we need to make the most of it and not worry tooooooooooooo much about the cost. It just means we have to resist the glowing lights and fashionable clothes of H&M a lot more this semester. PLUS the euro is down to $1.36. Best. News. Ever. Well......

Maybe even better news than the falling exchange rate: Hank got an internship in Stuttgart, Germany starting MARCH 1st!!!!!!!! Which means I have to add Germany on my list of travels. This internship was such a last minute thing, and its a great opportunity for him. Knowing my love of tigers, Hank promised me a trip to the zoo in Stuttgart, so I'm pretty excited :) I'm hoping he'll be able to stop by Rennes before he starts work, because it might be kind of hard to plan to see each other when both of us our busy with our European lives. Its pretty cool that we'll both be over here at the same time, and I hope that we can at least meet up once or twice before I fly off at the end of May.

I'm starting the job search for summer in Madison, because after all these destinations I'm hoping to see I'm going to be BROKE. I turned in my application for the desk job I had last summer, but I'm a little worried that since I'm coming back home so late I won't be able to get it. So, if anybody knows anybody who are employing nice, hard working, French speaking, awesome people, let me know.

Til next time,
Katie