Happy Valentine's Day!

Monday I went to Chloé's at 8 ready to have my last day with Marie-Césare for awhile!  I now have off most of next week too.....too bad train tickets are too expensive now for traveling!  Really wish I would have known before now.....

We spent a very American Valentine's day together.  In France, Valentine's is only celebrated between lovers...not friends and family like the US.  My mom had sent a "boites de lettres" with Disney princess Valentine's and she went crazy over it.  I don't know how many times that day she put her letters in and out of the mailbox.  

We continued on to make chocolate cupcakes.  I had a mix and mom also sent some cupcake wrappers and lots of sprinkles.  She LOVED the heart shaped sprinkles and toothpicks with hearts.  They don't have things like that here, so its always a treat when I bring fun stuff from the States!  

After dressing up in all of our princess glory, we had a "ball."  Who was attending this ball?  Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Princess Tiana, Jasmine, and of course doudou.  We put on music, danced, had some tea, and shared Valentine's together.  All in all, it was a fabulous day!  I love princess parties and making cupcakes so it turned out to be a great time.  Padi and Didou came to pick her up around 5.  We had her suitcase packed and cupcakes waiting for them when they arrived.  We had bisous all around and bid farewell.  

Ashleigh was cooking dinner for her friends and so kindly invited me along.  Her risotto was delicious and paired with cheap French wine-excellent.  It ended up being a late night just chatting with each other.  Oh, and having Tim Tams.  A Tim Tam is an Australian cookie that Addie had brought for Ashleigh.  Of course, I just had to try one for the experience.  It's a chocolate cream filling sandwiched between two chocolate malt biscuits.  They have a variation of the Tim Tam in grocery stores in the US, but its not the original.  We bit off either end of the cookie, then sucked hot tea up through the cookie like a straw.  This sounds gross, but you can't really taste the tea and the cookie just kind of melts into a delicious choclate-y mush.  Needless to say, I had another.  

Tuesday was my big day at Le Cordon Bleu.  I was taking my first class....Perfecting the French 'Macaron'.  We were making chocolate with fleur de sel and I was excited!!!  The building is quite small and without all the students in white coats outside I probably would have walked right past it.  I was greeted with a sign in sheet, recipe folder and an apron/towel set.  Since I was early of course,  the receptionist directed me to the "winter garden" where 30 or so other students were taking a break in between classes.  I sat down at one of the tables only hoping to break into a discussion they were having.    It was easier than expected and honestly, who doesn't like to tell people about their experience at Le Cordon Bleu...the most famous culinary school in all the world... so I was all ears.  Shortly after, I was called up for the class.  I thanked them for sharing with me, donned my apron and headed up the stairs.

  

The classroom was a big granite countertop with of course everything already measured out for us, each grabbing a station.  Anything you could ever imagine that would be in a kitchen was there.  It was fascinating.  I made friends with some of the students beside me, just as the chef walked in.  He was an older man who has loads of experience and even owns a boulangerie here in Paris.  He spoke in French, and there was another student there translating the class into English.  To my surprise, I could understand 95% of what he was saying!  He demonstrated all the steps and let us in on all the secrets of macarons (which I don't think I'll share here), then we were to duplicate exactly what he had done.  It was easier than expected, although I have a feeling this was the high point of my macaron making.  

As we were "forming" our macarons, chef came by and told me I was doing an excellent job.  Since I honestly hate to bake, this came as a shock but I just said thank you, topped them off with a little fleur de sel, and took it as quite the compliment.  After popping them into the oven, we began to make the chocolate ganache filling. 

Yummy, huh?  A huge bowl of chocolate deliciousness.  

My macarons! 

As we were filling and putting the macarons together, he came by again and said I had the best macarons in the class and he loves having students like me in class.  I always love being recognized for something I am good at, and by a Master Chef at Le Cordon Bleu made it a million times better.  While we had been making our chocolate macarons, he had whipped up some purple ones with raspberry filling.  They were bizarre, but so pretty!  

After receiving our certificate of completion, we packed our macarons into a box with our aprons, towels, and recipes and were allowed to take them home.  I couldn't wait to show my friends!  I thanked chef for a wonderful class and couldn't wait to join him again.  Kerry was finishing up getting her hair cut at Galeries Lafayette, so I met Kerry and Cathie for a drink near the Opera.  They both loved my macarons!  I was guarding them like they were my child on the metro because I didn't want to mess them up before I had the chance to take a picture.  (Silly, I know.) 

I absolutely cannot wait to go back and take another class at Le Cordon Bleu.  It is by far my favorite thing I've done in Paris (it trumps the Eiffel Tower by a million) and easily one of my top favorites EVER.  Just behind Jimmy Buffett in concert.  :)