Sunday, July 28, 2013

The Little Moments In-Between

We disappeared for a bit for various reasons but are back with a lot to tell you! 


Before I give the details about my final exam for Le Cordon Bleu, which we took on July 23rd, I wanted to share a few of the little things that happen during our weeks that I don’t mention earlier. I have a few photos of random times in Paris that I thought may be fun. :-)


This little gem was taken after my worst practical. Everything went wrong and I got dirtier than ever! Hellooo chocolate and coffee stains! (Also, here's a glimpse into our locker room!)

Jacob and I nabbed a picture of the two of us in a practical room together! This was taken in 2GS (second floor "Grande Salle" or "Big Room") a room that is for cuisine and pastry, so we both spent some time here!

Perhaps some of you have heard of Ponts des Arts? It's a bridge in Paris that is covered in locks. To show eternal love many visitors attach locks to the bridge with the name of a lover and toss the key into the Seine. Since before leaving for Paris Jacob and I knew we were going to attach the locks we brought for our school lockers to the bridge the day after we were done with or final. I wrote "LCB" on the back of mine. An eternal love affair with Le Cordon Bleu.
After a night class one I decided to take a picture of what we got to experience a night. This was taken at 10pm on my way home from class. Isn't it gorgeous? We couldn't believe it took until 10:45 or so for it to finally get dark.

Aren't they cute together?? We tried to give them the best of views. :)




Wednesday, July 17, 2013

There's No Use Crying Over Curdled Cream

Well this has been quite the week-and-a-half! It contained ups and downs like no other, and had by far the most amount of class. Overall, I’m glad to be done with it. It’s tough when chefs ask you to restart a recipe or when you get flustered and drop a pot of boiling water or when chefs fight right in front of you. Each is a stress inducing item and I now have a (hopefully) temporary eye twitch (it’s très embarrassant).   

The food on the other hand…oh, the food was quite wonderful. Cakes almost every day, and kilos and kilos of butter. This week the intensive basic pastry students made Moka, Orange and Chocolate Tartelettes, Pear and Almond Crust Tarts, (chocolate) Croissants (finally!), Brioches, Pear Charlotte, and Mogador. There was obviously a ton of whisking done, and my right arm is now quite larger than my left (Lady in the Water, anyone?), not to mention the fact that in one class we were whipping cream and the air was so hot all of ours curdled. Our groans quickly made the way for laughter. 

Jacob and I are almost done with classes. These next two weeks feature our final written exam and our final practical exam. Do I feel like I’ve studied enough for either? Absolutely not. I took the written exam earlier today and…all I have to say is they could have told us that they wanted our ingredient lists memorized by today and not just by the practical test! But overall it went pretty well. The written test quizzes us on culinary terms, ingredient lists, and basic techniques. It is 10% of our final grade. That, however, pales in comparison to next week's practical exam...45% of our grade!

So here’s to a ton of studying and brushing up on my recipes. Cheers!


~Sarah

Moka (Mocha)

Orange and Chocolate Tartelettes
Caramelized pear and crisp almond crust tart (it's really called all that...)


Various Brioches

Chocolate Croissants!

Butter Croissants!

Pear Charlotte

Mogador

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

More Fun with Knives and Boeuf Bourguignon

For all of you sick and twisted folks who came here hoping that I accidentally cut myself again and wanted to see the bloody mess, unfortunately today is not your day. As promised during an earlier post, I wanted to take you on a quick tour of the famous Le Cordon Bleu knife set and show you some of my favorite and least favorite tools!
Our Knife Case
For our first knife, we have the undisputed most important knife in the kitchen called a "chef's knife", but most people probably know it as a regular knife.


Chef's Knife
This knife has a variety of different purposes and can be used on vegetables and meat in a variety of ways, making it the most useful and versatile knife in the kitchen.

Next, we have my most favorite knife to use...that would have to be the cleaver. When using the cleaver not only do you get to take your aggression out by chopping up some bones, but you get to look awesome while doing it. 

6" Cleaver
Now, this is probably my favorite tool in the whole kit, mainly because it fixes a major problem I've had in the kitchen. Let's see if you can guess what it is before reading the next paragraph?

Any Ideas?
This is actually a zester and I like it so much better than a regular microplane zester that I'm used to using because it's so much easier to use and clean, and it has other purposes like making strips of zest or  grating fresh nutmeg. 

Finally, we are out the one knife in the kit that I can say I do not enjoy using and that is our "Tournee" knife or peeling knife, in other words it's the knife that we use to turn vegetables. (For more info on turned vegetables see Vegetables, Rabbits, and Crabs, Oh My!)

Peeling Knife
I could be biased because using this knife means we're turning vegetables and I don't particularly like turning vegetables, but this knife is really not that easy to use. Some chefs from the school won't even use it because "they simply don't know how" and will use their paring knife for turning vegetables. Believe it or not, the blade is actually on the inside of the curve and I'm not really sure how that helps anyone do anything at all. 

Now, moving on to the cooking aspect of the school, we finally had our demonstration for what I would call Julia Child's most famous dish, boeuf bourguignon. For those of you who don't know what boeuf bourguignon is, it's beef shoulder marinated in wine and other vegetables for around 24 hours and then cooked until tender and succulent. Unfortunately for me, I started by slightly over-searing my meat, making it a bit tougher than desired and unfortunately for me again, the chef in our practical told us to take our beef out of the oven around 50 minutes earlier than we were told to do so in demonstration!!! This resulted in getting an end product that was dry and not very succulent at all but the chef understood that we simply didn't have enough time to finish the recipe properly. However, Sarah and I had the boeuf bourguignon for dinner and Sarah seemed to enjoy it (even though I think she was just being nice).

Well, now I'm off to study for our exams (more info to come) and go to bed before my 12 hour day tomorrow (our final full day!).









Monday, July 8, 2013

Dacquoise: A Real Pain in the Back

The real question of today was whether or not Dacquoises (or any other whipped-egg-white-based products) are really worth what a pain they truly are, in every way. Dacquoises are essentially cakes with a French buttercream filling. The cakes are mostly egg whites, whipped into hard peaks, and the buttercream is mostly egg yolks and butter, whipped until thick and creamy.

How do you know when you’re done? When your shoulder falls off. Le Cordon Bleu isn’t necessarily stuck in the past, but they certainly ask us to understand how food really works, so no stand mixers for us! We’re whipping everything by hand…and by shoulder, forearm, wrist and fingers. I swear I'm in need of a chiropractor to fix whatever I broke earlier today in practical.

However, that sort of work and pain causes me to smile and giggle and bond better with my classmates. I’m okay looking weak because, hey, I don’t have strong shoulder muscles, especially in the shoulder I broke a few years ago, and it’s rather funny to look around at all of our strained, pained faces with nothing to comfort us but the fact that the sound of our whisks hitting the bowls is loud enough to cover up our moans.
So, was Dacquoise really worth it today? I’m still not sure. Maybe you can decide. 


~Sarah 




Dacquoise with a praline French buttercream and an almond paste rose


I don't know where I got this pose from, but I guess I'll stick with it!
(Must be the back pain, causing me to hunch permanently)


Sunday, July 7, 2013

D-éclair-ing us acclimated!

By that mean we’ve become acclimated to just about everything! To the city, to(o) much of French culture, and, most importantly for us, to our classes.

This week has been so incredibly trying, but so incredibly rewarding, for me. Essentially, what Jacob went through last week I went through this week: most days were nine hour days AND I was the assistant. So there was a lot going on and I was the main one being yelled at when something went wrong. (Although, admittedly, I DID only bring up half the lemons we needed, so running back down to the sous sol was necessary and I at least partially deserved the yelling).

What I learned from today is that Jacob and my classes, cuisine and pâtisserie respectively, work entirely differently. I got out of my practical a bit early and stood outside Jacob’s practical, just listening. It seemed so much more individual in his class, whereas in my practicals we do a lot for each other. We have a team atmosphere most of the time when we’re in the kitchen, and Jacob says sometimes it feels that way, and other times it doesn’t. I’d say I want to experience a cuisine practical, but ours seems much calmer. ;-)

We’ve done a ton this week, though a lot of it consisted of applications of techniques from last week: more sweet tart crusts and choux pastry, and finally a lot of recognizable pastries! Perhaps you wouldn’t know each by their French titles, but consider Gateau Basque, palmiers, chausson aux pomme, eclairs, and chouquettes.

I sadly wasn’t able to get great photos of each of my creations from practicals, but here are a few for the time being, as well as a picture of our kitchen! My partner and I set up fast and we had downtime, so I managed to snag a picture of what the kitchen looks like all set up, right before everyone enters and begins cooking. 

Cake aux fruits (Pound cake with candied fruit) and Madeleines

Palmiers (Palms)

All the above as well as Chaussons aux pommes (Apple turnovers)

Éclairs!


Chouquettes

The kitchen right after prep and before students enter.
That's Chef Pascal in the back, cooking up some macarons before class begins. 

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Vegtables, Rabbits, and Crabs, Oh My!

Hello Loves,

First of all I need to sincerely apologize (which I hate doing because it means that I haven't been doing my job) for not posting in over a week...but I've been completely booked with class and sleeping, really the only two things I do. This week looks a lot better schedule wise, so I should be updating more regularly, but first I have to fill you in on all of the lovely things that I haven't written about yet.

Sitting here, looking back at the list of recipes that we've completed so far, I have absolutely so much that I want to tell you!!! We've done everything from different preparations of puff pasty (100% made from scratch) to forcemeat stuffings to Quiche Lorraine. However, there are a few recipes that jump off the page as being extra-exciting (and extra-intense).

The first would have to be the crab bisque that we made in class. The reason that this recipe was so intense was because it used live crabs!!! Normally I wouldn't have a problem dealing with live crabs (velvet swimming crabs for those of you interested), but our chef decided it was a good idea to fill up these tiny tiny bowls to the brim with our portions of crab. So when I went to wash the crabs, they were all escaping into the sink. I scooped them up and turned around, and the next thing I knew they were crawling out of the bowl onto the floor!!! Luckily only two crabs escaped, but I wasn't able to pick them up immediately because I had to get a bigger bowl to stop the rest from jumping ship also. However, when I went back to scoop up the two other, they were missing! I'm not sure if the chef picked them up, because he was standing right there, or if they're still at large hiding underneath an oven or refrigerator.
Next, we had to sear the crabs in steaming hot oil (which killed them), without even boiling them first, and then crush them with a rolling pin to release the meat and juices. I have to say that it did seem pretty inhumane, but it also did make one good crab bisque.

Also, on a quick side note (for those of you interested in the workings of Le Cordon Bleu), I was one of the assistants for my practical group last week, which basically means that me and a partner had to run down to the basement kitchen, use the dumbwaiter to bring up all the ingredients, sort all of the ingredients and make sure we have enough of everything, and set up the room by putting out pans, cutting boards, etc. It also means that we were getting yelled out by the chef during the entire practical to do extra tasks like cutting portions of meat or running down to the basement during a practical to get extra ingredients (which is especially annoying if you have something in the oven or on the burner that might not turn out right depending on those extra one or two minutes). It also means that you're constantly asked by your kitchen companions where ingredients are...whether or not they're sitting out right on the table in front of the person (some people get so caught up in cooking, they forget to look around before asking) However, I was glad that I did it first and got it out  of the way and now I can focus on cooking as the recipes get more difficult.

The next technique that we've been learning is a little thing called "turning" vegetables and although the chefs make it look simple in the demonstrations, it might be one of the most difficult things I've ever done before. The whole idea for turning vegetables is to make them more aesthetically pleasing  and my mind is more in the "Let's just make this taste good"category instead of "Let's make this mushroom look really nice" category. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of my turned vegetables (which would've got you laughing compared to the actual ones) but I did get pictures of the chefs!
Turned Carrot (Basically a handmade
 baby carrot)
Turned Mushrooms
(We had to recreate the lower one)
Finally, and most importantly, (a little treat for making it this far) we had our infamous rabbit demonstration and practical today! Yes, it was my first time ever tasting rabbit and for those of you who haven't, it's basically a gamey type chicken. Not only do they have us cook the rabbit, but they have us debone...the entire thing (except the stomach). Basically, they give us a half gutted rabbit with the head on, which we have to later cleave off. I didn't take any pictures, so I'm going to steal some from another blog, but I'll post all the gory ones below, so for those of you who are squeamish, do NOT scroll down past the picture of the cute little bunny! I also didn't get a picture of my final plated rabbit dish (I'm always in such a rush to get the plates to the chef so everything stays warm!), but I got one of the chefs, and another of my dinner tonight, so I'll put both of those up also! 



Chef's final rabbit dish
My dinner tonight
(I swear it was much better than it looks)


Finally, now I get to eat Sarah's absolutely delicious desserts which makes me giddy with joy!!! This is why I'm going to gain sooooo much weight in Paris! Also, as a little added bonus for reading eight paragraphs of my rantings, I might just be willing to make you something...just hit me up. Plus, there will be much much more to come!!!


You've been warned































And finally a video of a former student fully deboning a rabbit:

P.S. First of all, this is what I did today. Second of all, I haven't watched the whole thing so I'm not sure if it's completely correct.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

The Falls Come Before the Pride

I realize that isn’t the right expression, but here, it’s true. After messing up a few times and beating myself down I came up with a mantra: this doesn’t mean anything. This whole course that I’m doing is meant to be fun and enlightening and exciting, not a tool to aid in my self-worth’s demise. So before my nine hour day yesterday I told myself all of that, and the result below is something I wouldn't have posted otherwise.

I’m finally, FINALLY, proud enough of some piece of work I have done that I’m willing to post a picture of it. The caramel is overcooked, and the piping on the sides is a total mess, but I was smiling almost the whole time in the kitchen yesterday (aside from the times where I was running around screaming “Chaud devant!” so everyone would get out of my way).

Why was I smiling? Because I love baking and I have always loved baking, regardless of mess-ups. For once I’m looking to get into my head and stay there because when it’s you and a giant super-cold marble table and some flour, everything is so perfect.

Saint-Honoré (Sweet pastry crust, choux pastry, chantilly cream, and caramel)




And a bit of a sneak-peak into our kitchen. You can’t quite imagine it, I doubt…but it’s amazing. Especially when our practical is in P3, the kitchen reserved for patisserie.



~Sarah



Saturday, June 29, 2013

It's Been a Hard Day's Night

Naturally, Jacob and I are assured some tough days. Homesickness aside, if you’ve ever cooked before you can relate to being at least a little bummed when something doesn’t turn out how you want.

I know at home I was always upset with myself when I burned something or forgot something silly in the recipe or just plain did something wrong, and generally I was just serving it to friends or family. Now add in a professional chef, often the best of the best, and you can imagine how much more pressure there is and how much harder the fall is when you fail, even if it's just a part of a practical.

We share these large (and beautiful) kitchens with 9-13 people each practical, so not only is there chaos, but there’s also an underlying competitive tone that just doesn’t suit me. Give me a kitchen and a chef to yell at me and I swear I’d be as happy as a clam (why, oh why, does that expression exist? I’m hoping Jacob finds out whenever he does clams). But this is just part of the process. I rather enjoy practicals and look forward to the day when I can pretend to be in the kitchen alone, no inhibitions.

Here’s to moving forward from failed Classic French Apple Tarts!


~Sarah

Friday, June 28, 2013

Full Uniform

Here's a picture of us together in full uniform! We're in Le Jardin d'Hiver, which is the student hangout during our daily one-hour lunch break.


Our full uniform consists of a chef jacket, pants, apron, tea towel, cap (and hair net for me), neckerchief, and safety shoes. When in demonstrations we are not required to wear our cap, apron, or tea towel. On our left arm pocket you may be able to see our covers (table fork, soup spoon, teaspoon for in class tastings), pens, and our name badges/school ID.  

We are to keep our uniforms neat and press them ourselves so they do not look too wrinkled. Each aspect of the uniform is important for one reason or another, so whether we look foolish or professional, we're certainly ready to cook!

~Sarah

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Diversity at Le Cordon Bleu

Le Cordon Bleu Paris is home to only 340 students at a time. That, as our director said, is considered “capacity”. Located in a major European city, I suppose some diversity is expected, but I surely didn’t expect THIS much diversity!

My class, my 30-student intensive basic pastry class, is home to a ton of nationalities! Today I sat next to a young girl from London and an older woman from Pakistan and had lovely conversations with both. Aside from them we have women and men from Mumbai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Texas, Columbia, Germany, Spain, South Africa and others that I can’t even remember. I’ve been a part of very diverse groups before, but none groups so small and so diverse.

I’m not too good at making friends, but so far learning our differences has been the most fascinating part and I’m actually itching to have more conversations with them about their pasts and reason why they’ve joined the Cordon Bleu family.


~Sarah

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

And Now a Break From Our Regularly-Scheduled Programming!

We’ve had a fair amount of posts about Le Cordon Bleu, but almost none about our other experiences in Paris, so I thought I should share a bit.

Our adventures haven’t taken us very far, and certainly not out of France. The first day we hit all of the tourist-y spots on a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus. Since we’ve both been to Paris before we really didn’t have any destinations we absolutely had to go. Once Jacob started class and I had more free time I spent some time shopping for a wedding dress (how could I not shop when in one of the fashion capitals of the world?!) as well as hitting some of the lesser known museums.

Overall my biggest surprise involves…sunglasses. My goodness, if you want to feel like an obvious outsider walk around Paris in sunglasses. So few people do that I’m shocked when I see another person wearing them. That doesn’t stop me one bit as my eyes are fairly sensitive, but it brings a smile to my face just thinking about how odd that is to me. What a weird thing to even notice! :-)

The farthest we’ve gone is an hour outside of Paris. This past Sunday, our normal day off for the week, Jacob and I went to Disneyland Paris (formerly Euro Disney). It consists of two parks, the Magic Kindgom and Walt Disney Studios, as well as a Disney Village and numerous hotels. I was raised on Disney and am obsessed with every last detail of the whole company, so it’s an under exaggeration to say I was excited.

It was great fun and such a nice break, almost as if we had left Europe for a bit. Our favorite ride? Crush’s Coaster, which broke down while we were on it the second time. And we’re talking light’s on- evacuation-break-down. Good fun for us, and I got a few nice videos of the inside of the ride. One video is below (we'll spare you the one of me talking).



Besides that, a memorable moment was when triplee (Jacob) stayed true to his AGO pledge name by tripping in front of a girl wearing a ucla sweatshirt while he was wearing a “Fight On!” shirt. He got so many sighs from me. :-)

More posts about our courses to come!

~Sarah

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Fun With Knives

Well, yesterday was absolutely exhausting, to say the least. Just to teach you a little bit about the system of Le Cordon Bleu, there are two different types of classes, demonstrations and practicals. For all of you in college right now or who just graduated,  a demonstration is basically like a lecture class where you watch a chef prepare two or three dishes depending on the amount of time each recipe takes and a practical is like a lab class where you make one of the dishes that you saw prepared in the demonstration. There's a third type of class called "Culinary Theory", but it's just another type of lecture and we only have one or two of them in total. Each demonstration or practical lasts around three hours!

Now that you know the basic layout, I had one culinary theory class, two demonstrations, and a practical yesterday. We made a rustic vegetable and bacon soup that mainly had us practice the knife cuts we had learned in the demonstration (mirepoix, paysanne, brunoise etc.). I also had another practical this morning that followed the second demonstration yesterday where we had to fillet a fish ourselves. I never expected to be taking a whole fish apart in our second class!!!

I also got my first cut today during the fish practical!!! I somehow feel initiated into the school even though I stupidly got it while putting my knives away :-/. Anyway, I have to go back soon to have another demonstration and practical, and then I get tomorrow off!!! Just to leave on a happy note.....here's a picture of my cut :).


Thursday, June 20, 2013

Why We're Here...

No offense to anyone who could possibly take it from my next statement, but today just might have been the best day of my life. I bet if you ask anyone at orientation I would be identified as that guy with the ridiculously huge smile the entire time, in other words I looked like a maniac. After going over all of the rules quite a few times, introducing ourselves (there are around 30 students in my class of various nationalities), and getting told a few times how intensive this intensive basic cuisine course would really be, we got all of our swag (knife kit, uniform, textbooks etc.) and a tour of the school and then we were set free until tomorrow.

Unfortunately, as I went to the reception area of the school I looked outside and saw this torrential downpour and had no umbrella or raincoat to speak of. I then decided to leave all of my stuff in my locker and return later to bring it to the apartment since we only live about five minutes by walking. Right as I reached the apartment the rain subsided and I was totally soaking, so I hung up my wet clothes and returned to the school a few hours later and picked up my stuff (pictures to come later).

Who knows when I'll write my next post cause I have 12 hours of class tomorrow, almost back to back. They really weren't kidding when they said this would be extremely intensive!!!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Bonjour, Paris!

Well these have been quite an eventful past couple of days! The stress leading up to yesterday’s travel day was palpable, but we are now finally settled in our new Parisian apartment.

Surprisingly, the worst part of the traveling was not the delay while on the tarmac (Jacob has some VERY entertaining group games on his phone) but the traffic that we experienced right off the bat in France. Even our taxi driver was hitting his wheel as if to say, “Could you please move a little faster?” …Okay, maybe it was without the please.

Even though half the amenities of this tiny apartment are broken or non-existent, and even though we totally forgot bar soap, we know it’ll become cozy enough to us in the next few weeks. I’m not sure I’d go as far as to say we’ll be missing it come the end of our classes, but I can tell it’ll quickly become our Parisian home.

Classes are still the most worrisome part of the trip. Jacob and I are both so scared of not doing well in our respective classes and have come up with small things to keep our hearts steady. I keep looking towards the day when we have a demonstration and practical class on croissants since they are my fiancé’s favorite pastry -- if I come back having forgotten everything but the croissants I’ll still feel okay about the trip. Jacob has a crazy French meal planned (it may or may not include rabbit) for our grandparents after we return. He was picking menu items before we even left! I can't wait to sneak a few bites.

Even after getting a bit worried just sitting here, I looked left out the window and spotted the expected, gorgeous French architecture and realized that I’m in Paris…that’s pretty cool.


~Sarah

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Shoes, Glorious Shoes

Shall we make of list of all settled things? Let's! Admission, apartment, plane tickets, tuition, all important documents. There couldn't possibly be anything trickier to get than all that, right? Wrong!

Shoes. How is it that after everything else seems finished we still haven't figured out our shoe situation? Comfortable, steel toe shoes? Isn't that an oxymoron??These shoes, that we've yet to even find, let alone order, are what we will be spending 90% of our time in while in France. Suddenly it has become one of the more pressing issues. The pressure is on. Not to mention the pressure from LCB, who sent out an entire page detailing what shoes we need.

It looks like in all this excitement Jacob and I sill have to go shoe shopping.

Nous aimons chaussures!

Sarah

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Almost There!!!

Hey Y'all,

I have to begin by saying that every time that I came on here to make a post, it seems like all of the news has already been written by Sarah (which, believe me is a wonderful thing cause she is a MUCH better writer than I am) but I wanted to explain my absence from this blog for a while. Yet, as I sit here unsuccessfully doing my physics homework or studying for finals, I can't stop thinking about how in a month and a half my sister and I are going to be having the time of our lives in Paris!!! This persistent thought simply had to go up on this blog. I'm so excited that I want all of my responsibilities with school and whatnot to simply disappear so I can enjoy my summer and get to Paris as soon as possible.

This was probably started by the final packet sent by the LCB telling us that we've extremely officially been accepted (completed by finalizing all of our payments :p) with information on our orientation time and other little tidbits. Well, I guess the countdown has officially started in my head and it can't move fast enough!!!


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Home, Sweet Home!

So many things became finalized within the month of March! And some MASSIVE things, none-the-less! We have secured an apartment that is only a short walking distance from Le Cordon Bleu's campus, and on the exact same day we buckled down and bought our plane tickets.

All of this is most certainly real and most certainly happening, it just hasn't hit me yet! I'm online right now trying to make sure my tuition check gets to Paris on time and finishing up some documents I need to send regarding my spiffy uniform. This will be the first time I've ever had to wear a uniform to school before, and you know what? I'm so excited. Wouldn't you be if you got to wear what those students are wearing in the picture below??

~Sarah

Le Condon Bleu

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

So...we have to live somewhere, right?

It isn't that traveling and living in a foreign country scares us. It is honestly quite an exhilarating thought. But making sure we aren't scammed is difficult and, frankly, nerve-racking.

We made our first push towards obtaining an apartment for the month or so that we will be living in Paris and going to Le Cordon Bleu by contacting a man who is renting out his apartment. I feel butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it. Through tons of research we found what we consider a trustworthy site with some awesome owners renting out their apartments.

Little by little we are watching this trip come to life -- our acceptances were just the beginning. Soon enough we'll be saying "Home, sweet home!"

~Sarah

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Ciao Tutti!!!

I know that isn't French, but hey, it's the best that I can do. My sister took care of most of the real introduction type stuff, so I really get to say whatever I want. Ever since I was young I loved being in the kitchen, and now I get to spend a whole summer doing  just that =D. I'm extremely excited (and utterly nervous) about this wonderful opportunity. We'll make sure to keep updating this blog up to and through our time in Pareeee with preparations, adventures, and most importantly discussing all our fun at Le Cordon Bleu (including recipes). Just for fun, here's a picture of all of the application materials that Le Cordon Bleu sent.




Per adesso, Arrivederla!!! 



A Petite Introduction

Welcome to our new blog!

The Adventures of Sarah Jane and Jacob Paul began years ago and have taken us all over the world. No matter what went wrong, Jacob and I always seemed to be the ones left behind in the messes that the rest of our friends and family never had to deal with. Mainly they were us trying to drive to school fast with the windows frozen over. But as we grew up, so did our troubles. We were stuck in security in London, stranded in a blizzard in Germany, and then held in Sudan without passports. This year our adventures are taking us to Paris so that Jacob and I can study cuisine and patisserie, respectively, at Le Cordon Bleu. 

As we get closer to our departure in June we'll have more to say, but for now we are just so very excited for this opportunity. 

À plus tard!

Sarah