Last Supper(s) and Cleaning House

As you all can I'm sure imagine, we didn't hold back on the delicious food in those precious last few days on the other side of the Atlantic.

The gourging started off with this extra old (that was seriously the name on the label) mimolette cheese, so old in fact that the woman at the counter asked if it was ok broken because it literally crumbled when she attempted to cut off a chunk. For reference, mimolette cheese is similar to gouda in it's aging.

Veal chops in mushroom sauce and braised endives made the dinner-time cut one evening. The recipe was taken from our new Paul Bocuse cookbook (purchased in French so I will be forced to remember something) all about cooking with fresh, market food.

As a special treat, I made a rare trip to the patisserie to pick up dessert (I know, I am a pastry chef and should be seeking out the spectacular French sweets but *gasp* I don't really like sweets very often). This particular treat is called the Paris-Metz (in honor of the new high-speed train line); it is a raspberry and citrus macaroon large enough for sharing. 

The next big dinner was a re-creation of a restaurant meal. I am realizing only now just how often I ordered smoked salmon while out to dinner. This dish was composed of some potato pancakes topped with an herbed crème fraîche and smokes salmon which we served with some delicious mâche salad that Megan and Joe had introduced us to a few days prior.

 

And so began the cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. It's amazing just how dirty a teeny tiny apartment can get while still appearing clean. We cleaned and scrubbed for hours our last day.

And then I painted and painted...I want to know who the brilliant person was that decided that decided to cover the dorm walls (including the kitchen??) with textured white walls that disintegrated if you tried to clean them?

Somewhere in there we took a break from cleaning to break into this fun little basket...

...full of some amazing oysters.

Michael let the newly purchased oyster knife and oyster shell get the best of him on this attempt.

But regardless of blood loss, the final product was a great mid-cleaning treat with one last bottle of Champagne.

And finally, the next morning, after lots and lots work while the fluffy white stuff fell outside (which would prove problematic the next day), we finished cleaning. It looked creepy.

Last Sunday

Sorry for the delay readers -- I do not intend to give up on blogging now that we are no longer "Metzing Around" but if you are a Facebook friend, you are well aware of our travel troubles when returning to the US (3 flights in 3 days but more on that later) and I just now am feeling settled and calm enough to sit down and look through all these pictures.

Our last Sunday was spent again in Nancy with our blogging/real-life friends Megan and Joe. Not only were we anxious to see them one last time before moving back but we also had a home-goods delivery to make.

Pre-departure, we made a giant list of all the things we had accumulated after 1.5 years in this tiny apartment and put them up for grabs. And since Megan and Joe are car-less and live 45 minutes away, we offered to drive them to Nancy in return for a fun evening at their place. 

When we arrived, Megan was ready for the delivery with crust and batter for the scrumptious French burnt cheesecake, Tourteau Fromagé (which we mentioned here awhile back) to throw in their newly acquired oven.

We had a wonderfully light and very french meal complete with chewy bread, smoked salmon dip, ratatouille, the tourteau fromagé (isn't that a great cross section shot? we were seriously impressed that our little toaster oven managed to burn the top!) and a batch of Alton Brown's amazing brownies. And wine. Of course, there was wine.

And after another enjoyably long evening of chatting and reveling in how many strange things we have in common, we took our parting photos...

...and reluctantly headed home one last time (which turned out to not be the last time since I somehow ended up with their apartment keys in my pocket and had to run back the next day to return them).

And to make the night even sweeter, a few days later they were kind enough to send on a pdf file filled with all their favorite things and suggestions on Saint Louis where we will be residing in the near future. Here's hoping the we end up somewhere close to these wonderful new friends.

Fun(Fri)day

 Last Friday we met up with Amanda and Katrina for some fun in the cold. We went downtown to the packed-on-weekends ice skating rink for some skate time and found it empty with the exception of two other people who came and went while we were there (one is a local secretary taking figure skating lessons while the other is an 18yo boy convinced that he will be France's next big Hockey star).

We had a fun time trying out new moves and wiping out when they didn't go as planned.

Katrina worked on her backwards skating -- it was her first time trying and she did great!

 

 After tiring ourselves out we took one group shot then split up for separate shopping endeavors; Katrina and Amanda Christmas shopped while Michael and I grocery shopped for that night's adventures.

At the marché couvert (covered market) we finally took the plunge and bought a poulet de Bresse (chicken from Bresse).

These chickens are so fresh, they come with the feet, head and innards still intact! The woman at the counter asked me if I wanted them removed then gave me a strange look when told her to "non", leave it how it is. I won't share the gory pictures of Michael chopping off the head and feet; and thankfully, we only needed the meat off the carcass so we were able to leave the guts where they were. It's needless to say that we are coming closer to our food here in France.

Katrina and Amanda showed up not too long after the butchering. We started off with some escargot, Katrina's first escargot, in fact!

And before we knew it, our 11:45 deadline was upon us and we hadn't even had dessert yet! What 11:45 deadline, you ask? 11:45 was Michael's deadline for accepting his first real, live job in the adult world!

So, if all goes smoothly, after spending the holidays with our wonderful families, we will be packing up (or *gasp* movers will be packing up) and we will hit the road for our new home in Saint Louis. We're excited to put it lightly.

 

After the excitement we settled down to dessert and enjoyed the rest of the evening and part of the morning (think: 4:00am) with friends.