Being sick

Bonjour à tous!

I've been mildly sick for the last couple weeks, until last Thursday when my throat started to hurt. And then this weekend when I started to cough. I should prooooobably go to the doctor, but I have a special case of laziness about these things (see: last May when I had bronchitis for three weeks before going to the doctor or this summer when I had mono for two weeks before seeing the doctor because of the all-body hives that broke out). Being sick, however, has not prevented me from doing things. Except it's gotten me out of a lot of bisous (AH NON NON NON NON ATTENDS! JE SUIS MALADE). (I apologise to S whom I bisoued despite the sickness.)

This weekend was very fun, rather relaxing (all good given my sickness' turn for the very present). Friday, S and I went over to Port Louis where we discovered that entrance to the citadelle was free for us. On the way there, we accidentally took one boat to and from the other side of the river because I thought it made two stops, the second at Port Louis (which is what it does on Sundays, the other time I'd been there). We did not walk into the water and we had to run after our bus because the busses switched numbers at the roundabout where we were waiting. The museums at Port Louis turned out to be rather fabulous. In fact, I have been incredibly impressed by all the Lorient-area museums I've been to. They are very well done. We also had lunch at a really lovely crêperie, where the lady gave us maps of the island and we had shrimp curry crêpes. Delicious.

Saturday, S, D and A came over to Quéven to visit me! My first visitors! Hahaha. Unfortunately, it was raining out which pretty much cancelled out everything I had planned for them. Instead, we bought tea and cookies at my Leclerc and watched music videos in my little room. Afterward, S, A and I went to the movies to see L'art d'aimer. There was some miscommunication, however, and two of us ended up with tickets to Les adoptés. We did not realise this until later, after the movie. We ended up watching Les adoptés and it was so, so good. It's definitely up there as one of my favorite movies I've seen so far.

Sunday, S, A and I went to Le Gandhi, a delicious albeit expensive authentic Indian restaurant. Samosas nom nom nom. I tried a hot sauce which irritated my throat and caused a coughing fit that led to tears. It was apparently very attractive.

Monday was the second stage for the elementary school assistants in Morbihan. I brought along a box of tissues and used them up during the all day stage. I also sneezed and coughed a lot. Luckily, the stage leaders are very very sweet. It was a lot of fun and gave me a lot of ideas for what else to do with my elem kids. Though I was sad to miss out on a day of working with my elem kids by doing this, I was very happy with what I learned.

Today, I'm still sick. Womp. As soon as I walked into the school, the lady at the welcome desk (who was talking with others at the time) said "Mais tu as l'air malade!" Me: Oh yeah, I'm a little sick, but it's not a big deal. The people she was talking with turned out and stared at me. Fun times. Then I went off and ad-libbed a lesson on Christmas with some 6èmes. Luckily, I had a nice long break between that and my second class of the day, so I went back and slept some more, apparently making myself look far less sick. Yay! In fact, at the end of my second class a student (a 4eme) came up and said I was very beautiful. Brown noser. I know I look like shit right now, but merci quand même.

Coming up today: more sleep and Breton class, where I will continue to not bisou people (I was sick enough last week not to, now I apparently look sick enough that no one will want to).

Friendly, germ-free smiles,

MCJ

Project Cooking with only Hotplates

One of the many mini-challenges I will face this year is cooking with only hotplates. I consider myself an excellent baker and have a few entrée dishes in my repertoire. Unfortunately, they all involve some component of baking (ignoring, you know, basics like pasta). So in my last few weeks stateside, I'm trying out different recipes that only require a stovetop (or, as will be the case in France, hotplates). Tonight, I tried out my favorite cajun dish, chicken sauce piquant.

I adapted this recipe from Chef John Folse & Company.

Chicken Sauce Piquant (serves 4 with leftovers)

- 2/3 chicken breasts

- 1/2 cup oil (I used canola oil... if you're a newb cooker, remember that you have to be very careful heating olive oil. If you feel you must use olive oil, try using a mixture of half olive half canola oil)

- 1/2 cup flour

- 3 oz tomato paste

- 5 oz Rotel tomatoes

- 8 oz whole tomatoes (if you don't have access to tomato paste/Rotel tomatoes/etc, you could probably use a combination of marinara sauce and some whole tomatoes. If you don't have Rotel tomatoes, add extra spices and finely diced chili peppers)

- 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped celery

- 1/2 cup chopped onions (I used a yellow onion)

- 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (I used a green bell pepper)

- 1 to 2 tbsps diced garlic

- 15 oz chicken stock

- 1 tbsp sugar

- 1/2 tsp salt

- black and cayenne pepper to taste

- cajun spice (if you have it)

- 1/4 tsp oregano

- 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

- 1/4 sliced green onions (about 4 green onions)

- bay leaves (I used fresh, but dry would probably work as well)

Season the chicken breast with sea salt, black pepper and cajun spices. In a dutch oven or large sauce pan, heat up the oil on medium-heat. Once the oil is warmed, place in the chicken breasts. Allowing around 10 minutes for each side of the chicken breast, sauté the chicken until it seems cooked. Then remove the chicken breasts from the oil and keep them warm. Then, place in the flour and stir with a whisk or fork until you have achieved a brown roux (this takes... a while, don't forget to scrape the bottom). Add the tomato paste to the roux and stir for ~5 minutes. Add the celery, onions (NOT the green onions), bell peppers and garlic and sauté until they're wilted (~5 minutes). Add the tomatoes and chicken stock, blend it together. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Add the sugar, salt, black/cayenne pepper and cajun spices and the chicken. Then add the oregano and Worcestershire sauce. Let simmer for at least 45 minutes. [Optional: I used two forks to shred the chicken. The chicken sauce piquant can be served with whole chicken breast pieces or with the shreds. As the dish of chicken sauce piquant that inspired trying this had shredded chicken, that's my preference.] Just before serving mix in the green onions and bay leaves.

Serve on top of fresh white rice. (You'll want to start the rice about 25 minutes before serving.)

Also, I went to see Elle s'appelait Sarah (Sarah's Key) tonight. It was incredibly moving and I cannot recommend it enough. The movie concerns principally the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup in Paris, a subject of which I frankly knew nothing. Currently out in some US theatres, (it's been out for two years in France) it has enough English that non-Francophone friends shouldn't be too upset about subtitles. The book off which it is based was written by Tatiana de Rosnay. (A girl in the back of the theatre was urging her friend to the read the book as the credits rolled and liked both the book and the movie adaptation, though it apparently left out a lot.)