: : Tsunami [[ Storm ]] : :

Yesterday morning, I stayed home from the Cora trip yet again after giving my host mum a shopping list of what was needed for the meal Marine and I were going to prepare for the family that night.

PIZZA

Natural yoghurt
Flour
Tomato paste
Olives
Ham
Red capsicum
Baby spinich leaves
Mushrooms

MUFFINS

Eggs
Butter
Brown sugar
Flour
Raspberries
White chocolate chips


Marine didn't go to "Code" in the morning so it was the two of us.

When my host parents arrived back home with the shopping, I went and helped my host mum put everything away :D hehe, one of my weekly highlights.

For lunch we ate mushroom soup : ), and Marine, my host dad and I watched the French version of "Come Dine with Me" (again, becoming a bit of a routine) - which I love :D.

At about 2.30 a man came to consult my host-dad about his computer. This took up a lot of time and meant that Marine didn't have to go to "Code" at 3pm, hehe. We were up in my bedroom praying that the man would stay those extra few minutes :D (although she now has to go on Wednesday after-noon, haha).

Marine and I then found this game that she didn't know she had on her computer. It was really weird. It was in English with French subtitles and you were a girl who got kidnapped by the man and you had to find your way out of the place and find al; this information that the man had taken from your memory...Anyway, we apparently got really into it without knowing it because the next time we checked the clock it was five to four...haha, oops?

We then went downstairs and started on the "raspberry/white choc muffins". Although, the raspberries at Cora only came in giant frozen bags and there were no white-choc-chips...So instead we had a can on strawberries (didn't know that was possible...but apparently so...) and a block of white chocolate which we cut up.

Incident one : : but the butter in the microwave with it's MATTED-foil wrapping...hehe, nearly set the whole kitchen on fire...And yes, the butter was actually ON FIRE in the microwave, and making A LOT of sound...oops?

Incident two : : tried to explain "BAKING SODA" to Marine to make the muffins rise...didn't work, so I excepted the fact that this was just going to be a pancake recipe more than anything else...

After we had made the batter and had folded in our chocolate and strawberries, my host-dad came in and asked me what I was going to put the batter in. "A muffin tray". Well, apparently I was meant to write that on the shopping list...

So instead we put it in a large cake tin, and then, in the oven.

Once it was cooking...my host-dad asked me if I had put in the raising agent...AFTER it was in the over :S. "No". Then he got annoyed at Marine for not understanding my explanation...not her fault - but I think, judging by the amount of times he ducked in and out of the kitchen, he was stressed because usually it's him who does the cooking.

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At quarter to five, we started making the pizza bases with my yoghurt recipe (my host-dad thought I was mad and kept looking over our shoulders...). We made eight, and thought that it would be enough for the five people we were serving.

We then started cutting all the cheese and getting the other ingredients ready. Although my host-dad had to make the paste for us because it was really expensive at Cora and apparently Baby Spinich Leaves don't exist in France, so we went without.

We had three different types of cheese...yum!

Incident three : : Stabbed (and cut) Marine with the sharp cheese knife when washing the dishes...SORRY!

Once we put the pizzas in the oven (nicely spread out on some baking paper : )), Mammie and another man arrived to eat apparatifs (not sure how to spell that one, but it's a French word for snacks - mostly nuts and chips and sometimes bits of baguette spread with diffent toppings or prawn cocktails). Marine and I joined them, often ducking out to check on our creations.

At about 6:30 the man left (after listening to Marine and Aurore sing and Marine play the piano), and Mammie stayed (later on Marine and I found it that she was staying for dinner...which was rather inconvenient, although her company was welcomed : ), with our carefully planned out number of pizzas...we ended up having to cut four of them in half...).

At 7pm we ate the first batch of pizzas and my host-dad and I transferred the second batch of four onto the baking tray (could've been a catastropy as they were top-heavy and on baking paper).

Incident four : : my host-dad and I smelt something burning and looking insided the oven to see that the baking paper was fully on fire...:S we had to put it out and then cut off the excess baking paper...Oopsie daisies!

The family really enjoyed the pizzas which was good :D. And we finished with one extra too! Which was rather surprising as we were stressing we wouldn't have enough :D. Everyone got really hot eating them right out the oven...Oh and I think my host-dad gained a little trust in my yoghurt pizza base recipe!

Marine and I then ducked into the kitchen to fix the dessert :D. The large pancake was really dense, but moist, which was okay. Haha, my host-mum didn't end up getting the cream, so Marine and I mixed the natural yoghurt with strawberry jam, and put a dollop on everyone's slice, drizzled the strawberry juice that we saved from the canned strawberries around the edges, and put a stawberry flavoured lolly on everyone's slice. It was all quite a work of art : ). Rather annoyed at myself for not taking a picture...but meh, what can you do?

Now my host-parents want us to cook every Saturday, and my host-mum keeps telling me that it was truly kind of my to that for the family : ). They've given me so much, so the least I can do is give them a meal that I enjoy eating with my own family in Australia, right?

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The night was quite an emotional one when we started talking to Henry on MSN. He told us about the tsunami that was certainly going to hit New Zealand, and then after I found out that Australia was in danger too...didn't help that my sister and mum were at my holiday house on the beach front :S - as my dad informed me when I began talking to him too.

The emotion died down in the end, which is good, and Henry sent us a text this morning telling us that he's alive and well.

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Woke up to the storm this morning - not allowed to go outside because there is a real chance that you'll be blown away (literally)...At first I thought this was my host-parents being funny...but nope. It's true.

While be ate lunch, we watched the news. Apparently the tsunami hit France too...Only badly. With people dead and all :S. I felt kind of idiotic after that, worrying for Australia and NZ and it not even occuring to me that perhaps France was in danger too :S.

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Anyway, after lunch I went upstairs and began searching for English translations of "Les Fleurs du Mal" for French...I found them...and I chose five poems. I'm hoping my teacher will let me off with five instead of ten...:S. And now I have to comment, in French, on them all and explain, in depth, why I chose the poem...For some reason, I don't think she'll let me off with the truth, "because it's short and I actually understand some of it : |".