40 books and counting...

I recently discovered that before obtaining my master's (and in addition to writing a minor thesis) I will have comprehensive exams to pass.

The exam doesn't seem so bad because we have to pick a list of books that interest us and submit it to the French department. From that list, they will draft three essay questions that we'll have six hours to answer. The only minor problem is that my book list will be quite extensive. I need to include 40 (!!!!!) titles on that list.

Being the student I am, I've already begun thinking about my list. I haven't read books in French for nearly five-plus years at this point, so I literally will need to get on this. My area of emphasis is modern/contemporary literature, but most French classes focus on the Medieval period to the 18-1900s. I've only read a handful of books that could fit under my area so I've certainly got a mountain of work looming ahead.

Which is why during Thanksgiving/Christmas break I've picked my first read: Marcel Proust.

I've never read any of Proust, but when I took a French Existential Lit class as an undergrad, he was referenced immensely. Rememberance of Things Past, however, will be quite the undertaking. The version I have (in English, let's be honest here) is over 1180 pages and that's just the FIRST VOLUME. It's a very, very vast piece of work. Who knows if I'll even be able to understand it.

For this reason, I'm begging anyone familiar with French literature for help. Any suggestions on authors/titles I should plan to add to my list or I should check out from the library? I'll take anything from the 1800s-onward. Doesn't really have to be relevant, I just need to come up with 40 books and be able to discuss them at length in the next two years...

....What have I gotten myself into?! :)

At UC Santa Barbara I was fortunate enough to meet many (dare I even say hundreds?) of amazing people from all walks of life.

One of the first few people I met in the dorms was Lindsey. We ended up majoring in English together, taking similar classes and even writing/editing for the same two newspapers! Our paths even continued crossing post-graduation. Hers was one of the first blogs I'd ever read consistently. We both were avid travelers who spoke two languages and trying to find our places in the world. We really did have a lot in common.

When she moved to Chicago and a work trip took me out there in 2007, I was able to visit and hear about her life in the Midwest. But that's kind of where the story ends. After living in Europe, traveling and working the non-stop life that is sports, I got so busy I stopped following her blog. Then one day, I went to look back and realized she stopped blogging.

A shame, I though, that such a talented writer wouldn't have the time/desire/energy to do so anymore. I learned through Facebook that she finally moved back to California, sent a quick message and found out she was in grad school. I know first-hand that grad school is a MAJOR time commitment.

But then yesterday, I finally found out why I hadn't heard from her in a long time (other than my own time constraints).

I ran across this on the Internet/Facebook:

To say I'm astonished would be an understatement. So I dedicate today's post to you, Miss Miller. You are one of the most talented, genuine, strong, creative, ambitious, adorable people I know! I look forward to following your journey and I am actively following social media to see if you get your response from him!

My thoughts are with you every day. You literally are one of the strongest people I know, and this is not an exaggeration when I say I've always been impressed by you. Even as undergrads working late hours at the newspaper. When you moved back to Southern California, I knew it would only be a matter of time before you made it. Well, here you are. Do us all proud enjoying your dance in the limelight :)

(Read about her offer, here!)

French Friday...night

I made a fantastic discovery tonight. It all happened because I believed there to be a Sun Devil volleyball game at 7 p.m. this evening. I was scheduled to work the game, planning on making dinner when I got home, but upon arrival realized the freakin game got pushed back to 8 p.m.....

My blood was boiling. I arrived so early and no one told me?! Determined to make something of my evening, I went wandering near the ASU campus in hopes of finding dinner. Even penny-pinching grad students need to eat, you know.

That's when I decided to stop in at a Middle Eastern restaurant and grocery I walk past almost every time I'm on campus. When I lived in France, I used to LOVE North African pastries and Middle Eastern cuisine. Understatement.

Anyways, I sat down, ordered the Falafel Deluxe Pita -- hummus, tabbouleh, falafel and tons of fresh mint with a large side salad -- and a bottle of guava juice before the waiter started chatting me up. I never know what language I'm thinking or speaking in anymore... it doesn't help that I'm about to start taking German next semester either.

He asked me where I come from originally and then what I was doing in Arizona... when it came up that I'm a French TA on campus. He FLIPPED OUT and immediately began speaking to me in French. It came up that he's from Morocco, I shared that I had lots of family in Morocco and we chatted on and on in French for a bit. 

Long story short, he told me I had to come back and the next time I was not to speak to him in any English whatsoever. We're only going to converse en français from here on out... I also noticed my bill was much less than it should have been, by the way. In all, a fabulous outcome from what seemed to be a bleak-looking evening. It literally changed my entire mood around. And I will be back. The food was incredible! I could eat Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food every day of my life.

Granola French Toast: A breakfast worth the wait

I know it's been a while, but my "52 new things" have basically fallen off the face of the planet. Blame it on grad school, I guess. I have been keeping up a little bit, but definitely not as well as I was before week 30ish. Maybe in the future I'll update that page with my new adventures since grad school.

In the meantime, I've got a fantastic new recipe to add to my home made chocolate granola experiment! It's Chocolate Granola French Toast, one of the most amazing breakfasts I've made in a while. Click the link for the recipe if you're curious, but it basically just entails making regular French toast and then dipping it in a thick cover of granola. Cook away as usual. Just be careful not to burn the face of the bread...

Here is how the French toast looked the minute I finished cooking it on the stove:

And then I topped it with Greek yogurt, figs and blueberries (my inability to spell "fig" in English still plagues me even now, I keep wanting to spell it à la français (figure). Oh well, trust me, this was HEAVENLY, especially with the chocolatey granola:

And even still, I had granola left over for weeks! I ate it plain and of course, I ate it in copious amounts of breakfast parfaits. Especially after buying cute little mason jars <3

I'm definitely going to have to bake my own granola again soon. With colder weather approaching Phoenix (as in, 60-80 degree weather), it's time for hot coffees and warm breakfasts!

Nonsense

I recently discovered an AMAZING French website. A German TA actually introduced us :)

I've shown several of these videos to my students, so enjoy!

C'est en faisant n'importe quoi qu'on devient n'importe qui (It's by doing anything that we become anyone.)

WHAT?! She lives?!

Oh man, it's been sooooo long since I've blogged, watched tv, worked out, cooked, etc....

I'm up to my neck in full-time grad school, teaching French classes, MLB PLAYOFFS and working collegiate athletics. Oh and the non-stop revolving door of meeting new people :)

I love it. It's totally what's been missing in my life since moving to Arizona. But I did have a second of free time a few weeks ago. Of course I chose to spend my moment baking, this is me we're talking about here :)

The dish of experimental choice was Hefeweizen Cupcakes with Fresh-Squeezed Orange Cream Icing! ...semi from scratch! Although the "buttercream frosting" was extremely drippy and runny, it set nicely in the fridge for a crunchy top layer with a huge punch of orange zest.

Apologies for the tiny pictures, I'm a Mac user now so no more Windows Live Writer :(

For the cupcakes, it couldn't have been easier! I merely followed instructions for a box of white, vanilla cupcakes (egg whites, water, etc.) and subbed a cup of Shiner Hefeweizen for the water, and then added in a few tablespoons of orange zest. That was the difference-maker.

And here is a recipe I found for the orange zest buttercream. It didn't set for some reason on my end -- perhaps I can blame that on the 100+ degree weather -- but a quick pop in the fridge did the trick.

These cupcakes were absolutely delicious! Beer cupcakes complete me :)

French Friday: My brain is fried

I promise I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth.

For the past few days and over the course of the next week, I'm knee-deep into grad school and TA orientation. During the academic year, I'll be teaching introductory French courses and pursuing a master's in French Comparative Literature (maybe modern/contemporary literature through the Italian and English departments as well).

Orientation is going very smoothly. I'm FINALLY meeting people. Foreign people. International students. Multi-lingual people. And it's making me so, ridiculously giddy. I've been speaking a strange mix of franglais (English-French hybrid). My brain doesn't even know what language to speak. I'm accidentally speaking French to the German and Spanish TAs and vise-versa.

IT.IS.AWESOME.

So, I leave you with some scenes from mon film favori: Amélie (Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain)

Enjoy!

@+ (à plus...or see you later),

Quick trips to Brazil & Sweden

Let’s talk international travel for a minute. I’ve done a bit of it myself and am highly addicted. However, I haven’t had the chance to travel nearly as much as I’d like, but it’s a start. While I am fortunate to speak French and visit family living in France, I’ve only ever been to Europe – France, Germany, Italy, Monaco, Spain and Switzerland to be exact.

 

I’d LOVE to see other continents or continue exploring new European countries one day. Anyone wealthy want to fund my journeys? I’ll let you join me! :)

While I’m out of frequent flier miles and underemployment is keeping my finances stretched thing, my travel these days is limited to culinary journeys and armchair travel. Travel Channel, you are my best friend and also my biggest enemy! At least my mental “to see” list is growing.

This summer, for example, I have been to Sweden, Brazil and the African Sahara.

For J.D.’s birthday, he REALLY wanted to go to Fogo de Chão, a Brazilian steakhouse. So we went and it was wild. Literally, I’ve never stuffed myself with so much meat in my life (that’s what she said).

 

The “salad bar” to start the meal with was exquisite. There were ridiculous aged cheeses, realllly old balsamic vinegars and the first cuts of meat we’d see all day. The veggies were crisp and fresh and I wanted to go back for seconds, but at $45 a person I was saving my appetite for the meat course(s).

Then when you’re ready, you take that little red disc and flip it over to the green side. Then you’re fair game for all the meat servers. They had about 16 different cuts and types of meats, and I felt awkwardly like I was in the middle of some foreign market. People with accents were shouting at us, trying to get us to taste their goods. At times, I felt bad turning one down in anticipation of what was coming right behind him.

But there were steaks, sausages, duck, lamb, chicken, you name it. It was all there. And on our plates. I couldn’t tell you how many times we had them come refill our plates!

And then before we knew it, we were full. I didn’t want to eat meat ever again. I wanted to become a vegetarian.

…But we all remember how I baked bacon cupcakes for his birthday. However, we couldn’t leave before the complimentary birthday dessert. Yeah, it’s not Brazilian, it’s French. But it never fails to please.

It was excessive, and delicious and wonderful. Just how a birthday smörgåsbord should be! Saved for special occasions, no doubt.

And speaking of smörgåsbords, you realize that is a Swedish word, right?! And speaking of Sweden, let’s talk IKEA. Do I really have to be so stereotypical?

Yes, yes I do. Two reasons: we made Swedish cuisine from a cookbook free from IKEA and I recently read and enjoyed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a book written by a Swede. One of my friends and I joked we’d make a drinking game for every mention of IKEA in the damn book. Clearly, he refers to it often.

On to the food. It didn’t look pretty, but it was delicious! I’ve also decided – and I can say this because J.D.’s family is Swedish – that most Swedish food doesn’t sound or look super appealing, but it’s tasty.

From the top, clockwise: coleslaw with carrots and cucumbers (vitkålssallad med gurka), baked cod (ugnsbakad gädda) and egg and cucumber baked rice. The fish is actually supposed to be stuffed with the rice, but we only had small pieces of cod and not large fillets of pike the recipe called for.

And now about the book. As I’ve already mentioned, I LOVED reading Dragon Tattoo. I’d recommend it to anyone in a heartbeat, with the caveat that it does get graphic. And bear in mind the original Swedish title is “Men Who Hate Women”, so that probably sets the tone for what you should expect when reading. I plowed through it in two days. Seriously.

And then I watched the Swedish movie version. It was horrible. It loosely followed the book and they skipped out on a lot of incredibly important details. But it was fun to watch a Swedish movie with subtitles. I still would like to see the English version which comes to theaters during Christmas. I really hope it follows the book more closely than the original Swedish version did.

While we’re on the subject of literature, I have one final recommendation for you. Read The Alchemist. It’s another book I devoured in two days that is less than 200 pages.

It mostly takes place in southern Spain and northern Africa. I think the reason I was so wrapped up in this story was due to the ongoing travel. Something my heart longs for as well. And it’s full of super cute one-liners and quotes.

The tale was so enchanting and well-written, that I was instantly transported to far away places and felt as if I were seeing many of the same scenes with my own eyes. As a lover of travel, that to me is an amazing book! The story is all about following your heart and dreams, no matter where they take you. I think that is a message anyone can support. And we shall finish full circle since the author, Paulo Coelho, hails from Brazil.

Now you understand how I’m getting my sense of travel and culture these days. Anyone care to join me?

Next time I’ll see you in Cuba, amigos!

…You know I don’t speak Spanish.

Shark Week is HERE!

Ladies and Gentlemen, in honor of SHARK WEEK, I bring you memories from college:

 

For the record: I didn’t just drink in college. I did make Dean’s List all but two quarters ;)

I also regret my hair/fashion choices circa 2006. The puka shells were a nice touch. I remember wearing red for the occasion though…

Woodstock’s Pizza (no, my dog is NOT named after the restaurant) in Isla Vista and off the campus of UC Santa Barbara used to do a special tribute for Shark Week. At the beginning of August, the place would be adorned with large inflatable hanging sharks, red streamers, big screen TVs playing Discovery Channel 24/7, and of course, $2 “Blood Buds”. Amazing.

I think the campus of UCSB had some weird infatuation with shark. Must be due to the overarching surfer culture prevalent on our little beach college. During welcome week, the first meal they served us in the dorms was shark. I opted for the pasta and salad bar instead. Looking back, I think that was a smart choice.

Seeing as how I haven’t been to the IV Woodstock’s since 2007, does anyone happen to know if Shark Week happy hour is still going on?! :)

Happy watching!

Week 30: Infused alcohol

Prior to this week, I’d never cut a pineapple. Others have done it for me and I’ve eaten pre-cut pineapple, but I never got my hands dirty while doing so. It scared me.

This week, I rolled up my sleeves and got down to business. Silly me, I didn’t even realized pineapples had seeds under their spiny skin! Fun fact for the day.

Once I had several pineapple spears, I cut them down farther and set out to infuse my own tequila. Yes, I started making pineapple tequila!

Infusing alcohol is pretty easy. Especially since luck would have me randomly purchasing small mason jars just the day before. In my quest to come up with something new, I browsed many crafty blogs and found a recipe for grapefruit vodka from Not Martha. Won over by this simple idea, I knew I could kill two birds with one stone and a.) cut my very first pineapple and b.) infuse my very first jar of alcohol!

All I did was fill the jar with pineapple spears and then topped off with lots of tequila (tequila and I aren’t really friends anyways, so why not make it taste better?). Note: When infusing alcohol, make sure to use the best quality you’ve got on hand. The fruit is only going to give it a hint of flavor, it’s not overpowering. In my case, the bf would have FLIPPED if I used all of our Patrón, so instead I went with a mélange of our remaining José Cuervo and then topped it off with Patrón ;)

As a tip for mild-flavored fruits (such as pineapple), most recipes I browsed said to leave the pineapple in the alcohol for up to two weeks. Then when ready, strain the liquid and use to your tastes.

After two days, I couldn’t wait to try it. I was so excited. So as soon as I woke up the second day, I took a spoon to my jar and tasted. What a horrendous idea that was. Even though it smelled like pineapple, it straight up tasted like tequila. I almost spat it out. Clearly it needed more time!

So four days later, I wanted to test it out in a beverage. My remaining pineapple was close to the end of its life and I honestly couldn’t wait any longer. So that pineapple tequila turned into this:

Yes, that’s a piña colada margarita! No I didn't have any mini drink umbrellas. Leave me alone for a few seconds while I pout.

Although it ended up being a lot more watery than I would have liked, the margarita tasted pretty darn delicious. And now that my curiosities have been satisfied, I still have 4/5 of the jar left to soak up more pineapple flavor. Then I can really enjoy it next week (though, who really enjoys tequila anyways?!).

Piña Colada Margarita

• 2 shots (4 oz) pineapple infused tequila
• 1/2 c fresh pineapple
• 1/2 c coconut milk
• ice to thicken up
• salt to rim the glass

Enjoy the warm weather this weekend!