We're having dinner out on the island (huzzah!) tomorrow night, and one of our friends there is studying for monster oral exams, so I thought I would make brownies (chocolate has been scientifically proven to make you even smarter, right?). If you know me, you know that, sad but true, I would really only ever dare to make brownies out of a box, so, out of curiosity, I went to see what the Carrefour had to offer. Lo and behold, there was one brownie mix, and a Carrefour brownie mix at that (I love all Carrefour products because they have those little poetic descriptions - this one is "Facile et Gourmand" - indeed!). So we thought we'd do a test batch tonight and only as I was opening the box did I start to wonder about a brownie pan (doh!) - but guess what? It comes with a "depliable" (unfoldable?) paper container that you can bake the brownies in. Truly! Why do we not have this in America? Are brownie pans that common?
I will not ponder these questions too long, as it is late (Mac and I just screened the intense film
La Reine Margot - 1994, Isabelle Adjani, Saint Bartholomew Day Massacred in 1572 - good Lord but people were horrible to each other - enough said). And I should have striven for better food photography, for the brownies are officially
good. I'll make another batch to take over tomorrow night. A wee moment of expat cookery.
Other news today included another teacher absent in the Maternelle, and so no pool for Iris this afternoon (but longer work days for me and Mac and that was good - good stuff happening on that front for both of us, but I'll have to regale you with it (!) another night). Here's my girl shocked (I seldom see Iris stunned, but this is it) that our little struggle in Josselin made it into the paper - recognize the poster of "Angry Parents"? It made the news! I hope that Sarkozy reads every page of
Ouest-France (ha ha - sigh).
We get to stick around a little longer in the morning, as I think the teachers are in no hurry to see us go, what with a day-long 20 kids to 1 adult ratio facing them (wonderful, wonderful women). So here's Mac reading a book to the kids in Eleanor's group. It's about an elephant telling a crocodile to ask nicely if he wants to have friends to play with. The crocodile does so and then the elephant says "I wouldn't ever play with you - crocodiles are mean!" - not the expected ending (I would have thought at least hug between the two new chums who had learned to be nice to each other) - psych! I love French kid books and their murky moral territory - lots to debate afterwards (as these kids did).
We had been unable to resist a pretty little wooden top (string-pulled!) yesterday, and so this afternoon was our chance to play with it. Mac showed us how to pull the string through and steady it enough to let it go, etc. And there's Iris taking notes and drawing diagrams (yes!) the entire time. She pretty much had it down when she got a chance to play with it (Dad finds the spinning top
lots and lots of fun). And now, to bed, to dream of religious tolerance (the Edict of Nantes! merci Henry IV) and to belatedly mark the 400th anniversary of Henry IV's assassination (May 14) - une poule au pot to you all ("A chicken in every pot" is one of Henry's phrases).
We're having dinner out on the island (huzzah!) tomorrow night, and one of our friends there is studying for monster oral exams, so I thought I would make brownies (chocolate has been scientifically proven to make you even smarter, right?). If you know me, you know that, sad but true, I would really only ever dare to make brownies out of a box, so, out of curiosity, I went to see what the Carrefour had to offer. Lo and behold, there was one brownie mix, and a Carrefour brownie mix at that (I love all Carrefour products because they have those little poetic descriptions - this one is "Facile et Gourmand" - indeed!). So we thought we'd do a test batch tonight and only as I was opening the box did I start to wonder about a brownie pan (doh!) - but guess what? It comes with a "depliable" (unfoldable?) paper container that you can bake the brownies in. Truly! Why do we not have this in America? Are brownie pans that common?
I will not ponder these questions too long, as it is late (Mac and I just screened the intense film La Reine Margot - 1994, Isabelle Adjani, Saint Bartholomew Day Massacred in 1572 - good Lord but people were horrible to each other - enough said). And I should have striven for better food photography, for the brownies are officially good. I'll make another batch to take over tomorrow night. A wee moment of expat cookery.
Other news today included another teacher absent in the Maternelle, and so no pool for Iris this afternoon (but longer work days for me and Mac and that was good - good stuff happening on that front for both of us, but I'll have to regale you with it (!) another night). Here's my girl shocked (I seldom see Iris stunned, but this is it) that our little struggle in Josselin made it into the paper - recognize the poster of "Angry Parents"? It made the news! I hope that Sarkozy reads every page of Ouest-France (ha ha - sigh).
We get to stick around a little longer in the morning, as I think the teachers are in no hurry to see us go, what with a day-long 20 kids to 1 adult ratio facing them (wonderful, wonderful women). So here's Mac reading a book to the kids in Eleanor's group. It's about an elephant telling a crocodile to ask nicely if he wants to have friends to play with. The crocodile does so and then the elephant says "I wouldn't ever play with you - crocodiles are mean!" - not the expected ending (I would have thought at least hug between the two new chums who had learned to be nice to each other) - psych! I love French kid books and their murky moral territory - lots to debate afterwards (as these kids did).
We had been unable to resist a pretty little wooden top (string-pulled!) yesterday, and so this afternoon was our chance to play with it. Mac showed us how to pull the string through and steady it enough to let it go, etc. And there's Iris taking notes and drawing diagrams (yes!) the entire time. She pretty much had it down when she got a chance to play with it (Dad finds the spinning top lots and lots of fun). And now, to bed, to dream of religious tolerance (the Edict of Nantes! merci Henry IV) and to belatedly mark the 400th anniversary of Henry IV's assassination (May 14) - une poule au pot to you all ("A chicken in every pot" is one of Henry's phrases).
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