The Great Apple Pie Adventure

Last night, Serena and Tessa hosted an international soirée at their house where everyone was supposed to bring a dish from their country. After considering the possibilities of what I could bring from the United States (hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, anyone?), I decided that it would be in everyone's best interest if I brought something for dessert. I toyed with the idea of pumpkin pie, which would have been quite appropriate as autumn has arrived and Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but I thought that might be too complicated locating the right ingredients. So I decided on an apple pie instead, equally appropriate for the season as well as equally American.

Baking an apple pie, however, did not come without some minor difficulties. What I learned is that improvisaton was key. First of all, there's the issue with the pie plate. Our typical, relatively shallow American pie plate with the tilted edges is not easy to come by. Instead, I borrowed a pan from Serena and Tessa (since they live in a fully equipped house) that was slightly deeper than usual and had edges that were vertical rather than slanted. Then I had an issue finding brown sugar at Carrefour. As an alternative, I found this sugar that was in cube form, combined with some sort of sugar caramel. I figured that would be an adqeuate substitute...

So I got home and started my pie from scratch, crust and all! With the rolling pin that I also borrowed from Tessa and Serena, I got the dough ready and attempted to lay it in the round pan... it took a couple tries to keep the dough from breaking and to get it wide enough. But eventually it all got done; I got the crust finished, cut the apples, and made the yummy butter-sugar-cinnamon glaze, and stuck the pie in my mini French oven. Needless to say, I was quite impressed how it came out, considering it was the first time I had attempted to make any kind of pie in a long time.



So at our soirée, we had a bunch of different things to eat! For appetizers, we had empanadas (from Colombia) and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (from the good ole US of A). For the main course, the Italians made two types of pasta, one with a red sauce and one with tomatoes and shrimp. And for dessert, we had my apple pie and some chocolate cookies. It was great, and my pie was quite a succes! I'm gonna have to try to do some more baking during my excessive amounts of free time.

In other news, we've gotten another flatmate, who's taking the third room that was still open. His name is Benoit, and he is obviously French as well, which makes my mission to live with French people a double success! He's moved here from Tours in search of work, and he's going to start looking for a job in the restaurant industry tomorrow. The three of us get along really well, which is awesome, and I have a feeling that we're going to have a great time.

Even better news! The Bbox has been activated, which means that I have an excellent internet connection and I'm finally able to call home whenever I want! So I've spent a lot of time over the last two days calling people I haven't talked to in what seems like forever. It's really nice to know that I have this option, just so I can keep in touch with friends and family back home without having to worry about insane charges.

Tomorrow begins week number two of work... Let's go!