I walked home, feeling really tired and sick. It was 1pm and I had 9 people coming to my house for dinner at 7pm. I had made a list, but I still had to go shopping and make all the food…and clean up the house. I was feeling super overwhelmed and I just wanted to go curl up in my bed and sleep. When I thought about biking all the way to the store and then trying to get all the groceries back in my backpack, I just couldn’t do it. So, I decided that it was the moment for me to try driving the stick shift. I hadn’t driven it since last week when Ralf showed me for the first time. So, I drove about 5 times around the block, stopping and re-starting for practice. Then I figured it was now or never, so I took as many of the back roads as possible to get to the store. My plan was to just stay in 1st or 2nd, but when another car got behind me, I felt really guilty for driving so slow, and I managed to shift into 3rd—no problem! In any case, I got to and from the store (even parking between two cars!) without stalling!!! I was shaking and my heart was racing on the way there, but on the way back I was feeling pretty good. Whew!
When I came home, I immediately put on the bread dough and made the dessert (a rich chocolate torte….aka “Austin’s Amazing Chocolate Dessert”—a recipe from my cousin’s fiancé) because it had to chill for a few hours. Then I took the dogs out for a walk because they hadn’t had a walk in a few days and they really needed one. I definitely didn’t though—I was feeling a bit woozy and would have preferred to take a nap. Oh well. When I got back, I started peeling the potatoes for gnocchi. I had originally thought that I would make lasagna, but then I couldn’t find ricotta or cottage cheese…and I didn’t really want to start substituting with cheeses I didn’t know. So, I decided on gnocchi!
I made the dough and then spooned out some of it onto the counter to knead it with a bunch of flour until it was the right texture to roll it, cut off chunks, and make them into little gnocchi.
Photo: Technically this picture is from the time I made gnocchi in Angers...but I was too busy this time to take a picture! This picture is about half as much as I made this time!!
I rolled the bread dough out and made it into pesto bread, popping it into the semi-working oven to cook for ages. Then I started cooking the gnocchi while continuing to make more of them. And then there was the salad! Needless to say, I was doing a hundred things at once and 7pm was rapidly approaching. Well, it came and went. At 7:15, Bruno showed up (with a bag of wine and other drinks) and saw that I was still covered in flour and working on dinner… he said that since he was the first one anyways, he would just come back in 20 mins or so. I was happy to agree because I knew I could get everything done faster if I wasn’t trying to entertain at the same time. At 7:30pm, when I was done with the gnocchi and finishing up the salad, Isabelle, Laureline, and Laureline’s husband showed up! Isabelle had brought me a long-stem rose, which was really fancily wrapped from the florist in town! Laureline brought be a bag with a box of chocolates and some organic green tea! I was so surprised—how sweet of them! It was good that there were three of them, so I could finish up in the kitchen before joining them to chat in the living room. Soon after, Hélène and Pablo arrived. Hélène had made the appetizers, which was really nice because I don’t think I could possibly have finished in time if I’d been making those as well! The other teachers had offered to help, but I turned them all down because I wanted to make my pesto bread and gnocchi…I guess I could have had one of them bring salad, but it wasn’t really a big deal! Soon Bruno came back with Françoise, his wife. We just sat around chatting and finally Valérie arrived! It was so fun just hanging out, drinking champagne and nibbling on veggies and dips.
Around 9pm, since Claude still hadn’t arrived, I figured that she had forgotten and decided we’d just have dinner. It went really well—the food turned out great and there was a good flow of conversation the whole time. I really enjoyed myself, despite feeling ready to collapse onto the floor and go to sleep…
Photos: Dinnertime! :)
The dessert turned out great and forgot to offer coffee, but then again, I probably wouldn’t know how to make it anyways. Too bad. We hung out until midnight and then Hélène and Valérie stayed to help me clean up. After they went home, I still had to go feed the cat at Chantal’s house. As I walked home at 12:30pm, I thought I was going to just pass out in the street. But, at the same time, I was really pleased with how well the dinner had went—and how fun it was to hang out with them all! And I had an email this evening from Claude, who apologized for forgetting--she had all her family home and there was a lot going on, so it slipped her mind. I can understand.
Today I got a letter from Chelsea, a package from Papa and my own family’s Christmas newsletter… always good to find out what one’s been doing during the year! :p
No comments:
Post a Comment