Duck

So, Steve's here.

It's been a long week of catching up and not sleeping enough, but as of right now, I'm finally officially on vacation. My students have all been so sweet, and I was surprised to be given a few gifts this week. Our house is overflowing with chocolate, and I am consistantly snacking on all of it all of the time. I'm sure things will get better in Italy...

Last night we had our own 'Christmas' here in Paris. And of course, I made duck. Or magret de canard, to be official, which is actually the breast from ducks that have been force fed to make foie gras. Doesn't that make you hungry? I've always known that duck was fatty, but I had never really realized how much fat until I started cooking these things, and they basically deep fried themselves. And there was still about a 1/4 inch of fat on them in the end. I'm not going to write out the recipe, but the duck was marinated in port and basil, then served with a port-wine reduction of figs and pears. The boys thought it was fantastic, and I did enjoy it although I couldn't eat the fat. It also could have been cooked a bit more, but it was so hard to tell under all the fat. For dessert I had picked up an assortment of pastries from Lenotre, which were all to die for. Sorry, no pictures.

We leave bright and early tomorrow for Italia, and I have to say that I have done the least amount of work preparing for this trip. We have plane tickets and a rental car, and the rest of the details are being left up to the boys (or more accurately Steve, who is talking, I mean shouting, to Antonio right now trying to figure out how to get from the airport to his house. Wish us luck).

Did I mention that when Steve first arrived on Tuesday morning at 5:30am, he was wearing a suit and speaking only in French and Japanese? He's still wearing suits, but luckily has switched to English for the time being..... I have a feeling it will be Italian soon.

Must get packing. On the menu tonight is either Indian food at the restaurant next door, or meat at Les Rendevous des Amis. Did I mention that our plane leaves at 8:00 am tomorrow? So much for sleeping in.

Ciao!