Why I probably won't be posting about food...

by Liz

I've never been very successful in the kitchen. My skills are pretty limited to things like using a toaster and boiling water. I certainly have tried but it always goes horribly wrong. I'd like to take you back to my elementary school days with an example of how it all started...

My friends Caroline and Beth come from a family that cooks all of its meals. They all would wake up bright and early before school and bake muffins. Breakfast in my house usually consisted of me eating whatever leftovers were in the fridge from the night before (mind you I also don't really like most breakfast foods but that's another story). Needless to say, these girls like to bake and I really like cookies, so it was a friendship destined for great things.

Our afternoon started off with the grand idea to make a batch of cookies based on the recipe on the back of the Toll House chocolate chip bag.

The recipe yielded more cookies than we wanted to make, so our first misstep was deciding to halve the recipe. I'm still not sure why I didn't protest this, who in their right mind would only make a half batch of cookies?

Guess what happens during all the excitement of baking cookies? You forget to halve the measurement of sugar. Oops.


I have a big sweet tooth, which I think I inherited from my father. We used to eat heaping bowls of Breyer's ice cream every night while watching Inspector Gadget. I know no limits.

So guess what happens when you have no portion control when it comes to cookies?

You eat WAY too many cookies.

Then on your walk home, you get ill.

Very, very ill.

In a sewage drain in the middle of your neighborhood where lots of people can see you.

My name is Liz and I have a cookie problem, nice to meet you.

So this, my friends, is where it all began. Maybe all the wonderful recipes and tasty looking food on this blog will inspire me but for now I think I will leave it to Emi, Emily, and Natalie, who are much more talented than I in the kitchen.

If you are a big risk taker and would like to try this very "complicated" recipe for the Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies, head on over here. Please remember to check all measurements before adding ingredients to the mixing bowl. Good luck!

One of my favorite memories in Paris was the day that Melissa and I went to Montmartre. Atop Montmartre sits the beautiful and unique Sacre Coeur, which is an amazing church at the highest point in Paris. After climbing up the many, many stairs to see the church and awesome view of Paris, we walked around Montmartre. There we found one of the many similiar, yet no less exciting, streets lined with food shops. We decided to pick up a snack and stopped at a little cheese shop, where we bought some cheese aux poivre and a camembert which we were told was "Tre Forte!" (the camembert was pretty forte, and it proceeded to get stronger on the trip back to London. Melissa's father ate it a day or two later for breakfast, and it positively reeked! Normally you would think it's because the cheese went bad without refrigeration, but French cheese is unpasteurized so it doesn't need to be kept cold. It was just seriously stinky, but tasted good none the less.). We also stopped to get some pain au chocolat, brioche avec sucre, dark chocolate covered orange peels, and a 3,50 Euro bottle of red wine with a screw top (because we didn't have a bottle opener) at the French wine chain, Nicolas. We found a serene little spot in a small park that lined the middle of a street in Montmartre, and sat down to enjoy our little "French" feast. Afterward we realized we had chosen a street that was was home to a large number of sex shops, which definitely explained some of the weird looks and the maybe sarcastic "Bon Apetite!" we received. It was still delicious never the less.

I think weird little memories like this are what make trips fun and exciting. I like not knowing where I am, and exploring some place new on foot. I hope Natalie and Ryan will have some good stories to tell. Knowing Ryan I know there will be.