A Taste of France - Dinner at JCCC

March 23rd 2012 - Overland Park, Kansas

Every year, the Johnson County Community College (JCCC) just south of Kansas City organizes a fundraiser for international students scholarships. The event is a dinner cooked by the culinary department of the college and the dinner is served by the international students. Each year, the theme is a different country or region of the world, and this year just happened to be France!! The food was delicious, the atmosphere really good and joyful. Each table was named after a French wine, ours was Cabernet Franc:

Amuse-Gueule

Marinated Montrachet Cheese, Olive Tapenade and Peperonata

Carrot Crème Brulée with Blood Orange Reduction and Gingered Carrots Curls

 Entrée

Warm Roquefort and Onion Tart with Baby Greens and Dijon Vinaigrette

Main course

Boeuf Bourguignon in Puff Pastry with Baby Carrots and Roasted Potatoes

 

Dessert

Chocolate Gâteau with Praline Almond Brittle, Fresh Whipped Cream and Seasonal Berries

 

 

Freshly made centerpieces...

 

The international students each introduced themselves and said a few words about their country...

Next year's theme??? A Taste of Brazil!!!

Summer in April!

Today is April 2nd and here is the temperature at 7pm:

As a contrast, seems like France is still a little cold...

St Patrick's Day Parade

Saturday March 17th in Lawrence
Every year in Lawrence (like most US cities), there is one day where everybody feels irish, wears green and goes to the downtown parade... Most of the associations of the town and its surroundings parade in green attire. The happiest of all are the children who get all the candy distributed by the people parading.

The first of the many Miss St Patrick (2012 and many previous years too!)The university even makes special t-shirts especially for the event!
The KU students party float!

Yes, even the horses are painted green:

This float wasn't green but seemed like a fun one to be on:

Spring is here

Its only the 2 first weeks of March, but the weather is beautiful, the trees are blooming and the daffodils are out... so yes, it's spring already!

Chasing cardinals

After arriving in Kansas and walking on the trails close to my appartment, I discovered that many of these beautiful birds (The Northern Cardinal) live right here in Lawrence and I have been trying to get some close up shots of them.... Much easier to do when trees don't have any leaves!

The females only have the red beak:

Since spring is here, the males are constantly chirping to get attention...

End of winter scenes

With the warm weather already showing up, I have to hurry and put up my shots of the last winter details.
These pictures were taken on the cross country course of Haskell University, a beautiful place that I found close to my place, prefect to go for a run or a walk on weekends, away from the streets and cars.

End of winter

Although I was warned about the snow and the cold, my first winter in the Midwest was not a difficult one. The only snow we had was what you see on the picture, and it only stayed for a couple days. It did get to 5-10F (-15/-13°C) (which rarely happens in France) but not for long periods of time. In contrast, I missed the extremely and unusually cold winter in Europe, it got to -20°C (-4F!) in Strasbourg, something I have never experienced myself there!

Genghis Kahn - Mongolian BBQ in Kansas City

January 2012 in Kansas City, Missouri

One of the restaurants that I found pretty special since I live in Kansas is the Mongolian restaurant in Kansas City. First you choose your food raw, it is then cooked on a huge grill using 2 wooden sticks to handle your food. In the ancient Mongolian tradition, soldiers used their swords to do so!
Here's how is looks:

First pick your vegetables,

Then your meat(s)3rd step: the sauces... hand it to the cook and he tosses it on the huge grill!Thanks Vidhu for the demonstration:

Enjoying our food...

Year of the Dragon

January 22nd 2012 in Lawrence, Kansas

To celebrate the Chinese New Year, the year of the Dragon, the Chinese Students Association organized a big event at the Lied Center. The first part was mainly performances from little kids in traditionnal chinese dresses from different minorities in the country, it was so cute and I was impressed by their talent! The Silk Road Company performed two dances: the Umbrella Dance and a Mongolian Grassland dance, so pretty. Kung Fu demonstrations and classical chinese music were also nice and the ladies presenting the evening, all from the Chinese Students Association from the Univeristy of Kansas, had beautiful dresses for the event!

No better way to end the children's part of the performance!

Umbrella Dance by the Silk Road Dance Academy

Mongolian Grassland by the Silk Road Dance AcademyDressed up to present the event

California Trip - THE END

This is it, all the pictures of our December trip are finally up!!
We ended up driving 1207 miles in just 2 1/2 weeks! Here was our itinerary:

Total : 1207 miles (1942km)!!

This was really an amazing trip, I can't believe all the beautiful sights we saw and exciting places we stopped at.
Its hard to decide which place I liked best, but the first thing that comes to my mind when someone asks me is (oddly enough?) Joshua Tree. I was impressed by those strange trees, so many of the them in the middle of nowhere and nowhere else... combined with the rocks which lit up before sunset and the atmosphere at the campground, it was incredible!
Another thing that left me a deep impression was all the wildlife we saw that I had never seen in their natural habitat or ever in real life : seals, sea otters, sealions, and even a glimpse at some whales far away!
Chris's favorites were, amongst many, walking around the incredible city of San Francisco and the amazing landscapes of Death Valley...
A trip neither of us are about to forget!