crocodiles are stuck where my wisdom teeth used to be

I've been absolutely horrible about updating. Forgive me, please.

Last night Colin, Stephanie and I cooked a very unrefined American meal for Vincent (who is now Stephanie's boyfriend), Christophe, Florient and his girlfriend, Elina (who is Russian). We made taco dip as an appetizer. Colin and I had a really tough time finding the necessary ingredients! We had to substitute mashed kidney beans for refried beans and I couldn't find green onion, but it was pretty good anyway. At least, everyone seemed to think so (besides Stephanie and I - chalk it up to cook's modesty).

For the plat, we made homemade baked macaroni and cheese, which turned out superbly. We used Emmental and Cheddar cheeses. We also took our first stab at meatloaf, which I thought was fine. Our loaf pan wouldn't fit in the toaster oven we were using, so it wasn't shaped as it usually is, but we had lots of ketchup for it and people seemed to enjoy it.

It was really a feat because we had to cook everything in my bedroom. We set up Florient's toaster oven and our electric burners on my desk and cleared all my papers to make a prep area. We only had one tiny paring knife and no cutting board, so we used the underside of the baking pan. We also had no refrigerator, but we gave the leftovers away so it wasn't too grave. The Stella Artois we bought was a bit warm, though, so it was a true unmannerly American meal, burping and all.

For desert we had originally planned to make Jell-O salad, but we couldn't find Jell-O so we decided on "worms and dirt." For all the Haribo gummy stuff you can find here (i.e., gummy fried eggs), we couldn't find worms, nor Oreo cookies, so we bought plain chocolate cookies, gummy crocodiles, and chocolate pudding to make "les crocodiles dans la boue," or "crocodiles in mud." Surprisingly, everyone LOVED it, especially Elina. It made me kind of sick. I wasn't a huge fan.

Overall, the night turned out really well. We ate at a picnic table outside our building (temperatures were still in the 60s Fahrenheit) and lit candles. We took my laptop out and set it on a scarf on the ground and listened to the Cranberries and Ben Folds.

I totally had a stomach ache afterward and remembered why we never eat that way chez Brown. Still, it was fun.

More later. A teaser: There's a chance I be in IRELAND for the week-long Toussant vacation at the end of October.

Also, excuse the lack of pictures. My camera batteries are all dead and we can't get our charger to work.