Stuffed

Ken made stuffed zucchini for our lunch on Sunday. He started by steaming three of the larger squashes to soften them up. Then he hollowed them out.

Stuffed squash ready for the oven.

He made the stuffing with the squash from the center, some sausage meat we had in the freezer, some diced carrots and tomatoes, parsley, red pepper flakes, some cooked millet, and egg to bind it all. Once the squash boats were stuffed, they went into the oven for about an hour to finish cooking.

A section sliced through the baked stuffed squash.

After, I felt like we needed dessert, so I used a bunch of the "dead bread" that we have in the refrigerator to make a bread pudding. I call it "dead bread" because it's stale, left-over bits and pieces of baguettes that we use for making bread crumbs and puddings.

The bread pudding, dotted with butter, ready for the oven.

The recipe came right out of the Joy of Cooking. It's made with milk, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and nutmeg. We had a few ripening peaches from our neighbor's yard in the kitchen, so Ken cut them up and I added them to the pudding.

The finished pudding.

It baked in a bain-marie (water bath) for about forty-five minutes. A lovely dessert, a bit rustic, but great with local gamay red.

Our neighbors' family out for an after meal break.

Also on Sunday, our neighbors across the street had a big family event. It was in celebration of the christening of one of their numerous grandchildren. There were at least fifteen cars parked over there. After the meal, many of the kids and grand-kids and friends walked out into the vineyard to stretch their legs, smoke cigarettes, and play boules.

I was amazed to see how many of them carried their own set of boules for the game. And you won't believe how many times I had to re-write that sentence so it wouldn't sound funny; I'm not sure I succeeded.