Kumbaya

So here we are, deep into the evening on Saturday. It must have been near ten o'clock, when it starts to get dark this time of year. There were rain showers on and off all afternoon, but with enough dry spells that we could enjoy being outside. The fire really helped.

From left to right: Ken, L., S., and J. I was taking the photo. That's my chair on the left.

You can see the empty bottle on the ground. But after I took the photo, I also noticed another "empty" on the table in the background. Just so you know, we did not actually sing "Kumbaya." At least, I don't remember if we did.

Yankee Fans

We attended the Halloween party on Friday night and had a terrific time. My friends Lou and Lorraine and I improvised some New York Yankee fan costumes (if you could call them that). I had just happened to bring my Yankee cap with me on the trip, and Lorraine had three player tee-shirts that we could wear.

 We are the Yankee fans.

The party was fun, mostly people from the neighborhood.  There was way too much food, of course, and most of that was Halloween themed desserts. The hosts had a party room in the basement of their house that they had set up as a disco with lights and music and a bar.

We spent most of the party on the main floor around the living room fire, around the dining room table, and crammed into the kitchen (typical party gathering spot). They also had an outdoor fireplace going next to their pool, which was heated and waiting for midnight dips. We left long before that happened.

A Very Grand Afternoon

Ken, Callie, and I were invited to fellow bloggers Jean's and Nick's holiday home for lunch on Friday. They spend their vacations about an hour south of us in a beautiful town that is built beneath a big medieval château. You can read about their adventures here.

Jean and Nick, their friend Barry, and Ken relaxing around the table.

We first met Jean and Nick this past August after having read each other's blogs for a while. Jean tells the story of finding and fitting their house in France, which they've owned now for a couple of years. We got in touch and invited them to our place for drinks and munchies in the back yard.

A slice of the rooftop views from Jean's and Nick's garden.

Their home is lovely, warm, and welcoming. Callie had a great time playing with their poodle Lulu while we feasted on salmon, veggies, and potatoes and a generous platter of cheeses. The wine flowed as freely as the conversation. And even though it was a tad on the chilly side, we really enjoyed being able to sit out on the terrace for the meal.

A view of the château from below.

Jean and Nick will be heading back to Britain at the end of the weekend, but we're looking forward to seeing them again, maybe around the New Year.

Birthday Dinner

So here's a little peek at what we had for lunch yesterday. It's our traditional steak au poivre with cognac cream sauce and french fries followed by a green salad.

The steaks are covered with crushed peppercorns.
They're pretty thick, and tied around the middle to hold their shape.

The meat is rumsteak. The cognac is actually armagnac. The cream is standard crème fraiche. :)

First the meat is marinated in pepper for an hour or two. Then it's seared in a hot pan and put to rest in a warm oven. While it's resting, the pan is de-glazed with the armagnac. Once that reduces a bit, add the cream and reduce some more. The steaks go back into the sauce to be served.

The finished steaks in the cream sauce.

This year we used green peppercorns. They have a very distinct flavor and it's a treat to use them on a steak au poivre.

Home made pumpkin pie for dessert! I grew the pumpkin myself.

That champagne glass down below is one that we got at the annual Sunnyvale Art and Wine Festival back in 1994, when we actually lived in Sunnyvale, CA. My how time flies!

A sparkling Touraine Brut was consumed during the cooking process.

It was a great birthday feast! I can't wait to do it again next year.

Bon Anniversaire !

The birthday girl.

On Sunday, Ken and I were invited to a birthday lunch given by our friend Josette. She is the woman from whom we bought our house back in 2003 and she was celebrating her eightieth birthday !

Our neighbor Bernard looks on while Josette opens birthday gifts. That one's from us.

She invited friends from her old neighborhood (most of whom we know) as well as her daughter, son-in-law, and grand-daughter. All together we were fourteen people at a local restaurant called Le Mange-Grenouille.

Son-in-law Gérard, daughter Sophie, Josette, and grand-daughter Elodie gather around an album of photos from Josette's 60th birthday party 20 years ago. That party was held at the house we now live in so we really enjoyed seeing the photos.

You can read about our lunch at Ken's blog, so I won't go into any of the details. I took along the camera and got these few shots of the festivities.

Ken, our neighbor Annick and another neighbor Bernard.

It was very thoughtful and generous of Josette to include us at her party. Even though we are foreigners and a bit of a curiosity, this little group of French people welcomed us into their neighborhood from the start and frequently include us in their celebrations.

When I hear other expats in France complain or despair about "the French," I can't help but wonder. The people we've met in and around our little hamlet are the most friendly, warm, and generous neighbors that I've ever known.

Happy Happy !

Just a couple photos of the Christmas Day fun on this New Year's Eve.

Our friend Sue in California sent this cool little dish to us this year. I'm not sure yet, but I think she probably picked it up here in France last spring when she was visiting. She's like that... It works great as a little serving dish !

Down below is the gang around the table. Janet and David brought traditional English crackers that bang when you pull them apart. Inside were these paper hats, little gifts, and little sayings resembling fortunes inside Chinese fortune cookies. This was taken just as we sat down to our dinner of turkey, stuffing, brussels sprouts, and squash purée.

Left to right: Harriet, Alfred, Ken, Janet, David.

Sorry the photo is a bit blurry, but I didn't use a flash and I had been sipping wine in advance of dinner. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

This evening we're off to see French friends Brassia and Gilles and some others that they've invited for the new year réveillon. They live about 40 minutes from us. Temperatures are predicted to be above 50ºF, so we don't have to worry about icy roads or snow on the way home, and that's a good thing. Oysters and duck are among the items on the menu.

Bonne Année ! See you next year !

Birthday Boy

Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. It's also my birthday. I made it through another year! To celebrate, I decided to post a photo of me celebrating:


Pink and green frosting, yummm! It's my third birthday party. The same year that Marylin Monroe died and Johnny Carson took over the Tonight Show on NBC from Jack Paar. Moon River by Henry Mancini won Song of the Year at the Grammys. I had to look that stuff up - I was only three.

My family lived in Tampa, FL, at the time. I do have a few vague memories of living there back then. We moved back to upstate New York the year after this photo was taken.

The original photo is a Polaroid that I scanned.

And, while I'm at it, here's a holiday angel, a.k.a. moi, taken the same year, to wish you all the best:

And, yes, that's Yogi Bear on the couch. He's smarter than the average bear, which is why he does Christmas in Florida!

Birthday dinner this year will be the same that I've had every year since my first birthday in France back in 1981: steak au poivre in a cognac/cream sauce with frites. Yum!

Couscous Party

Tuesday we hosted a couscous party for 7 in our back yard. On what was arguably the hottest day of the year (turns out that Wednesday was the hottest), we made a huge pot of stewed lamb and chicken and all the attendant vegetables, cooked merguez sausages in the oven, and steamed the semoule on top of the stove. What were we thinking?

On the left: potatoes peeled and waiting to be added. On the right, the semoule after its first steaming.

Couscous is a dish that I think originated in North Africa - Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria - and came to France with returning colonists and the immigrants from those parts. It's essentally a stew of vegetables (carrots, onions, potates, leeks, beans, turnips, squash, tomato, etc.) with lamb and chicken that is browned and stewed to make a savory broth. There are lots of spices and herbs, the main spice being raz-el-hanout, a blend of cumin, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, coriander, and cardamom. You pump up the volume with cayenne, hot paprika, saffron, and anything else that strikes you.

Two pots of stew simmering on the stove.

The stew is served over a bed of pasta grain, commonly called la semoule, a fine round pasta that is prepared in a process that includes humidifying then steaming over the simmering broth of the stew. This is accompanied by merguez (a spicy lamb sausage), chick peas that have been heated in the hot broth, and golden raisins.

The couscous is served!

The kicker and absolutely essential component of a good couscous is the harissa, a red pepper and vegetable paste that gets mixed with some broth and poured over your serving, to taste, just before you dig in.

Harriet puts some broth in a pitcher to mix with the harissa while we all watch intently.

There are as many varieties of couscous as there are people who make it, and we've been using our friend Harriet's recipe as the base of ours for close to twenty years. Harriet spent time in North Africa as a student and learned from a practiced cook.

Everybody's happy!

We set up the party table out back under the big apple tree next to our vegetable garden. Everybody lent a hand to get the food and utensils out to the table from the kitchen; with 7 people it took no time at all. We sat down to eat a little after 2 p.m. Bon appétit !

Barbecue

Last week we were invited to our friend Harriet's house for a mid-day barbecue. Alfred (Harriet's husband) fired up his new grill and laid on brochettes (kabobs) of duck, chicken, and pork. We contributed some squash from our garden, and Harriet added roasted peppers and some salads to the mix.

Brochettes and squash on the grill.

Left to right: Harriet, our current houseguest Charles-Henry, Alfred, and Ken.

It was hot, but not unpleasant in the shade of the tree out front. Sunday's high only reached 27,9ºC, far from the 33,4ºC we had when these pictures were taken.

Alfred was kind enough to take a picture with my camera so I could be in it! Here it is:

Celebrate!

Our friends Candy & John arrived today from California. We have a full house: Sue, Cheryl, Candy & John (although C&J are staying in a nearby gîte).

We celebrated with a magnum of Ruinart. Boy, was it good. There are only five glasses because one of us (no names, please) doesn't drink. It's not me...

After apéros of salmon spread on baguettes and peanutty-snacks, we sat down to a dinner of roasted duck legs, white beans, and a purée of cauliflower followed by green salad and cheese.

Dinner Party

On Friday, we hosted dinner with our houseguests, Chris and Tony from California, and neighbors, Janet and David from England. Here we are enjoying apéritifs (before dinner drinks):

L to R: Chris, Janet, David, Tony's back, Ken.

Tony, Chris, Janet.

Then it was time to eat. First, the appetizer of thinly sliced black radish with mimolette cheese, a light vinaigrette dressing and fresh chervil:

Dinner is served (coq au vin, boiled potatoes)! Followed by green salad, cheeses, and two scrumptious desserts that Janet made (a bread pudding and a chocolate fudge-like confection). L to R: Janet, David, Ken, Chris, Tony.

We stopped taking pictures as the first course was being served and concentrated on eating. Saturday night, Chris and Tony stayed with Collette while Ken and I went to a Julien Clerc concert in Tours. He did a bunch of old songs and we had a great time, although we didn't think to take the camera. Most people in the theater had their digital cameras out snapping photos the whole time.