Biscotti

For many years, before we moved to France, I was in the habit of making biscotti around the holidays. Sometimes I wrapped some for gifts, other times they just sat in a tin on the counter and we ate them with coffee or tea until they were gone.

I haven't made any since we moved, but this weekend I got the urge. So, into our well-stocked pantry I went, pulled together the ingredients, and made a batch.


These have toasted walnuts rather than almonds and include finely ground hazelnuts in the batter. They came out well; I think I'll make some more!

Peace Lily

Called a faux arum voile blanche in French, the spathiphyllum/spathophylium is a lush tropical plant with deep green foliage and nice white flowers .


Ours was a gift from our friends Gerri and Phil, who offered it as a housewarming present when they visited us in August 2003, not long after we moved into this house.


It has thrived ever since, enjoying its home at the edge of an east-facing window where it gets dappled morning sun in the summer and otherwise bright indirect light. It has survived one re-potting, and Ken plans to divide it in the spring.

What's New, Pussycat ?

One day, not long ago, one of our neighborhood cats was out for a prowl (warning: there is a musical soundtrack).

Although we don't have a cat ourselves, there are cats in the 'hood. They help to keep the rodents in check. At least I hope they do. Since we don't have the dog anymore, they are more bold about coming into our yard. It's ok. Fewer mice.

My Inner European

No surprises here!

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Who's Your Inner European?

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In other news, we are having weather today. The rain started around 6:30 this morning, and there was some lightning and thunder. We have wind warnings, with gusts up to 100 kph predicted for mid-day.

Above is the carte de vigilance for today put out by Météo France. We're smack in the middle of the orange area, with high wind warnings. Gusts over 60 mph are predicted, with sustained winds around 30 mph - it all sounds more impressive in kilometers/hour. Of course, the wind will be much stronger on the coast.

We battened down the hatches before bed last night. That means that we took in our deck chairs (which we needed to do anyway for winter) and anything else that might blow around, put the car in the garage, and closed all the shutters on the house. Our storms come from the south and west, so the shutters on the west side of the house will stay closed most of the day; that's the side with the bedrooms and bathroom. One summer, during a high wind storm, we watched lawn chairs and a table blow across the yard. We're taking no chances today.

The only thing we really need to worry about is a tree limb falling into a window. With the shutters closed, I think we're pretty safe. The other pain-in-the-butt is the possibility that we'll lose power and/or phone. Power loss means no cooking (gasp!) and phone loss means no internet (double gasp!). We can always open a bottle of wine...

A Back Yard Pheasant

In our town, Sunday is the day the hunters are out doing their thing. I'm not an anti-hunting person in general, but I do think hunting is better when people will more than likely eat what they hunt. That seems to be the case here.

Hunting is allowed between September and March, one day a week, between 9:00 am and 12:30 pm, break for lunch, then again from 2:30 pm to dusk. Hunters must stay a certain distance from houses and must always shoot away from populated areas. They seem to keep to the rules pretty well around here, although we do hear the shots outside since the hunters are sometimes very close to our property.

The vineyards and wood around us are full of roe deer, rabbits, and pheasants; in fact we see these animals all the time, all year long. We've been told that some of the pheasants are actually farm raised and released into the wild for hunting season, but we don't really know if that's true; it could be.

In the 2005 season, we saw one female pheasant in our yard and she came back many times over a week or so, then she was gone. Ken got some pictures of her and this is one of them:

This female hung out briefly in our yard in December 2004.

This year, a male pheasant has been hanging around in the vineyard outside our back gate. This past Sunday, we found him in the yard. It was almost as if he was taking shelter from the hunters just outside our gate. Pheasants are really beautiful birds and although they're pretty common, I still get excited when I see one.

He stayed in the yard for more than an hour after we first noticed him. Then the wind kicked up and it started to rain, and he was gone. We hope he didn't become someone's dinner... Here's a little video of him pecking around in the yard, with some added music; the video is a bit shaky because I was zoomed to the max.

See more photos of the pheasant at Ken's blog, here.

Word Of The Week

bourriche

I like to watch cooking shows on television, not that that's a surprise to anyone that knows me. A day or so ago, while watching Eric Léautey on Cuisine TV, I noticed that he was working with oysters. This time of year, the holiday season, is oyster season. In France, oysters (les huîtres) are big food items for celebration meals, especially xmas eve and new year's eve - les réveillons in French.

In fact, Ken and I will likely get some oysters at least for new year's, as is our tradition. So, Eric was talking about buying oysters and mentioned that one should never buy them en vrac (loosely or in bulk) because they have a tendency to open and expose themselves to the air and that makes them less fresh.

Instead, he recommended that one should always buy them dans une bourriche because that way they're packed in and covered and are less likely to open. Since we have always purchased oysters the other way, I wondered what a bourriche is.

Turns out it's simply the wooden basket, with no handles but with a lid, that oysters are typically sold in. Of course, I have seen these all over wherever oysters are sold, but always just assumed that it's better to buy the tasty coquillages you could see rather than take a chance on ones packed in a box. Silly me.

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For those of you who asked for the eggplant curry recipe, it's here. You can use your favorite curry powder in place of the individual spices in the recipe, or you can mix up your own spice mix according to your taste.

Also, we didn't add potatoes; instead, we added tofu cubes toward the end of the recipe. It was great, and we'll probably try it again with potatoes one day.

Vineyard Views

A couple months after the grape harvest, the task of pruning the vines begins. I noticed a few days ago that it has started out back.

The smoke rises as workers burn the cut vines.

Rising smoke and clouds.

A November butterfly lands on the car. It's been a warm autumn.