I don't remember seeing many catkins this time of year. The usually come out in late winter, as far as I know. But, here are some.
The almost full moon was shining in through the north window when I woke up this morning. The temperature is just under 3ºC. I'm seeing predictions of -3ºC for the weekend. Brrr! Today we plan to enjoy a warming meal of sauerkraut with smoked meats. Yum!
Tree bark, that is. I think this is a conifer in the woods over by the Artsy Organized Neighbor's road to nowhere. I like the patterns.
Not much is happening around here right now. We're making trips to the store, the post office, and wineries. And making lunch. You know, the basics. I'll head over to the market on Saturday to see if they're taking orders for turkeys. I'm doing the daily chore of emptying ashes from the wood stove, splitting wood, and building the daily fire. It's getting colder each day this week, with highs in the mid-to-low single digits (celsius). It's my turn to walk Tasha this morning. She gets impatient waiting for me to put on the cold weather gear (long johns, scarf, hat, gloves, coat, and hiking boots). She's always ready.
Just one more photo of golden leaves. Yesterday's photo was out the den window, looking northwest over a portion of the west forty. This one looks over the northeast corner of the north forty. The bare tree on the right is an ornamental cherry; it dropped all its leaves several weeks ago.
One of the weather sites that I look at each day is predicting our first below-zero temperatures later this week. No precipitation is expected. One of us will have to go out to the Saturday market to place an order for a Christmas turkey. We've decided on turkey this year, if they're available. Bird flu has reduced the poultry supply across the country, so it's probably better to go earlier rather than later.
Golden and yellow leaves are falling fast from the poplars and other trees around the area in what is likely to be the last of the autumn color show. This was the view out of the den window just a few days ago. Our maple trees out front are completely bare now as are the grape vines out back. It won't be long before the poplars are, too.
Today is Sunday, so it's a hunt day. With the still diminishing daylight hours, we have to be careful to get back home before the hunters arrive at 09h00. The sun rises this morning at 08h24. Yesterday I noticed some interesting activity out in the vineyard: two men released a pair of pheasants. They had more in the back of their vehicle, presumably to release them in other spots farther out.
We've been told over the years that pheasants are farm-raised and released into the wild for hunting season. We've seen a pheasant farm not far away, up on the banks of the Loire. This is the first time since we've lived here that I've actually seen the birds being released. I suppose the practice is meant to ensure that the wild populations are not wiped out by hunting.
On Thursday I drove over to the market in Selles-sur-Cher, about a twenty minute drive from home. There were three fish mongers, as usual. Not one of them had coques (cockles) for my linguini with white clam sauce. I did find praires, a much larger bivalve. I hesitated, both the size and the price putting me off. But, not wanting to go home empty-handed again, I gave in a bought a kilo.
I also looked for zucchini (a low-cal addition to Tasha's wet food). Again, not one of the several produce vendors had any. When I asked one, he said the season was over. Hmm. So I decided to stop into a nearby supermarket on my way home. Of course, they had zucchini. The also had coques! They were small, but sold for a price much lower than I expected to spend. So I got half a kilo.
Ken purged the shellfish in salt water with semolina for a couple of hours before we made the sauce. He sauteed minced garlic and onion in olive oil, then added white wine and the two kinds of clams, steaming them until they opened. We added a small amount of tomato sauce (left over from pizza Wednesday), making ours a pink clam sauce. After adding the cooked linguini, we served it all with chopped parsley.
As I said before, the coques were smaller than I'm used to so there wasn't much to them. The praires were bigger, but also a little tougher than the coques. In any event, it tasted fine and we ate it all. I'll look for coques again between now and the holidays.
This is the second of the two pizzas I made for lunch on Wednesday. The crust is home-made using a recipe that I've modified over the years. It takes three to four hours of rising, so it can be made in the morning and be ready for lunch.
The toppings are: a light tomato sauce (made from home-grown tomatoes and oregano), sliced pancetta, sliced button mushrooms, sheeps' cheese (Ossau-Iraty from the Basque region), and some black Greek-style olives. We gobbled down both pies with our last bottle of this year's Beaujolais nouveau. After, we had a salad of escarole with a thousand island-style dressing.
I was more or less successful in my search for coques (cockles) yesterday. Details tomorrow.
I'm venturing out this morning to find coques (cockles). They're like miniature clams and they're very tasty in a white clam sauce for pasta. It's market day in a nearby town where there are a couple (maybe three) fish mongers and where I've found coques before. I'll drive over there as soon as it gets light out.
Temperatures are predicted to stay in the single digits for the remainder of the week, possibly for the remainder of the year. The solstice is three weeks away. Winter is upon us.
