The ghost of Christmas past

This photo is dated March 1969, but I'm not sure that's when it was taken. I don't ever remember our family's Christmas tree still being up in March. It may have been taken in December, but not developed until March. I see that there are no presents, wrapped or unwrapped, to be seen. Still, I can't rule out that the tree was actually still up in March. Lordy Moses.

The tree was obviously too tall for the room and had to be lopped off.

And, yes, that's me making my entrance down the staircase, ready, it seems, to head outdoors in the chill of an upstate New York winter.

Two pie are...

...better than one. We finished the apple tarte on Christmas Eve. I made this pumpkin pie yesterday. Again, I used sucrine squash that grew in this year's vegetable garden as a stand-in for pumpkin. And it tasted delicious.

The crust is made with butter.

I hoped you recognized the joke in this post's title. "Two pie are," or 2πr, is the formula for calculating the circumference of a circle. If I did my math right, the circumference of this pie is just over 81 centimeters or about 32 inches. Which is my waist size. Or was, before I ate those pies.

Tarte aux pommes

This one didn't turn out as pretty as most. I think I turned the heat down too early. However, while it looks a little under done, it wasn't, and we ate it up!

Tarte aux pommes.

'Tis the day after Christmas and the English have a name for it. My task for the day is to make a pumpkin pie. I was going to make it yesterday, but I was too lazy. And too full from the holiday meal. Ken has photos on his blog today (click the link on the sidebar).

A chorus line

Of Santas, of course. This tree ornament was a gift from a friend back in 1988. More precisely, a gift from the young daughter of a friend. Doing the math reveals that was thirty-five years ago. Yikes! Needless to say, said daughter has since grown up.

Happy holidays to all!

Steak au poivre

I know Ken already posted several photos of our main course on Thursday. Here's another. The steak was pretty big and it made four meals for us (two each). The sauce was a cognac cream sauce, except we used calvados (apple brandy) instead of cognac (grape brandy). The fries come from the supermarket frozen and I deep-fry them at home in peanut oil. We drank a Burgundy (pinot noir) with lunch.

We had fries with that.

Today is Christmas Eve. We can't stay up late for the traditional French réveillon meal, so we'll have ours at lunch time. And, as for many years (decades) now, we'll enjoy a fondue Savoyarde, a cheese fondue. And tomorrow, as usual, we'll have our Christmas roast beast (a capon this year) with all the trimmings followed by a pumpkin pie. After that, leftovers!

Deliciously confusing

North Americans call the first, usually smaller, dish of a meal the appetizer and the main course the entrée (which I think is completely illogical). The English say starter and main, respectively. The French say entrée and plat principal (often shortened to plat). Confused? Or just hungry?

Our first course on Thursday: céleri rémoulade et saumon fumé.

Our first course, l'entrée in French, on Thursday was a salad of grated celery root in a rémoulade sauce (mayonnaise and Dijon mustard), with a slice of smoked salmon and cracked black pepper. We didn't make the céleri rémoulade ourselves, opting instead for some made by one of our local butcher/deli shops. We stay away from supermarket versions because they're often sweetened.

Today is market day in Saint-Aignan. One of us will go into town this morning to pick up the chapon (capon) that we ordered two weeks ago. We'll roast it on Christmas Day.

Bubbly

Thursday's lunch began with a glass (or three) of our local sparkling wine, often called vin pétillant. It can't be called Champagne because it's not made in the Champagne region, but the principle is the same. The winery that makes this one is just across the river from us. Each fall, they have a special deal: buy five bottles and get one free.

A glass of local Touraine pétillant. Yum!

They make brut (dry), demi-sec (sweet), and rosé. I like the dry stuff. A little further down river from us are the regions of Vouvray and Montlouis, well-known for their sparking wines. What sets them apart from the standard local sparklers is chenin blanc, the white grape they use. Where we live, the winemakers use chardonnay in their blends for vin pétillant, as they do in the Champagne region.