Saturday was pizza day

It took decades, but I finally learned to make pizza crust without using a rolling pin. I stopped using the pin about a year ago and my pizza crusts are much better than they used to be. I think using the pin squished a lot of the air out of the dough, so my crusts were a little more dense than they should have been. Now they seem light and airy (but still crispy on the outside) and they're much easier to shape.

The first of two Saturday pizzas.

I topped yesterday's pizzas with our home-made tomato sauce, sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms, and grated cheese (Gouda from Holland). They were delicious and we devoured them with a cabernet sauvignon from the Pays d'Oc (southwestern France). We followed up with a green salad, then some of that peach amandine tart from Friday for dessert. Yum.

And, as we often say, that was the best lunch I had today! Well, yesterday.

Tarte amandine aux pêches

Yesterday, I made an old favorite with a twist. The original version of this tarte is made with pears. But since I had a can of peach halves in the pantry, I made it with peaches instead. It's a pretty simple recipe when using canned fruit.

Tarte amandine aux pêches.

The filling is a kind of almond paste (ground almonds, butter, flour, eggs, and sugar) that goes into a blind-baked shell. Then the peach halves get pressed into the filling and the tart is baked until the filling is done. Once the tart has cooled, I glaze the fruit with some of the peach syrup that's been reduced in the microwave. Et voilà !

Bloomin' trees

The white flowers are on a plum tree and the pink flowers are on a fruitless cherry of some kind. The plum is next door and the cherry is in our yard. We have the same kind of plum tree (that Ken planted from a pit) on the other end of our yard. It's in full bloom now as well.

Early spring colors.

These colors, along with the yellow forsythia, are showing up all around us. Out in the woods, what I think is aubépine (hawthorn) is starting to bloom, too. It's feeling like spring, but it's going to get chilly again over the weekend.

Spring is just around the corner

March can be a roller coaster of teasingly nice days and cold, blustery days of squalls, sleet, and freezing rain. We've had the nice days for about a week now. The forecast for the next week calls for low temperatures at or below freezing. We'll see about the giboulées (squalls, or as we know them, March winds and April showers).

Forsythia. The quality could be better, but I snapped the photo just before sunrise and there wasn't much light.

Meanwhile, the forsythia is blooming. So are the plum trees around us. And daffodils and hyacinth are flowering.

Castle cappers

Here are some of the roofs on the logis royal (royal residence) at Loches. Looks very castle-y. The main roof and the conical tower roof on the left are made of slate tiles. The roof over the crenelated tower looks like it's made of stone tiles.

Logis royal, Loches, September 2003.

I had a good trip to the garden center on Tuesday. All the outdoor plants looked healthy and pretty, but I wasn't there for plants. I picked up three bags of seedling soil (for the price of two!), seeds for haricots verts (green beans), haricots beurre (wax or yellow beans), tomates (tomatoes), courgettes (zucchini), and some capucines (nasturtiums)  for color. I also got a bucket of roasted horn and blood meal to add some nitrogen back into the soil. Which reminds me, I have to shovel some compost. But not yet. There's plenty of time for that.

Top 'o the wall

Another random photo from Loches. This time, a view along the western wall of the upper city. Not much to say about it, but I liked the way the wall seems to snake along on its way toward the royal gate.

Wall with moss. Loches, September 2003.

I need to go to the pharmacy this week for prescription renewals, so I'm planning to combine that errand with a stop at the nearby garden center. They're having a sale on seedling soil and seeds, and I need a few other things as we begin to prepare for this year's vegetable garden.

Good knight

While not exactly shining, this is a suit of armure (armor) that was likely worn by a soldier in the late middle ages in France. I can't be certain, of course, because I don't have a photo of the description (visible on the base in front of the knight's left foot). It stands in the Royal Residence in Loches.

A late middle ages/early renaissance suit of armor. Loches, May 2006.

I think we Americans tend to think that all those who wore armor were knights, but as the British well know, the term "knight" is bestowed as an honorific title by a monarch, and not necessarily on a soldier. In France, the term chevalier refers to both a soldier on horseback (cheval means "horse") and the honorific title of "knight." At least that's what I glean from the Wikipedia articles on the subject. Perhaps the most famous of the historical knights were les chevaliers de la table ronde, the Knights of the Round Table of Arthurian legend. Modern day knights include the likes of Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Elton John, Sir Loin of Beef, and Sir Osis of Liver. Ok, those last two are from Loony Toons.