Nicky and Nadia's Wedding in Pointe aux Barques

Dori's cross-stitched kitchen towels

What a wonderful surprise! The postman brought me these lovely kitchen towels from Dori, with whom I went to school in Herzogenbuchsee, and who lives in Beatenberg, above the lake of Thun.

She has sent me some pictures of her garden too and the view from her kitchen window onto Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau.

Roast Vegetables

Eggplant, zucchini and peppers are very reasonable right now, and I still have loads of home-grown sweet onions, so I make huge platters of roast vegetables and freeze them for use in the winter.

(See page 40 in my book Wild Garlic)

My Compost

I decided to dig down into my compost and use that soil for the broccoli I am going to sow.
What I found out is that peanut shells, surprisingly, do NOT decompose, nor do pits of peaches, apricots etc. Less surprisingly nails, plastic, bits of crockery, moules shells and snail houses
were prevalent and intact.

After putting the soil through a sieve, I ended up with this:

---and more blackberries!

--

I have found a new spot, unbelievable! With the help of the secateur I whacked my way into it and it's like finding a gold vein.

Katrin, David and Harry-

-have come down for a surprise visit. We are feasting on grilled beef ribs, grilled corn on the cob, baked beets and green beans.

---and even prettier with RED radishes!

Cucumber and white radish salad

It is suddenly hot again. When I went shopping this morning my eyes were drawn to the cucumbers. It is not surprising that "cool as a cucumber" has entered our language. I forthwith decided to make a cucumber and white radish salad. It makes you feel cool just to look at it.

and now the Blackberry Jam

Pushing the cooked berries through the passe-vite

The Bubbling Juice>>

The Finished Product>

---and more tomatoes!

I have picked another 5 kilos today and am making pasta sauce again (page 17 in the Wild Garlic book). The whole house is imbued with the odor of simmering onions and tomatoes. Even the people renting the little house commented on the delicious smell wafting towards them. Last night I made maccheroni and used some of the sauce. Instead of parmesan I used grated Emmental; it was a scrumptious comfort meal. Just what I needed in the aftermath of the horrible news that Tom-Tom Jacomini and his lovely young family perished in a plane crash.

Blackberries

The blackberry season has started. With a little more rain we should get a bumper crop. This is the only good news today. Well, Harry is back home recovering from his delicate knee operation, so that is good too. BUT: the switch of the skimmer action in the swimming pool has given up its spirit, and this being Saturday I won't get anybody to replace it before Monday. Plus the cesspool in the little house is rebelling, having had eight people using it for a week.I have put every kind of remedial stuff into the WCs and there is a slight improvement.

I also discovered that the clothes line next door is broken and so far I haven't been able to get it back up.

And Trilby managed to jump from the big fig tree onto the window sill in the livingroom. Since I put a screen in I don't want to have the cats using that entry. It's quite easy to get onto the sill, but Trilby having only three legs, he wasn't able to hop back. I left him complaining and yowling for 2 1/2 hours before I relented and tore the screen to let him in. I do hope this will discourage him from repeating that little manoeuvre.

My "souches" provision

When Charlie Gregson was here, he helped me get in some "souches", dried grape vines.

They are wonderful for starting a fire in the fireplace, for rekindling it when it has almost gone out and ideal for using in the barbecue grill. They emit a special woodsy, grapey smell and are in great demand. Now every time I take Tess for a walk near the Eglisette we collect a few "pieds de vigne". By December I figure we will be in great shape to face the winter.

Gougere misery

For John Thackara's surprise birthday party I planned to make cheese gougeres (see my blog entry July 20). All went swimmingly,I beat the bejeezus into the flour/butter/water mixture, added an egg, beat as above, another egg, a third egg----and the forth egg was BAD! And I mean BAD, black and so smelly, I gagged. I had to throw the whole lot out and start anew.


The moral of the story:

Slip each egg into a cup before adding it to the mixture, especially in this very hot weather.

An interesting comment from Debra: in the Jewish kitchen all eggs are examined before use, in case there is a little blood in them.

First of August 2008

Today's tomato crop. I had better get busy making pasta sauce.
Andrea arrived on Thursday with Evelina who brought a gorgeous standing rib roast. Their respective husbands got here yesterday and we had two ribs for dinner. Scrumptious!

Second key to my Renault Megane

Discussing parking at the airport with a friend the other day, she mentioned how important it was to know where the second key to one's car was. Hmmm, yes.
When I got home I started searching. No success. So decided to go to the big Renault garage and order another key. The guy tapped on his computer furiously, went to look at the car, the car registration, tapped some more on his computer and then said:o.k., but you have to pay in advance. Aha! Combien? 150 Euros.
That sent me promptly back to search some more. Amazing how motivated one gets when that sort of a sum is involved, And I FOUND IT! I had tucked it away into a little drawer in my desk to which I can only accede after I clean up stashes and stashes of papers. So I feel like I have made 150 Euros!

red crabapple and nefle jelly

Since the success of the nefle jam I feel inspired and today I made red crabapple and nefle jelly. Not only is it pretty to look at, but is delicious.

In the meantime Jesper and Bjarne are working in the hot sun in order to finish painting the wrought iron gate before their early departure tomorrow morning!

stacking wood

I had 6 steres of chene vert (holm oak) delivered! Fortunately I also had a team to stack it!

nefle jam

Thirty years ago I had an Italian lady help me in house and garden. One day she brought me a little pot with a little plant in it. "This is going to be big tree, a nefle tree," she said. It had very shiny dark leaves.
Today it stands about 12 meters high and produces nefles (medlar in English). They taste so-so, but being orange colored, like apricots, I figure they are full of anti-oxidants.
The other day my neighbor asked if I ever made jam with them. Well, I hadn't, but upon his recommendation I did and it is just delicious, much better than the raw fruit would suggest.
It has got to be the most labor-intensive and most exclusive jam ever. First you have to peel the fruit, then chop up the flesh carefully so as not to cut into the big seeds which are bitter. I put 275g of sugar into 500g of nefles, added a teaspoon of lemon juice and a couple of gratings of lemon zeste.Boil until it sets and pour into sterilized jars. The few jars that I have are going to make a very special Christmas present.

gougeres

Gougeres I made for Kristi's dinner party

Gougeres are a specialty from Burgundy and I have just discovered what versatile things they are:

You can add cheese,fried onions,shrimp paste or herbs to the dough; they are pretty, delicious and once you get the hang of them, very quickly made.

Here goes:

Heat the oven to 210 C.
Get everything ready.
Weigh 100g of butter
150g of cake flour
150g of coarsely grated cheese,ripe cheddar or manchego
Measure 2.5 dl of water
Add 1 level teaspoon of salt, 1/4 of a teaspoon of ground pepper and some grated nutmeg to the flour
Have 4 medium eggs handy (taken out of the refrigerator beforehand)
Get the eggbeater ready
Line a cooky sheet with grease proof paper
Now pour the water into a saucepan, add the butter and let come to a boil. As soon as the butter is melted add the flour mixture in one fell swoop, take off the heat and beat hard (I use the egg beater). Wait a couple of minutes, then add one egg at a time and beat furiously in between. When you have added the last egg the dough should be glistening and come off the side of the pan. It must hold its shape.If it doesn't the eggs may have been too large, add a little flour.
Add the cheese (or the fried onions or anything you fancy) and with a teaspoon make little mounds on the cooky sheet.

Place in the oven and insert a wooden spoon to keep the oven open a crack for the first 6 minutes. Close the oven and lower the temperature to 180. Keep an eye on the gougeres and when they are golden brown, turn the oven off and insert the wooden spoon again. Don't take the gougeres out for at least 20 minutes.
Bon appetit!

If you are a perfectionist, use a pastry gun and brush the gougeres with egg yolk.

Rain, rain, go away....

Ulla brought heavy rain from Denmark and this is what Feisty and Trilby thought of it:

Monday blues

Last night there were eleven of us for dinner and tonight I'm alone. Katrin and David left at 4:30.
It was a major logistical problem to get everyone to their point of departure: fortunately Jean-Claude had to make an early run to the Montpellier station and was able to take John Gadney with him. Jesper and family had a small space for Rick. Andrea drove Chrish to the airport and made it back just in time for her, husband Brock and Lottie to get in the car with Jean-Claude again, racing in the red urgence car to catch a plane for Gatwick and Paris respectively. In the meantime, with no car being available, Pia had to be taxied to Nimes.
The cats can't believe the quiet and start strutting around the house: ha, we showed them!

Departures

And so it goes! Nicky and Nadia have to catch an early plane in Marseille. My Swiss friends and relations, Marc and Meisi, Hans, Theres and Ruth, Hubert and Marianne start their leisurely trip back to Switzerland. John-B and family plus dogs pile into their huge Landrover, direction Champery, and I take the Swiss band to Nimes to catch the TGV .
We are feasting on left-over lamb and pork. David undertakes the arduous task of bringing the tables and benches back, all the men give a hand to move the furniture back into the musicroom.
There is a moment of panic when we hear about the forth-coming railroad strike, but SNCF assures us that all the trains will be running normally until Monday evening.

The Party!

D-day minus 1

Everybody is going to the marche. The fridges are already bursting, but we shove more cheese, more sausages, more olives into them.

In the afternoon Andrea and daughter Lottie (having just flown in with Brock, her dad) are mysteriously busy at Danielle's.

We make a final decision: it is too cold outside, so Katrin and David are in charge of moving sofas, chairs and tables out of the music room, ably helped by everybody.

June 5th, 2008

And so the big day is here, I am 80.
When I was young I thought 80 was out there, in the stratosphere, but now I am quite comfortable with the fact.

My daughters make a fabulous dinner:mixed salad for starters, then monkfish and scallops in a creamy saffron (thank you so much, Rick, for the luscious Spanish saffron) sauce on Basmati.
We had to move the big table under cover, the sky was threatening .
Rick got here from Marbella, Daniel from Budapest, Jesper, Mette and daughters Emilie and Cathrine from Copenhagen, Christine and Arnold from California, Pia from Goa. John-B and Juliet drove through the gate just in time,with children Atlanta, Katarina and Jonty, accompanied by Archie, the St. Bernard, and River, the Labrador.
As we savored strawberries and cream on Katrin-made meringues, I opened a plethora of presents, embarrassing. Our sadly missed Katrina outdid herself: she made an oil painting of Trilby, my cherished three-legged cat.

-and now into high gear for Saturday's big party

David and Katrin have gone to get the tables and benches at the Isis camping in St. Julien, then more tables at the Mairie in Moules. It tuns out that the measurements I was given are wrong. We have to replan the seating arrangements. Katrin has painted flat river pebbles with the names of all the family and guests, lovely!

Monday

Still very cool and damp.

---they start arriving!

Chrish (from Washington D.C.),Pia (from Goa), Harry (from Taos), Andrea (from Kent). The salad in the garden and the 3 liters of salad dressing I made (Wild Garlic, page 124) are fast disappearing.
Katrin says we need another table cloth ( number 7---)for the big party on Saturday. I start hemming.