---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!