Et voila......une blague (a joke)!!

Bad neighbours that we are - we hadn’t yet managed to arrange the 2nd lunch with our friends round the corner given the two batches of chums we’ve had to stay over the past couple of weeks and friends in Bordeaux we’ve visited and the vegetable patch that needs our constant attention less because there’s any more to do than watering and weeding and more to do with the fact we simply like spending time watching things come to life!

So it was that last Friday our neighbours called us on the telephone (getting lots of phone practice - although we’re not quite there - one of my sisters called the other day and began the conversation with a very well spoken ‘bonjour’ and when I responded obviously unsure as to who was on the other end she did say she heard the fear in my voice!) to let us know they were having “brochettes” (kebabs) on Tuesday (today) and invited us to join them.

So we set off today not quite sure what to expect to discover that we were only 2 of a party of 9 in total comprised of our other neighbours (the ones who gave us the 12 tomato plants) and another couple of long standing friends of our chums, (a friendship that stretches back more than 50 years) who’d heard all about the funny english couple with the chinese tractor!

We had a really lovely lunch that lasted 4 hours (Tony’s a little scarred by it this time round because he and one of our friends hadn’t gone to bed until the wee hours of the morning this morning so he was ill prepared for 4 hours of grilling (both us and the kebabs) in french!), and once again lived to tell the tale. 

Thankfully, I had the opportunity to apologise that we hadn’t had them back to ours yet and said that instead of once a week for the month of June perhaps we could do lunch once a month for the duration of the summer, which was agreed upon.

During lunch I decided to try out a joke that we’d heard not long ago which is really intended for english people who understand french and I wasn’t sure if it would work - I can now confirm it doesn’t really but we still found it amusing - it’s a play on the words used for bat (which literally translates as “bald mouse”) and mouse and in french you ask what the word for a bat with a wig is.....which is of course a mouse but as “bald mouse” just means ‘bat’ in french it doesn’t strictly work as a joke!

Last night we remembered a good friend in Cayman very fondly as we enjoyed her chili and lemon shrimp linguine - recipe below and I really can’t recommend it highly enough - it’s very straightforward and thoroughly delicious - the first time we made it we didn’t have any parmesan so we simply crumbled some feta on top for serving which was equally delicious.

You will need

1 pound tagliatelle, linguine or spaghetti

1 pound uncooked shrimp (peeled and deveined and thawed if frozen - I like to leave the tails on for aesthetic reasons but not vital)

3 lemons

1 cup parmesan

dried chili flakes (to taste - approx 1/2 - 1 tsp)

fresh bunch of parsley

fresh basil leaves

4 shallots, sliced

2 cloves garlic

1 can diced tomatoes

1 cup white wine (and 1 for the chef!)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil (I add salt and a splash of olive oil to stop the pasta sticking).

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.  While pan is heating toss the shrimp with salt, pepper and chili flakes.

Add a generous splash of olive oil to the hot pan then add shrimp in a single layer - let them sizzle until the edges go crispy without over cooking the shrimp - this won’t take long - remove the shrimp and set aside.

Add shallots and garlic to the pan and saute until translucent but not discoloured then add the large can of tomatoes and the wine - leave the mixture to reduce by half.

Add pasta of choice to the boiling water and cook until al dente.

While pasta is cooking and sauce is reducing, zest 3 lemons into a large bowl, add the parmesan, remaining olive oil, parsley, salt (about 1/2 tsp) and the juice of 2 of the lemons.  When the pasta is cooked, drain and toss with the lemon mixture.

Add shrimp and a large handful of basil to the tomato mixture - toss, check for seasoning and serve on top of the pasta with extra parsley and parmesan.

BON APETIT

Pretending to farm......in a bikini!

Whilst packing up our belongings in Cayman, I looked at my extensive bikini collection and thought “there’s really not going to be much use for these in rural France” and so picked one ‘on the off chance’ and packed the others into storage.

Well, today I can tell you that it’s literally too hot to do anything but sunbathe (33 degrees C/91 degrees F as evidenced by our thermometer pictured above, and it’s predicted to go to 37C/99F before the day is done!) - certainly too hot to sit on a tractor or pull weeds (which by the way although necessary is completely thankless - they don’t ever seem to go away no matter how much time you spend uprooting them) - and so that really only leaves the option of cowering indoors or making use of our recently acquired deckchairs and seeing if I can convince my pretend farmer husband to assemble the blow up swimming pool.

Our friends arrived yesterday (with the 5 cases of wine already mentioned) and so the girls are in bikinis enjoying the deckchairs still waiting for the swimming pool to appear which is looking unlikely given the dent in the cases of wine that was made last night and given that we only purchased 2 deckchairs so cowering indoors is what the boys have opted for.

Given that there’s no swimming pool to sun myself by, I’ve taken a break and come inside to marinade some lamb - a treat for us given I can buy 8 pieces of rack of lamb for the equivalent of 2 pieces in Cayman - this marinade is a family favourite and works equally well for legs for roasting or chops for the bbq.

I don’t measure anything out but just bear in mind you want a slightly runny paste of sorts to either cover a leg with or allow the chops to wallow in!

You will need,

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Soy Sauce (go easy on this - 1-2 tablespoons should do it)

Fresh ground black pepper

Lots of fresh rosemary - finely chopped

Garlic (as much as you like - anywhere between 2-8 cloves)

splash of vinegar - I prefer red wine or balsamic

Lots of coarse grain mustard

Mix all the ingredients together in whatever you will rest the meat in - cover the meat - leave for at least 2 hours or overnight - cook as you would normally cook the meat - we BBQ the rack or chops - just take them out an hour before cooking so that they can reach room temp so you can have them med or rare without being cold in the middle.

BON APETIT!

Attempting to live frugally

For those of you who know me - being frugal has never been a particular strength of mine however - here we are in France with no income - living off our savings and figuring out ways to ensure we make each euro stretch as far as it will go without feeling as though we’re really going without.

It’s been challenging but fun - and in the process I’ve come across some other very interesting blogs of people who have become disciplined either out of choice or necessity and are living incredibly fulfilling lives whilst ensuring that every dollar or pound or euro spent is spent wisely.

One of the suggestions I came across on another blog I’m following (got lots to read if I’m to catch up!) which is http://livingthefrugallife.blogspot.com/ is that it’s very worthwhile comparing prices - I mean actually taking pen and paper to your favourite supermarkets and comparing all the prices of the products you would usually purchase.  For those of you with children of a reading and writing age, you can actually make this into a game of sorts in order to collect your data more quickly - once you have the data, you know where you should buy certain products and you’d actually be quite surprised how much you can save in any given month by shopping wisely (I’ve been seriously astounded by the discrepency in the prices of the same product in a different store).

Many of you may already practice this and perhaps I’m behind - however, wherever Tony and I end up in the foreseeable future, I will always do my best to shop wisely - this is not just something to practice out of necessity but out of choice and where possible I’m going to choose wisely from here on in.

Words of wisdom above aside - we just met some lovely friends from Cayman in Bordeaux  this week, and tomorrow we have our friends from the UK coming over with 5 cases of wine from our “bin”.  Our “bin” is managed and stored by “Lay and Wheeler” (http://www.laywheeler.com/finewineplan.aspx), a UK company that will buy wine on your behalf or upon your instructions in order that you may build a “bin” for enjoyment or investment or a mix of the two.  It’s been a particularly good decision for us and sadly, once we settle in France we shall have to end our subscription as it really is only appropriate to pay the fees whilst in full time employment.  That said, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed not only learning about the wines but investing in a few and enjoying more than a few along the way.  The principle we’ve employed is to buy today what we might enjoy a few years down the line but probably won’t be able to afford at the time it’s ready to drink.  So far we’ve enjoyed some astounding wines that we’ve paid a fraction of the price for at the time of purchase.

Although the “bin club” is not necessarily part of one’s frugal living plan - we’ve tried to crowbar it in to our frugal living by the above justification!  In the meantime - we’ll continue to pretend to farm as we learn what we can along the way!!

“If cows weren’t meant for eating....why are they made out of steak?”

This is a quote from a good friend and it got me to thinking.  I am a meat eater but I have many good friends who chose not to eat meat.  I have done a fair amount of research into the pros and cons from a health angle and also from a socially responsible angle.  The health benefits of eating a plant based diet are enormous BUT that’s only if the plants you can get your hands on haven’t been genetically modified and where appropriate have been allowed to ripen on the vine as it were.

Coming from the Cayman Islands, I would say there’s a very fine line between the health benefits of eating the produce that is shipped in there - if one only shops and eats from the farmers market that’s one thing but if one is supplementing ones veggies from those that have been mass produced and shipped in to the Island I would offer that meat is an equally healthy alternative.  

Decision made?  Not quite.......I now have to disagree with the above considering the majority of the meat that is brought in to the Island is from the US, and I would hazard a guess that certainly where beef is concerned much of it comes to us from cows who live their lives on what is called a “CAFO” (a concentrated animal feeding operation) or at the very least an “AFO” (animal feeding operation) and rarely if ever sees grass so I’m back to  voting for the veggies.  Shockingly, there are now 257,000  AFO’s in the US of which 15,500 meet the criteria for being designated CAFO’s.  One of these CAFO’s was responsible for one of the biggest environmental spills in US history (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_Animal_Feeding_Operations).  There are many sources for further reading on the subject - I’ll end the CAFO lesson there in the hopes that today’s blog won’t get too dull!

This brings me to France where I am surrounded by happy cows in fields (the photo above was taken from a field next door to ours).  This is the way a cow was meant to spend its life before ending up on my plate (steak tartare recently enjoyed pictured below)!

This is also the only way to stop the spread of e-coli and stop the damage to rivers and lakes and fields from the toxic manure that is produced as a result of keeping animals in such high concentration and feeding them only what they were not made to eat and therefore supplementing them with drugs to keep them “healthy”!  In France, I feel a balanced diet to include meat is an equally healthy option (and good luck trying to last as a vegetarian in rural France anyway - you will be met with incredulity and horror equal to that in the scene from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”!!).

In France (and possibly many other places), we still have chicken breeds with genes resistant to salmonella which I find absolutely fascinating - obviously breeds that have not been genetically modified and possibly fed a diet suitable to a chicken and not suitable to us and our purses and our greed and our seemingly endless quest for quantity over quality to the detriment of ourselves and our fellow man.

So, our plan is still to keep chickens and while we find our salmonella resistant chickens (so that I can make a chocolate mousse with raw egg and feed it to young children and older adults!!), I shall continue to enjoy a slice of the happy cow that occasionally ends up on my plate!

NOTE:  Seed Savers Exchange (mentioned in a previous blog) has an article coming out in next month’s National Geographic - makes for interesting reading (if any of this is remotely interesting to you!) - check it on the following link  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/siebert-text?utm_source=Summer+2011+Enewsletter&utm_campaign=5e9b7c920e-MembershipCampaign04122011&utm_medium=email&mc_cid=5e9b7c920e&mc_eid=d773b87111

Mon Anniversaire! Bon Anniversaire!

Well, today I’m another year older which as anyone who’s getting older will appreciate is not necessarily something to celebrate.......unless......you receive beautiful flowers by delivery and get taken for steak tartare by your husband! :)  21st June is also a celebration in France - at least in this area - it's called "Fete de la Musique" - a celebration of the summer solstice so I really do feel spoiled - everywhere I turn there's a fete today - just for me!!!

The flowers are stunning (photo above) and were sent by my father - the only glitch was that the nearest town with an Interflora didn’t know where we were so ‘quelle horreur’ I had to answer my phone in France which had a real french person (quelle surprise) on the other end wanting directions (in french) to our home - I muddled through and now have a beautiful bouquet to admire!  The very gracious french lady that delivered the flowers said the directions were ‘parfait’ - as I’ve already mentioned, the french are very gracious!

I have also received notification that I am soon to be the proud owner of the most beautiful purple (“prune” on french amazon where it was ordered from) Kitchenaid mixer from Tony which I’ve been hankering after for some time not thinking that I’d ever actually own it because for some reason “prune” coloured kitchenaid mixers are far more expensive than any other colour - but here I am the (soon to be) proud owner of a prune coloured mixer - when it arrives, I see the garden having to do without my weeding skills as I shall have to spend quite alot more time in the kitchen!

Birthdays are also a time to reflect on how blessed we truly are - I’ve received the most wonderful array of messages via snail mail, facebook, e-mail, phone and text (thank you to everyone for turning another good day into a truly spectacular day) - it really does detract one from the thought that you’re getting older and instead focuses one on the fact that we’re all phenomenally blessed - I personally feel that way because I woke up today with my health pretty well intact and a circle of chums in different parts of the globe all hopefully raising a glass in my direction!  Rest assured I’m raising one right back and wishing you all “sante” (health) as they say over here.

Ridding ourselves of the threat of vipers

Vipers are quite prevalent in this part of the world especially at this time of year - to the extent that the local pharmacies all stock the anti venom which is available to buy to have on hand if you think you may need it.  The pharmacies here are really very good in that they do tend to stock the appropriate drugs depending on the time of year - a little later in the year they will have posters about which mushrooms are safe to cook and which ones will kill you!  Interestingly the “trompette de la mort” mushroom literally translated as the “trumpet of death” mushroom is perfectly edible and quite delicious if you like a nutty flavour to your mushrooms!!

We had a large pile of stones (pictured above) in the courtyard from when we had some work done on the piggery, and, given that snakes like long grass or perhaps piles of stones to curl up and sleep in, we decided we’d remove them from the courtyard and replace the threat of snakes with the new 10 foot blow up swimming pool we bought for the imminent arrival of our nieces (notwithstanding the fact that we’d like to fill it before the imminent hose pipe ban is imposed).

The initial plan (pre tractor days) had been to load the stones onto the wheelbarrow by hand and cart them off - today was a great day for tractor appreciation as we realised we could not only remove the threat of snakes to us in the removal of the stones, we could also remove the stones in half the time!  And so, at 9.30pm while it’s still light after a beautifully sunny day, I am typing this in my stone and viper free courtyard!

Whilst working in the garden today we noticed that presumably due to the early hot summer, we’ve already got many figs on the tree (photo above) which is exciting especially as I made my very last clafoutis from our very own cherries on Saturday and so will be looking for a replacement fruit for future pies!

Easy Clafoutis recipe - depending on time of year replace fresh cherries & almonds with fresh (chopped) figs & walnuts etc....

Serves 6 - you need a 9x9 or 10x7(ish) baking tray

You will need...

2 cups of fresh cherries, pitted

2 tablespoons of slivered almonds, roasted (pop in a frying pan and shake until nicely browned)

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 cup of all purpose flour, sifted

1/8 teaspoon salt (optional)

1 cup whole milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Icing/Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 220/350 - butter the baking dish - toss in the cherries and roasted slivered almonds

Whisk the eggs, sugars, (salt if using) and flour together until smooth.

Add the milk and vanilla extract.  Whisk until smooth and pour into the baking dish on top of the cherries and almonds.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until lightly browned.  Expect it to deflate a little while cooling - dust with icing/powdered sugar and serve with “creme anglaise” (custard)

Bon Apetit!

From pretending to farm to pretending to golf!

We’ve just said goodbye to our first visitors which was very sad - we’ve had a wonderful 3 days with some friends travelling through France on their way back to their home in Luxembourg, one of whom recently got his hunting license and so introduced us to our local “Chasse Peche” (hunting/fishing) shop full of everything one would need to either hunt wild boar or fish for whatever one fishes for!!

Tony has quite the collection of camouflage and so the obvious choice of gun for Tony should he ever wish to take up hunting would surely be the camouflage gun pictured above - that said when I pointed it out to Tony he did point out that it would be rather frustrating were you to put the gun down anywhere in the forest - it would be incredibly difficult to find - surely not a good thing if there was a wild boar coming your way - besides, although we’re told the wild boar are phenomenally intelligent, I’m not sure the intelligence stretches as far as the need for camouflaging the weapon that’s going to take the boar from the forest to the dinner table!

Also on our travels we discovered the local public golf course only 40 mins away, so as we were experiencing a little wet weather meaning we could take a conscience free break from watering the copious crops back at home, we decided to leave the farm behind and become golfers for the day.  One of our friends happens to be a very keen and also very good golfer so after giving us a few pointers, he took himself off for a round of golf and we stayed behind on the driving range to discover that Tony’s really quite good and should probably take it up - we’re just not sure that works too well with the peasant farmer image we’re trying to cultivate with our crops!

In all our “visiting” excitement, we have not managed to have our next lunch with the neighbours yet which we’ll try and squeeze in this week although we’re also meeting friends in Bordeaux on Thursday and then have our next visitors arriving on Saturday which we’re very much looking forward to - it seems the season has begun and we’ll be juggling farm life with the high life for the foreseeable future.

I’ve found a lovely beef bourguignone recipe from Ina Garten who is usually foolproof and given my recent batch of imperfect jam I’m all for anything foolproof!  So will probably try this out on the neighbours and hope for the best!  We also owe the butcher and his wife a meal and I’ve promised to give them a call (yes - on the terrifying telephone!) so will see what comes of that.

Last night we tried an old Delia Smith favourite which I’ve posted below if looking for an easy yet tasty appetiser or main course for a light lunch served with lots of crusty french bread and a salad....

Roasted red peppers with anchovies and basil

(Serves 4 - preheat oven to 200ish/400ish - depending on nationality of oven)

You will need..

2 red peppers (cut through the stalk down the middle - keep the stalk on it helps keep the peppers together - remove seeds etc.)

2 plum tomatoes (place in boiling water for 30-60 seconds - remove and peel the skin), quartered lengthways

2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped

1-2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

fresh ground black pepper

chopped fresh basil

Place prepared pepper halves on a baking tray (lined with foil for ease of cleanup)

sprinkle chopped anchovies and garlic slices inside the peppers

place 2 tomato quarters tucked inside each pepper half (one on each side)

Add some fresh ground black pepper (you shouldn’t need any salt because of the anchovies)

Add a tablespoon of olive oil to each pepper half

Put into the oven for 35-45 mins or until semi collapsed and a little black around the edges

Serve immediately with chopped fresh basil liberally sprinkled over the peppers and lots of crusty french bread

BON APETIT!

Afraid of our vegetables!

We woke up this morning to discover that literally overnight the batch of yellow courgette seeds has not only germinated but almost grown up - we were concerned enough to wonder if they might nip at our ankles as we came down the stairs this morning that’s how fast their progress seems to be - I wouldn’t be surprised if we had courgettes for the bbq by this evening (thinly sliced with a little salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice - yum)!  I’ve posted a photo above of both the yellow courgettes and the regular ones which in comparison do seem to be lagging despite both being planted at the same time.  We’ve put them next to each other in the hopes that might encourage some competition!

We’re both so impressed and humbled to be surrounded by so much life - it really is fascinating.  Last week, I had planted the gladioli bulbs my mother had very kindly given us (50 in all) and already we’ve got about 5 of them peeking through with the others fast behind I’m sure.  In addition, I have sown about 50 assorted sunflower seeds along one of the borders - this was only done less than a week ago and already a few dozen of them have poked their way through our nitrogen rich soil!  I cannot wait to see that border in bloom and will be sure to take photos as much to keep evidence as to whether you really can have too much of a good thing because I think I may have overdone that particular border in my eagerness to have a profusion of pretty sunflowers to see us through the summer.

The sunflower seeds used came with us from Cayman, ordered from the “Seed Savers Exchange” catalogue.  This is an organisation we became members of a few years ago and one we both thoroughly approve of despite being a little in awe of the people behind it all.  In awe of them because these are people who have been “saving seeds” for generations - people who are standing firm against the monsters who want to genetically modify everything and then have you buy the “drugs” for your plants because the genetically modified version doesn’t withstand normal weather conditions and the ‘creepy crawlies’ one should expect and sometimes even encourage in ones garden - essentially, people we want to become one day!  If in the market for interesting seeds brought from Bavaria to the United States in 1870 or want to read some fascinating stories of seeds discovered and subsequently saved from the gizzards of a duck - check them out at www.seedsavers.org.

We woke up to rain this morning and as a result of the hot dry months that preceeded our return to France, we’re very close to having a hose pipe ban imposed in this area, so we were thrilled that the plants were getting lots of water the way God intended!  However, this reaction was very quickly followed by disappointment as we remembered we have our first guests arriving later today and so of course wanting our cake and wanting to eat it too, we are in the process of praying for a morning of rain to keep the plants happy followed by an afternoon of sunshine to keep the guests happy!  And if all else fails, I have some lamb (marinading in olive oil, soy sauce, garlic, dijon mustard and rosemary) and we have a few cases of wine and the french version of Scrabble to keep us all amused!!

Today’s “remorque”-able experience

une remorque = a trailer

We are now the proud owners of a lovely big trailer which means we can not only buy big things if need be (and I’m told there’s bound to be a need!) but we can also do our own trips to the dump (those Caymanian friends reading this will be so impressed with the french dump system - no Mount Trashmore here AND remarkably, a friendly and efficient person who helps you unload all your ‘dumpable’ stuff into the appropriate dumpster - 1 for each type of item from styrofoam to porcelain to cardboard and so on!).  I am jolly pleased with this development given my recent discovery that there is a whole section of the barn Tony has dedicated to accumulating things he may one day need (broken lights, an old bidet we removed from the house a few years ago, copious quantities of boxes, things discovered in the attic.....) - I’ve discovered my pretend farmer husband is quite the hoarder which is terrifying to discover given the amount of space we now have in which he can hoard stuff!

For those foodies following our antics, we just tried another recipe spotted online the other day after having found some lovely chorizo in one of the markets - takes minutes to prepare and is quite delicious - serve with toothpicks and bread for dipping.

You will need......

2 dozen slices of good quality chorizo - as spicy as you like!

2 dozen uncooked shrimp (peeled & washed, can leave tails on or off)

2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

small can of tomatoes or good quality ragu

generous splash of olive oil
Healthy handful of chopped fresh parsley

Heat the olive oil on a med-low heat in a medium saucepan or frying pan

Add the chorizo until the oil has discoloured slightly and the chorizo warmed through - add the garlic - saute for a few minutes - add the shrimp - toss well for 5 minutes until the shrimp has turned pink and then add the tomatoes or ragu - stir while simmering for a couple of minutes, shower generously with the parsley and serve.