Candes Saint-Martin, my favourite spot in La Touraine.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

Spuds


There are two things I loathe about cooking. The first one is cleaning up afterwards – fortunately I have a dishwasher, which does most of the work, leaving me with just the crystal glasses (when or if I use them), the cast iron pots and pans, the chicken brick to wash and the stove and kitchen top to clean. 

The second is peeling potatoes. Especially when the potatoes are of mediocre quality.


The potatoes in this photo may look fine. I bought them last Friday at our local supermarket. Their skin is nice and shiny and they are firm to the touch. They don’t show any signs of rot or other flaws. However, when I started peeling them, big black bruises showed up under skin. And they weren’t just some superficial bruises. No, they were deep and omnipresent. I ended up cutting half of the flesh away on three potatoes and throwing out two. What a waste!
They are fast cooking potatoes containing a lot of starch, making them perfect to make a ‘purée' or  mash. The mash, after I was finished with it, adding warm milk, a generous slice of Irish butter (“… the Kerrygold butter that’s so full of cream – remember this song from the TV commercial from the seventies?) and a dash of freshly grated nutmeg was creamy and spicy. The perfect topping for my ‘tranche Napolitaine’, which btw has nothing to do with ice cream! 


Monday, 5 November 2012

A new kid in town and a ‘Channel Rat’


I’ve just survived the busiest week ever … except perhaps for the weeks preceding my move in March 2011. Let me give you a quick overview. 

It started on Sunday – a week ago - with lunch at my cousin’s. Next came three hectic days at work, which totally stressed me out due to the very tight deadlines I was given. Moreover, I needed to take Wednesday afternoon off to make the mandatory tour of our cemetery to flower the graves of my father and grandparents on both the maternal and paternal side of the family. We – my mother and I – had initially planned to this on Wednesday evening, after work. But after switching to winter time a week ago, we thought it would be quite dark by the time we had picked up the flowers at the florist.  

I had planned to leave the office at 11 a.m., but there was a last minute emergency and moreover, I had to pack up my professional belongings because our department was moving to another floor and wing over the weekend. It was almost 12.30 p.m. when I came home. Having an hour to spare before the planned meeting with my mother, I decided to pick up the flowers at the florist and take them to the cemetery on my own. Since her recent back problems, my mother finds walking still very difficult – especially on a bumpy soil, like the gravel paths at the cemetery. By half past one I arrived at my mother’s, mission accomplished. I found her relieved that the job had been done and … curious to see the result. So off we went, for another – my fifth - tour taking us to the different tombs. The weather was sunny, with a crisp, yet not unpleasant wind blowing and there were a lot of people taking a similar tour, some of which we knew and chatted with for a while.
The 'new kid in town'.

On Thursday my longtime friend Mati came over. We all had a very nice lunch at our local Italian restaurant. It was pleasant and cheery and Mati brought us a beautiful orchid … a new member to my ever increasing family. I call it ‘the new kid in town’. So far it has settled in beautifully and I hope it’ll thrive in its new home.
We had to end our lunch in a bit of a rush, because my mother’s nieces and nephews were coming over for a ‘coffee and cake’ party. I had bought some delicious lemon and chocolate mini-muffins, lemon curd cakes and shortcakes with white chocolate chips from Stonemanor. The house looked really full with ten adult people squeezed into my mother sitting room, but the atmosphere was very jolly and gay, especially after everybody had had a glass of Sandeman’s ruby port to warm-up after a chilly and wet tour of the cemetery. 
On Friday I had another lunch date, after which my friend and I did some clothes shopping. Another busy, yet successful and pleasant day … 
On Saturday we took time to relax, waiting for the ‘Channel Rat’!!! Which arrived on Sunday … Any idea what a ‘Channel Rat’ is?