Learning to Ride the Scooter

- posted by Kieke @ 17:46

 
Chanterelles on Toast
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Last night we had not enough left-over sourkraut for a whole meal, so I added an appetizer:

Fry some finely chopped shallots in butter with a little oil.
Add cleaned (with a brush) and chopped chanterelles and cook for a few minutes on a high heat.
Stir in some crème fraîche or double cream, loads of chopped parsley, salt and lots of pepper.
Serve immediately on freshly toasted slices of whole grain bread.

To me this brings back wet autumnal walks, looking for mushrooms. Then bringing home their woody smell and cooking them for lunch.
- posted by Kieke @ 11:21

 
The Meat Maffia
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Meat is the norm. Wherever one goes for a meal, there is meat on the menu. Or fish for that matter. Vegetarian? Sometimes, for the nerdies, the weird people who whine about animal rights etc.
In an article in the NRC by Dr. H.M. Prast, he argues that our enormous meat consumption is leading to hunger. He suggests that this mentality could be changed by giving people a choice: meat, fish of neither. He tells how at a dinner he was offered a choice, and that his very selection gave him the opportunity to explain why he chose not to eat meat or fish. In itself proof of his theory that meat is the norm.
And so it is. When ordering sandwiches for a meeting, they automatically include lunch meats. Would anybody complain, if they were offered a vegetarian lunch?
Good vegetarian meals are delicious. But even I, when I cook for a crowd, cave in, and offer an animal.
Right! So that is a thing of the past. From now on I will invite the discussion by making non-animal the norm at my table. Even for carnivores!
I’m not weird, just trying to change a mentality.
- posted by Kieke @ 13:29

 
Beyond the Gate

- posted by Kieke @ 13:49

 
Nettle Soup
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With gloves on, cut the young shoots of nettles to fill a collander.
Wash carefully to get rid of sand etc.
Fry onions in a little oil.
Add salt and herbs like bay leaf, sage, thyme, etc.
Add a peeled and cubed potato or two.
When the vegetables are done, fish out the herbs.
Add the nettle shoots and cook a few minutes longer. It may seem there are too many nettles, but no, they will shrink.
Puré the soup. Check the seasoning, and serve with a dollop of crème fraîche and soldiers.

(For you pacifists: soldiers are strips of stale bread, fried in butter!)
- posted by Kieke @ 18:12

 
The Clockmaker
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In a little street, just off the cathedral of Argentan, the clockmaker has his atelier: Le Diable au Cadran (The Devil in the Dial). It is a small shop, chockfull of clocks that tick and chime like crazy. There is hardly room to manoevre, but the clockmaker is at ease in his domain.
He is a man in his forties, who used to be a journalist. Those must have been his young and wild years, when he drove dashing old-timers and went out drinking with his pals. Now he has become more philosophical.
His French is beautiful, his tongue caressing the words as he speaks . A smile on his face, warmed by the thoughtful wisdom in his heart.
P. and I love going to his shop. To see the craftmanship, to hear the man talk clocks (our clock!) and books, and to hear about his general outlook on life.
And frankly out of sheer curiosity: to see a tiny glimpse of what makes this clockmaker tick!
- posted by Kieke @ 13:41

 
Renée's Apple Pie
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Renée brought us this apple pie not too long before she became too ill to cook. We ate it at the table outside in the mild autumn air.
When we arrived at the house last night, the dark red Calville apples were beckoning me, so I got to work immediately.

Caramelize 10 sugar cubes in 1/2 a glass of water. I.e. cook in a bubbling boil for 2 minutes. Take off the heat and pour into the mould.
Mix 100 grams of soft butter with 100 grams of sugar. Add 2 or 3 eggs, depending on size. Then 100 grams of flour, pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp baking powder (or alternately use self-raising flour).
Peel and slice 2 or 3 apples, (mix with some cinnamon) and lay in the caramel. Top with the batter and bake for about 1/2 hour in a 180 degree oven until golden.

There is nothing wrong with eating home-baked apple pie with morning coffee, after an afternoon walk, and for puds in the evening!
- posted by Kieke @ 19:40

 
The Prison Yard
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Z. lives on a council estate. Three U-shaped buildings of four storey flats around an empty space. City planners must have spent many meetings discussing what to do with the secluded space in between. They thought: the people living in the flats need green parkland. They need some benches and a pick nick table. They need a playground for the children.
So they went to work. Grass in the middle, and curved borders full of bushes. An occasional tree to offer some shade. A pair of swings here, a slide over there. The city planners must have been very pleased with the result. They have created a beautiful garden for the tenants of the flats.
Being city planners they also foresaw that on a council estate not all residents really show the respect for their environment that they should. So they made sure the fourth side of the yard was shut with a very high iron fence with spikes on the top. Thus the garden can only be reached through a gate.
Yesterday Z. and I went there with the children. It was a glorious autumn day, mild and sunny. The children loved it. They swung on the swings and ran through the grass.
They were the only ones. No other children, no adults sitting on the benches exchanging gossip. No one, except cats and pigeons.
And no wonder. The place feels like a prison yard dressed up as a park. Once you’re inside there is no way out. And all the while you’re there, you are watched by the nosy neighbours who are lurking behind their luxaflex. The playground is no playground; it is just a few apparatuses scattered about. What mother would let her child play in such an inaccessible place?
On my way home I passed another playground. It was in a small square between the terraced houses. Children were running around. Mothers could watch them from their front doors. There were no trees and no bushes. No beautiful parkland.
But it was welcoming and effective.
- posted by Kieke @ 10:41

 
Dog Talk
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They say that animals can understand human talk, but I’ve never seen convincing proof of it.
I did converse with our animals, as most people do, but more for my own comfort than that of the cat or dog.
Kibo has finally shown that there is truth in the idea that dogs can understand human speech.
Last week we went to a play in a castle behind the house of friends about an hour away from us. We were received with tea and cakes, and Kibo happily joined in by sniffing around the garden and being generally gracious.
When it was time to go, we told her to climb onto her cushion in our 2CV. The rooftop was rolled back for plenty of air and the back bench was tilted forward for ditto space.
Kibo jumped in, and sat up expectantly: what now?
I leant over the side of the car to speak to her: “We’re going to the castle to watch a play. You cannot come with us, but we will be back in a few hours, and then we will all go home again.”
Before I had finished my little speech she lay down, curled up in a circle: “You go. I’ll be here, when you get back.”
The performance was a treat. We spoke to the director and some of the actors, had a few drinks and returned to our friends’ house.
I thought Kibo would be alert, and spot our voices from far off. But no, only when we were very close did we hear the cloppity-clop of her rat-like tail against the side of the car.
She was elated to see us, and ran back and forth to lick our hands.
But concerned whether we would come back? No, of course not! I had told her that we would, hadn’t I?
- posted by Kieke @ 21:59

 
Discovery
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When we were considering buying the house I was worried that it would be too lonely for A, so I called her. “Yes, yes,” she said, ”but can we go for walks from the house?”
Having studied the map, I could reassure her.
Now, after 7 years, we can stay here for a week and go for a walk every day, without ever having to do the same track twice. I thought we had exhausted the possibilities.
Today, after the last guests had been gone a few days, the house had been cleaned, and other jobs done, we felt like going out again.
We’d done it before: studied the map, and ventured out in new directions. But often they led to paths overgrown with brambles, or barbed-wire fences, too hard to cross.
Yet today we tried again, and to our joy our route led to a beautiful winding track that ended in a small paved road. We turned right into a dead-end of well-kept holiday homes. From there an easily travelled path led us up through the fields and across a trickling brook to a small hamlet of farmhouses with flowerboxes in the windows. The road beyond took us to known territory and led us back the long dirt track, meandering home.
We were elated! This is what discoverers must feel. To have gone out on an uncertain adventure, with not quite enough information about the outcome. And then, the delight that it all worked out better than expected!
After 2 hours we came home to well deserved coffee and plum crumble from our own orchard: three happy explorers, 2 persons and a dog!
- posted by Kieke @ 22:22