caves

So today everybody but me went up to Les Eyzies, at the T junction up the Vezere where all the painted caves seem to be. After yesterday and the trip to Sarlat, which was lovely and fascinating, actually, I just wasn't up for climbing a mountain. And visiting Le Font de Gaume, the best painted cave you can still actually visit (in small groups, only a few a day), requires basically climbing a mountain to get the entrance to the thing. I stayed here in Couze. They were able to get tickets for Font de Gaume, but not until 2:00 p.m., so were able to visit a couple of the other pre-historic places up there, too. There's a Museum of Pre-History in Les Eyzies, but P and I have been, and IMHO it's underwhelming. Sounds like it was a successful trip.

Had bouillabaisse tonight for supper, after a first course from the book Judge Wood gave Sarah and Aaron, which was melon marinated for awhile in Monbazillac, served in a glass with sprigs of mint (we have it in the garden). I don't make the bouillabaisse from scratch over here; I buy jars of fish soup, heat it, put some more EVOO in it, add chunks of various kinds of fish, cook them, and serve it like bouillabaisse, with toast, rouille and finely grated Gruyere. The rouille I buy in a jar, as well, HOWEVER, I soup it up with plenty of finely chopped fresh garlic and espelette and/or Tabasco (maybe it's esplette but it's Basque). The soupe de poisson in jars is rather less work than making fish stock, and then making the bouillabaisse base, and then finishing it off. It's still a PIA.

Martin didn't like it, of course. But he had calamari. I bought that with the fish.

We went to our favorite brocante looking for some dining furniture for Sarah and Aaron; found some, now have to find out if it's practical to ship the stuff to San Francisco.

May have found a bookcase thing we could use here in the living room.

I am really glad they all made it to those caves. They are incredible. You can't visit Lascaux any more, only a reproduction. Humidity, etc. from visits were damaging the paintings. We've seen the reproduction, and it's pretty amazing, too. But seeing an actual 15,000+ year old painting on a wall is pretty incredible.

Cheers, Lillie

Couze, Thursday, October 14, 2010, markets and Sarlat

I have photos, but haven't had time to do anything with them. Sarah and I went to the Lalinde market this morning, spent a bundle of money on food, a wool hat for me, etc. She "met" the guy with the vegetable market that I like so much, the one who doesn't like Germans. He's a hoot, though. And we needed eggs, which I insisted we buy from my walnut oil lady. She's an old Gascon who may be a witch if you get to know her, but I think she's great. Some cheese. The hat is burgundy sort of and looks very "twenties", with a wool flower or something on the side, I think you call it a "cloche". Since it's "twenties", it must mean I'm 110, which is not far off from the way I feel I look sometimes. Except my hair still isn't gray.

Had a lunch of a "salad compose", with the rest of the duck confit from the other day, a great deal of goat cheese, veg, etc., bread, wine in a water bottle from the place where you pump it like it's a gas station. Then we took off for Sarlat. Up the road from Beynac, so you go all the way up the Dordogne, and turn left past Beynac (which means you get to drive around that cliff that has the chateau at Beynac sort of growing out of it...). Sarlat is basically very touristy, mostly Renaissance, but started much before that, winding cobblestone streets, these bronze geese at the site of the medieval goose market. In the summer it is fun to visit, but so touristy that it's cheesy. This time of year it is quiet, calm, you can find a seat at an outdoor cafe (by the time we got there, it had warmed up and sitting outside, albeit in the sun, was not just okay, but good...). We took photos by the bronze geese. Maybe I'll actually get them uploaded one of these days, and edit this...did a bit of shopping. Found a really neat statue I'd never noticed before (quite possibly because of the crowds) of somebody I'd never heard of. More photos. The light is very different in October than in the summer, so everything was not just calm and quiet and less annoying, it LOOKED different. The place was lovely.

Came back to Couze and had pizza at the place down across from the fancy restaurant we went to last night. Very good pizza, although a bit of a bizarre menu of toppings by both American and I am certain Italian standards. Owned by a woman from Brittany named Brigitte; she seemed to be the only person working, as well, unless you count her cat. Has a wood-fired pizza oven. Great stuff; not cheap, but a lovely meal.

Cheers, Lillie

food, etc

So Aaron's most recent boss, Judge Wood (Woods?), a federal appellate judge in Manhattan (I THINK she's a federal appellate judge, at least), gave Sarah and Aaron several books to bring with them, one of which is WONDERFUL, and I MUST have at least one copy of it, probably will give it to some people as a gift, as well. It's written by an American who has visited and fallen in love with all the places and food in the Dordogne like I have. It's also well written, not to mention beautifully photographed. I have other travel and/or cookbooks for the region, but the one in English that is the "last word" or whatever you call it is by an English woman whom I will not identify, and has some good stuff about the local food, but is seriously badly written (although it has been a serious commercial success, Lord help us all...). I have several others, the sort of thing you pick up in tourist offices, with some legitimate regional recipes, either all in French, or the ones that are along the lines of "Recipes from your grandmother..." in French on one side of the page (printed in a fake handwritten script) and an "English translation" on the facing page. I put that "English translation" bit in quotes because the translations tend to be pretty sorry. If one can't also read and understand the French recipe, the English translation turns out to be not just sorry, but hopeless. "Egg" turns into "egg yolk". That's just the tip of the iceberg, as it were.

This book that Judge Wood gave to Sarah and Aaron, however, seems to not just describe these places around here that I have grown to love and adore; it ALSO has all these recipes (with versions that are not just legitimate but appropriate for the American kitchen) I have been trying very hard to copy and adapt. YEA!

Tomorrow evening we will have the melon marinated briefly in Monbazillac and served with mint as a first course.. The book has a lovely recipe for confit de canard (preserved duck legs, e.g., duck legs seasoned, and then cooked for a VERY long time in duck or goose fat...) that should work at least as well as Julia Child's. Based on a couple of hours' perusal, it's a treasure.

WHEE!

Photos soon. I have to upload the stuff from the market in LeBugue...

lillie

back in Couze, October 2010

We arrived last Thursday to yet another disaster of a familiar sort. No phone, no internet. First order of business, therefore, was a trip to lovely, enchanting Bergerac to discuss it with the folks at France Telecom/Orange. Credit Agricole had struck once again (and this time, once too many) and failed to honor our prelevement from them (it's the order to direct-pay the bill), which we knew because the bills had FINALLY made their way to Kentucky, where I had immediately written checks and mailed them. Checked the bank account before we left KY, and the checks had of course been cashed. So, the word was that they could get the landline turned back on Friday, but it would be four days before we could get back on internet. This is of course not exactly what happened. We STILL don't have the landline but it will accept calls. Internet did miraculously start working on Tuesday as promised, notwithstanding yesterday's General Strike.

There's no place like France...

Sarah and Aaron arrived on Monday afternoon as scheduled, despite those ridiculous terrorist alerts. Weather is gorgeous. Chilly, foggy in the a.m., clears up well before noon. As usual, I didn't bring enough clothes.

They are bringing out the Chilean miners today. We are opening a new bank account over here, and will close out the old one; we've been told this new bank won't jerk us around like C/A. I had forgotten how much paperwork is involved in just opening a bank account; it's at least as bad as buying a house in the US.

I got taxes filed before we left (!); am disgustingly proud of myself.

Everybody else went to Beynac this afternoon to visit Richard the Lionheart's chateau there; it was one of the major players in the Hundred Years' War. Last Saturday we took Martin to Castlenaud, across the Dordogne from Beynac, and although I took the "easy route" called "circuit facile", it wasn't very facile, and my right knee has been reminding me ever since. I can hardly climb stairs at all. And going down is worse. So I stayed home from the Beynac trip to wait (ready for this?) for the plumber, as we have no hot water, for some unfathomable reason. However, he just phoned (at least he phoned!) and said he wasn't going to make it this afternoon, can he come tomorrow morning. Soooo, Phil gets to stay home from the Lalinde market tomorrow morning and wait for him, I've decided.

The cooker was sort of on the blink two nights ago, too; I couldn't get it going well enough to cook the veal AND the green beans AND the potatoes. Finally gave up and nixed the potatoes. I think I had somehow managed to push it too close to the wall and reduce the propane supply, because yesterday it worked fine. Or maybe it just didn't want to get back into gear immediately...

More later...cheers, Lillie

mayonnaise

So if anybody out there is actually reading these posts (it's not exactly crystal clear that ANYBODY is, most of the time...), I have made an important (!) discovery! For all of you who like/treasure/cook with and/or eat real mayonnaise (e.g., Hellman's), STOP. Beginning IMMEDIATELY you should quit paying twice what you should (or about twice, but perhaps it's three times...) for the stuff, and MAKE YOUR OWN. What you do is use the recipe in one or the other of the cookbooks by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays. The one I turn to (and they may actually all be the same!) is the one in "Being Dead Is No Excuse", which is actually a book you should ALL read.

Here is the recipe (to steal Sharon Thompson's entry, and Sarah will understand what I mean...):

1 large egg

1.5 cups vegetable oil (I use canola oil)

1.5 T apple cider vinegar

1.5 t Tabasco sauce (e.g., 0.5 T Tabasco)

1 T lemon juice (works with lime juice, too)

0.5 t salt

1 t. white pepper (works with freshly ground black pepper, too, which is what I actually always have and use...not as pretty and white, BUT....)

Assemble ingredients. Put the egg in food processor. Pulse for 30 seconds (or just process...), and the add the oil slowly, while pulsing (or while processing, but in a SLOW stream!). When the desired consistency is reached but actually when a bit thick, add the other ingredients and process until blended. They will thin it out a bit.

Keep refrigerated. It is GOOD. It is BETTER than Hellman's, and it is CHEAPER than Hellman's...it is also seriously easy! so there...

Cheers, Lillie