Rain, rain, rain

It’s Sunday and despite a promising sounding weather forecast, it’s raining buckets. So we’re chilling out. Maybe we’ll go down to the village for a drink later, but I’m not sure. Yesterday we walked into the village, it is rather nice, even in the rain. We did some grocery shopping, and I found that MSG is contained in far less products than in the UK. Of course, they use iodised salt in everything, so we’re still staying away from any ready-made stuff. What I love here most, I think, is the availability of organically grown vegetables. Not only that, but they’re locally grown as well, which is really environmentally friendly as well as a very healthy way of eating. We bought fresh green beans, the French variety, loads of onions, potatoes, and a cauliflower, all organic and local. I couldn’t resist getting some Roquefort cheese, which is about half the price compared to the UK. So I made potatoes, fried slowly in palm oil and butter, green beans, and a Roquefort sauce with mushrooms. Unfortunately, the mushrooms were bought. We did go for a walk in the afternoon, but found no mushrooms. The local forest is full of ivy, so we’re going to have to venture out a bit further for ‘shrooms. Little One and I might do that tomorrow, we’ll see. It depends on the weather really, I don’t fancy wearing a soaking wet cloak for half the hike. But the lure of finding mushrooms might be stronger than worrying about a wet cloak *smirk*. The season is nearly over and we haven’t found a single mushroom! I keep dreaming of porcini, gently sautéed in butter, with garlic and fresh parsley, enjoyed with a glass of Cotes de Provence...

Still Sunday

It’s still Sunday. The rain went around lunchtime, and the afternoon was sunny and much warmer than forecast *shakes_head_at_imbecilic_weather_forecasters*. We left here around 3pm, had coffee, ice-cream, strudel and waffles at the local café, then walked about the main street, which Dorkboy hadn’t been to, stopped at the playground to let Little One run around, and then walked back home. All together 3 hours away, with no rain. I made some onion sauce to go with the left-over pasta and potatoes from last night and lunchtime, and cooked a piece of chicken breast for the boys. Little One was moaning over the sauce because it didn’t contain Roquefort cheese. I added Balsamic vinegar (just a shot of it) to the onions, then sour cream, and Dorkboy loved it. It was the first time I used Balsamic in cooking. Usually I just smother the tomatoes with it in tomato/mozzarella/basil salad...

Having just re-read the last couple of entries, I’ve realised that I’ve been writing a lot of Tracero, LOL. So much detail! Not that it’s a book with recipes *snort*, but detail nevertheless. ;-) An entirely different universe...