It was an uneventful week, so this should be brief. We decided to get the car fixed, so we called the insurance company and made an appointment at our local carroserie (bodywork) in Nontron. We thought it would just be the guy there, but apparently, it’s also for the insurance assessor too. We had missed him that day, so just took the car in so it can be assessed tomorrow. We have a loaner to get us there and back.
We had one social event on Saturday night, when we hosted Philippe, Manu & Mathilde and two of their girls that came along to play Wii. I spent the entire afternoon cooking. While I was doing that, Will spent a few hours at Rigits, where he cleaned for their guests. They arrived an hour late, leaving Will very little time to return home and give our place a clean.
I made a batch of my gluten-free brownies, this time, with pecans and butter. I prefer them to my old recipe. I used the food processor to grind almonds into a paste, like peanut butter, and this takes 15 minutes, with stops to scrape down the sides. Later I decided to use the mini-chopper to chop the pecans, but instead of pieces, they were rendered into paste in less than 10 seconds. So next time, I know to use the “chopper” for my almond butter.
Next up was the starter of honey roasted onion tarte, that I made a few times recently. It took nearly 3 hours to make the two dishes, leaving little time for the main course. This was oven fried chicken, which I had marinated the day before, greek salad, and cold broccoli with a lemon chilli dressing. The guests arrived around 8 and we had an apero outside, before it turned chilly. We had dinner, then retired to the lounge for coffee and dessert.
Manu is a big music lover and has introduced us to some new groups. He discovered a site where you can play name that tune. You get 1 second of the song and you have to name it. So far, they only have the 80s and 90s, and we ran through both, doing better on the former. Philippe had been out the night before, and also, earlier in the day so he was a shell of normal self. He drank vodka tonics, instead of neat vodka, which was a first. Everyone left around 1 and Will and I watched a bit of telly before going to bed.
We weren’t badly hungover yesterday, so I did a bit of work in the morning (as well as on Saturday). I’m finishing the changes for Alan’s site, which should go live this week. I’m slightly behind on my real estate site, but not too badly. I’ve been promised payment by one of my deadbeat clients, but still not received it. It’s still largely dry for Will on the work front.
In other news, the weather continues to be stormy and not terribly warm. Temps are usually in the mid-20s, with mix of sunny, cloudy and rainy days. I thought my tomatoes were lacking water, but it turns out they have mildew. Apparently, the volatile weather is perfect for it, and everyone’s tomatoes are afflicted too. Otherwise, we have had some courgettes, and our special plants continue to thrive.
We’ve got a fairly busy week ahead, so I hope there will be more to report for Will next time.