It’s been an afternoon of cooking. Lew and Parry are coming over for dinner, and this morning, we were given 2kg of cèpes and two dozen quail eggs. Lew offered to bring veggie chilli, and I’ve made corn bread and a new mango salad that I hope is good. I also made a sour cream and onion veggie dip, and a dozen devilled quail eggs for the starter. The cèpes were picked yesterday, so needed to be cooked today. I hope our guests would like to take some home, or else we’ll end up with a freezer-full.
We had curry at Philippe’s on Friday night, along with Sabine and Alain, Manu and Mathilde. Only some of us had ordered curry, so Philippe also made a blanquette de veau, which is a veal ragout, and somewhat curry-esque in appearance. During the apero, he showed us the photos from his month-long trip to Australia. The started in Newcastle, where Francoise is living, then did a driving tour from Brisbane up to Cairns, which took three weeks. Aperos at Philippe’s last a number of hours, but we eventually moved on to the main, and had fruit salad for dessert. It wasn’t a terribly late night, but had a cleanser with a film when we got home, so didn’t retire till 3.
We treated Saturday like a hangover Sunday, despite neither of us having one. We watched a few films, and generally took it easy. We were up early on Sunday for our annual trip to the vide grenier at Champagnac. It’s a fairly large one, but the only thing we really want are bookshelves, and unsurprisingly, there weren’t any. We then went food shopping in Nontron, and also stopped by the vide grenier there, where we didn’t have any luck either. I did a bit of cooking in the afternoon in preparation for dinner that night. The guests were Carol and Bryan, their daughter Jenny and her two boys, Finn and Evan, now 11 and 9. We also invited Ute, our German friend whose husband John died a year or so ago.
It was our usual summer bbq menu, with a few additions. I made the same sour cream and onion dip, served with veggies, plus some pate, crisps, crackers etc. Nearly all of went, thanks to the boys’ voracious appetites. The main was chicken, sausage and salmon, with potato salad, slaw and bbq baked beans. Carol made dessert, which was a raspberry sponge tarte, and chocolate mousse. We had a leisurely meal, with the boys doing the entertaining. Evan is a bit of whiz, and we were evenly matched at a geography game he introduced me to. Jenny is doing well, has a fella who plays bass in a blues band. They all left around 11 and we chilled out a bit before retiring.
Will’s tooth/jaw has been bothering him, and it wasn’t great at the weekend. He had a dentist appointment on Monday afternoon, which yielded good and bad news. The good is that the dentist identified the problem, to do with a jaw muscle and not the teeth. The bad is that there isn’t much of a cure. Will is getting x-rays done tomorrow, and then will meet again with the dentist to see if anything can be done. That morning, Sue and Bob, the curry people, came over for some computer help. They’re doing a catered Chinese meal at their place in September. We don’t fancy a night of Brits, but she offered to do us a takeaway version, so we may give that a try.
On Tuesday night we attended a presentation by VIAPL, the local anti-wind farm group. It was in the salle de fete in Miallet, and there were around 150 people in attendance. Mainly, the presented information about wind turbines, and why they are bad. We already knew most of the info, but I learned a few new things, either that or misunderstood the French. They also played a short film, and then took questions, which were mostly just comments. We left at 11 and it hadn’t ended. There appears to be slow momentum towards stopping the projects, but I’m still not optimistic.
We had a work meeting on Wednesday at a private gardens near Brantôme. We had visited it in June with Mom, and they mentioned that they wanted a new site. They’re not after anything fancy, but they are going for a custom site, so there’s a bit more money in it for us. Will has had a few other bits and pieces, and a client he’s been waiting on came back to him today. It’s slow for me, so I’ve been reading 1984, one I’ve not previously read.
Ok, cèpes are done, so it’s time to make the salad.