…not a whole lot happened. Mainly, I wanted to give a run down of the meals Sharon and I had while Will was away. Since he doesn’t eat fish or red meat, the only time I have either is when we go out to eat. So Sharon and I took advantage of Will’s absence and took turns making dinner involving one or the other “forbidden” items.
The night before Will left, we made a salade nicoise, or a variation on the theme anyway. Most of the produce was from our garden including potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce and a handful of green beans. We grilled some salmon that Sharon and I served on top of our salads along with grilled courgettes (also from the garden) topped with lemon butter sauce. The next night, Sharon and I were joined by Richard and Brigit, both vegetarians, and we served virtually the same meal, with a grilled steak on the side for the two carnivores.
Friday night, it was back to fish. Sharon made sea bass cooked in rock salt, served with new potatoes and seaweed (I can’t remember the name but I’m pretty sure that’s what it was). I had never seen fish prepared this way and was surprised how easy it was to do, especially for something so tasty. Basically, you gut the fish and stuff it with fresh herbs; I think she used rosemary, bay leaves and fennel. Then place the fish in a baking dish and cover the entire thing in rock salt. Bake for 20 minutes and when it comes out of the oven, the salt forms a hard crust that you chip away, revealing the juicy sweet fish below.
Saturday night was Sharon’s turn again. She had part of a lamb shoulder in the freezer, which she prepared as part of a traditional Sunday roast. She slow cooked it, then finished it with a red wine / cherry jam marinade and served with roasted potatoes, courgette and carrots, all topped with a rich, tasty gravy.
Sunday night, it was back to fish and my turn to cook. We raided Sharon’s freezer again, this time for scallops and tiger prawns. We grew bok choi in the garden and although much of it was fodder for the insects, we managed to salvage enough for a stir-fry. That plus the seafood were the main ingredients, seasoned with ginger, garlic and chili. We started the meal with salmon sashimi, served in the traditional style with soy sauce and wasabi paste. I also made a cucumber salad with cukes from the garden, marinated in rice vinegar and wasabi, which turned out rather well.
I collected Will from Angouleme on Monday night, arriving home around 9pm. Sharon was kind enough to prepare a meal for us comprising roasted chicken thighs served with Greek salad – another winner of a meal. As you can see, I got off lightly on the cooking most evenings so as a small gesture of thanks, I cooked for Sharon on Tuesday night. I made roasted red peppers stuffed with the ingredients for a veggie burger recipe that included bulgur wheat, beans, parsley, soy sauce, garlic, onion and cayenne pepper plus some cherry tomatoes and topped them off with feta cheese. They were pretty good if I say so myself.
Apart from all the food, I spent a lot of time working. In addition to the prototype for eLeaf, I have another project on the side. This one is for a friend in London who owns a small business and he’s commissioned me to build him a time keeping application. I am grateful for the work but it definitely signifies the end of the vacation portion of our time here since the work is keeping me occupied full time. On the eLeaf front, the web site is now live and we should officially be a company sometime today or early next week. Stay tuned for more details.
Sharon and I spent one day driving around looking at some areas around Nontron that are prospects for our future home. I discovered a few places that look promising; now it’s just a matter of finding a home for sale in our price range in one of those. Will and I are off to see a house tomorrow and then we’ll hold off on seeing anymore until after our next group of visitors departs.
We are excited to see Gerald and Albert, good friends from my time in San Francisco and their boyfriends who we’ve not yet met. They are arriving in Paris this weekend and then driving down on Monday and staying until Friday. I don’t think any of them have been to this part of France so we’ll plan to do some sightseeing and of course, eating and drinking. I’m sure you’ll hear all about it in our next entry. Ok, now back to work.