Bang on! Pig Blogging Weekend

I fell in love with England the first time I went over there in the 80's. It was my first trip abroad and I was eager to experience what English life was all about. I tried exotic beverages and snacks like scrumpy and oxtail flavored crisps. I even stockpiled mint cakes and little jars of clotted cream to bring home with me.

For the first week or so I stayed on a farm in Devon. It wasn't very exciting but I ate the freshest peas, lamb and gooseberries ever. Then I went to London and ate fish and chips and Indian food. Remember, this was the 80's before London became the culinary hot spot it is today.

I loved the sense of history, the beautiful countryside, the "new wave" music, the fantastic museums and the chipolatas. Oh sure, I loved the bangers and mash too. But have you ever had a chipolata? Now that is a thing of beauty, the size of a finger, oozing with fat, juice and porcine goodness with spicy flavor to boot. Not like any other sausage I ever had.

Here in the Bay Area bangers are the only British sausage available. Bangers are another kind of pork sausage altogether, much larger and milder than chipolatas, with onions and bread crumbs to give flavor and texture. Bangers and mash make for a real comfort meal especially with a little onion gravy. And according to research from Mintel, bangers and mash are back in vogue. In Britain they are gaining in popularity, up 17% since 2000. Kate Winslett even served them at her wedding. Now if that isn't posh nosh, what is? Health food it ain't, but then again you can't have everything. On the other hand, if there's any chance you know where a girl can get a chipolata...

Photo du Jour - Cherry Picking Time

Le Temps des Cerises

Our friends picked more than 30 kilos of Napoleon cherries last Saturday! These golden and blush pink cherries are my favorites of the season.

La Vendange

I wrote about the white grape harvest about two weeks ago. It appears that la vendange is in full swing!
Today while driving the thirty minutes it takes from Narbonne to our village, I got stuck behind I-don't-even-know-how-many tractors whose trailers were overflowing with deep purple grapes.

Will it be a good year for our local wine?
Some say yes, some say just average.

The Joys of Marmiton.org

Saturday I bought a turkey hindquarter (cuisse de dinde) at the local supermarket and Sunday, I was of course faced with what to do with it. A quick look through some of my cookbooks didn't do the trick, so I searched for recipes on Marmiton. This wonderfully practical and cheery website is my favorite online recipe source, and it didn't fail me: I had a choice of a number of turkey hindquarter recipes, and opted for "Cuisse de dinde et sa symphonie de légumes au four."

The recipe, which basically consists of little more than plopping the turkey in a baking pan and surrounding it with eggplant, zucchini and tomato slices, was indeed a big hit, as simple and delicious as the writer promised. Since tomatoes are out of season, I spruced it up with sun-dried tomatoes and red bell pepper.

If you are able to read French and interested in truly useful recipes, I highly recommend this site. It does have an English version, Let's Cook French, but for the moment only a few hundred recipes are available on it.

The art of so-called side dishes

Maybe it is a product of our time, a generational thing, or just a matter of pheromones, but I keep falling in love with vegetarians. I spent nine years in their camp, so perhaps I’m predisposed. I may dally with a meat-and-potatoes man, but fate has it that my love is meant for herbivores only. One might argue that my sample size of two is too small for statistical significance, but it’s all I

Bagnette, breasts, and an excuse to eat pink whipped cream

“My dowry has just increased exponentially,” Kate announced, smirking audibly into the receiver. “I made cream puffs!”I could hear Kate's sister Margot and their mother Linda in the background, shrieking with glee. “Mom says to tell you that we’re saving the potatoes for you to do, since you’re German.”“Polish,” I corrected.“Yeah, yeah,” Kate laughed, “Too bad we don’t have any Polish sausages.

Photo du Jour - Loulou's Slush Puppie

Does anyone remember Slush Puppies?

I grew up freezing my brain on them every summer while visiting my grandparents in Walla Walla, Washington. There was a little mom & pop grocery store where my sister and I would walk in the heat of the day to buy candy and Slush Puppies. My favorite flavor was Blue Raspberry.

Two nights ago it was sweltering here. Really hot and humid, and the air inside our house was just as hot as outside, so there was no relief. Until I made this frozen concoction.

I scooped a couple of big spoonfuls of homemade raspberry sorbet into a bowl, added a couple splashes of vodka and a bit of orange juice, blended it all together with a hand blender and voilà - an adult version of a Blue Raspberry Slush Puppie. Only it wasn't blue. But it was like instant air conditioning (and after two of them we didn't really notice how hot it was anymore).

Now I'm trying to come up with a good name for it. Any suggestions?