The Last Chausson aux Pommes

Change is good, sometimes. For the 11 years that we have owned our French home, traveled here for vacations and now living here full time, we have treated ourselves to the "apple slippers or turnovers" from the boulangerie next to the cafe. They were not always available as only 3 or 4 were made on any one day. Last Saturday, the Brit who scooted into the bakery just ahead of us took the last 2. Then Thursday we went up to town early so we could get one. But no, none baked that day. It was then we were told that the bakery was changing owners. Monsieur who had been making our favorite breakfast treat for all these years was retiring.

I asked if he would make a last chausson aux pommes for us for Saturday, his last day. Bien sur! So Saturday morning we went to the market on a really foul day of wind and rain knowing we would have one last treat. But among the chaos of the last day, packing, and a mind already brimming with thoughts of retirment, Monsieur forgot to put our apple turnovers in the oven. Totally embarassed, he made us a gift of the prepared pastry and instructions on how to cook them at home.

This morning I took them out of the fridge, brushed the tops with an egg yolk and a bit of water, preheated the oven to 200C and when ready popped them in the toaster oven. After 25 minutes they were perfect. I hope Monsieur enjoys his retirement. I will miss the nice ladies who worked behind the counter who never failed to glance into the display case to see if there was a chausson aux pommes for les Americians when we opened the door to the shop.

5 FATTED DUCKS!

Tis the season to make confit, rillettes, and conserved foie gras. Friday we took possession of 5 VERY large ducks (somewhere in the range of 15 pounds each). Last year we conserved 2 ducks which were relatively small because there had been a terrible tempest in Lalande where the supplier lives which had spooked the ducks. This year with no scary storms to stress them the ducks were huge. We were not prepared for so much bounty.

We took apart each bird setting aside the breasts, necks, and carcasses to freeze. The magrets we will grill. The necks will get cooked at some point, probably for soup. The carcasses we generally use to flavor tomato sauce.

The fat and skin we minced and slowly melted over a low heat. The legs, wings, and gizzards were salted overnight and the next day they were poached for several hours in the rendered fat. When done the confit was drained and cooled and then put into individual containers with some goose fat and banged into the freezer. The rest of the fat was put into jars for future use sauting potatoes. At the bottom of the pot were the rillettes, morsels of meat that were attached to the skin before it was rendered and now with fat clinging ito it. Spread on bread it is very delicious and probably very fattening, but then they are called fatted ducks!

The livers or foie gras (about 2 pounds each) were soaked in cold water overnight and cut up and put into canning jars and processed on Saturday. The foie gras will last several years once conserved in this manner, but we have already eaten one jar. Not wanting to be wasteful, we used very small canning jars for most of the foie. We also put a small piece in the freezer as a test. While opinions varied, several blogs said you could freeze foie successfully for a short time.

The freezer is full, the cupboard is stacked with foie gras, and the kitchen is now clean after the work.

Cats in a Tree

The garden centers are full of attractive pots for plants and trees and we found one that we liked well enough to live in the living room. It has become the base to hold the Cat Tree.

This locust tree was originally growing in our backyard in the townhouse in Washington. Zabelle was known to climb it only to be attacked by a cat bird she offended with her presence. When we put the greenhouse addition on the back of the house, the tree had to be cut down. It was saved and turned into a cat tree to be used by Zabelle's first litter and all cats since. RXC made shelves covered with carpet and screwed them into the trunk.

The tree made the move to West by God and then onward to France. To get it into the container however, we had to remove it from the wood and cement base. Which is why we needed to find a new pot for the base, and why it took so long to get it set up.

Dante and Calypso love having it back. However, they have grown considerably since their days in WV and they are a bit bigger than the shelves now. Still they spend much of their time up there.

Anyone who comes to the house is amazed by the tree (I guess it is unique by French standards). And guests love to see the cats playing in it.

Longitude at the Greenwich Meridian

On a 5 day trip to London, we spent a sunny day in Greenwich. We took a boat down the Thames along with hundreds of workers as the tube was not working that day. Greenwich was beautiful. The mariner sought to verify longitude zero with his handheld GPS.

In London we met friends, ate good food especially the scones, went to the Sir John Soane Museum, visited several markets, visited book shops, and bought wonderful hand made cheeses: Stilton, Cheedar and Cheshire cheese to bring back to France.

We had a great short trip. London would be another great city to rent an apartment for a few weeks next winter.