Minestrone Redux...and the latest mural in Angoulême

Stewing a bony and lean cut of beef is something I do at least monthly which allows the making of borscht with beef dumplings, French onion soup, and last but not least minestrone.

The Calm One lucked out and the finest Limousine jarret avec os jumped into his market basket

Since spring heralds change, I added sorrel fresh from the garden and subbed broken-up tagliatelle for the usual mini elbow macaroni.

Lemony sorrel is on the right

We each enjoyed a couple of bowls on a nippy spring day.

I forgot to put in some peas!

Conditions are still suitable for sowing in the garden.

Mid-season tater bed followed by soon-to-be carrots/beets bed followed by pea bed

Elmo the Cat visiting is always welcomed.

A cat and his apple tree

Our Angoulême is internationally known for its murals depicting various comic strip characters along with its comic book museum and its prestigious comics festival held each January. The newest wall painting which is number twenty-eight in this series of public art was recently completed in our own quartier. The Calm One during his various grocery shopping hikes--we are happily car-free though sadly sans bike--spanning from late autumn to early spring took these photos with his smart phone.

 Fregeneuil Park where we would live if living there was legal

On the other side of the park, there are several public housing buildings with windowless sides which provide the perfect setting for a three-panel comic based on the work of Turf, the artist of La Nef des Fous.

The facades were steam-blasted spanking clean and primed white in preparation for the artwork.

First the sketching and then the painting was done by artists other than Turf who directed and oversaw the completion of the work.

Though not familiar with this particular comic, I love the elegant, seemingly effortless style of fluid outlines and merrily coloured and cleanly spaced forms.

À la prochaine!

Spring Progresses...and yet some more quick recipes!

Weather permitting I will be found in the potager doing all sorts of totally important tasks which needed to be done the previous week! So quick and easy meals are still paramount on our menu. I saw a lovely jar of white beans in the fridge.  I saw a ripe avocado framed in a patch of sunlight beautifying the kitchen table. Soooooo...the beans were rinsed and drained then mashed with a dribble of olive oil and minced garlic while the avocado was seeded (cut lengthwise to halve, insert blade of a knife into large seed, twist a bit, and remove it) and intimately united with lemon juice and a smidgen of crème fraîche. Spread each on a slice of bread, in our case, sourdough rye The Calm One got that morning.

Bring them together to make a fresh-tasting and substantial lunch resembling at first glance a chicken avocado sandwich!

Though the soft mushiness was delightful, I suspect toast could be subbed for some welcomed texture

Another speedy meal is penne drenched in an olive-oil based sauce of cèpes, garlic, and capers. While the cèpes are rehydrating, bring water to a boil and throw in the pasta. Shortly before the penne is done, saute minced garlic, chopped cèpes, and capers in olive oil for a few minutes. Add a tablespoon or so of the pasta cooking water and an equivalent amount of the cèpes liquor. Drain the pasta and toss into the skillet, stirring everything together and heating for a minute or two over medium heat. Salt and grind freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Cèpes impart a robust accent in taste and looks.

Freshly grated Parmesan increases that robustness.

Making leftovers into fritters is still a common occurrence. So this became...

A simple meal of bangers (Toulouse sausages in this case), mash, and stewed tomatoes

...this!

Well sloshed with soy sauce

Mince the well drained tomato and sausage. Add some flour, the mashed potatoes, an egg, a half a teaspoon or so of baking powder, and salt.

Mix well.

Drop by heaping tablespoon into hot oil and brown on both sides which takes about eight minutes in total.

In the potager, fifty of the seventy-five seed potatoes have been planted.

Jeannette, a late early and mid season variety sprouts the most gorgeous coloured buds--turquoise fuzz splashed with amethyst.

The peas sowed about two weeks ago are showing off their tender, green sprouts.

There are still some more seedlings which need to be transplanted from flats.

Tomato, melon, cucumber, squash, zinnia, Black-eyed Susan, and herb seedlings

In the flower garden, deep purple irises are showing off.

Species tulips are finishing up their blooming.

Elmo the Cat loves the lawn which is festooned with English daisies.

The wolfish one enjoying himself

À la prochaine!

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More Quick Recipes...and continued spring planting

Back in the day, I enjoyed going to the Dojo on Manhattan's Saint Mark's Place. The busy restaurant's delicious and cheap vegetarian food was a magnet for skint, young people endowed with mega appetites. Not only does their ginger dressing boast of a mention in Wikipedia, the place itself is still going several decades later though in a new location. My recipe is modeled on a fondly remembered menu staple consisting of stir-fried brown rice and veggies topped with an egg. I subbed steamed couscous for the rice and layered it with moderately carmelised onions, crowning the whole lot with an over-easy egg sprinkled with paprika. 

While thinly sliced onions are sauteing in oil over a medium flame (do be sure to stir them frequently) which takes about fifteen minutes, make the couscous (recipe). Remove the onions from the skillet. If there is not enough oil remaining, add a bit more to prevent sticking. Holding a cracked egg near the inside bottom of the skillet, carefully let its contents slip out so as not to break the yolk. After a minute, gently flip over the egg and cook for another minute. On a plate, spread a circular layer of couscous, then one of onions and repeat twice ending with onions. Top with the egg and sprinkle with paprika. I always look forward to piercing the yolk and watching its yellow goodness mingle with the other ingredients.

Some of the late season potato variety, Prospero, overwintered unknown to me as I thought I had harvested them all. Fresh foliage identified their existence so out they came. Some of the early and mid varieties also had remained but their texture no longer resembled that of a potato, but of a turnip so they were thrown on the compost heap.

A good scrubbing made them pretty!

The potatoes were boiled till tender and gently smashed (detailed recipe for smashed potatoes) with the back of a large wooden spoon. Barely cover the bottom of a skillet with oil and heat several minutes over medium high flame. Add the potatoes and saute for about five minutes. Then flip them over and while pressing down with a sturdy spatula from time to time, cook for another five minutes or so till browned and crusty. Towards the end, add minced garlic, a ton of dill, fresh if you can get it, paprika, and salt.

Freshly grated Parmesan goes well with them

When an already prepared, frozen meal is the best answer to a sparsely stocked fridge and general chaos, Mr. Menu Planner aka The Calm One lists the possibilities though I get to choose which one. I recently decided on chicken enchiladas (recipe). He agreed because in his capacity as The One Who Does The Grocery Shopping, he knew we had avocados and crème fraîche with which to adorn these plump beauties.

They take about thirty minutes to heat up in a covered casserole in a 350 degrees F oven

The activity in the sous sol's potting room is still at a high level. Tomatoes and peppers are being transplanted from their flats (recycled, shallow food trays) into separate pots. Cantaloupe, cucumber, butternut squash, and zinnia seeds were recently placed in the incubator.

Since I do not use grow lights, I need to bring out the seedlings each day and return them back to the relative warmth of the sous sol at night.

All the green babies are doing fine!

Walking on or working with soggy soil is detrimental to its healthy structure. The test is that as you pull out your spade, most of the soil will tumble off it. 

À mon avis, there is nothing more courageous than asparagus breaking through encrusted soil. Our planting is just a year old so we will need to wait for next season for their root system to strengthen before harvesting, but these jaunty, spring-green spears cheer me up to no end anyway.

This is a good time to scratch in some complete fertiliser around each plant

Lilacs are beginning to form their lovely buds.

When arriving at chez nous four years ago, the main lilac bush was a towering twelve feet resembling more a leggy tree which made smelling and cutting its luscious, captivating blooms difficult.

One third was pruned for three successive seasons (late winter/early spring). It is now about eight feet high. This gradual pruning allows some blooming each year.

Each pruning was done to lower the height of the lilac

A reflection of a blooming cherry tree and a neighbour's house gracefully augmented the composition of a framed poster which has happily accompanied us from New York City to California to Oregon to Leeds to London to Grenoble and then finally to Angouleme!

It commemorates a Van Gogh exhibit held at the Metropolitan Art Museum in 1987

Box Elders are known for their tasseled seed clusters.

These seeds are also the preferred food of Boisea trivittata.

Halloween bugs!

À la prochaine!


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Summer? Not Quite...and a quick pasta recipe

After months of wetness and mild temperatures, the weather is now hot and rainless, reaching up to 80 degrees F and should remain in this sunny, soil-drying (thank goodness!) state for about a week so I am out in the garden preparing beds and sowing.

Les petits pois are in and duly protected via horticulture fleece against hungry birds 

Once the seedlings are up the rain should be back per our weather forecast which would be a boon as they love nature's comprehensive dousing way more than my lopsided watering.

That's Vinca minor in the foreground, better known as periwinkle which is a great ground cover for shade

The rhubarb which poked its head above ground several weeks ago is flourishing because of all the recent rain.

My being so busy in the garden means quick, easy meals are still prominently on our menu. I managed to pluck a few green florets from the broccoli planted last autumn...

...as most of the plants are flowering. Since it is an annual, it has to finish its growth cycle soon, that is, to set seed for the next generation.

And one of the earliest herbs is fresh, fragrant, and feathery fennel.

So fresh I am tempted to smack it

Therefore, broccoli and fennel from the garden=quick and easy corkscrew pasta dressed in said veggies and Parmesan. While the pasta is cooking, saute chopped broccoli along with minced garlic in olive oil.  Add some chopped fennel and a tablespoon or so of the pasta cooking water and simmer, covered, until tender, about five minutes. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Drain the pasta and toss with the veggies. Top with freshly grated Parmesan and few fennel sprigs.

I may be très chargée at the moment, but I spared some time to take instructions from Madame M on how to make a daisy ring.

The English daisies are fast taking over the sweet violets

Starting at the end of about a four-inch long stem of a daisy, she carefully split it all the way to the calyx.

She then tied it around my finger.

Quite pretty, not to mention fun!

Only one parsley seedling, and a sad one at that, managed to surface in a flat planted indoors most likely because the seeds were not fresh. Gratefully the rain took care of the volunteers outdoors, and there will be a nice supply anyway of this lovely herb.

After four years in its 'new' place, the fourteen-year-old Camellia which was transplanted from our Grenoble balcony is cautiously putting out its first blooms. To my worried implication that it is still not doing well as the flowering consists of just a few blossoms instead of the petal riot it once put out, The Calm One replied, it's still adjusting. I will continue to fuss over it, applying a fertiliser for acid-loving plants, mulching with peat moss, and watering deeply. But, its progress is encouraging!

Camellia japonica: formal double form and a perfect pink.

À la prochaine!

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