TGCC of 2018

September 10, 2018 by CMKL

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Over the last couple of months, we conducted

The Great Champagne Challenge of 2018

in our dining room. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t casual, hell, no, it was damn serious, it was a true challenge. Just look at all those bottles!

We don’t actually drink champagne often. Mostly on St. Sylvestre, as New Year’s Eve is called around here, maybe to celebrate a birthday or to welcome houseguests. Let’s say we’re special occasion champagne sippers. It all began with an idea earlier this summer. Keeping the keyword “special” in mind, we asked ourselves, shouldn’t we have our own special house champagne? A champagne we both enjoy equally and which would become “our” signature champagne at C2L, our home in Cognac* called Chez Deux Leons.

[* We already have two House Cognacs, but that’s a different story 😉]

One of those two lions in our house promptly began exhaustive online research into champagne in general, facts and terminology, and the range of champagnes available in our price range. By the time his birthday rolled around in mid-July, the first selection of champagne candidates had arrived.

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Before ever tasting the champagnes, it was already quite a challenge to select our tasting candidates. If I tell you that there are over one hundred Champagne Houses, plus nearly 20 000 small growers or vignerons, you’ll understand the inherent difficulties. Nevertheless, Barry prevailed digging through this considerable mountain of bottles on offer to assemble our roster of candidates.

We made sure to apply stringent rules to our champagne tasting, striving for the highest possible rate of neutrality. Tasting three champagnes in each test, we recorded private notes on appearance, bouquet, and taste of each champagne. We also assigned a rating between 1 – 10 to each candidate for the position of C2D House Champagne.

Getting ready for the first tasting in TGCC of 2018

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Barry would open the bottles and while I waited in the kitchen, he poured two glasses per bottle, recording which champagne he assigned to the A, B, and C glasses. Then we switched rooms and I would rearrange the paired glasses to my 1, 2, and 3 tasting sequence.

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I know that this picture shows our first tasting event because for all following tests we used wine glasses for ease of bouquet evaluations.

In the group shown just below, I want to point out a champagne-making rarety. The wine in the center bottle, Les Murgiers, was made by the House Francis Boulard and Daughter, Fille rather than the usual Fils, son. Nice.

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We staged nine tasting events for our Great Champagne Challange which included half bottles whenever possible. But some champagnes were not available in a smaller size and we had to endure the hardship of actually drinking all that bubbly.

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We did find out, though, that champagne, if well stoppered with a good quality champagne cork [above, black & below, yellow] may remain drinkable for a couple of nights.

Champagne cork [yellow] at the ready🥂

The Francis Boulard Rosé Extra Brut came out tops among the pinks

Originally there were only two rosé champagnes included in the challenge. To preserve anonymity, we had to order a third one and test this group separately.

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We amassed quite a collection champagne corks and of muselets, the wire cages holding the corks in the bottles against the internal pressure. Now let us proceed to the all-important question, which champagne made the podium?

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Adding in the numbers for the rosés, the top four champagnes included a second Boulard!

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With their test score of 19 points each, the Philipponnat Royale Réserve Non-Dosé [no sugar added] and Francis Boulard et Fille ‘Les Murgiers’ shared first place. The other Boulard champagne, the Francis Boulard Rosé earned third place honors with 18.5 points. Our fourth place finisher was a huge surprise to us. With a respectable 18 points, it out-scored all the big-names like Moët & Chandon, Veuve Cliquot, Deutz, and Bollinger among others. Instead, we encountered an old friend in fourth place. The Voirin-Desmoulins champagne is a well-priced recommendation at the E.Leclerc supermarket chain, where we have been buying it ever since we discovered it there two or three years ago!

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We haven’t quite settled on the ultimate contender for C2L House Champagne yet. Personally, I’m leaning toward Les Murgiers, naturally!

Our Baby Z

September 8, 2018 by CMKL

Our home in Cognac has a shed which we use as a garage. It’s a spacious garage, really, but it means carrying the groceries across the yard to the kitchen. Not a horrible proposition, certainly, except when it rains or there are many wine bottles involved, or the old back is acting up – you get the idea. Luckily, we also have an attached barn just past the kitchen that actually has a garage door opening onto a street. Perfect, right? Well, it could be.

As one can see in the following two pictures the sales agent took for her file, there are positive and negative aspects to this potential garage.

Looking at the old garage door from the utility room

The garage door was falling apart, but more importantly, it is too narrow for our car to fit through it. On the plus side, though, it’s right next to the kitchen/utility area.

Looking toward the utility room & kitchen

We immediately started plotting to turn this barn into a practical, usable space by enlarging the door opening and installing a handy, motorized garage door, only to have our hopes squashed by local masons and general contractors.

There were two major issues. Firstly and most importantly, the city water intake pipe arises from the ground at the inside edge of the cut stone door frame, whereby “inside” means closest to the opening. The Water Provider would be very happy for us to undertake a modernization of the outdated setup by relocating the pipe itself and moving the counter outside for easy reading. At our cost, naturally. One of the contractors told us that the bill was around $5000 last time he had to do something similar on one of his jobs. A further potential problem is the fragility of those old rubble stone walls. Long story short, it would be prudent to install a new, full-length I-beam to assure the overall stability of the barn, and maybe some corner anchors. And would the roof make it through all those changes? Would we get city hall approval for the necessary building permit? Too many “Ifs”! Such a disappointment!

It was time to change track. If we can’t enlarge the door opening, could we possibly shrink the car? Barry began researching the availability and cost of gently used electric cars with promising results. The decrepit double door, though, still had to be replaced. The wood was crumbling and in order to open it, one needed two different keys to unlock it, plus two heavy iron bars had to be lifted off and five additional hooks had to be removed – all of which could only be done from the inside. Whoever installed that contraption must have been quite paranoid!

We proceeded to realize our new plans and first updated the electricity in the barn with two independent circuits for a motorized door and a charging station for a car. Then we had a new garage door installed and, just last week, we bought our low-mileage Citroën C-Zéro which fits perfectly fine through that darn narrow opening – as long as you flip in the rear view mirrors!

Our new arrival 💐

On Friday morning, our electricity provider sent over a technician to re-calibrate our counter for night and day electricity tariffs. We now pay a reduced charge for all electricity usage between 22 and 6 hrs. In November, Cognac residents are slated to receive a new generation of counters which will extend those night-time reduced charges throughout the weekend. Being a little greener will hopefully be reflected in our monthly expenses as well. At least, after I figure out how to program the washer and dish-washer for delayed starts!

On Friday night shortly after 22 hrs, I hooked up Zéro for her first “at home” charge. It’s always a bit iffy when you do something for the first time, isn’t it?

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The charge went well, so I took Baby Z grocery shopping this morning after which we pulled into the garage backward. So much easier to pull back out, not to mention to unload the shopping 😊

Cognac Impressions

August 19, 2018 by CMKL

Opening this blog just now, I realized that there’s a queue of five drafts waiting for my attention. I also noticed that I last posted back in May. It does appear I have seriously neglected you!

Earlier this week we drove into town to go to an artisanal frame shop to have some picture frames repaired. The shop is at the edge of Cognac’s pedestrian zone in the center of Old Town, where it is often a little difficult to find a parking space – particularly if one has mysteriously lost all previous possessed skills of parallel parking. This time, parking wasn’t a problem since the town was practically deserted. Cognac is currently snoozing through its August congés, the general summer break for pretty much every business in town.

These “congés payés” or paid vacations were first introduced in Germany in 1905 and over the next 30 years or so, the Scandinavian countries, then Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Luxemburg, and Rumania implemented similar laws, followed by France on the 20th of June 1936. Having been raised in Germany, you can imagine my surprise when I arrived in the United States of America in 1978 and discovered that my first job in the Department of Cellular Biology at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, had virtually no fringe benefits. Worlds apart, then and still.

But let us return to Cognac! The atelier we had planned to visit, naturally, was also closed and realizing the futility of trying to do business in August, we just perambulated slowly through the very quiet Old Town, noticing this, seeing that. We discovered, for example, the Municipal Library which is hidden deep inside the Cloisters of the former Benedictine nunnery Notre-Dame-de-la-Grâce.

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In the year 1016, the construction of a Benedictine priory was authorized by the lords of Cognac. The Prieuré Saint-Léger soon nestled alongside the even older parish church of the same name. Together, they formed the nucleus of the medieval town center.

Remnants of 15th-century vaults in the cloister wall

The priory buildings sustained substantial damage through the violent actions of the 100-year war and the French wars of religion and the few remaining monks ultimately abandoned the priory. Around 1623, the bishop in Saintes named a contingent of Benedictine nuns from the convent of the Abbaye des Dames de Saintes the new owners of the priory in Cognac. These ladies rolled up their sleeves and restored the convent, which then operated under the name of Prieuré Notre-Dame-de-la-Grâce. During the French revolution, when all church-owned properties were confiscated, the convent became the property of the town and has housed the city archives and the municipal library ever since.

Continuing our walk past the cloisters and the neighboring church, we turned right into rue d’Angoulême. This is the main street within the pedestrian zone where shops and cafés provide plenty of entertainment. As we were window-shopping at a very leisurely pace, I noticed double doors on my right next to a bright yellow postal box. The doors were open, allowing me to see inside a wide corridor.

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I saw a curious mixture of the old and the new in front of me. Ancient stone wall to the right, modern partitions on the left. The contemporary drop-ceiling with integrated pot lights hanging low over a cobbled ground, more typical for oldfashioned town streets. At the far end of this indoor-outdoor space, I noticed an ancient stone archway, partially obscured by the modern ceiling, offering a tantalizing glimpse of another, dimly lit space behind this entryway.

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Tip-toeing ever closer, the murky space revealed itself as a tiny but extremely tall chamber with an additional door on the left through which organ music emanated. In this absurdly proportioned room lived a lonely sculpture, sadly engrossed in conversation with a folding stepladder. The arms of the Royal House of Valois decorating the monument’s base indicated some importance. Above the solitary figure, we saw two windows, some superimposed walls, and high arches framing a ceiling cupola.

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Scroll up from here to get an impression of the great height and small footprint of this space

Identity to be determined

Clearly, this was once a part of Saint-Léger church, now reduced to a side entrance to the main body of the parish church. I have to come back to take a closer look at the statue and try to identify it.

We continued our walk for a while along rue d’Angoulême before reversing our steps toward Place Beaulieu, where our car was parked.

The first time we came to Cognac, we stayed in the funky Hôtel Héritage [above]. Each one of the colorful rooms is individual & different.

On the way back to the car, this automated convenience store attracted my attention. Always open, so it promises, the store is equipped with eight tall wending machines loaded with single-serve microwave dinners, ready-to-eat soups, chips, nuts, crackers, candy bars, and cookies – including Oreos – ice-cream, sodas, water, coffees, popcorn, you name it, it’s here!

24/24 7/7 Épicerie Automatisé – Automated grocery store

The details of the curtained window were inspiring.

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Although the workshop to repair our paintings had been closed, we still encountered interesting works of art during our downtown stroll.

Gentle Observations

May 26, 2018 by CMKL

The weekend calm of our pastoral suburb of Crouin was disturbed by a succession of three thunderstorms sweeping across the town of Cognac this afternoon. The storms brought squalls of heavy rain which pounded the ancient skylights in the roof above our staircase. Having moved-in less than two months ago, we’re not yet used to the origins and meanings of the creaking and groaning this old house produces for varying reasons. Therefore, the rain’s concerto against glass, wood, and stone, accompanied by claps of thunder near and far was a little disconcerting.

This morning, on the other hand, I stepped through the front door into a sunny and peaceful garden.

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As I walked through the overgrown and riotous wilderness, I noticed all manners of secret wildlife.

A freshly polished young snail

A busy bee

A shy putto hiding beneath a rose that hasn’t been trimmed in ages

A parrot swinging on his perch, still with an adventurous gleam in its wooden eye, even though the poor thing lost all lacquered luster a long time ago

Returning to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, I suddenly realized: I had fallen down the rabbit hole where stuffed birds keep company with gangly giraffes.

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Wishing Y’all a colorful weekend!

[Giraffe by Mordillo]

Aillets & Orange sanguine, really?

March 4, 2018 by CMKL

Aillet is a typical southern French vegetable, possibly falling into the category of an aromatic. It’s akin to green onions or Spring onions or scallions [Allium cepa, Allioideae] but based on tender garlic shoots [Allium sativum, Allioideae] sometimes called “green garlic”. I don’t know if they are available in the Americas, but aillets are being sold all across our produce market stalls here in Saintes lately.

I was perambulating through the market on Saturday morning, enjoying the near-Spring sunshine while hoping for inspirations for our weekend dinners. Watching one of the fishmongers rapidly shucking coquilles Saint-Jacques for his customers, a menu began to take shape in my mind.

At a stall dedicated to citrus fruit, I picked up blood oranges and at another stall two heads of lettuce, to last through Monday, a small fennel, one red pepper, some flat parsley, a half-a-kilo of Brussels sprouts, and two bundles of aillets. Inside the Market Hall, I went to the beef butcher to buy 500 g of bavette which translates to flank steak, followed by a trip to a dairy counter to get locally produced sweet butter and three varieties of cheese. A section of brie from a nearby farm, one nice wedge of cheese made from raw sheep milk in the Basque country, my favorite, and a chunk of Savoie Emmental. And yes, I also stopped at a bakery counter to buy two Rosinenschnecken – you work out yourselves what that is 😎 Lastly, I bought eight coquilles Saint-Jacques before heading home with my treasures.

As is my want, I took pictures of all the stages of the preparation and cooking processes to create a record of the proceedings. But a funny thing happened on the way to the table, actually after dinner. I discovered that my camera hadn’t recorded a single picture. The card contained one solitary image taken two days earlier. That day, I had changed several camera setting and subsequently took a number of shots to compare these new parameters against the previous settings. I transferred the test images to my computer immediately and, satisfied with the results, kept the new camera settings. Ominously, every picture I took subsequently did not record. Oh well, I’ll work it out! But sadly, I have nothing with which to document my newest kitchen endeavor:

Scallops with Blood Orange Confit

1 small yellow onion, finely diced
4 stalks aillets [green garlic] finely sliced
1 small fennel, roughly diced
chopped flat-leave parsley for decoration
2 blood oranges: zest of one orange plus its juice, the second orange peeled and sectioned, the sections skinned; they will separate into uneven bits, all of it collected in the same bowl
2 – 3 Tbls of Vermouth
salt, pepper, powdered ginger to taste
8* freshly chucked and cleaned coquilles Saint-Jacques, or similar sea scallops. If you have to buy them from a supermarket, make sure they’re “dry” scallops. So-called “wet” scallops were injected with a phosphate solution that plumps them up to bright-white splendor. And a slightly soapy flavor. And it makes them heavier (!) And they will be impossible to pan-sear because they’re filled with fluid.
Ghee or clarified butter; sweet butter; olive oil
A side dish of your choice, like mashed root vegetables or potatoes, rice, etc.

* I bought only 8 scallops because I was planning to use them for our appetizer. If you want the scallops as your main dish, adjust the number of scallops up and the amount of the other ingredients accordingly. Also, the very best and most costly are diver’s scallops, definitely worth the expense for a special occasion.

Keep the scallops dry on paper towels and let them come to room temperature before cooking. Prep all the vegetables and have ghee & butter at room temperature & your chosen side dish ready to go.

Heat some ghee and olive oil to medium in a frying pan, add onions, turn down the heat to low and cook gently, stirring often for about 10 min. Add the aillets, cook for another 5 mins before adding the fennel. Add a little salt and a dusting of ginger. Total cooking time roughly 20 minutes.

Turn up the heat to medium-high and pour the Vermouth over the veggies. creating a satisfying sizzle. After a minute, add the blood orange juice and meat all at once, stirring vigorously before turning down the heat to medium-low. Allow the witches cauldron to bubble and burp for a few minutes before adding a few chunks of butter to thicken the melange. Turn the heat off and transfer the blood orange confit to a bowl to keep warm while you cook the scallops.

For the scallops, simplicity rules. In a frying pan, heat ghee to almost smoking hot. With tongues add the scallops to the hot ghee quickly, making sure to leave spaces between the bivalves. Once the underside is golden brown, about 2 minutes, turn the scallops over one by one, turn down the heat a fraction and let them fry another minute. That’s all.

Like so many fruits de mer, for example, squid and octopus, our scallops turn rubbery either when overcooked or left sitting around for too long after cooking. It is, therefore, imperative to have everything ready to serve – and your guests ready to enjoy – before dumping the little devils in the hot ghee. Proper planning is the key to an amazing dish! We had a little left-over Risotto Milanese from the previous night, revived with a dollop of butter & freshly ground Parmigiano, to go with our scallops and confit, perfect in size and flavor composition …

… except for the vanished pictures. Désolée mes amis ! Tomorrow night, it’s the turn of the bavette, the red pepper, and the Brussels sprouts. Are you curious?

SHAKSHUKA!

January 10, 2018 by CMKL

Shakshuka may look like a well-wish after someone sneezes, but it doesn’t mean “Zay Gezunt”. Far from it, it means a mixture of things tossed together. As such, it’s a North African dish, sometimes spelled the Frenchy way as Shakshouka. Shakshuka seems to be one of those recipes that are based on a small number of key ingredients, but the execution differs slightly from region to region and even from family to family. According to Wiki, the dish originated in Tunisia – or possibly the Ottoman Empire, or possibly Yemen. We do know that it is a popular dish all across the Arab world and especially in Israel. It may be served either as breakfast or as dinner, often with bread to sop up the juices.

My cousin Andreas recently published a shakshuka recipe on Facebook that he gleaned from the Student Nutrition Association of Bastyr University in Seattle, WA, USA, published in 2016. The recipe had been adopted by Alyssa Siegel and it looked nice and easy. Andreas’ maternal grandfather was Tunisian so it would be very special to think his grandpa dipped his chunk of bread in a shakshuka that his mother prepared. On the other hand, his grandfather grew up quite privileged so his mom may not have cooked the family shakshuka herself ☺️

Either way, I cooked my version last Sunday. I do have to say ‘my version’ because I omitted the main protein providing ingredient, the eggs. Instead, I prepared a duck breast we happened to have in the fridge. Therefore, my Shakshuka was more a Shakshoucanard. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any cayenne pepper in the house, so I substituted the cayenne with piment d’Espelelette, the Basque chili pepper used in the South of France. And to addle things even further, I added garlic, lemon juice, and coriander seeds to the list of flavorings. My lineup of ingredients looked like this:

Fresh ingredients

2 medium onion, halved then sliced very thinly
3 very large garlic cloves, peeled, crushed & diced
1 large red sweet pepper, seeds & white ribs removed, sliced
a heap of spinach, stalks & mid-ribs removed, torn into pieces, washed, spin-dried
juice of 1 small lemon

cooked separately: 1 boneless duck breast with skin, 410 g or 14.5 oz

Processed ingredients

2 Tbs olive oil
400 g/14 oz [drained net weight] of canned, peeled whole tomatoes, juices reserved
2 tsp honey
‘Maille’ Velours Balsamique, a very thick balsamic vinegar syrup
Confit d’oignons [onion jam]

Seasonings

salt to taste
1 heaped teaspoon crushed coriander seeds
1 heaped teaspoon crushed cumin seeds
1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika powder
1/2 teaspoon powdered piment d’Espelette chili pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

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After slicing, dicing, draining and washing my ingredients, I had to dash to the window for a quick shot across the river because it was the last evening of the season with twinkling Christmas lights and the early evening atmosphere was altogether too eerie to pass up.

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Back in the kitchen, it was time to gently toast the coriander and the cumin seeds in a dry pan to release their aromas.

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Coriander develops a warm, citrusy bouquet, while cumin adds a darker, more earthy scent. Once you can smell the heated seeds, add the oil to create a fragrant bath,

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not for the enjoyment of the Queen of Sheba, but in which to sauté the onions.

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Sautéing onions takes patience and very low temperatures, lest they burn. The same wisdom applies to garlic, added next.

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Followed by the red peppers.

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This melange should be slightly softened before the distribution of aromatic powders, the paprika, piment d’Espelette, the cinnamon, and some salt.

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After the spices have had a chance to heat up and distribute their flavors through the vegetables, it’s time to let the tomatoes join the fun.

Whilst these guys got to know each other, I had the leisure to crisp the scored duck skin at a low-medium setting in a dry pan. The rendered fat was collected into a small jar for other uses.

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Now the spinach needed to be added to the shakshoucanard, to wilt quietly while the duck breast browned in the oven.

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Just before serving, I added the juice of half a small lemon to the stew and had more lemon juice at the table, together with the confit d’oignons and the balsamic velours.

Slices of roasted duck breast over radicchio with shakshoucanard on the side …

… enhanced with some Velours Balsamique, lemon juice, and confit d’oignons.

Lessons learned:

Buy cayenne pepper! The shakshoucanard was not spicy enough. I actually had harissa paste in the fridge but didn’t think of it at the time. This mild version was a tasty companion for the duck, however, I would prefer a lot more oomph preparing it with eggs, as it is intended.
Make at least twice the amount listed. We had pathetically few leftovers and this dish is perfect to freeze in portions before you add the lemon juice.

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Flavorful and tasty, I highly recommend this dish. Thanks, cuz!!

Our 40th Anniversary

January 7, 2018 by CMKL

In France, an anniversary, true to its linguistic roots, means an annual celebration independent of the nature of the event. Therefore, our anniversary would be called an “anniversaire de mariage” or Hochzeitstag, if you prefer.

For the past few years, we’ve made a point of celebrating our wedding anniversary with a meal in a Michelin starred restaurant. Since this year’s anniversary was definitely a biggy, signifying that we had been together since the dark ages, a two-star restaurant was in order, don’t you agree?

The husband did all the research to find just the right place for this year’s jubilee. Our wedding date of December 28th, however, posed a challenge in his selection process because many French restaurants are closed from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve or Saint-Sylvestre which is a huge night out for French adults after the largely family-oriented celebration of noël. Most restaurants in our town, for example, close for a few days for family time and in preparation for their extravagant St-Sylvestre menus, reservations only [well in advance], often with live music and dancing. But my guy is an accomplished internet researcher, and he found just the place for our very own special night out.

A serious concern, however, was the upper respiratory infection I contracted mid-December. Although I felt much better by Christmas, we were holding our collective breaths waiting if Barry would get sick also. Additionally, our heating crashed on us twice in the span of three days during Christmas week, so that we had to deal with 14ºC/57ºF in the house, not too much fun for someone with bronchitis. Fortunately, Barry didn’t get sick, the boiler was repaired and we happily packed our bags for an overnight in La Rochelle. We stayed at the Chambres d’Hôtes Eden Ouest, a B&B in the center of town. In this charmingly restored 1745 townhouse, in which we occupied a large bedroom with a comfortable bed and a huge ensuite bathroom sporting not only a wooden tub from Austria but also the most delightful steam shower. Fabulous treats for these old bones!

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In the evening, we took a cab to the restaurant since it was a rainy side, arriving at the appointed hour at the Christopher Coutanceau for a remarkable experience in fine dining.

Once we were settled at our table, we could take in our surroundings and enjoy the ambiance of the contemporary space. “Wave action” wall designs and intricate lighting systems highlighted the restaurant’s coastal location and the chef’s grounding in all things pertaining to the sea.

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While we sipped our half-bottle of Bollinger special cuvée Champagne with the amuse-gueules, we studied the menu and dove with great anticipation into the unfolding drama of a performance designed, it seemed, uniquely for us.

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We discussed our options and choices comparing the menus presented to us in two different languages. It was pretty funny to read how certain foods or preparations were worded in either French or English. Another, equally important decision related to the wine selection. After consulting the sommelier, we selected a bottle of Côte de Beaune, a southern Bourgogne Chardonnay, an aromatic wine of character which we were assured would stand up well to the strong flavors of our seafood dishes, followed by a half-bottle of the Provençal Bandol AOC for the meat course. We enjoyed Bandol Rosé all through the summer months and were curious about the red Bandol, with its four grape varieties of Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault, and a smidgen of Carignan. Both wine selections turned out to be delicious.

Our first course was a type of seafood which, as highly praised as it is in Asturia and Galicia, we had never tasted before. Gooseneck barnacles.

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Granted, pretty they are not, but they are tasty, particularly in this preparation. There is a funny story in Wikipedia telling about the origin of the barnacle’s common name. Goose or Gooseneck barnacles are sessile crustaceans in the Order Pedunculata living on driftwood, rocks, boat hulls, whales, and so forth. The well-known cleric and historian Gerald of Wales [1146 – 1223 more or less], living during an age when the avian habit of seasonal migration was not yet widely known, postulated that the brant goose [Branta leucopsis, Anatidae] derived from barnacles because no-one had hitherto seen these geese hatch in the British Isles. This unfounded wisdom found its way into common lore so that to this day the bird is called barnacle goose and the crustacean goose barnacle. Nonetheless, there was one medieval detractor of the cleric’s hypothesis, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II [1194 – 1250]. The emperor dissected innumerable barnacles and never once found a goose embryo within. Not surprisingly, being the scientifically minded scholar he was, he declared the goose-from-barnacle story balderdash. It is not known if he ever ate a goose barnacle. I’m sure you understand, why this biologist emerita regards Frederic II as her favorite emperor.

We were a whole lot more familiar with the seafood served subsequently, featuring two different preparations of Coquilles St-Jacques or scallops, lobster, and John Dory. Without any doubt, the star of our first scallop dish was the highly prized seasoning called a truffle.

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Our plates arrived displaying a circle of sliced scallop carpaccio, decorated with little dots of truffle essence. The white-gloved Master of Truffles then shaved a generous amount of truffle, burying the delicate scallop slices under the fragrant aroma of winter truffles.

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After the truffle shaving action, our waiters poured some more truffle essence in a circular motion around the scallop and truffle arrangement.

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Comparatively speaking, the second scallop dish lacked preparatory drama – but certainly not any flavor! Seared diver’s scallops are among my most favorite foods.

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Drama returned in full force with the presentation of our next plate, presented to us in concert by two waiters like a synchronized water ballet performance.

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Without a doubt, this was the unbearable lightness of being lobster. May Kundera forgive me for borrowing his and Nietzsche’s theme, but this dish had the flavorful weightiness and density in texture, as well as a delicate lightness in the form of a foamy, enveloping cloud pulling together the sublime arrangement of textures and aromas upon which this dish depends and these gentlemen expounded so eloquently – if not necessarily in regard to food.

The four bottles we consumed, champagne, white, red and bubbly water

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Even the bread service turned into a performance. A waiter came around with a pushcart laden with baked goods. There were individual buns in a variety of flavors and loaves of yeasty, crusty creations fresh from the oven. The Bread cart was followed by the butter maid – actually it was a guy, but, heck – offering a choice of sweet butter, demi-sel, or salted, plus a selection of herbed butter.

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And speaking of salt, this was the salt cellar on our table. I had to ask what it was because its function was not readily apparent. At first, I thought it was just a tchotchke, but the iridescent globe hid an indentation with a small opening in its bottom through which the salt was dispensed as you shake the pretty glass bowl. Clever!

John Dory with a roasted octopus arm, an artichoke, and a squid-ink noodle thingy.

After the fish courses, we switched to the Bandol to accompany the meat course, venison from the Alsace region. The deer meat had been marinated in red wine for 24 hrs and was rich and tender.

Venison backstrap in quince and hazelnut reduction, chestnut and crosnes sides

Of course, the venison, being a typical winter dish, was enhanced with the ultimate winter flavor, truffle.

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This venison dish was not just flavorful and tender, but also reminiscent of our years on El Rancho Leon in Central Texas. Living in the heart of Texas for ten years, we never consumed store-bought meat. We only ate what our land provided. Since I didn’t trust my markswoman’s skill beyond rattlesnakes and feral pigs, we asked our bow-hunting friend and neighbor to harvest deer for us, splitting the meat between our families. Even though quite frankly, there is nothing tastier than Axis [Axis axis] backstrap, this was darn good!

We concluded our meal with a succession of desserts, beginning with the most beautiful little caramelly concoction. It was a Caramel and Cognac sorbet with Jonchée [local Saintonge “Quark” or fromage blanc]. You see jonchée in market stall around Saintes, so I was familiar with this fresh cheese specialty, albeit not in this unique transformation!

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The creamy-rich caramel sorbet was followed by a thyme flavored lemony lemon sorbet with a crackling lemon shell.

“Everything Lemon”

The almost overwhelmingly lemony heart of the crunchy lemon dessert.

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Oh, my!

After more than three hours of indulgence and debauchery, we eschewed a taxi, bravely walking back to the hotel through the gentle mist of the late December night.

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With rain-soaked hair and moisture-dripping glasses, it is no wonder that this good-night selfie turned out a bit fuzzy 😎

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Toward Year’s End …

December 26, 2017 by CMKL

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It is customary to reflect on the past, sometimes with regret or even remorse as a year comes to its designated end and a new one commences while we either sleep or drink champagne. Thus we either ignore the arrival of the new year in our timezone, or we celebrate it as if we achieved a goal. And maybe we have, simply by surviving yet another one! As the new year approaches, some people attempt to catalog their wishes and dreams for themselves, only to discarded these aspirations within the next few weeks. I am, however, neither a philosopher nor a dreamer, just a realist who has never written a list of resolutions. I gladly leave such endeavors to proper thinkers.

I am simply happy that I feel better after a rather unpleasant upper respiratory infection which restricted the lighting of our Hanukkah candles this year to a grand total of twice. We lit the first candle, but then I wasn’t upright again till the last night of Hanukkah.

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Above all, I am happy that my husband and I are both in a reasonably healthy condition, that we enjoy our life together despite our creaky joints and all those physical nuisances which assume hallmark status on our way toward Really Old Age. Come to think of it, it’s not only the physical issues, the mental lapses clearly, or rather foggily, become unpleasantly numerous as well. That dastardly word that’s on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t quite spit it out. Yet, for the time being, we can still help each other out with a choice of vocabulary options.

That said, we are anticipating major lifestyle changes for the year 2018. We shall attempt to domesticate ourselves. We have tried that once before when we moved to our ranch in Central Texas and it didn’t work out. We loved traveling far, wide and beyond too much to remain home. Nevertheless, we shall once more endeavor to settle down and, glorious novelty, stay put at home.

We are serious about outfitting our new home in Cognac, Charente, France, to include guest space for visiting family and friends. We are serious about adding two dogs to the family and we are committed to undertaking only short-range train or car travel. We are already anticipating the visit of dear friends in June and in July, crossing fingers, our kids will bring Izzy, the apple of our grand-parental eyes, over from Austin, Texas, for a nice, long European vacation. It will be new and different and exciting for us.

Meanwhile, still in Saintes, we’ve pulled out our 30-plus-years old Marimekko Christmas placemats, enjoying a Christmas Eve dinner and getting started on that year-end Champagne. We wish you all a wonderful and warm Christmas Season and the Best for the New Year. As a little year-end puzzle, I hope you will tell me the reason why I wrote the year 2018 upside down into Julie’s wreath in the picture above? Looking forward to your guesses!!

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Barry had to purchase a Bûche de Noël for us this year because I wasn’t up to baking my usual bûche. Next year, we’ll have my version again!

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Before we bid goodbye to this year, I want to tell you a little anecdote about my dad. In the Fall of 1977, Barry and I drove across Germany to Kiel, to introduce my brand-new fiancé to my parents. They hosted a family dinner in our honor culminating in a Schnaps-drinking lesson for the son-in-law-in-spe. My father’s favorite Schnaps was Aalborg Akvavit, a caraway-flavored liquor. In northern Germany, it is customary to drink combinations of beer and liquor, which differ regionally. In my father’s hometown of Hannover, something called Lüttje Lage is the way guys drink their brandy with the local beer. Later in his life, our father’s liquor preference moved a little further North, all the way to Denmark where Akvavit is distilled. After our dinner, he initiated Barry into the secrets of this viscous, sharp-flavored Northern spirit. For my father’s seaburial in May of 1994, I brought aboard a bottle of the most exquisite Akvavit I could find in Hamburg and we all got completely smashed in his honor. It was a true Viking Burial! Ever since Barry and I drink an Akvavit toast to my father’s memory on his birthday, the 25th of December.

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[Since neither of us actually likes the taste of Akvavit, the bottle stays safely stored in the freezer for the rest of the year!]

SweetPotatoSoup with a Secret Ingredient

November 5, 2017 by CMKL

Since it’s a little cooler this weekend, it’s definitely soup time again. As a means of recalling which combination of veggies, mostly, I’ve used to make this soup, I’ll just string some pictures in the sequence of use, adding a comment here or there.

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The sweet potatoes were Honduran, while all the other veggies, as well as the bacon, were French-born.

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Here we have the line-up of ingredients and the prep waste. Clockwise from top left: leeks and the thick ends of the carrots, some elderly potatoes, and the sweet potatoes [in cold water], olive oil, carrots and cubed celery root, garbage in a bio-degradable pseudo-plastic bag [merchants are no longer allowed to use actual plastic bags in our community. We don’t have a garden, so we can’t compost], bacon, seasonings, chopped garlic, and chopped onion.

The bacon is the first candidate to jump into the hot olive oil, closely followed by onions and garlic to be gently sautéed.

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Next up are the celery and carrot pieces to be browned for a little while with the onion base, before I turn up the heat just so that I can dampen it with a splash of red Bordeaux, scraping up any brown bits, stirring vigorously before turning down the heat again. Now it’s time to add the secret ingredient I prepared earlier, Haricot Tarbais, white runner beans from Tarbes, Hautes-Pyrénées. This is the type of bean I usually use for my cassoulet.

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Truth be told, these particular beans were leftovers from the 2016 harvest and I’ve used them a few time as weights to “blind-bake” dough. Nevertheless, they are Tarbais beans and as such, even pre-owned, cook to a perfect al dente and are exceptionally flavorful.

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All that’s left to do now is adding the remaining fresh ingredients, the seasoning, and water.

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Maille brand balsamic vinegar syrup adds sweetness

I’m lazy, so commercial bouillon work just fine for me

In addition to freshly grated nutmeg, I used ground coriander seeds and powdered ginger

Water as needed, about 750 ml

And 30 – 45 minutes later, we’re ready to slurp!

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Ingredients:

100 g of poitrine fumée [smoked pork belly], diced
2 skinny leeks, sliced into 2 to 3 cm rings, white and light green parts only
4 carrots, cut into triangular pieces
half a celery root, peeled, brown parts cut off then roughly diced
a few peeled potatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks
ditto for sweet potatoes
3 large, fresh cloves of garlic – not the dried out Chinese crap!
2 small yellow onion, diced, more is great
1 cube of court-bouillon, 1 unit of chicken bouillon [if I were in the US, I would use a quart of chicken broth instead. I loved the convenience of broth in handy tetra packs. Unfortunately, they’re not available here]
nutmeg, ground coriander seeds, powdered ginger [or fresh, of course], salt if desired
a little red wine, a little Velours Balsamique [thick syrup of balsamic vinegar]
enough hot water to comfortably cook the veggies at hand

Note to self: next time, double the amount of sweet potato and use goose fat instead of olive oil.

Poitiers with Dogs and Manifestations

November 2, 2017 by CMKL

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Recently we drove to Poitiers for a dog-themed weekend, specifically to attend a Friday/Saturday/Sunday dog show held at the arena of the Parc des Expositions de Poitiers. Since we are getting ready to move into our peaceful retirement home in Cognac by the end of the year, we need to make a decision with which type of companions we want to share our lives there. Our garden will be small and we have developed some issues typical for the elderly, including but not limited to concerns of mobility with a decided loss of youthful exuberance, especially early in the mornings. Therefore our beloved Kangal dogs and Beaucerons will no longer be a viable option for us. In the past, we’ve also lived with Bouvier des Flandres dogs which would be lovely to have around again if it were not for their very high grooming requirements. As it is, we need to educate ourselves as to what’s out there in the realm of low-maintenance, low energy, yet reasonably sized canines. We are considering adopting slightly older dogs as well, but only if the dog’s past is well documented.

On Friday morning we embarked on our factfinding mission to Poitiers, which is about an hour and a half’s drive to the North of Saintes. We stopped at our hotel in the historical town center first to get rid of our luggage. The Hôtel Mercure is located in a former church building and turned out to be utterly charming.

Public areas with plenty of gothic appeal 😁

Looking into the restaurant through the wrought iron divider. The iron eyes look in different directions!

Hallway

Our room extended over two stories with the bed upstairs on the mezzanine level. There were arches, cut stone, voluptuous curtains, and romantic views over slate roofs and chimney pots.

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Help! I can’t hold it up much longer!!!

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The main body of the restaurant, as seen from one of the breakfast alcoves

Another look at the mesmerizing hallway running alongside the restaurant “nave”

The Friday afternoon confirmation event, the Séance de Confirmation, was organized by the regional club, the Association Canine Territoriale du Poitou, while the weekend’s Exposition Canine Internationale under the auspices of the FCI [Fédération Cynologique Internationale, the International Dog Federation] and the SCC [Société Centrale Canine, the French Kennel Club], included dogs from all ten breed groups, plus a number of breed specialties and agility and obedience events. Confirmation, the judging of individual dogs against their breed standard is done very differently in Europe versus American dog shows. It is much more exact in Europe, involving actual measuring sticks and a written evaluation of every dog presented to the judge. The judge will also explain her or his reasoning ad hoc to the handlers.

Friday afternoon we just wandered hither and fro through the arena, learning, observing and enjoying the doggy atmosphere. I fell into conversation with one of the exhibitors, a lady who spends most of her weekends at dog shows. She breeds rough-haired wiener dogs and shows them across the country and beyond. She was accompanied by her very pregnant daughter, who showed her Kai-ken. I had no idea what a Kai-ken is when it’s home, so I received a quick introduction to the medium-sized, short-legged Kai-ken or Tora Inu, Tiger dog, one of the six native Japanese spitz-type dogs. They are believed to have been introduced to Japan during the period of the Jomon people’s culture, thousands of years in the past. The brindled Kai dogs were specialized to hunt Kamoshika, a native mountain goat-antelope. All I can say, he was cute! I greatly enjoyed talking with this French woman of strength and grace. Her musician husband is currently traveling across his native land of Senegal in the pursuit of artistic fame and fortune, while she lives with her daughter and nine dogs [children 1 through 9], plus the imminent arrival of her grandson [child number ten] and her son-in-law [child number eleven] all told with a big smile. More than I ever could accomplish!

On Saturday we hit the expo floor running and dedicated the entire day to our breed research, except when we were sidetracked and smitten all over again by Beauceron babies like this one. How can you possibly resist these mega-paws and mischievous smiles?

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Or the power and presence of the adult version?

1st Excellent RCACS, Intermediate class, Malko de la Noe du Jardin

A contender for breed preference were the Dutch Shepherds with their brindle coats and sharp appearance. I’m a sucker for brindle and the ever so vague impression of African hyenas. To clarify, not a resemblance but a fleeting hint of a pictorial memory.

Czech Wolfdogs were a surprise for me, as I had never seen them before. Gorgeous. I wonder if they should be in “show” situations, though. The poor fellow in the grandstands above us was stress-drooling even though he was far from the action.

Malinois are certainly beautiful creatures, but owing to their extremely high exercise needs, like the Dutch Shepherds, they are much too intense for our limited physical abilities.

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We rested for a while in the grandstands, surveying the proceedings from lofty heights. Right below us, the SPA [Société Protectrice des Animaux] did a brisk business with their raffle tickets, while the Briards, les Chiens Berger de Brie, were judged in the ring closest to us.

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We weren’t the only ones needing a bit of a break!

Bearded Collie or Beardie

Rhodesian Ridgebacks might be a possibility for us. They are certainly short-coated and, according to one breeder, downright lazy. At least as adults, they don’t seem to need as much exercise as the herders.

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Walking around the vast arena, stopping here and there for a closer look, we saw a number of breeds of which we had never heard before, including these large, floppy-eared hunting dogs apparently indigenous to our area, the Saintonge.

The dogs in this kennel enclosure took every single one of the six “Best of” titles in the “Hounds hunting in packs” [Meute] category that Saturday. Chapeau, Monsieur Rouhet !

And speaking of packs, there was an obvious intruder hiding amongst these beagles 😁

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After the show on Friday and Saturday, we walked around Vieille Ville, the old quarters of Poitiers, enjoying the sights and sounds of a town which for a time during the 100-year war was the home of the Royal French government while Paris was in the hands of the Plantagenet. It was here in Poitiers that Jeanne [Jehanne] d’Arc, La Pucelle d’Orléans, was questioned by a panel of theologians on behalf of the Dauphin Charles to determine her veracity. In April of 1429, this learned Commission of Inquiry “declared her to be of irreproachable life, a good Christian, possessed of the virtues of humility, honesty, and simplicity” [Wikipedia]. From Poitiers, she went straight to besieged Orléans, where her presence and strategic advice facilitated the retreat of the English within days. One of the charges she faced two years later during her trial in Rouen, by the way, was cross-dressing. Her English accusers apparently preferred their female warriors to attend battlefields in frilly dresses.

This may have been the site where La Pucelle [the virgin] was vetted. It is, at least, the property where we found a 1929 plaque honoring the 500th anniversary of her presence in Poitiers.

Even older than the shenanigans of past difficulties between English and French royal ambitions is this beautiful parish church in the pedestrian zone of Old Town.

Cure de Saint Porchaire

The foundation of St-Porchaire was laid in the IXth century, eventually acquiring its gorgeous Romanesque-style tower. The church is one of only a few churches in all of France with a [gothic, in this case] double-nave. One of the naves was used by parishioners and pilgrims, the other by resident monks. Next door in the presbytery local youths are invited to safely congregate for listening and talking.

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An eccentric hairdo …

a colourful Winter tree …

a perambulating husband …

and curly wrought-iron.

Ancient half-timbered townhouses with large, modern windows

An unusual restaurant configuration: the kitchen is on the 3rd floor.

On the way to église Notre-Dame-la-Grande, down rue de la Regratterie, we were passed by a manifestation we had encountered earlier in Place Alphonse Lepetit.

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French television camera man in action

The large contingent of heavily armed national police and local flics seemed quite relaxed about the youthful demonstrators, as they were carrying their riot helmets in their hands rather than wearing them, while the protestors chanted about their discontent with Trump and capitalism with a capital C. Very civilized, all in all.

The splendid façade of Notre-Dame-la-Grande

Cobbled lanes, embellished fronts, and artisanal wonders.

Pretty much every little French town has a bookstore dedicated to the long tradition of European comic-book culture. My late brother, a fluent French speaker, was an aficionado of the Belgian comic “Tintin” since boyhood. Still, 18 months after his death, passing by such displays, I want to tell him about my Tintin encounters, freezing inside all over again when I instantly realize, I no longer can.

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For my Canadian friends:

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Another time we witnessed a more cheerful and melodious manifestation in the streets of Poitiers, one whose participants were certainly fond of colorful stockings. We never did find out what it was all about …

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The Palais des Comtes de Poitou et Ducs d’Aquitaine. Aliénor slept here. She is better known internationally as Eleanor Duchess of Aquitaine [1122-1204], Queen of France [1137-1152, annulment], Queen of England [1154-1189].

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Now, however, it is high time we returned to the dog show pandemonium! Next up, the Akitas.

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Wait, those aren’t Akitas! Of course not, these are two lovely Scottish Deerhounds. Together with Irish Wolfhounds, I’ve always admired these swift giants.

In regard to the Akitas, there are American Akitas and Akita Inu. We wanted to take the opportunity to have a closer look at both Akita versions as potential companions for us. We met a breeder and successful exhibitor, Amandine Malordy, and her sisters who own the “Les Gardiens de la Cigogne” kennel quit near us in Charente-Maritime.

The larger American Akitas are beautiful and majestic animals with stunning coats and regal bearing. Nevertheless, I’m more strongly drawn to the Japanese Akitas.

L’Makaho Go des Templiers Sacres, 1st Excellent, open males

We have a lot to discuss and evaluate, especially because we came across another breed we’re now seriously considering, the Berger de Picardie. Almost a small version of those rough-coated hounds, don’t you think?

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And while we mull it over, let’s indulge in Kangal images. What could be better?

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Father and son of the Elevage du Domaine du Bois Fidèle were showing together in the male puppy class.

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The puppy isn’t making it easy for the junior handler …

ultimately doing a full somersault before …

… melting into the red carpet like warm jello.

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But the brave handler of the boneless Kangal didn’t give up. He untangled the lead and shoving his arms like forklift bars beneath the dog’s torso, he lifted [!] the puppy up and placed him back on his paws. I have no picture of this courageous action because I was watching it with my mouth hanging open. Well done, unflappable young man!

Below you see the puppy class winner, bred by Guy Gauthier of Elevage Etoile d’Isis in the Dordogne.