problems with other blog

Folks, should you have tried to read my backinkentucky blog, you may have had difficulty getting into it because the blog address I put in the Christmas letter was sort of seriously wrong. The address for that blog is NOT what I put in the letter; rather than that, it is:

www.backinkentucky.blogspot.com...

Cheers, Lillie

post for sarah--avocado soup

For enough for two people with leftovers for the following day (for at least two):

2 avocados, ripe but not yukky

2 cloves of garlic

1 large or two medium shallots

2 big limes

2-3 cups chicken broth

large glob of either thick yogurt (like Greek) or sour cream or creme fraiche

salt, pepper, possibly more lime juice

Chop garlic and shallots coarsely, squeeze limes, put garlic and shallot in blender or food processor with salt, mince. Add avocados and lime juice, blend, add chicken broth, alternating with yogurt, add some pepper or tabasco, taste. add more salt or yogurt or lime, to taste. Chill.

If you want to be fancy, put chopped chives or Italian parsley on top to impress people. Or I suppose you could put garlic croutons, but I've never done it.

Love, Mom

back in Kentucky take 2

I'm having some withdrawal symptoms here. While there are things that are in season and should be taken advantage of (is that a proper construction?) like heirloom tomatoes, enormous zucchini (is there actually anybody at my house who will consider eating this? I mean ENORMOUS, they are giving the stuff away sort of everywhere), and green tomatoes, Martin and I have had garlic soup three times in the last four days. Friday everybody agreed it was too thin. Part of the problem was that I browned the first bunch of garlic I put in (it seems to be better if you put garlic in twice). It was pretty good, though. And when I made it again on Saturday, I was more careful. I didn't brown it, just cooked it until it smelled, and then put in salt, some flour, some pepper, and a great deal more garlic. Didn't brown any of that, either. Cooked it awhile, put in water, more salt and pepper, cooked it awhile, put in egg whites mixed with a bit of wine vinegar, cooked it some more, finally put in some egg yolks mixed with a fair amount of vinegar. More salt, pepper. Used rather more flour that time. Also leftover bread. Very good.

This is one of those dishes created to deal with food shortages by poor people, isn't it? You've got garlic growing wild in the garden, some duck or goose fat sitting around, a bit of leftover dry bread and/or some flour. One egg, and a family to feed. What do you do? You stretch the egg (or a couple of them) as far as they will go. I suspect that it got started using leftover wine as well, too far gone to drink with food, but it tasted pretty good in the "potage".

The thing is that it is not only very good, but VERY good for you. Hard to beat. And not worth a **** the day after, as Martin and I learned yesterday (Sunday) when we ate some left over.

My next problem is that I want some of that mayonnaise I had in France that came in that squat jar that was sooooooo good. I was thinking about making some tuna salad today, from canned tuna, and got stuck on the mayonnaise issue. The ONLY mayo in my house here is Hellman's, which is about as good as you can get here in Kentucky. It's NOT the same as the stuff I was getting in France. So what's to be done? I didn't have tuna salad for lunch; I had a can of sardines (I need very badly to lose some more weight, too, but that's another issue). I may have to start actually making my own mayonnaise, not an ideal approach, but...

And then there was the aioli I bought in a jar at the Intermarche. I wasn't optimistic about it at first because I had read the ingredient list wrong, and didn't think it had all that much garlic in it, but OMG, that stuff is GOOD. It makes the aioli I make here taste anemic, and it's a LOT less trouble.

So tonight Martin and I had (a) fried green tomatoes (it's August and we're in Kentucky, so there!), Mexican chicken breasts (chicken breasts with chilis on it, sauteed in olive oil), and Reblochon. So how many food heritages did we hit there?!?

Lillie

Larry McMurtry

I now know that I have more than I thought in common with Larry McMurtry. If the name doesn't ring a bell, he wrote "The Last Picture Show", "Lonesome Dove", "Terms of Endearment" (I hated that book, but the immediate world seemed to adore the movie), the screenplay for " Brokeback Mountain", which won him an Oscar, and a few other things. He's from West Texas, near Wichita Falls, went to Rice University, and was an English professor there when we were undergraduates. Cousin Bob Martin had him for Freshman English.

Turns out he didn't graduate from Rice; his undergraduate career got de-railed there by, are you ready for this?, Math 100. He left and got a B.A. from North Texas State University, came back and got an M.A. from Rice and was eventually a professor there for awhile.

My budding career as a mathematician got de-railed by, you guessed it, Math 100 at Rice University. I skulked off to get a VERY undistinguished B.A. in French Literature.

At least I have good company.

Lillie

Back in Kentucky

We flew back to Kentucky yesterday (I say "we flew", that's an oversimplification). Had to get up early, drive to Bordeaux, return the car, take a plane to Paris (Roissy CDG), change terminals, walk several miles, take another plane to Atlanta (10 hours in a sardine can), go through immigration and customs and go back through security (third time for the day) but THIS time I unfortunately had a small bottle of water I'd purchased at CDG, and then we flew to Lexington, Martin met us and drove us home. It was a long day, but I read Sarah Waters's book The Little Stranger on the flight. The airlines seem to have thought of yet more ways to get money out of people. First, it turns out that Air France will promise you a seat with actual leg room on a flight if you pay them an extra 50 euros. Second, it appears that Delta has reduced the weight you are allowed, even as a Medallion flyer--I suspect effective July 1--as what we brought back actually weighed LESS THAN what we took, and we got hit with a 50 euro overweight charge.

And THEN, to add insult to injury, on the translatlantic flight, they are no longer allowing free booze in economy class (aka "Sardine" class). You can have either one can of beer or one glass of wine with your meal without paying extra, but spirits and extra beer or wine comes with a hefty price tag. They do still let you have water without paying extra.

I shouldn't complain; the flights themselves were uneventful and they didn't lose any of our luggage.

A followup to the wedding: Jim Krupa seems to have hung the big sign that says "Drop off location for wedding" (or whatever exactly it is) in the barn at the door to the biggest chicken coop.

Back in Kentucky it is typical July weather: hazy, hot and humid. People in southwest france complain when the humidity gets up over 50%--it does get very hot, but always seems to cool off so sleeping is comfortable--and I always tell them they should visit Kentucky in the summertime.

Lillie

Night market, Cadouin, July 27

So we went to the night market at Cadouin again tonight. Lots of fun, good food, although the oyster guy has apparently lost his lease on his spot because of problems with his source or problems with its lack of germs or something (sob...I did want oysters...). so I had moules frites again, some wine, the local plonk (e.g., Bergerac rose chilled and Bergerac red, not chilled). It is, I must say, not a bad way to spend an evening. Ken and Val Day were there, as were Paul and Pam. None of the other usual suspects. Phil had this dish that is a piece of pain de campagne (country bread) with a disk of goat cheese, a couple of walnuts, and a drizzle of acacia honey on it, heated up in a microwave (micro-onde, sounds better in French, but what you'd do in another setting is put it in an oven or grill over a fire). I had to settle for a crepe with Grand Marnier, which I guess isn't too bad (the bread/goat cheese/walnut/honey concoction was gone by the time I wanted it, and I did NOT want a whole one, so....)

Tomorrow will be crazy. Gotta go to the bank and sort things out there. Phil has to stay here and sort things out with the technician who will deal with the sewer (I hope; Phil knows quite a lot of French but doesn't communicate all that well with the locals who speak Occitan; I don't either, but it's a bit easier for me, I must say, so maybe he won't get here until after I get back).

Have to get some more bread, to make smoked salmon sandwiches for Wednesday (Delta flight, NOT Air France, we leave from Bordeaux at 1:30 p.m., go to CDG, and leave there at 4 something, on Delta, need FOOD...). These will go along with our pate en croute from the boucherie on the square in Lalinde, e.g., the one with the wonderful meats in it (almost certainly pork and duck, along with pistachios and Lord only knows what else) and the foie gras down the middle. If you have to suffer on a trans-Atlantic trip, you might as well eat well, I always figure.

And then we are going to Ken and Val Day's for lunch (12:30 for 1:00, as the Brits always say...), a swim maybe, and whatever. I need to get a great deal done before we go there, because I probably won't get much done after we get back. So there.

The weather has been gorgeous. Hot in the daytime, but not too hot, and what they consider humid here is NOT what I consider humid (although 88 and 65% humidity is a bit uncomfortable, but it's been that hot only ONE day since I've been here, and FOUR days since we've been here, what with me and Martin going to England and all that). Nothing like the HHH days we get in Kentucky (hazy, hot and humid), and NOTHING AT ALL like the dreadful heat and humidity in Texas. It has NEVER been so hot and humid at night that it was hard to sleep.

According to my sources (all British), it is lovely here until usually late November, when it gets cold and damp. Like you can eat outside in the evening in September, October and some of November. So there. Does anybody out there want to come over here with me later (but not much later) this year?

Do I want to teach this year/next semester/next year? Don't know...life is short, and I fear I'm not bored yet...

Best, Lillie

sewers and other chores

It seems they are going to put a sewer through our street here, sometime this fall. Jeannette told me I needed to go have a chat with the Mairie about it; I have been putting this off because I HATE having to talk business type things with people in French. Turned out, it wasn't so bad. I went in, finally got the lady there to understand what I wanted to discuss, and she said, oh, it'll happen, November or December, you don't have to do anything. They will put a tap-on line (but she called it something else) in for you; you don't have to do anything. And then I said we won't be here in November and December, and this put it in a bit of a different light. So she went and got a "technician (some big guy named Jean)" and told him, and he asked where I lived. I told him the name of the street and said I was between Mme. Dumas and M. Esteve, and he said ah, in the little house up at the top of the stairs, and I said yes. So he is coming to have a look tomorrow morning. I assume he will show up.

And then there are the keys. Which are expensive, and one of them didn't work, so I had to take it back to get it re-ground. Fortunately I dealt with a guy who shall we say seemed more competent than the one last week. We'll see if the bloody thing actually works.