It didn’t start that way. Breakfast was my usual sensible affair of all-bran, granola, yoghurt and fruit, with a slice of toast and coffee.Rosanna decided to go for a short bike ride to Crillon-le-Brave before lunch and before it got too hot. I decided tomake marinated mushrooms and another batch of tomato confit. Then I went off into the fields to forage for some more damson plums (view from there of Les Valettes). By the time I was done with that, she returned, having had only partial success (she got to Bedoin but then I think ended up in Caromb where a pizzeria smelled delicious and never did see Crillon-le-Brave).
Quite a bit of discussion (some had also occurred the day before) ensued about where I might like to have a birthday luncheon. We finally settled on Le Grand Pre (aka the pea gravel restaurant, aka La Wells’ Thursday hangout) and called for a reservation. The parking lot is as pinched as when Guy and I went last year, but this time we picked the primo spot facing the exit so the same kind of delicate manoeuvering as was required last year was happily avoided.
I had a pork cheek terrine with pickled sweet cherries and confit of pearl onions to start. Then I had a beef entrecote grilled (between saignant and a point) with some little grilled baby zucchini with the flowers still attached and some delicious potatoes roasted in animal fat. With the first course I had a delicious glass of white wine from the Coteaux du Luberon (LaCanorgue), and with the second a glass of 2006 Cotes de Rhone Rasteau “La Prestige”. All very very tasty and such a lovely patio and service. As you can see, I wasmaking the most of a non-vegetarian meal, but it initially sat a little heavily, so I had to rest quietly at home with Edith Wharton and thenwith these blog entries for a while to recover before switching into dinner overdrive. Rosanna had a siesta, although it is hard to imagine why that was necessary after a Caesar salad and a risotto with little vegetables topped by poached eggs (although I think they may have been napped in that energy-sapper buerre blanc). Needless to say, La Wells did not appear, or I would have mentioned it by now. All our food (and our persons) look(s) a little orange due to the umbrella fabric.
Dinner overdrive involved cleaning the peaches and plums and making a galette, setting out the tomato confit and rice croquettes (a fresh batch made by Rosanna), and getting the things all ready for the tomato clafoutis to go in the oven and for the salad. We had a very nice evening (until the neighbouring madam with the barking dog yelled at us for being up diningand chatting at 9:30pm when other people were trying to sleep) and drank some rose (finally finished the box!) and then two very nice reds – one brought by Malcolm and Francoise from the Seguret-Roaix vignerons and one of the ones we had purchased at the Chateau d’Hugues. Wehad a nice bit of St. Nectaire and Banon cheese in addition to the things already mentioned.
I had occasion to eliminate two large spiders (both discovered by the arachnophobe Rosanna) from the giteduring the course of the evening, and I had already assassinated a large scorpion with my flip flop two days previously. It was about 1 ½ inches long and looked just like a lobster. Perhaps it is a change of season thing and they all come into the houses
now. I have started shaking out my shoes and clothes before putting them on.
Glad to see the posting has resumed - and so vigorously! I am quite sympathetic to Rosanna's arachnophobia, as you might imagine. Given your description of the scorpion, can your faithful readers look forward to seeing them featured in a recipe for the, much-anticipated, Thursday night dinner?
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