TODAY it was FUN of sorts!!!
Three batches of 2kg of harvested from the garden over many days. Red tomatoes were blanched in boiling hot water to remove the skins. Added to three large cloves of decent French garlic sautéed in olive oil. PLUS into the redness lots of fresh basil leaves from the courtyard, from the previous house matured ( ! ) red wine vinegar, Ile de Ré sea salt, ground black pepper, a spoonful of brown sugar, heated high then simmered together...reduced until thick and a different colour. Jar or freeze.
Each time it took about an hour!
2 kg of medium sized cougettes before they were too large to seed, peeled with the best vegetable peeler in the world from IKEA, ends chopped off, sliced into finger sized lengths, placed on a baking paper on the large trays of my Neff oven, the one where the door folds down and disappears (Porte escamotable "Slide and Hide"), drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and baked slowly.. When cooked and cold packed into a container for the freezer.
4kg large courgettes bordering on marrows. peeled, and inner seed pulp removed reduced to 2kg weight. Added 1.5kg sugar, juice from 4 Valencia juice oranges. The skins and fruit of the oranges were cooked in a saucepan for at least an hour to soften.. All left over night.
Next day, simmer the marrow and sugar, with added sliced thinly cooked orange rind for as long as it takes to change colour and reduce liquids, then rapidly boil. Stir often. Towards the end add some sliced crystallized ginger, or suspend in the pan at the beginning some fresh grated ginger. Taste and see.
About a week ago I was gifted plums so I made yum plum jam!
In between i picked more courgettes and more tomatoes... and worried like HELL about my daughter and grand daughter and LIFE and LOVE discovered and LOVE LOST and men and women and relationships and how suddenly some days women or men start being unkind to the very person they were in love with.........Why does that happen?
In between I look at the UK and world news and someone's TWITTER page and wonder why so many people detest and hate each other and why do people wind each other up about faith, religion, politics, etc etc etc etc etc etc and it brings me down to my knees sobbing my heart out!
I swept the courtyard and rearranged the garden pots.. Must weed the white stones tomorrow and then there is more cleaning of the cuisine and the arrière cuisine and vaccing and paperwork to organise yet again.
It all got muddled at the TAX OFFICE when the man who was angry with me for complaining insisted it was my fault !!! I was wrong - they were right. Eventually, he thought there was an error on their part. He produces=d a new blue form, filled in my pensions in certain boxes. Bring it back on Monday filled in!!!!!!!! Gosh, I am grateful! With any luck I might get income tax reduced... They wanted 600 plus euros this year and I am not the only English person with a huge demand!!!!! Others have had huge increases! Last year they repaid me almost 100 euros! WHY? The year before that 370e and the year before that 335e and the year before that 51 euros... it does not make sense!!!!!!!!
This year they changed the forms and the boxes we have to fill... NO - state pension is not a private pens=sion. The French insist it is.. I had this several years ago when I was first privileged to receive my State Pension.
This year the man who started to be hostile was asked by me not to be angry with me.. He then was polite and at the end we were both empathetic as he heard a little of my story. He two lived alone and said it was preferable to living with someone where there was pain and unkindness!!!!!! He was so kind, gentle and warm at the end that I wished almost to hug him!!!!!!!
After the struggle to be in the kitchen when there is so much else to do I had a happy day. My hands are stripped of the oils by the marrow ... quite I am happy at the close of day.
Tomorrow is another day!
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