After a long rainy day spent inside doing absolutely nothing, we found our selves ravished between lunch and dinner;) Lounging around is hard work!
We had Spanish green olives and Nicoise black olives with pain de campagne and Comte cheese. Lets not forget to mention the lovely local Savoie wine- a slightly sweet, fruit forward wine with hints of apple and pear. Yum!
I’m still having fun with stale bread! For lunch I made an oh-so-delicious panzanella salad. A traditional Italian salad of tomatoes, stale bread, olive oil and vinegar. No, we’re not in Italy, but we are a short two hour drive away, and they too know how to make a feast from stale bread.
I started by generously coating the bread in extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Then baked it to create croutons. I made a zesty vinaigrette of Dijon mustard and red wine vinegar. I then sautéed zucchini, onions, mushrooms, and red bell pepper with thyme and a touch of oil. I cooked all the veg until just crisp tender then tossed the hot veg with tomatoes, croutons, and the vinaigrette. The bread soaked up the warm veggie juices and vinaigrette.
Wow! It was yummy. Adam finished his then eyed mine until I relented and gave him the remainder. I’m glad I can make him so happy:)
Mmmm…. I love France and that I’m a great cook 😉 On the menu today- Pain perdu avec abrigot et fromage blanc. Nourriture délicieuse!
I made French toast with cream, eggs, salt, and a touch of nutmeg. The baguette was VERY stale, so I let the bread soak for a long time. I toasted it in plenty of butter over low heat so the exterior got brown, crisp, and caramelized while the interior stayed rich and custardy- Parfait! J’aime la nourriture Française!
I melted some apricot jam and cut up some fresh apricots. Then I plopped a generous portion of fromage blanc in the middle and topped it all with the melted jam, fresh apricots and alpine flowers. Served it with some bitter French roast coffee and voila- breakfast!
Thanks to our lovely friend Elodie, we already knew about a regional speciality called Raclette. She recently hosted a lovely Raclette dinner- we were hooked. It wasn’t until a few weeks before we left for Europe that we learned that Raclette is a very popular regional dish here in Savoie! Lucky!
I started the meal with a generous glass of Bonal, of course. I made fresh green salads with a sharp mustard and red wine vinaigrette- just the way we like it. We also had skewers of onion, mushrooms, and zucchini, crusty French bread rubbed with garlic, and boiled baby potatoes. All covered in hot, bubbling slices of Raclette. Wow! I’m so glad Elodie taught us all about this fun and delicious French tradition!
After a lovely and vigorous two hour mountain hike, we needed a snack. We had half a mini cantaloupe – again better than any we get in the US, like fruit concentrate- and a half piece of ham terrine en croute. As well as a small glass of aperitif Bonal, a local delicacy. It is a bitter-sweet herbal aperitif and I’m totally hooked. Yum! When’s dinner…? 🙂
Couldn’t decide what to have for lunch. Too many choices now. So we had a little of everything:) Half a croissant with country pâté, Comte, Dijon, and greens. Chips, cornichon, French icicle radishes, apples, and a green salad with a red wine vinaigrette.
What a lovely Alpine morning! After a leisurely walk whilst picking beautiful flowers (to flower aficionados: yes, those are ranunculus, and yes, they grow wild here!), I had toasted pain de campagne, or country bread, with butter and apricot preserves from the Savoie region. Why can’t our apricots taste this good? The jam is sooooo flavorful. Fruity and floral with the most concentrated apricot flavor. I think I’m going to buy thirty of these little jars so I can bathe in it! I also had a great cup of strong French roast coffee and some sweet and tangy cherries.
Finally! A great, hot meal! We adventured down the mountain and explored the Super U- a large grocery store in Aigueblanche. We stocked up like real Americans! We were getting lots of funny looks from all the skinny, small basket bearing French customers:) But we didn’t care. We have a large refrigerator (according to European standards anyway) and lots of pantry space. We do not have confident mountain driving skills. We opted to buy enough for a whole week- totally unheard of here.
Anyway, I made a delicious zucchini carbonara with what Adam described as “the cutest pasta of all time”, Epinettes- adorable wheat flower shaped pasta. I also made a green salad with tomatoes, mushrooms, black Nicoise olives and balsamic vinaigrette. It was filling, hot and just what we needed to forget the first couple days here in France. I should not forget to mention that we ate dinner on our deck with the most spectacular view of all time and that the weather is positively perfect. Things are looking up:)
We weren’t looking forward to driving down the mountain to get groceries, so we pushed through lunch with miscellaneous gas station fare. Stale French baguette with country pâté , Comte, salad greens, and balsamic with an apple. Even gas station food is good here 🙂
We still haven’t made it to a proper grocery store, but I’m very happy with this tasty breakfast! Gas station croissant with slices of Comte cheese, apple and English breakfast tea I stashed in my bag at a hotel 🙂 Can you believe the view from my kitchen window?!?
Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. 