Day 11 - SkyLines from the French Lock-down: The Joy of Cooking?

Hey!  I've just done all the veggie chopping for lunch, but there is no way I'm missing my date with you, my friends.  I've given control of the kitchen to my partner and have a little time to share happiness with you.  What's the weather like?  Still cold, but at least it's not raining.  I love that you have been sharing how you are coping with this isolation.  We need that right now.  The statistics each day are making us cry but until the lights all go out, we have to sing to each other, send jokes, share whatever it is that is bright and beautiful inside us.  My talent is working with words.  So I reach inside for the best part of me that I can find and I'm smiling at you as I tap away at the laptop.  Dealing with the dread and the fear is like a tug-a-war but we're on the same team so I know we'll get through this together.   

A bit of a dream - view of our village seen from the Alberes. Photo taken by my partner last year.

Day 11 - This quarantine thing is getting a little surreal - I dreamt about planning meals and cooking last night.  Those who know me should find this funny.  I've never been a kitchen goddess before.  This is still very new to me.  I was just out of college when I married a man who loved to cook.  The next thirty-five years I was feted with creative and delicious meals.  I

Learning to cook is a challenge!

was good at baking and fine with frying eggs without breaking them, but for the main dishes, it was down to my husband.  When he passed on, it meant I had to start learning new skills.  Thanks to friends, the internet, and that fabulously Cockney Jamie Oliver, I have slowly begun to catch on.

Anyway I woke up with the firm idea that it had to be Italian food.  I guess it was the two courgettes (read - zucchini squash) and the trio of pretty bell peppers that I'd bought in the supermarket a few days ago.  I thought they would be for a Moroccan Tangine or a French Quiche, but suddenly, I had a hankering for basil, tomatoes, oregano and parmesan cheese. Yeah, I can make a killer quiche these days and our tangine is getting better every time.  Oh the herbs and spices I've added to my man's kitchen cuboard!  He had no idea what a difference having a woman who demands gourmet food on a retired couple's budget was going to make to his eating habits.  And, I'm pretty sure he likes it.  "Je l'aime quand on cuisine ensemble," he's told me on a number of occasions.  (I like when we cook together) And he really is talking about making meals.  SERIOUSLY.  Stop smiling.  Ah heck!  Actually, let's smile together about that.

So, it had to be Italian style food for lunch today.  When I lived in the States, the big meal of the day was always dinner.  Lunch, especially when I was teaching, was a quick fix to get through

But it's getting easier

the busy afternoon.  It was usually a large sandwich, something to go with it, like soup or crunchy carrot sticks, a jumbo thermos of coffee, and an apple.  I often found myself finishing it during recess or after school as the thirty minutes for lunch were not long enough once I'd taken the kiddos to the cafeteria and checked the mail cubby in the office.  

When I joined the dating sites, practically the first question I would ask prospective men was, "Do you cook?"  Well, as fate would have it, the guy who won my heart has about the same level of skill in the kitchen as I do.  And that's not so bad.  He'd been working in Paris for years and so his go-to lunch was often a brasserie.  I'd been living on salads and sandwiches.  Together, we have spent a year learning how to put meals together that please our palates, our budget, and our sense of joy.  We now have a dozen

And now we're getting the hang of it!

favorites and we're working on new ones all the time.  The rushed lunches have become a thing of the past.  I have learned to eat like a Frenchwoman.  A princess's breakfast, a queen's lunch, and a pauper's supper.  Well that's my take on the old saying. (Wink!)  

Italian veggies on rice
with Veggie Chick nuggets!

The thing is, we're all having to cook right now.  The quarantine and the closed restaurants have given us the need to eat at home.  And I hope everyone is being creative with whatever is in the cupboard.  My favorite chefs always seem to think I'll have a lime or a bit of lemon grass at hand.  As if!    So instead, we're doing what I suspect a lot of people are doing. throwing out preconceived ideas about following set recipes and making combinations with what we actually have in the cupboard.  I have been looking at those cans of food, the dry pastas, rice, and other grains in our "garde-manger" (pantry) and trying to think how they can be used with what is in the freezer and the fridge.

It's a new adventure.  One of the best discoveries this winter was a soup recipe that Y's sister in law shared.  We call it Carol's Soup in her honor.  It's so simple.  One onion, braised.  Half a cabbage, two big potatoes and two

Carol's soup - It's light and delicious!

carrots all chopped.  Into the pressure cooker with two bullion sachets, water to the max line and a bit of salt and pepper.  Forty minutes later we open the cooked veggies and carefully use the immersion blender to blend and puree it into a velvety soup.  It makes enough for ten people!  And so it makes our entree dish for several days. Oh, and speaking of food.... lunch is ready!

Let's keep on sharing, keep on caring.  I hope you are eating well and discovering stuff in the back of your cupboards you had nearly forgotten you'd bought.  I'll check in with you tomorrow and tell you all the useless trivia that pops into my head - and I'll be wishing you well And... even when we're all down to spaghetti and oil with dry parsley for dinner we'll say - Bon appetit!

Another dreamy memory - the days when we would jump on a plane to England
and return to this lovely scene of Carcassonne, the walled citadel.

A demain, nos amis!  Link to Day 12