Day 14 - SkyLines from the French Lock-down: Let Us Eat Quiche!

Salut!  Ça va?  Hi - (How are you today?)  I know, this confinement is tough.  The news is depressing, and every time you sneeze or cough you think, wait a minute, am I okay?  Yep.  We're with you on that.  But so far, we're doing okay and we sure hope you are also.  So, I see the milk has been open for a few days and we still have some eggs.  There are bits and bobs of leftover veggies and a bowl of smoked ham pieces.  I did buy two ready-made unbaked pie crusts.  There - that's lunch sorted.  My partner can get it started for us. Meanwhile, I'll chat with you about all things trivial and wonderful that come to mind.  After that we'll bake lunch -  yes, it will be quiche! 

Vineyards in the fields above my village - leaves will soon burst forth 

Day 14 - Boy, this deciding whether to write in la cuisine (kitchen) or le salon (living room) is getting to be old - and even worse, they are actually the same room... then I remember how lucky we are to have a really large space for the kitchen and living room.  We keep thinking of the folks in the cities like Paris who have an apartment room the same size as this.  If I were really feeling ambitious right now, I could walk across the hall into the office that leads out onto the terrace.  I could even go sit in the guest room upstairs or work in our bedroom or out on the small balcony where we hang the laundry.  Yes, we are very lucky.

So, I'm sitting at the kitchen table while my French partner, Y, gets the ingredients ready for lunch.  I had fun yesterday taking photos of street signs here in Argelès sur Mer and I wondered about the town shield.  My own village, has a shield beneath the

My village has a place de la république too!

clock tower.  

I was looking at photos on my phone that I'd taken when we were last there.  Oh, how I'm missing my little house and neighbors!  It's only a few miles from here.  Usually we swing by there every few days and do things at my house.  But right now going anywhere without essential need is forbidden and fined.  So, my house is locked up and waiting like we all are.  Um... Where was I... oh yeah, the shield.

My own village shield (or Blason, in French) is a very old-fashioned one that is based on the heraldic shield of the Marquis d'Oms - a powerful family in the Middle Ages.   His shield was three stripes of gold and three black stripes.

 The shield that represents my village is the same - with three stripes of sandy gold interspersed

Village shield beneath the clock tower

with three black stripes.  The only difference is that across the top band are three black square diamond shapes.  The villages around my own have similar shields showing that they also were governed by the Oms family.  The family motto - "Noblesse sert comme sert vieux lignage," makes me smile.  "Nobility serves as serves old lineage."  Right.  They couldn't come up with one that was more cool than that?  Just sayin'.

 The village has updated the old style blason and if you look closely at the street signs in my village, you will discover that the village uses a modern blason these days - a Catalan striped shield of red and gold with the image of our landmark clock tower.  It was built during the period that the Eiffel Tower was being constructed in Paris.  So, as many towns and villages did at the time, they built the clock tower in the same shape. 

Instead of being made from iron, they were built from stone and brick. Most of these homage towers disappeared over the years, but the one in my village still stands and the

clock tower

clock rings out the hours and quarter hours. I can see it from the terrace on my village house.  Sigh.  I will see it again, when this is all over.  It's a very small price to pay if it helps stem the spread of the virus.  Luckily, I love to read, write and spend the day making music. I also enjoy discovering the past.  Clues and signs of history embrace us, if we just look for it. 

So, I went looking for it.  The name of Argelès sur mer seems to be based on the fact that this area has a lot of clay in the soil and the word Argile is clay in French.  There was a lot of pottery made here in the Middle Ages.  Next, I looked at the street sign photos that I took with the blasons on it.  Okay - it's a white square diamond shape with a green band at the bottom.  At the center stands a prickly plant in bloom.  Below and at each side are blue fleur-de-lys.  Ah, I recognize that as being related to French royalty.  I'm off to look it up.  

Okay, the prickly plant is the common gorse bush.  Appropriate, there are a lot of them growing wild around here along the roads, rivers, streams and in the fields.  I have no idea what the green is for.

 The fleur de lys usually represent allegiance to French royalty or sometimes to the Pope.  And the town motto?  "Qui s'y frotte s'y pique!"  Love it!  The history searches say it's "Collect Thistles, expect prickles."  That's cute.  A direct translation is less catchy but makes sense too - "He who would rub against this will be pricked!"  That's a lot less stuffy than the Oms family motto.  But I must stop for a moment and help Y get the quiche ready.  He's pre-baked the crusts for 15 minutes and chopped up onion, bell pepper, courgette (zucchini) and ham.  I need to slice up some left over steamed potatoes and help get the quiches ready to bake.  Yes - two, I'll explain when I get back.

Okay - the quiches are baking in the oven.  Two because one is for my omnivore partner and the other is a vegetarian quiche for me.  You know, if you'd told me when I was young, that I'd love egg pie I would have run a mile.  But this is one Y and I have learned together and we love it.  Sometimes he eats vegetarian with me, but other times, I'm happy to make two so he can have ham and cheese in his.

Today, we added sliced potatoes under the cheese and he says it was delicious.  A quiche is really simple - not like a souffle where you have to be careful to keep the eggs all light and not open the oven door suddenly.  You pre-bake the crust, and then set the oven for 190 C (374 F).

Spread a cup or so of something yummy across the bottom - his was braised onions, the smoked ham, the already cooked potato slices left over from yesterday's lunch, then top it with Swiss cheese - about a cup of that.  Mine was sauteed onions, peppers, and courgettes with herbes de Provence topped with the same cheese.  The 4 eggs in each one can be three, and then you whisk them up with a cup and half of milk, a dash of salt and pepper then pour it over the filling.  Into the oven it goes and 30-45 minutes later you can see it's ready from the way the egg is puffing up a little bit and the edges are browning.  

Don't wait too long or it will be hard.  Still edible but not nearly as nice.  The center should still be a little wiggly when you give the pan a gentle shake. My pan is deeper than Y's and is less wide, so the filling is deeper.  His is ready 5-

10 minutes before mine. And if you don't have a crust or want to be gluten-free, you  can even make a crust-less quiche, I googled it to be sure. So, what's the difference between a crustless quiche and a frittata?  It's the milk and the cooking it on the stovetop to start then just browning it in the oven.  So, if you're short on milk - look at frittata recipes and you know what?  Recipes are just sign posts and guidelines.  As one of our Irish friends says

about speed limit signs: They are just advisory. (Recipes, I agree.  Speed limits, no, no, no, dear lady!  You know who you are.  I am pretty sure you are just being funny.  Love your sense of humor, darling girl!)

So that was the big event in our day. Cooking together. I know a lot of you are spending more

A Table! (Come and get it!)

time in the kitchen than ever before.  It's a good thing.  We are feeding our bodies and our souls as we prepare food to keep us all strong.  It's what we need to do to win this battle.

And after the dishes were done, we took our exercise for the day.  It was a walk down to the river where the recycle bins are.  We cleared out our lungs with new fresh air, looked at the beauty that spring is creating even if there are not many visitors in the  village this year to enjoy it with us. We stretched our muscles and did our civic duty of recycling.  There, that's Day 14 done....  

Be of good spirit, believe we will come out of this, for we shall.  The world may never be the same as it was before, but we will go on making it the world we want to see.  Step by step and even if we can't do it hand-in-hand at the moment, we will do it together.  Hang in there, nos amis.  We are thinking of you and sending you good wishes.

Flowers by the Massane River

À demain! We'll check in with you again tomorrow, nos amis!  Link to Day 15