Thanksgiving Morning, I was feeling like a special breakfast was in order. It was a Thanksgiving Cowboy Omelette by the fireplace with my girls. When Lucie is with us we always share. In no time both of them looked ready and waiting.
Sammie Cat is usually right there, but that morning she was on protest and turned her nose up at everything I offered her...she even looked the other way! I guess it was some kind of not wanting to share protest!
Lucie on the other hand...
We still had fun and it felt like a special holiday breakfast to me.
Although Vicki and I had started our road trip off yesterday morning with plans to go to Calvignac and wander around in that beautiful place we'd captured from the distance the day before, it was not to be. Oh, we got there, but the mist and a huge cloud had settled on that part of the valley making impossible to see the village or even the side of the road. It cleared as we went higher. Then, we'd seen a sign for Limogne as we were climbing up and up and I remembered that there is a Sunday Morning Market there.
Et, voila!
It's a small market, and a fun thing to do on a Sunday since it is close to Cadrieu. I've gone with friends many times in the past. Some of you may even have joined us!
After our wander through the market and some hot-spiced wine,we stopped in at the Tourist Office.
There was a Lotoise scene in a room in the back, and when I asked about it we discovered that it was part of the "free" museum upstairs.
The museum honored life in the valley at the turn of the 19th century. We went on up, where I discovered LOTS of the same kind of old farm equipment that had come with the purchase of my barn.
We then pit-stopped outside of Chateau Cenevieres to see what their hours were to return on another day.
From there, we wound our way back toward Cajarc and took some shots of home from Saujac before we headed up to the Belgian Cross and its magnificent views.
Vicki had packed a nice picnic lunch for us, so Vicki, Lucie and I also had our lunch up there.
On the way home to regroup, we found a corral of donkeys and had to stop for photos!
Home by 2pm on a Sunday, with thoughts of continuing on to a couple other spots...we ended up cozy by the fire with a glass of wine (or two or three), nibbles interesting conversation and happy to just be planted for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Having company at the Chatette is always an adventure. I've learned over the years that it's important to be honest about the pace of life here, that I'm on the bus and don't have a car, have no television, and that it is a very laid back time. There's no doubt that travel style and match are just as important here as if you were traveling with someone to Paris.
Vicki and I set out yesterday to do St. Cirq Lapopie and took the beautiful route that the bus takes along the Lot River to get there.
As soon as we saw Calvignac hanging from the sheer cliff on the other side of the River, Vicki wanted to stop.
That was fun for me because when I'm on the bus, there's no stopping unless I want to get off, wander and wait for the next bus home. What fun to be able to make stops along the way. We even had a conversation about how some people REFUSE to do anything like that. I find that you're lucky if they let you take a bathroom break. So, yesterday morning was Calvignac, La Toulzanie and St. Cirq Lapopie!
Vicki was particularly intrigued by the troglodyte houses that are built into the cliffs in La Toulzanie! Interestingly, the birds do it too!
Pictures all along the way...lunch in St. Cirq Lapopie and a quick coffee later that afternoon in Tour de Faure with Jean-Luc and Odile.
We've planned a picnic and a wandering day for us today. Sundays are good for that AND Lucie is going to come along.
For all my goings on about a "turkey sandwich" beside the fireplace, as the week went on and after my successful trip to the Intermarche I decided to do a little more.
I scooped some escalopes de dinde and some medaillons de blanquette de dinde, brocolli, and pasta. I had the makings of what I thought would be a nice Thanksgiving Dinner beside the fireplace after French class.
And look at that, we even had a little heart-shaped blanquette des dinde in our stash of 6!
I ended up baking them in the oven with a honey, soy sauce, lemon glaze. The pasta was thin thin spaghetti noodles with a creamy, brocolli, artichoke, mushroom, parmesan sauce with lots of garlic!
I shared the turkey with the girls who gobbled each of their tidbits down like great gobblers do, but saved the wine and pasta pretties for me! And, I couldn't even eat it all! There will be left overs and other goodies ready for Vicki's arrival for her visit this evening!
It was a great repas and an evening.
I couldn't stop loving and hugging on the girls as they gobbled that turkey down to let them know how grateful I am for them and this life we have in and along the Lot!
These end of the year holidays always stir memories and reflections. I'm spending Thanksgiving this year in a place that doesn't celebrate the holiday so I'm going to be going up the hill to French Class at Christiane's and then probably having a turkey dinner of some kind beside the fireplace with Sammie Cat, Lucie and...
...mounds of gratefulness.
Last year, I was on the second leg of my road trip around the southeastern quadrant of the USA, and was in Sewanee TN with my friend Kate Gundersen and her family.
Kate and I hadn't caught up in forever and I'd promised myself that there were people I needed to see before I made my more permanent return to Cadrieu. Kate was on that list. Being with her, Chloe, Clare, the 4-legged children and the rest of Kate's family was a real treat.
I think I made the mashed potatoes, or at the very least helped!
Although not the same, this part of Tennessee sometimes reminds me of home in the Lot!
A special Happy Thanksgiving to Kate and her family, remembering the wonderful times we shared together last year! And...
Coming home on my bike from Cajarc yesterday, I noticed how gorgeous the Chateau looked with the light reflecting at the end of the day for a change. I opted out of stopping for a photo so close to home AND with a backpack and basket full of groceries!
The real clincher was when I got inside and began to unpack...out the window we were ORANGE!
How perfect coming up on Thanksgiving for an American who is in a country where it is not celebrated! Thanksgiving is certainly being celebrated just outside my windows on the Lot!
I shared some of these photos of Sammie Cat yesterday, as she pondered my "Cowboy Omelette!" and debated about whether she should try it or not.
Sometimes I can be a little lazy.
Opening up the stovetop can be a problem when I have stuff all over it, and I think I gave my toaster away or have it stored around here somewhere that I don't remember. Then it hit me...Cowboy Omelettes in the oven! I went to work with my cookie sheet, et voila! A Cowboy Omelette AND a very tasty round of Cinnamon Toast! What a treat!
Of course, using the oven has the added benefit of warmth in the kitchen. Some of my cooking and reheating has been done on the fire in the fireplace, but I haven't explored the Cowboy Omelette there yet. You can bet that it's in my future!
I was telling my Dad about "Cowboy Omelettes!" He is often looking for trivia questions for his twice monthly trivia events he honchos at Hidden Lake. I told him to ask his group: How do you make a cowboy omelette? We giggled about it together. He remembered Vann and his pit stop visit to Ferguson that Christmas of 2007.
That conversation took us to other Cowboy stuff. We've been having some cowboy fun together that I'll share sometime soon.
Did Sammie Cat decide to share that Cowboy Omelette from the oven with me?
I'm resurrecting this post from February 27, 2015 today, since I have yet another technique or two for making the "Cowboy Omelette" a la my friend Vann Yates. In spite of the fact that my friend Vann had been brutally murdered in North Carolina only that January before in 2015, I still had some fun writing that post...coming up on three years ago now. It brought Vann closer and my friend Nadine back too!
Interestingly, I kept looking at the spelling and wondered if I had it correct. I'd spelled it a variety of different ways in that old post. Evidently you can spell "Omelette" two different ways, as I have here AND "Omelet!" Now apparently, there are differences in both meanings, but either one is acceptable-go figure!
Today Vann and Nadine are close again!
I wonder what tomorrow will bring?
Enjoy and I'll be back!
Happy Monday!
Stirring the Other Side-February 27, 2015-I've never been a big breakfast person, but lately I've been enjoying a poached egg from time to time. Usually, I put it on top of some spinach/artichoke dip I like to make and it becomes a "faux" Eggs Sardou. The other morning, two of my people on the other side collided.
You see, Nadine had given me the egg poacher. Every time I use it she is close. Then, there's Vann. During one of our stateside/France telephone conversations, Vann asked: "Do you know how to make a 'cowboy omelette', Laury?" I didn't, so he explained that you: "take a piece of white bread, use a glass or something and cut out a hole in the middle, put a litle butter in your frying pan and crack your egg right into the hole." It sounded like fun, so I tried it and even shared a Cowboy Omelette breakfast with Jean.
Yesterday I decided to make a couple variations to Vann's recipe: poached egg not fried and wheat grain toast not white. Nadine would have been fine with that, but I can hear Vann screaming now: "What kind of eggs?; What kind of bread?; and, Are you out of your mind, Laury?" But he knows me, I'd just go on and do it whether he liked it or not. (I loved him very much, but we were very different people.)
If I say so myself, it was pretty wonderful. The fun thing about both versions is that after you make the hole you have a little round piece of bread left over. Fried or hot out of the toaster, I usually sweeten up that little circle with a nice jam and maybe some butter.
Hmm, maybe I should call my version the "Cowgirl Omelette". Vann would "get a giggle" out of that, but I think for Nadine it would have to be "Cow-woman".
I miss you Nadine and Vann, but stop back by for breakfast anytime!
Those of us who are "overalls people" tend to have more than one pair of overalls. Frankly, I've lost count. I decided to wave to everyone yesterday in my "good" overalls.
Those were my striped engineer pair that I've worn regularly and deliberately wore to the Women's March on Washington, DC last January!
Yesterday, I found myself planning to go out in the sunshine and spray some weeds. I didn't really want to wear my "good" overalls, so I went to the hook and took down my "work" overalls.
Acutally all of my work overalls start out as good overalls. It is fun to see them evolve. That pair that you see in the top photo has long been a favorite of mine. They are now full of paint, varnish, red wine, and I'm sure a lot of other stuff.
I love wearing them when I'm cooking too because I can just wipe my hands on them and not even worry about it!
The other thing that I love about them is how easy it is to take off the "good" overalls and just throw the "work" overalls right on over whatever you're wearing at the moment. Simple Life Stuff! Yesterday, I had on my red long-johns that had been a Christmas present from Mom and Dad and a navy blue 100% wool sweater that had been my Nannie's.
So many ways to enjoy all those overalls. Lunch date today with some artist friends from the vernissage, and you can bet that I'll be wearing my "good" overalls for our lunch.