Merry Christmas!!!!!!!
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| Christmas Cracker |
Our first Christmas in France was so much more than we ever could have imagined when we left Florida in July. Linda and Rod had very kindly invited us to be with them to celebrate in the English tradition. We walked next door at 12:30 and joined the company of Rod and Linda's daughter Lucy and her boyfriend Neal, Rod's mother Dorothy and sister Leslie. Linda popped the bubbly which accompanied the caviar,chopped boiled egg,red onion and homemade sour cream on water crackers. I have to say that was a tradition we brought to the feast. We munched nibbles while opening mini Christmas crackers and groaning at the answers to the silly jokes inside.The actual lunch was scrumptious. The table (a former barn door artfully reincarnated by Rod) was beautifully set. Linda had procured a fresh free range turkey of rather grand proportions; it was moist and flavorful. There were carrots with parsnips, peas and the beloved/despised Brussel sprouts. There were roasted potatoes, two types of stuffing and two gravies because the lovely Lucy believes gravy can only be brown!
http://www.picnik.com/show/id/17986152488_ScqgH for photos!
Of course, no British Christmas feast would be complete without Christmas pudding and cream or rum butter - yum. We opened our large Christmas crackers and donned the silly hats as tradition warrants
More food? A plate of French cheese was next. Red and white wine was served throughout and the meal, finishing with Swiss chocolates. The day was a delectable mixture of french and British culinary delights.
It has been our custom to celebrate Brian's birthday on Christmas Eve with friends and a cake but this year we sang the birthday song on the actual date - Christmas day. We celebrated his 71st. I was most embarrassed to say that his birthday present was in "still in the computer"-his new "Hairy Biker's Cookbook" was eventually delivered on December 29th!
The French side of food.
As it is year-round, each region of France has its own provincial foods. It was quite simple to discover what was traditional in our area. Near the end of November hundreds of big boxes of chocolates appeared in the marché. By the beginning of December I noticed for sale special plates to serve oysters on the half shell; indented metal plates, tongs and forks for escargot; rectangular ceramic plates with wire cutter (a lyre) for foie gras (incidentally, the sale of which will be banned in California as of July 2012). At mid December the oysters and snails arrived in the fish department and were artistically displayed on ice and seaweed.
L'apéritif (bite size munchies)
Spanish clementines and
*Bûche de Noël (Yule Log) followed.
*This log with purported magical properties was a tree which was cut down then placed in the large open hearth on Christmas Eve dates back to the 1200's and may have been associated with the
twelve days of Christmas. And, in true male behavior, there were
community rivalries over who had the biggest LOG!! Yup, even back
then....
After writing about our regional foods, I am reminded of the culinary names in our immediate area; the French really do love gastronomy.
Bordeaux: fabulous wine, red and white; Cognac: the best of brandy; the towns of Chives....Brie...and Chef Boutonne (actually the head of the river Boutonne) .... but alas, we are no where near Champagne but we are close to.... Champagne-Mouton. Translation: Champagne-Sheep....hmmmmm???
As the last days of another year draw nearer we reflect on that which transpired in 2011: the sadness of saying goodbye to family and friends but the anticipated joy of seeing them again soon; the new friends who have come into our lives in France and to borrow a line from the song, we just know : "The future's so bright we gotta wear shades."
We wish all of you a very special and heartfelt:
Til Next Year..............
