Puff pastry and apple tarts

I am at the cooking school now, on an hour's break. This morning, I made Puff pastry, pizza dough, and pie pastry. We also had a session on knives, what to buy, how to use them, how to store them, and how to keep them sharp. This afternoon, we are making a 'Cassoulet'... a typical casserole with duck, Toulouse sausage and white beans. It really tastes wonderful so it will be fun to learn how to make it. The problem is you can't just make it for 2 people. You need at least 8 portions. You should always make it the day before you want to eat it so the flavours meld together. It is true 'farm' peasant food.

During the knife session, we learned how to properly slice and dice an onion without losing your fingers, and how if cut properly, you won't cry. And how to use garlic and make a garlic paste. We also learned how to use garlic without a 'garlic' taste... just the full bodied flavour. (Would you believe the Cassoulet had about 20 cloves of garlic in it, but when Peter tasted it, he said it was delicious and couldn't taste the garlic!! He even had seconds!)

I am loving it!!! Peter is here with me. My puff pastry collapsed while cooking... I unfortunately cut through it slightly when I was 'decorating it. I learned how not to do it!

Spring has arrived.

The weather is glorious and flowers are everywhere. We are in an 'apple' area, and the pink apple blossoms fill the orchards. Tomorrow, we are going to Gramont where we are staying at a farmhouse for 3 days. I am taking a cooking course and Peter will be exploring the countryside between coming back to the farmhouse for a gourmet lunch and dinner! All is well.

I am winning....

My intensive French course is now over, sad to say. It was great fun. Peter took me out to dinner on the last night and said, "Don't be sad. You can't expect to speak French by taking 5 weeks of a 30 week course. And it is difficult to learn a new language at our age."

Then yesterday, we had a meeting at the bank, as we have a few problems with our account. The women we spoke to had very little English, so she explained how to fix our problem in French. I could see Peter wasn't 'getting it', BUT I UNDERSTOOD THE PROBLEM!! So I confirmed back to her in French, then wrote out (in French) the steps we had to take to fix the problem. She said (in French) 'You understand correctly.' When we left the bank, Peter turned to me and said he was 'amazed' and in 'great admiration' of what he had just witnessed. He said he couldn't believe what I had learned in 5 weeks. And then he asked if I wanted to go back to school!!!

So I will be taking a few more weeks of 'intensive French' later in the year.

Peter is Cooking

Tonight, when I got back to the barge from French school, this wonderful smell was wafting from the kitchen. I looked at Peter and said... What's cooking? You won't believe it... he had followed a recipe and had made 'Roasted Vegetables with a Blue Cheese Crumble Topping'. Very 'gastronomic' and delicious. What more can I say....

Learning a new language at the age of 67!!

Going back to school at my age is a challenge! I am loving my French language course, but gosh!, I am completely suffering from brain fatigue every night. It is an effort just to think!!

The course is intensive, but I already notice results in that I can understand more when I read, and I can now understand how to use a past tense and a future tense of the main verbs. However, I am still very frustrated in that I can't hear the individual words when I listen to the French speak. They all seem to speak soooooo fast.

We already had a written comprehension test, and I did very well on the verbs, but where I am falling down is on 'the little words'... le and les, de la, des, au, aux, en, à, etc. So I have to do more work on 'prepositions' and how to use them.

But the more I learn, the more I realise I have to learn!! Five weeks of French lessons is not even touching the surface. I already told Peter I want to do this again next year!!

Peter has been very supportive...

He has been shopping, cleaning, doing the dishes, and going to the markets (as well as attending to 'barge' needs, i.e. filling the water tank, sweeping the deck of leaves, etc. And each day, when I get off the train at 5:37, he is waiting for me at the train station, and carries my books back to the barge (300 metres away.) And when we get back on the barge, he pours me a much needed glass of wine!!!

On Thursday evening, he cooked the fish he had bought at the markets (he made Trout Mueniere) and it was extremely good.

And on Friday, the train station intercom accounced my train would be an hour late... so I went back to the barge and Peter drove me into Toulouse so I would not be late for school. (Unfortunalely, on the way back to the barge from Toulouse, he pulled off the road to make a U turn and hit a rock which demolished the catalytic converter attachment point under the car... a VERY EXPENSIVE little exercise!)

Have to Share this one with balloon friends.....

A balloonist friend of ours, also now retired, sent the following in an email, which made me laugh out loud whilst reading it!!!

"I sometimes still dream about balloons and flying, more often than not a bad dream where I an flying very high and then find I have no gas or landing in a snake pit.
The best, or should I say the worst one, was a couple of months back when I was in a balloon at about 3000 feet when the pilot light went out and I could not relight it. My wife woke me up as I was jumping all over the bed and swinging on our bedroom light fitting. I was trying to relight the bedroom light as a balloon burner when she switched it on, and I was able to make a safe landing on the bed, but very shaken. The light fitting had to be replaced and the and the ceiling needed a little attention. Since then I have been trying to give up night flying."

French Language School

I started my intensive French language course last Monday (4 days ago). I am a bit brain dead by the afternoon, but am loving the course. In only 4 days, my reading comprehension has increased noticeably, and I am catching about 20% more words in conversations.

When a French person speaks, however, I am still not 'hearing' much of the little words as they all sound like they are running together. I get the gist of the sentence, but not the detail. I really have to 'speed up my ears' to keep up with the sentences.