24 July 2017

Teeth and clutches and green mayonnaise

Today I have an 8:30 dentist's appointment over in Montrichard, which is 10 or 12 miles downriver from us. I broke a filling a while back. I had an appointment a couple of weeks ago and the dentist repaired the filling, but it broke again. I'm hoping the second time will be the charm. But as they say, jamais deux sans trois...


I'll be driving the Peugeot over to Montrichard, because it now has a new clutch. We picked it up from the mechanic's on Friday. Yesterday morning I took it out for a test drive — pleasure jaunt, really, just because I enjoy driving it. I went to places like Châteauvieux, Faverolles-en-Berry, and Lye (where I bought some good bread at the bakery) — about 25 miles of driving in all.


I'm hoping we'll be able to keep the little Peugeot in running order for many more years. I realized recently that we have driven it only 5,000 kilometers, or 3,000 miles, since I had the timing belt replaced in February 2015. The car is nearly 17 years old.


The pictures here are ones I took on Saturday morning, when we had such a spectacular rainbow out over the vineyard. Yesterday, by the way, was Natasha the Shetland sheepdog's five-month-iversary. She's becoming less a puppy and more a dog. In other words, she's settling in and calming down.


We made fish and chips for lunch yesterday. To accompany the fish, I made what is called une mayonnaise verte. I read different recipes for it in books and on the internet. Some called for blanching fresh herbs — we had basil and parsley, but dill or tarragon would be good too — in boiling salted water and then pureeing the leaves. I decided to go the simple route and just puree the raw, fresh leaves in the blender with vegetable oil, and then make the mayonnaise with that oil. It was good with the fish.

12 comments:

  1. It's overcast and cold in Bayeux. It's Normandy, after all!
    k
    For lunch yesterday, my friend opened a bottle of Normandy white auxerrois wine. It was unexpected and very good. The vineyard is only a few miles from Bayeux.

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    1. What does auxerrois mean in this case? Auxerrois is the name of the red grape that Cahors wines are made from. Wines from Auxerre in Burgundy are usually reds, or maybe always reds.

      Vineyards in Normandy: global warming.

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    2. I just read that they do make some white wines in the Auxerre region. I would assume that the grape is Chardonnay, but it could also be Sauvignon Blanc.

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    3. Je ferai une photo de l'étiquette et je te l'enverrai. Je ne sais pas ce que auxerrois signifie dans ce cas-là! Mais, c'était décidément du vin blanc!

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    4. Auxerrois est un cépage qui vient de la Lorraine ! Vin de Toul, etc.

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  2. wow, puppies grow up so fast .. she seems to be a very sweet little girl :)
    Don't you love taking sunrise/sunset photos ? I admit to having way too many but each one is so nice, I can't seem to weed out any of them. Buenos Aires had such clear skies, the colors and clarity was always so good ..NY has some good ones too though :)

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    1. One of the nice things about living in this house near Saint-Aignan is that we can see sunrises and sunsets from our windows every day. And then I normally go out walking with the dog every other morning at sunrise, so those views can be even better. We'll see what we see this morning. We used to have really good sunrises and sunsets on the Caroliina coast too.

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  3. Ah! I saw "teeth", and I figured this would be about Tasha's sharp little teeth snagging one of you :)
    I hope the appointment went well.
    I've never heard of green mayo. Interesting!

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  4. I've always heard that a double rainbow means good luck!

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