It will soon be 2015. Guess that makes me a year older too(zut).

We went to the Alsace (northeast of here) for a "Christmas fix" and wine. Everything is so decorated at this time of year.  Alsace celebrates Saint Nicolas (6 dec) and not Pere Noël. The influence for Christmas is more germanic than french in the region. Just a little note, Strasbourg has had a Christmas market (Marché de Noël) since 1590.
The weather was warm, so there was no snow this year. Here are a few photos of Eguisheim, one the prettiest villages in France. In the summer, there are flowers everywhere.

Our hotel, waited for a car to leave, then this one pulled
in, so I gave up and took a photo

Walking down the main street- le Grand rue

Winemakers place

Plaza with church behind -Pope Leo IX (1002 - 1054)
was born here, so statue of Leo IX

Stork nest on top of church bell tower
The Alsace is known for its' storks(i.e. in the
summer, they migrate south for winter)

Nativity scene

Another winemaker

Part of the Christmas market (Marché de Noël)

Other half of the market- fountain still running
since it was warm

Market at twilight time

Very Christmasy stall with wreaths, santas, dolls...

Want a wooden tree?

Store next to the market

Same store, need Alsacienne pottery?

Pretzels (Bretzels) are big in the Alsace. Vin chaud is mulled wine

We stopped at this stall in the market to buy some sausage
(dry sausage is called saucisson)
and some cheese (sorry I left my purse in the photo)
Very good saucisson and cheese. In fact we
bought some foie gras saucisson...

We only stayed one night. It is about 3 hour drive to Eguisheim. Usually, we arrive in the afternoon, then go to Domaine Gruss for a wine tasting, buy wine, then across the street to the hotel, have dinner and leave the next morning (with our wine). Keith loves an Alsacienne dinner with Riesling, and we like Domaine Gruss.
Alsacienne wine is not as sweet as the German versions. Most of the white wines are drier.

Speaking of wine, for those of you who like french wines. The prices on some Bordeaux wines is down (this is not wine from the big names, but some of the regular Bordeaux wines). So Keith has been experimenting. How low can we go in price and still have a drinkable, agreeable wine? We have been down to 3€ (one we had below 3€ was not so good). Tonight we had a nice St Emillion that was about 5.50€. It was quite nice. We have done this with Burgundy wines too, and 3€ is about the limit there too. Just thought I would toss that note in.

We had a very nice Christmas at chez Hoquet. This year,  we had wild boar. It was delicious. We started with fish and salad as the entre (entre here is the starter course- entrance to main course), then wild boar with mashed potatoes and an incredible sauce, followed by the cheese course and then dessert! WHEW...Of course some very fine wine was served with each course. You eat slow and talk and relax. Dinner like this takes a few hours, not minutes!!
I did not think to get out my camera until later, so here is a photo of the cheese!

Need I say more...

One member of chez Hoquet had not been invited to sit at the table.

although he did score a few scraps later!

As always, we passed a pleasant afternoon, eating, drinking and enjoying our friends.

We have had such a warm fall. Not a lot of rain and many days in December were between 45°-55°. Some foggy, but warm. Well, that finally changed and we started to get a few nights below freezing (0° Celsius).  This morning (27 dec) everything was white and -1° C.  I got up a little after 7am, and of course the sun was not up yet. Everything had a pink glow. Hard to capture in a photo, but I tried anyway. By sunrise it was raining, and now there is very little snow on the ground.  Photo out the backdoor, actually through the door, I was not going to open the door with the wind blowing!

It was a softer pink, but because of lighting (or lack thereof)
it comes out a little more in the sepia tones. Should level
the horizon!!

Recipe  of the  Month
Truffles

My truffles

These are so good. Bit fussy to make, but not that hard. A melon baller makes it a lot easier. Get creative and use other flavoring, or roll in nuts or sprinkles or...
INGREDIENTS

Creamy inside

•  ¼ cup butter
•  3 Tablespoons heavy cream
•  2 Tablespoons orange liquor (or other flavoring) -I used 3 TBS orange juice
•  1 teaspoon orange zest
•   4 ounces chocolate semi sweet (chopped)

Coating outside

•  4 ounces chocolate semi sweet (chopped)
•  1 Tablespoon oil or butter

PREPARATION 

1.  Melt butter in sauce pan
2. Add cream and bring to a boil while stirring
3. Take off the burner
4. Stir in chocolate and orange liquor and zest
5. Stir until smooth
6. Cover with film and put in the refrigerator until cool and firm
7. Have a cup of boiled water ready, the melon baller and a cookie sheet covered with Parchment Paper
8. Dip melon baller in hot water then into chocolate for a nice ball shape. Place on paper. Continue  until chocolate is all gone (dip in hot water each and every time)
9. Put cookie sheet in the freezer for at least 30 minutes
10.  Just before taking the chocolate balls out of the freezer, melt the chocolate for the outside coating in a bain marie. Add oil  and stir well until very smooth
11. When chocolate is melted, with two forks, dip ball in chocolate and then return to paper. Dip each one in the chocolate, careful to cover totally. Work quickly so ball does not melt.
12.  Leave until totally cooled and hard on the outside..takes a little while-do not panic. You could put in the refrigerator to hurry the process.

ALL DONE… now eat one to be sure it is good!


Bibeleskaes  

This is a sauce used with potatoes. Much like sour cream and chives, but this is even better. Hmm, could be the fat content in the recipe (ya think)!! Also, it does not have the sour taste that sour cream has. Fromage blanc is not sour. We had this while in Alsace with potatoes browned in butter (now had bad is that for the health!). We both flipped over it, it was so very good. It is often put on baked potatoes too. Then of course, notice the ham on the plate in the photo I added.

It may be hard to make in the USA, unless you can get the Fromage Blanc. Not sure the greek yogurt would work as well. Notice from the photo how thick the sauce is.

INGRÉDIENTS

1. 800 gr (28 ounces) Fromage blanc (ou Fromage frais) à 40% fat [substitute Greek Yogurt, or Queso fresco]
2. 200 gr (7 ounces) Crème fraîche épaisse (thick) 30% fat
3. 50 gr Ail ( 2 regular cloves GARLIC), minced
4. 100 gr (3.5 ounces) Echalotes ( 2 small or 1 large shallot or mild onion) chopped fine
5. 30 gr Ciboulette (CHIVES- about 3 Tablespoons) chopped fine
6. 10 gr Sel - salt to taste
7. 1 gr Poivre - pepper to taste

Just blend everything together and refrigerate for about 2 hours for flavors to mix. Take out a little before using so it is not icy cold. Stir again and serve.

Decembre 30 2010

Dec 28 2010   

Dec 19th (OK I need a haircut)

Happy New Year

It is almost the end of the month, and end of the year. If I do not get my act together here, it will be 2011 before this is done.

It is the time for reflection of the past year and time for those new resolutions.

We have passed through a good year. I was happy to see some of my family with my trip to the USA.

Before I go on with the month of December, I have to go back to the end of October. I forgot to mention last month that Keith went to Italy for an end of the season “soiree” with his colleagues from the tour company. They went to Acqui Terme, a small village north of Genoa or just south of Asti. One of the guides for the company also has a vineyard and his parents have a Bed and Breakfast. They ate and road bikes and told stories. He had a great time. Keith thought it was a beautiful area and would like to go back (with me of course).

Here is a photo that he took.

Acqui Terme

Now onto December.... First a brief weather report, just to bore you.  We have had snow this month. Two big snow “storms”. It does not snow a lot here, so 2 inches here should be compared to about 6 inches in Minnesota. The first accumulation ended up being about 5 inches. Trains were late, school buses for the Cote D’Or were cancelled, and other regular buses were late or cancelled...the place was in chaos. Keith was going into Dijon. The train was not running so they had a bus instead. It took over an hour instead of the 10 minute trip by train.

You have to add to this equation that Dijon is totally torn up right now; why ?..because they are working to put in a tram system. We just got another little blast of snow just before Christmas. There really was not much snow, but it had rained for 4 days prior, and then the temperature plummeted and Mother Nature added a few inches of snow on top. Roads again were a mess. We have had a cold spell, with the temperature all the way down to about 10 degrees. Brrrr that is cold. We left Minnesota to get away from cold and snow. So that is the weather report, and enough of that.

The week before Christmas on Dec 19^th, I had an invitation for a concert and cocktails from the Mayor’s office. I had worked on the Cluny Expos, and this was a thank you. This was actually through the Photo Club. The club could invite 5 extra people (other than president...). I had taken photos at the chateau and had two photos in the Expo. The History Club had the same, but the president said she could not pick just 5 from the 20 some people that worked really hard. Who to choose and who to leave out!

The concert was by a local group called the Laostics. They sing medieval and baroque music, usually a cappella. For this concert they added some medieval and baroque instruments. The singing was still mostly a cappella, and then there were a few songs just for the instruments. This concert was in the old church St Aignan which is from the 11^th century (they had actually turned on some heat before the concert). It was an excellent 2 hour concert. The singing and the musicians playing the instruments were all absolutely brilliant. I just used my little camera, and inside photos are not the greatest (or nighttime either), but here are two photos 1) of the chorale group and 2) of a couple of the instruments.

Laostics in St Aignan 11th century church

Instruments- I pushed the lighting so you could see the instruments

I have to remark here on a french custom. Maybe I have mentioned it before, maybe not. At all of the concerts; small, large, amateurs, professionals, they introduce each piece with an explanation. Depending on the person, it may be short or can be very long explanation!

The concert was open to anyone, and it was free. As part of the group that was invited, we had reserved seats in the front. Wow, how nice and privileged.

After the concert there was a reception. Hors d’oeuvres were served, along with red wine from Gevrey, white wine from Marsonnay and juice or water. Then cheese was served (there is a fromagerie right here in the neighborhood) and after that, bite size desserts. It was a wonderful evening. I am starting to feel that I belong to this village.

A few days before Christmas, Keith and I took the train to Strasbourg. Strasbourg is located in the Alsace in the north east section of France. It calls itself the Capital of Christmas. Our train was stopped on the way up in the Jura because of rocks on the tracks. Yes rocks had fallen off the cliffs and on to the tracks. We were only delayed 30 minutes, as there were no boulders that damaged the tracks. We were resting on a narrow shelf that is wide enough for two track lines, and below us about 50 feet was the Doub river. Since we have had a lot of snow and or rain, it was a raging river. I tried not to let my imagination get away from me and imaging the worse.

We arrived in Strasbourg in the rain. We did spend 3 nights there and toured the city and the Christmas markets and ate Alsacian food (see this month’s recipe). It rained on and off, but it did not pour, so we made our way around the city. It is a pretty place, but I think if we go back it will be in the warm weather.

Strasbourg- Petite France

Strasbourg

Strasbourg Christmas Market

Strasbourg-     COOKIES

Tree

Street in Strasbourg -name look familiar?

Christmas was wonderful, as always. We had noon diner with Marie Therese, Christian, her father and sister. The trip over was a little dicey because of the ice and snow, but we made it without a porblem. We shared a excellent meal with some great wine. We finally left (because of the weather) at 5:30. I hope you had a nice Christmas too.

My History Club has been busy putting out the 3^rd edition of its Gazette and a small book from our exposition. The book is limited, because we had permission only to use some of the documents in our Expo, not for reprint.

We have also been working on how to archive all of the information that we have accumulated. Joelle’s house is not the long term solution.

Photo Club will have an Expo in May, theme is trees. I hope to find a good tree photo.

We finally bought a new computer. We held our breath every time we started the old one. And turning it on or off took anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. This one will be faster; however there are a few bugs. The new one has only a USB connection for the keyboard. So without an option, we plugged in the french keyboard. The a and the q are swapped, as one example. You know how often you use the a?  Lot of little differences, but slowly I will get there. Also having some problems with my PhotoShop. Hope that works out soon. My genealogy program set up without a hitch…YEAH.

Good news, it did load in English, however it converts some things to french, and we have not figured that out yet.

Keith is fine too. He is trying to get his last 120km in on his bike to reach his annual goal of 10,000. With the wretched weather, he has not been able to ride much the last two months. So he has only today the 30^th and tomorrow the 31^st left. Bon chance mon amour.

RECIPE OF THE MONTH

Alsacian Baeckhoeffe

This may look difficult, but it is not. It is just a stew. You marinade the meat, and then the next day put it all in the pot. I have eaten a few variations. One that I had was like a stew with lots of juices or sauce; the other had all the liquid cooked out, so there are just the potatoes layered with the meat. I preferred this method, as it is a little different. I will try to achieve this on Saturday January 1^st. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL…
NOTE JAN 2, 2011 : I made this recipe for the 1st of Jan. It lacked a little something. I have looked at a few more recipes, and it appears that two things should be changed.
1. Use meat with some fat. I used lean meat.
2. Many recipes add a pigs foot... could help. Common here, maybe a little harder to find in the USA
3. Maybe a little beef broth
Sue

INGREDIENTS

 For Marinade:             

• 2 onions, sliced   
• 2 carrots, sliced            
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped          
• 2 bay leaves         
• 1 sprig thyme or 1 teaspoon of dried thyme   
• 3 cups dry white wine (preferably Alsacian Riesling)

Marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

INGREDIENTS  More:         

• 1 pound beef chuck roast, choice grade, cut into 3-inch cubes         
• 1 pound boneless pork butt, trimmed and cut into 3-inch cubes       
• 1 pound boneless lamb shoulder, choice grade, trimmed and cut into 3-inch cubes     
• 3 pounds Yukon gold potatoes (or other waxy potatoes), peeled and cut into 1/8-inch slices         
• 3 leeks sliced in small circles
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste             

For Pastry Seal (optional : This is the traditional method. If you have a tight cover, first put aluminum foil over casserole. Then put on the lid. Press the foil tightly to the sides of the casserole dish to make a extra tight seal).              

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour         
• 5 tablespoons water     
• 1 tablespoon olive oil   

DIRECTIONS

 TO PREPARE MEAT AND MARINADE: Combine the marinade ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add all the meats and toss gently. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.   

TO PREPARE VEGETABLES: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper, and lightly oil a large ovenproof casserole) with olive oil. Cover the bottom of the casserole with half of the potato slices. Remove the meats and vegetables for the marinade and reserve the marinade. Arrange the mixed meat over the potatoes, and then place the vegetables in a layer over the meat. Cover with a layer of the remaining potato slices and pour the marinade over them. Add enough additional white wine or water to just cover the top of the potatoes. Place the lid on the casserole.           

TO PREPARE PASTRY SEAL: Mix together the flour, water, and olive oil in a mixing bowl, and form into a rope shape long enough to wrap around the rim of the casserole. Press the dough onto the rim of the casserole. Place the lid on top of the dough and press to seal completely (this seal will prevent any of the cooking liquid form evaporating).            

TO COOK: Place the casserole in the oven and cook for about 3-1/2 hours. Remove the casserole and serve.