Back to Brioude for Cooking with Soline!!

November 20th

Alors! I have arrived at the Nice Airport to go to Paris and then to Clermont Ferrand where Soline is going to pick me up to go to her home in Brioude.
Last night I did not sleep all that well for two reasons. First, the long-awaited (but then, aren't they ALL long-awaited, as nine months of pregnancy IS an eternity) arrival of Oliver Robin Flynn was pending with Facebook messages from Newton Wellesley Hospital Birthing Suite. Happily he arrived before I fell asleep. His maternal grandparetns are my good friends Pat and Rich Zirpolo. Second, I sometimes am afraid that I will not hear my alarm and oversleep. But, WELCOME, Oliver Robin! And I awoke in plenty of time! I am all checked in with an hour before they start boarding.
It was dark, when I boarded the bus at 7AM. At about the tenth stop, two men strangely enough got on at the side door, which is usually the exit door. Well, they went passenger to passenger to check that we had purchased tickets and composted them (had them stamped in one of the machines on the bus). And then I saw that two other men had gotten on at the front door. They only took one young woman off. This was the first time I had experienced this on public transportation here in Nice . (Now in Budapest with my brother Clough and his wife Peggy is another story!) It appears that the fine is about 42 euros or $50+/-
Soline greeted me at the airport. On our way to her home, we stopped to see one of the many grand Roman churches in this area in Issidore, Abbey Saint Austremoine.

Unique for painted columns

Soline's plan was to have endive and ham with bechamel sauce for dinner. So we prepared the endive by slicing them in half, and then Soline braised them with some butter (olive oil optional choice) in bottom of her pressure cooker. (She was the first person I saw her using one. She has three of them!)  Then she cooked the endives for ten minutes in the pressure cooker. She made the sauce ( I would call it a white sauce) without  a recipe, but here is one which Giada posted had on-line.

1 stick unsalted butter (4 ounces)
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 quart whole milk, at room temperature
Pinch fresh nutmeg
Sea salt and white pepper

Melt the butter, then add flour, which will form a ball. Then add the milk, and stir until the sauce thickens. Add sliced mushrooms to the finished sauce. Then she wrapped the endive with a piece of sliced ham, poured the sauce over it, and baked it in the oven. This was delicious, and you have a myriad of vegetable options to use in place of the endive!

Soline had made a pear tart (at least I helped peel the pears!) with a crust she had made. She will have me make one before I leave!

However, her brother and sister-in-law were here, so we ended up not having time to eat this casserole, as we were off to her choral practice. (Shades of my Community Chorus days!) This was interesting as the Peruvian director wrote the songs they were practicing and they were all in Spanish! Someone gave me a copy of the music, so I could follow along-but no singing!

November 22nd

This morning we were off to gym class! Soline loaned me clothes, and we went; it was good-not at all hard! Since I had taken my camera (EVERYWHERE!), Soline snapped a few pictures of me, which made me laugh when I saw her!

Then for lunch we got to have the delicious ham and endive casserole with bread and cheese and fruit. First she served beets with parsley and vinaigrette dressing. Her husband Jean Jacques,who is the mayor of Brioude, came home for lunch, as is customary. Her son Julian who is presently working between here and Barcelona was also here for lunch.       

Our afternoon tea with bakery cookies!

Tomorrow there is a horse fair and the market and the new Beaujolais is out! Tomorrow night her friend Martine, who introduced herself to me at the choral practice, is coming to dinner.

Do come back to see what meals are in my future! Actually her brother brought her four pheasants, and I watched her (sort of) clean one of them, as she plucked every feather, etc. She was brought up on a farm, so this is very familiar to her. So pheasant is on the menu for dinner tomorrow night. And I AM HAVING SO MANY NEW EXPERIENCES!!!!!!!!!!