A Pig in Provence is Food For Thought

Two weeks ago Jain @Once in a Blue Moon launched her Food For Thought meme and two of my favourite blogger friends Sarah @HFTS and Carol @ Serendipity took part. Click on the links to see which books they recommended.

Food For Thought combines three of my favourite things: reading, cooking/eating and photography. I guess technically that's four things?? C'est pas important!

The book I have chosen to share with everyone this week is "A Pig in Provence. Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France" by Georgeanne Brennan. You can find it here at Amazon.

Georgeanne Brennan has written numerous books about cooking and gardening and has received both the James Beard Foundation Award and the IACP/Julia Child Cookbook Award for her writing.

She discovered Aix en Provence as a student and returned several years later, to buy a small farmhouse, with her first husband Donald and their young daughter Ethel.

This book spans 30 years and tells the tale of their first home, their lives back in California and Georgeann's return to Provence years later with her second husband, Jim.

Before they acquired a pig, Georgeanne and Donald kept goats and Georgeanne began making goat's cheese, the first batches she describes as inedible and unsalable then.....

"Finally, one day I unmolded a batch of cheese that felt different. Each round, dimpled with marks from the mold, felt firm and heavy in my hand as I turned it out for the final time.

I put one of the pristine cheeses on a plate and cut a V shaped wedge. The interior was solid and smooth, creamy and white. I tasted it. It was soft, slightly tangy and very, very good. I called Donald and Ethel, who took tastes, and we danced around the room, holding hands".

Each of the eight chapters introduces the neighbours who inhabit the area, Mme. Rillier who sold them the goats, M.Gos who supplied the pig.

Farming friends Marcel and Marie who hosted wonderful harvest suppers and also"La mise à mort" when the time came to slaughter the pig.

Each chapter ends with a recipe:

Goat Cheese Salad with fried Bread.

Braised Pork Shoulder with Mustard and Capers.

Juniper Rubbed Chicken Stuffed with Wild Mushrooms.

Bouillabaisse, Toulon style.

Vegetable soup with Basil-Garlic Sauce.

An Aioli Feast.

Leg of Lamb with Rosemary, Thyme, and Lavender.

Tomato Tart.

Making the tomato tart was simplicity itself and it makes a delicious light lunch served with a mesclun salad.

Georgeanne no longer hosts her Cookery School in Provence, due to the weak dollar situation, however, your can read here about the Provence in California- Culinary Weekends held at her Small Farm in Northern California and here you will find her web site.
I rate this book: **** Four Stars and I think you'll like it too.

Baby, it's cold out there.

For Outdoor Wednesday today, graciously hosted as always by Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer, a snowy landscape mosaic featuring Mr Ben the Snowman and another of my white Christmas tree.

The snow mosaic photo's were taken in 2004 and 2005 when we had snow for Christmas and in the New Year.

I don't think we'll be having a white Christmas this year, although a glimpse out of the bedroom window early this morning revealed fields covered in a very thick frost.

On Monday I showed you the tree in our library, which I enjoyed decorating very much, the next day I couldn't wait to try out my ideas for the smaller tree in the sitting room.

I decided on a white with silver accents theme and used large white silk poinsettias, white and silver baubles, clear glass stars, silver gift boxes, stars and beads.

Pride of place went to the white heart with pearl accents that Joyce (stepmum) gave us for our 30th Wedding Anniversary.

Voilà !

Mr Ben, who is never far away from me, sat patiently nearby ready to give his opinion on the finished ensemble.

Jackie @ Jackie's Personal Blog took up my book recommendation recently and has just finished "A Redbird Christmas". She blogged about it here.

I wonder if anyone else did? I would love to know what you thought of it, if you did.

A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg

I'm joining Mary the T @ her Work of the Poet blog for my first Ruby Tuesday party because I want to tell you all about a great book, which I have read many times, and is perfect for getting you in the mood for Christmas.

Head on over to Mary's for more red gorgeousness.

By my favourite author, Fanny Flagg, this real feel good book is "A Redbird Christmas"

Buy it for a dear friend, mother, aunt, sister and an extra copy for yourself, you'll love it!

It's Tuesday so it must be time for Tam & Diane.

It’s 3 or more Tuesday over at Tam’s The Gypsy’s Corner and so today I’m going to share with you some of the books that I have read this year and the novel (pardon the pun) way that I acquired some of them.

Because you see, apart from one, I didn’t actually buy these books, so I’m also linking into Diane’s 2nd Time Around meme too.

These ladies do an excellent job gathering us all together to share stories from our daily lives, please do go and visit them and the other participants and say “bonjour”.

Like many of you, I am an avid book reader and it’s quite difficult and also expensive to find English language books here in France.

My practice for many years was to stock up on reading materials when visiting family back in the UK and when on vacation in the States.

My sister K.E. also feeds my habit by bringing me books when she visits me here in Normandy. This year she brought me the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. At first I didn’t expect to enjoy them but by the end of book one I was hooked, just as she said I would be.
One of my favourite pastimes is to spend time browsing the shelves of a book store, especially if it’s a quaint second hand bookstore in the village of Uppermill, which is located either in Lancashire or Yorkshire, UK. (It all depends on whether you are a Lancashire or a Yorkshire lass).

However, about 18 months ago I discovered the world of “bookmooch”. This is a place where people swap books. You simply list the books you wish to swop and receive points to “spend” when “mooching” a book from someone else. It is a simple idea and a godsend for someone like me.
So far I have received 84 books and mailed out 76!!
This is a list of mooched books that I have enjoyed so far this year.
The Wedding Officer - Anthony Capella.
The Weight of Water – Anita Shreve.
Stone Creek – Victoria Lustbader
Where the Heart is – Billie Letts.
Until the Real Thing Comes Along - Elizabeth Berg.
The Other Queen – Phillipa Gregory.

One book that I tried to mooch, but couldn’t as there were no copies listed, had been recommended by a friend. “American Wife” by Curtis Sittenfeld, so I bought it on Amazon.

I just finished reading this book yesterday, Joanne Harris’ “Gentlemen & Players”.

Mary @ Across the Pond wrote about this book in a blog last month and mentioned that she thought it would appeal more to British tastes than American, set as it is in an English Boys Grammar School, St. Oswalds.
When I commented on the post that I would try and mooch the book Mary very graciously offered me her copy and lovely lady that she is mailed it straightaway so that it was waiting for me here when I returned from my vacation.

I really enjoyed Gentlemen & Players, it has a cracking story which I think most people would enjoy but the “Englishness” of it made it a pleasure to read. The twist towards the end took me by complete surprise, although in retrospect the clues were there and I felt slightly foolish for not having spotted them throughout!

So, although she probably was unaware of it at the time, Mary started a “Pay It Forward” meme, but with a twist.

If you would like to “mooch” Gentlemen & Players from me, go ahead.

I’ll mail it to the first person who asks and then let’s watch and see where the book goes next.

à bien tôt
Maggie

Good books

A friend, Sarah from Texas, commented recently on a book which is sitting on my Shelfari Book Shelf at the side of this page, The Constant Princess by Phillipa Gregory, a novel about the life of Anne of Cleves.

I have read most of Phillapa Gregory's historical novels and have to agree with Sarah that this is one of her best.


Today I added two new titles to my book shelf, "In the Garden of Good & Evil" by John Berendt and "More Than Mercer House: Savannah's Jim Williams & His Southern Houses".


I'm sure some of you will have heard about "the Savannah book" even if you haven't yet read it, and if you are considering attending the QCI meeting in 2010 then you must read this book!!

The book introduces us to a variety of Savannah "characters" the most interesting, in my view, being Jim Williams

an antiques dealer who saved and restored over 50 houses in a career that began when he was 24 and which spanned 30 years.

He is however, best known as the only person in the state of Georgia ever to be tried four times for the same crime - the alleged murder on May 2, 1981 of his assistant, Danny Lewis Hansford, in Williams's home, Mercer House.
Jim Williams was finally acquitted of the charge and continued to live at Mercer House until his death on January 14, 1990.

Construction on Mercer House, situated on Monterey Square one of Savannah's prettiest, was begun in 1860 by General Hugh Weedon Mercer the great grandfather of the songwriter Johnny Mercer.
After the Civil War, circa 1868 the house was completed by it's new owner John Wilder.


We were lucky to have been able to tour the Mercer Williams House, as it is now known and it is an absolute jewel of a house.


On the cover of Berendt's book is a picture of "The Bird Girl" statue which once resided in Bonaventure Cemetery but can now be seen in the Owens-Thomas House, a part of the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah.