Every day cant be exciting...or can it?

I always say that "Any day that you wake up, is a good day". Exciting? Well, maybe, but we will stick with the 'good' as an adjective for now.

Unlike the day we went tiki-touring to Jumelhac La Grand, today did not let up on the drizzle. Reminded me of my winter in London...dare I say it...way back in '80/81. It was cold, as it should be at this time of year, and moist, where we have been enjoying dry cold, in the past week.

This was a great excuse to frump about indoors, until we decided that we should really DO something, and set about raking, sweeping, cleaning and what have you, for a short period of time, before repairing back indoors with ALL the cats on various seats and bodies. Blimey...why cant they all come inside when you want them to?
Waz plonked in front of the TV watching various documentaries, and Cocoa and Alfie took advantage of his lap. Of course I don't have the camera on me when I sit down, and as soon as I sat, Jolly helped himself to the arm of the sofa, perhaps knowing that I might move at some time in the near future, therefore not trusting my lap.

 When we decided (post soup and scones for lunch) to get some activity in, Waz crossed the lawn with wheelbarrow and brought a few loads of firewood back from behind the hedge. I went inside for our gardening gloves, but they didn't keep our hands warm AT ALL!

 Last night Waz filled up the bird seed holder, and look at it this morning! We watched as a variety of Finches and other smaller birds helped themselves to the sunflower seeds.

 Scruffy thinks that Waz's leaf raking is kind of fun. I was surprised she didn't go into the water and attack the head of the rake. It is obviously a losing battle, this leaf raking. He has his gloves on, but the pole is aluminum, and therefore cold! He hurried inside again to get warm.

 I needed to empty the food scrap bucket at the back door (to keep it cold), and made the trek to the top of the property where these compost bins are. The middle one is a 'new stew', so they all went in there. The brown one is ready to use. Lovely rich wormy soil!

 Turned around, and this is the lovely view.

 My turn to sweep leaves off the lanai. I stacked the white chairs and plastic tables and it made access much easier. The Geraniums by the wall are all fine, out of the cold and particularly the frost. Those bedding begonias on the other side of the pool are all looking a bit desperate, after two nights of frost. They will come back just fine when it warms in the spring...I hope.

We enjoyed an Apero late afternoon...rose wine and a small bag of Ancienne brand potato chips. We like these little bags, as they are a perfect portion, and we aren't temped to eat more...after all who can just eat ONE chip?

Sitting around all day isn't our idea of fun, but we both reclined our seats on the sofa, and took a nap for a while. Otherwise I was watching A Place in the Sun, where British folks work with a British Realty organization in Europe...often Italy, Portugal, France and Spain...among others, to find their 'dream' home or holiday home there. Today was in Portugal and Spain. For 50k Pounds (UK) you can buy a lovely 2 bedroom condo in Spain with lovely outdoor living.  Too hot in summer, and most of the condo owners only live there for a maximum of 8 weeks per year. Sounds expensive.
Meantime the moggies decided, around 4.30pm that they were bored and needed food. I fed them to get them out of the kitchen and outside for some time out there.

With dinner time drawing close, I decided to go and take the Duck Breast out of the fridge in the vain hope that it might come to 'room temperature' which was probably no more than 6C. Ha! 3C outside, 6C inside.

Duck is very common here, and we do rather like a bit of it, in case you haven't figured that out yet. Those legs in particular!
This is ready cut and ready for cooking, just as it is. A little salt on both sides, and we are ready for the pan. At 3.50euros each for meat, for dinner, we consider this to be good value.
Duck fat is wonderful stuff, and I was determined to render enough to roast some potatoes some time in the near future.

 Salted and ready for the pan.

 The skin side gets salted also, and placed skin down in the med hot pan. I want to sear it, but not brown it too much, but rather rendering the thick fat under the skin. As water birds, ducks have this wonderful layer of fat on the breast, as it stays in the often cold water. Great insulation.

 I like fine salt for such things, and we had purchased this to put in our scones, the other day.

 A little orange/lemon sauce to go with the Duck, was in order.

 A knob of salted butter, melted, of course, place 1 tbspn of brown sugar (or white) into it, swirl it around...not high heat that might brown the butter....just enough to bubble the butter. Add the thinly sliced and chopped or zested orange and lemon peel, squeeze half a lemon and half an orange into the mix, and continue to swirl. Don't 'mix' it per se. Just swirl using the handle of the pan in a rotational movement, if you follow me.
The mix will thicken slowly. Turn the heat off when it is thick enough, but it will thicken further when it cools, so judge carefully.

 Meat is now in the pan and seering. Sauce is bubbling in the background.

 The fat will spit, so it pays to cover the pan. Lower the heat if it smokes too much.

 Turn the mean over when the skin is crackling, and Tip the pan to rescue the fat and keep in a container. You don't want the meat to swim in the fat. Better to have a dryer pan.

 Rescued duck fat.

 I steamed some broccoli, and heated some Scallop Potatoes to go with the meal. The sauce was drizzled over the crackling side of the duck, and we tucked into the meal. Delish!

 You don't want to overcook the duck. It also needs to rest when you take the pan off the heat.
Look at that! Perfectly pink and tender. It is worth purchasing more of this particular product. Easy to use, with most of the work having been done already...but of course it is more expensive as it has been processed more highly.

Dinner and dishes done and dusted, we are now enjoying a cup of coffee....how we miss our large American sized cups! so we tend to make 2 pots of coffee, one after the other, lol. The tea pot is fortunately large enough to provide several cups, in the morning.

This morning we enjoyed a  Pain Raisin each, and toasted some lovely brown Pain Cereal, which I cut myself...thick toast slabs. Waz puts home made marmalade on his, while I put some Nutella look-alike on mine. I had better cut it out, or I will be going up a dress size!

Funny how food becomes important on wet and cold days. I love to cook, so Im always thinking what to make next. We have some Chipolatas in the fridge, so tomorrow night will be a boring skinny sausage night with cabbage...GOT to have cabbage with port sausage.

We find plenty of Pork in these parts. If you have read my previous blogs on France, you will remember that I said the same about our part of Bretagne (Brittany), as there were Pig Farmers in our neighborhood...and huge farms they were too.

If I can get away with it ...funny looks and all that.... I will take some food photos in the supermarket. perhaps if I go early enough, there wont be too many locals there to give me 'stink eye'? Im sure you would love to see the fresh fish available, and the charcuterie/bucherie.

We were going to go walking in the town today, but not in the rain. I have cleaned and done all the chores, so tomorrow had better present with decent weather!
IM off to watch the CNN news to make sure we know what President Silly Pants is up to. Forgive my politics...I don't seek to be rude to anyone, but it is MY blog, and I'm allowed to air my own opinion.

No political comments will be tolerated by anyone who thinks to comment on MY opinion. There...you have been TOLD!:)
A Demain!