Memory Lane

What a beautiful stroll it is down Memory Lane.

Today I cooked. I cooked not because we needed to eat...we do, but because I had my familiar kitchen utensils around me, and cooking is a creative and joyful thing for me to do always. I had bought (as I told you yesterday) some minced beef in order to make what I made today. It is a process that takes time, but the result is always worth it.
I needed to cook some Toulouse Sausages for cold meat lunches, boil some eggs, which are useful when needing instant food and for salads on the fly, and cook some lardons to go in the bacon and egg pies...later. I had four chicken thighs/legs to bake, and we enjoyed  those delicious crispy skinned yummies with some salad for lunch, straight out of the oven. The cooked beef mix had to cool completely before I could make the pies, so all this cooking happened mid-morning alongside me doing several loads of laundry (things coming out of cartons after 6 yrs smell rather horrid, so they are immediately laundered) and hanging them on the line out back. They dried in a flash.

Beef mince with mushrooms, garlic, peas, flavoring (My secret!) and liquid to make a gravy.

 Sausages

 Lardons on the left, eggs boiling back right, and savory minced beef on the front burner.. Those sausages are on the top right, cooling before going in the fridge.

 Delicous crispy skinned chicken with rosemary from the garden.

Yesterday I unpacked my pie tins. These aren't just any pie tins. They are my 'Kiwi Pie' tins, the ones I have used for as long as I can remember, to make the savory delights we kiwis relish and long for when they aren't available. They are the first thing Waz and I eat when we return to NZ. Yes, they are that good, most of them, and they are ubiquitous. Of course they are much better than Aussie Pies...of course!
This pie thing and I goes way back.
When I was a trainee chef, back in '74 (ok, you can count!!) I used to make thousands of them. I made the savory meat mix the day before and refrig. it for the following morning. At 5am the next day I was in the kitchen alongside the little man who was a wonderful mentor to me. Carl Pika was a Czech refugee married to an Englishwoman (called herself a War Bride) who also mentored me in a different kitchen in a different place. They were a wonderful couple. She taught me how to make good cakes and how to ice/frost them. I made plenty of pocket money over the years making cakes for various celebrations, including weddings.
 Carl taught me to make the best puff pastry in the world (so he said!), and I had much to boast about in later years when my pastry was sought after. I worked alongside Carl in the mornings, making the pastry first, of course, so that it could rest and cool between rolling. When it was ready for the final roll, we placed the gazillion pie tins (already on their cooking trays) on the long counter, and he would put the pastry through the roller as we pulled it through the other side, placing it over the tins. A fist full of pastry pushed the sheet pastry into the tin, making an impression for the meat to go in. Next came the meat mix, now cold. One spoon each tin, followed by egg wash around all of them (picture a long line of tins, six deep, probably a couple of hundred at a time) and then the next roll of pastry on top. No pushing pastry down, just get the rolling pin, roll it over the top and the sides all seal in the process. Straight into the oven, and on with the next batch. We usually made about 2,000 each day. Then it was lunch time, and they were served.

I love the processes involved in cooking anything. I like to do it the long way. Slow food is made with love, thought and attention to detail.
One thing I didnt make today, was the pastry. When you can buy sheets of pastry for so little, and it is so good, why make it yourself...ok, slow food and all that, but I have not sussed out the right flour to use for pastry, yet.

The sheets come ready rolled, but I needed them to be a little thinner. I dont like a huge amount of pastry, so less is more, but it still needs to contain the filling so that it doesn't come spilling out.
All my American oven trays and tins had to be tested on this oven. Most of them fit, but a couple will have to be ornamental from now on. I will keep an eye open for a large American oven for sale!
I lightly oil the tins. I use walnut oil for everything.

  The cool but not fridge cold mixuture is placed into the pastry depressions. Too much and it will burst out of the confines of the pastry. a little egg wash around the edges, and another sheet of pastry over the top...

 Roll over the top and they seal themselves. No need to do anything else.

 Voila!

 I did press my thumbs into the pastry on these ones because the underside was a little low in some places on some of them. 4 sheets of pastry made 10 pies. 8 savory minced beef, and 2 bacon and egg.

Egg wash the whole of the top of the pies, cut some decorative steam slits in the top and put them in the oven at 200C until golden brown. Dont ask me how long, I was too busy  doing other things while they baked. I dont time things unless absolutely necessary, and go by the look and feel of them.

The Bacon and egg pies have 2 eggs each. You just pierce the egg yolks on each egg before putting the top on . These pie tins are new ones and larger, so the egg and bacon pies are more substantial. I pinched the edges to kept the tops and bottoms togethers. Besides, they look prettier!

 8 gorgeous kiwi pies! They sat in their tins for about 15 mins to set, before I turned them all out on to a cooling rack. We ate one each for dinner while the bacon and egg pies cooked. I used left over pastry to make both of them.

 Waz is happy! He put the lea and Perrins on the table, much to my disgust, but didnt feel the need to indulge in that. The pies were excellent without any further embellishment.

 Yum! I enjoyed a non-alcoholic beer, and Waz had a rose to accompany our meal. Too tired to do anything other than cut a couple of tomatoes onto the plate to go with the pies.

 The Bacon and egg pies. The pastry benefited from some extra layering and then rolling. More leaves on this puff pastry.

 Cooling and about to be bagged and frozen. Instant dinners! yay!

Waz is down in the workshop putting up shelving and organizing his domain. It is time to call him in for a coffee/tea.
He is really getting organized down there and reveling in the discoveries he is making. I love hearing the radio on, in his workshop, and the sounds of enterprise coming from that direction.

Speaking of coffee...we were delighted to discover our Senseo espresso machine today. What we didnt like so much was that there was still some water in the system and a coffee bag in the machine. Really??
We used to have this Senseo at work (at the Gallery) which we closed in 2010, so help me if that coffee bag has been in there since 2010! I have a feeling it has been. Yuk! Dont ask me how come we didnt clean it out first??? We vacated the premises in a hurry, when our lease finished, so it is entirely possible we meant to deal with this later, and it never got dealt with.
The whole machine and its parts got a thorough cleaning with cotton buts, bleach, vinegar etc, and we enjoyed a 'clean' tasting espresso just to prove we had done a good job.:)

Hmm...mummified coffee pod! Could it really have been there for 8 yrs??

 All sparkling clean, all systems run through with a rotor rooter (as it were) and the proof was in the drinking. Excellent.! This machine is common in Europe, and it already had a French plug on the end, thankfully. We bought this one in NZ from a Dutch woman who runs a Cheese shop in our home town. One of our clients introduced us to this system and we love it.

Getting to the front door, both in and out, has been a bit treacherous lately. Rather than collect all the cardboard inside the house, where there is NO extra room right now, we have folded it all and landed it at the front door. The pile was four times that size by the time Waz and I took it down to the garage, just as we suspected we were going to have a shower or three. It didnt happen, fortunately, but the wind was blowing everything around.

Stacks on...and I didnt attempt to get through there. Waz has made an alternate route around this. This is why we need a trailer...well, one of the reasons. At the Dechetterie (dump/land fill, but it isnt) they recycle everything. AND they are super picky and watch you like a hawk to make sure you aren't dumping the wrong thing in the wrong skip!

The packing material is legion. I have saved some for a rainy day, and dont want to tempt fate by keeping too much, but it cost a fortune to purchase all this, and I am reluctant to just throw it away. I might try to sell some of it so that it is being reused by others wanting to pack and ship. Plenty of UK people selling up and moving back there due to Brexit.

So many small bits and pieces that bring back so many memories. Each one that we have kept has meaning to me and us. I bought this quirky piece, about 3 inches high, from a gallery in Lake Taupo, NZ. I still love it, and now am looking for a special place to hang it.

I have had this collection of chamber pots for a very long time. They are all the same, and I bought them on Maui over time, constantly searching for po's with the same pattern. Eventually (I think it took a couple of years) I found these three. Who would have thunk I would find the same pattern in a small place like Maui!

  When I was leaving Maui, my lovely friend Candle (who was also my wonderful massage therapist!) gave me this guardian angel. I treasure her. She represents a time in my life when I was spreading my wings to a whole new life.

 It got VERY hot in the kitchen with the stove top and oven on. The sun was belting in the window and I ended up closing half the shutter, but I hate darkness, so put up with the heat and finished cooking, retreating with a cuppa to the front deck where the wind was cooling. Yes, that mess ALL got put away today! Every last box is now OUT of the kitchen:) That was today's goal. I also cleaned out existing cupboards, rearranged everything (as you do) and then couldn't decide if it was going to work. I like a kitchen that I dont have to work to find things in. It is a process, and it will take time for me to finesse this room.

 WOW! THREE sets of pyrex jugs, of different shapes. I use them all the time. Not sure that this isnt overkill though, lol

 Waz put together my new kitchen cart. This is wonderful to have as I have limited counter space, which nearly drives me nuts. In the kitchen on Maui, that I designed for our new house (me and the ex) I had 21 linear feet of counter space. It was DIVINE!...not all in one long line, but over three different counters.
You can see that I am in the process of rearranging those cupboards.:)

 Pilings of yukky smelling, formerly stored for 6 yrs linens etc. Blankets will also have to be laundered. Yes, that is my French sunflower table cloth, now clean! It will go on the table in the morning.

While I have been baking, Waz has been appearing at the door with 'items of interest' to me. lol. These are things he says "You wont believe what I have found" with a smug grin on his face. Of course I have no idea what he has found, and sometimes I send it right back where it came from. Being rather overwhelmed by the magnitude of this unpacking job and the things we have to find homes for....well, I might take tomorrow off.

Oh, I didnt tell you about the phone call...in French!
We have been expecting some paint for the outside deck (south terrace) which is concrete. It needs to be resealed. The paint is special, and from the UK. Dont lets talk about shipping costs, ok!!!
Anyway, DHL man calls in French, cant find us according to the address of the package...this is a good lesson to us, so I listened carefully when he spoke. Asked if I spoke French...a little! He said he was lost, where were we. I told him the house number, the road (which was on the address) and then I said the Hamlet name...AHhhhh! Yes~..that helped!!!. Not just that, but the road number, also. We will amend our address from hereonin because according to the delivery address, he would not have found us. So, he arrived, had a wee conversation in which he told me that in future if we wanted anything delivered, we should use the information I gave him over the phone. Good thing I know my numbers!!!! in French!! been practicing, I have! lol. Can you say quartre vingt dix? Know what number that is?? Some of you will. 90! Oui!... four twenties plus ten =90. Only the French would do that to us! lol

So, successful delivery, new information that is important, and we have our paint.
Waz can now clean off the terrace, waterblast it, dry it out and then we can roll the new sealer on. This has to happen before next winter. This past winter we got some leaking into the garage underneath.
We also got the quote for all the new windows and doors. I wont tell you what it was, but it kind of made us sit down and breath slowly.
The other night our English neighbor in Touzac, David, came by with the man who is quoting to redo the Septic Tank...did I tell you about this??
Pascal can do anything apparently...including but not limited to taking out dead tree down. That is the tree the other fella wanted 250 euros to cut down. We will see what Pascal will charge to cut it (or push it??) and take it away. I have a feeling it might be free firewood for him!
He is quoting on the new tank, placing it exactly where we thought it should go, and with a field where it wont interfere with anything else. More money, but if we can get this 0% loan from the bank, we should be ok. We will need help to fill out all the forms, and David's wife Nicole is apparently the person to ask. They have been here 17 yrs and with kids in school here, are pretty fluent.
 I followed most of the conversation David and Pascal had, but lacked the confidence to say too much. It will come! Already I feel more confident on the phone, as evidenced today, despite the fact that I could hardly hear the driver over the engine noises.

Ok, time for me to walk in my garden with my dearly beloved in hand, and enjoy the birds making a racket, and breath the rapidly cooling air.
It is gloriously cool in the mornings when we throw open the windows, and I LOVE that time of day, standing at the open window looking out at the glorious view below us, relishing this special place we now call HOME!

A bientot.