I missed a week...

Sorry about that! I was away at a wonderful weekend, which you can read about over on my other blog: we were Opening Doors with the wonderful Ange.

There was lots of good food eaten, and not a few bottles of wine imbibed - our Friday night dinner was home cooked, with everyone contributing: there were stuffed mushrooms (a stuffing of feta cheeses, curry powder, and the mushroom stalks zuzzed together, then grilled for about 15 minutes. Simple but delicious!), a huge tuna salade composé, quiche, and then a yummy vegetable curry. A chocolate flan, and home made syrup/honey/spice/cranberry cake (my offering) followed plus fresh figs from Ange's garden.

Saturday and Sunday lunches were cooked and delivered by a local lady - green salad and something-delicious-that-I-can't-remember, then stuffed chicken, cheese and little madeleine cakes on Saturday; courgette soup, stuffed peppers, vegetable curry (again!) and bulghar wheat, then apple cakes and creme anglaise for dessert.
On Saturday evening we went to a local restaurant, that provided delicious food - the starter choices were all tempting, but I plumped for pan fried chorizo. After, I wished I'd gone for the petit camembert roti et flambé, but no matter, my chorizo was thickly sliced and delicious, served with roasted tomatoes. For main course, I chose magret de canard  - I love duck! This was really lovely: pink and juicy, with a creamy sauce. Because we still had lots of sweet stuff back at the gite, we passed on dessert, although they too sounded deliciously tempting!

I spent Sunday night with Floss's family, sharing another lovely meal - vegetable soup (all veggies from their garden!), and a turkey and sausage casserole. Dessert was a wonderful fruit salad, full of raspberries, nectarines, blackberries, physallis and other juicy fruity goodness.

I left Toulouse, full of good food, and full of things to think about. The following week then became rather manic, leaving me with little time to catch my breath, never mind blog! But we have eaten well (as usual!) I didn't fast on Monday, but we fasted as usual on Thursday. Mr FD cooked on both Wednesday and Thursday evening, due to my teaching commitments, and made a very good job of it: vegetable chilli one nigt and chicken in veggie sauce the other. We also had a very tasty vegetable-and-chorizo pizza (some left for lunch today! Huzzah!) made with a jar of something I picked up in Noz:

Quite frankly, I wish I'd picked up several pots! It was only 1€ and it made a wonderfully spicy base sauce (mixed with half a jar of olive-&-tomato pasta sauce) for the pizza.

Our planned menus for this week are using up a lot of the stuff that's in the freezer. I keep putting things in and never getting them out again! So there's maybe a bit more meat than usual:

SUNDAY:

Pizza for lunch

Magret de canard (again!!), with a mushroom/pepper sauce, roast potatoes, parsnips, leeks & carrots

MONDAY:

(fasting)

 Cuppasoup/ryvita combo for lunch

Lamb, spinach & tomato curry-like dish with a small quantity of rice

TUESDAY

Soup (made with veggies & the rest of the pasta sauce) + bacon sandwich

Jacket potatoes, with lardons/mushrooms/baked beans/cheese and green salad

WEDNESDAY:

Soup & tuna mayo sandwich in the car (not while I'm driving, I hasten to add! Soup could get messy!!)

Turkey brochettes, tomato & courgettes, rice etc. Maybe merguez too, if the Chef decides to cook them.  Mr FD is in charge of this one.

THURSDAY

(fasting)

Cuppasoup/ryvita combo for lunch

Prepared beefburgers (150g each) plus HM coleslaw and salad.

FRIDAY

Probably some kind of sandwich. Or maybe egg on toast

Courgette, pasta and tomato bake, with sausages 

SATURDAY:

Soup, again - I have a butternut squash waiting to be used - and sandwich

Salmon and seafood fishy pie, with a sweet potato topping, and probably some spinach in the sauce. 

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I like to reply to comments made on my blog, but I'm really not sure that one that appeared on my last post isn't  Spam. Forgive me, Obatherbalatasejantungkoroner, if you are a real person, but if you are, I'd try writing a more comprehensible comment if you want to be taken seriously! And I'm certainly not taking the risk of clicking on either of the links!

On other comments:

Pompom, you were right, I had lots of fun over the weekend, and it was great to meet Floss & her family. Her home was exactly as I had imagined it: homely, full of lovely troc-broc-and-recup'y things, and full to the brim of lively conversational young men! I had a really enjoyable time.

Fripouille: I'm sorry. Liver and other offal has never floated my boat. I can do small bits of kidney in Kate-and-Sidney pie, but that really is my limit! I like reading your blog, though, as it gives me lots of insights into France and its politics.

Thistle Cove Farm: I managed to clear my ironing pile, but mysteriously it has grown to epic proportions again!! Oh botheration!

John: I thought Glenn was a real cutie!

Such a nice smile!! Still, the Great British Bakeoff continues to enthrall - but I do find Ruby with her slightly sulky teenager look a bit too irritating!

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And finally...

Imagine 12 of these. That's how much weight I've lost in the past 5 weeks. I'm rather pleased!!!