9 Days later...

So today, Saturday July 30th is come. Cool...today we accomplished a LOT in Kelly's Kitchen AFTER venturing to Issodun in the morning to do a bit of grocery shopping in foreign surroundings. Not that Issodun is so very far, it's just that we don't go there very often. It's north of us into the land of huge grain fields, some gone fallow as the weather has dictated lately.
Some sunflowers and colza (rapeseed) has been harvested and the stalks are showing white in great abundance. We were astonished at how it looked as we drove past the dry fields. The town itself has new additions, apartments have been built along the beltway that circles the downtown. New stores have been built in the two plus years of our absence. We went first to Lidl, the store that supplies us with our fine German Pilsner in 50cl cans for a measly 39 cents a can! Yes...very cheap beer that is very good indeed. A pilsner with some body and a brisk aftertaste, quite delicious even in this cool summer weather. We usually buy 3 ea. 24 can cases which lasts us somewhat over a week imbibing as has been our habits. We are thirsty folks and we like a lighter style beer, thus this Pilsner fits the bill. This inevitably entered the real grocery shopping experience, with cheeses and meats (lots of chicken) being the point. A few canned good unavailable as fresh...like corn for instance. Then thru the line and out to go to the L'Eclerc HUGE and modern grocery/department store across town.
Great looking meats and oh the moules...mussels to you, beautiful and the size of your thumb! Tonight's dinner for 2.50 USD a pound...we bought 2 Kilos for 6 Euros. A good buy as the quality is exceptional, maybe the best we have ever bought! We LOVE mussels! Sauté in a skillet large enough to toss them in olive oil and a vinegar of your choosing, I use Sherry and Apple Cider types, salt, pepper and copious quantities of garlic.
Oh what a treat with fresh garlic bread and butter. We drank a cheap champagne as a match. What a wonderful dinner with Kelly's soft lettuce salad with tomatoes and cucumbers. Wow!

A Thursday...and a wallpapering...

We are deep into wallpapering Kelly's Kitchen. It's a red and white pattern of drawings done centuries ago as news for the masses. Trois du Joyes or some-such. The overall tone is that of a very light pink. The resuly is that the kitchen is now very bright and alive compared to the orange and dirty walls that were extant before. I like it and so does Kelly. She chose a red and beige tile as the replacement for the elcheapo white tile on the walls before. The floor is complete, a dark red, slightly glossy and quite a match for the wallpaper actually. We have done about 2/3 rds of the wall area and need yet to do the tile areas and hand the new (olde) overhead cabinet. The end result will be quite a nice upgrade I think especially after the new counter is put into place.

Phil came by a few days ago and felt that our electical might just have a fuse pane somewhere we haven't looked. Kelly thought she saw a beige box-like item above the EDF equipment in the main hallway but no such luck. I climbed a ladder and pulled back the curtains and no...nothing but wiring, no fuse box, no circuit breakers either. Phil wants to come to discuss our long lost electrical circuit so we've invited him to lunch but there hasn't been a reply yet. We'll fatten him up in exchange for his ideas on how we solve this mystery outage.

It's been raining...the place needs it alright...hope it continues.

Dinner tonight was Pasta Norma; eggplant, tomatoes, onions, capers, celery, white wine, sugar, stock...veal tonight, vinegar...all the veges cut coarsely and sauted individually then combined. It was delicious but Kelly wasn't very enthusiastic. Oh well.

Later!