14 May 2024

Roasting red peppers in the air fryer

I'm interrupting my Saint-Aignan photo series and posting an air fryer recipe with pictures.



The other day, I made a batch of roasted red peppers using the air fryer. All I had to do was wash four whole red peppers under cold running water and then dry them off with a towel. They fit perfectly in the fryer basket. I cooked them for 7 minutes at 375F. Then I turned them over and cooked them for 7 more minutes at the same temperature.

I repeated that process, using tongs to turn the peppers over so I always had a side of the pepper that hadn't yet been browned or lightly blackened by the the air fryer's hot, fan-blown air facing up. When all four sides of the peppers were browned and the peppers had started to collapse, I turned on the fryer's Keep Warm function and let them sit in the basket for another 7 minutes to make sure the pepper flesh was completely softened and cooked. I then took them out of the air fryer and put them in a bowl to let them cool down.

When they were cool enough to work with, the cooked pepper skins just slipped right off the pepper flesh. I pulled out the stem from each pepper and most of the seeds came out with them. Then I cut each pepper in half and removed the rest of the seeds. I saved all the liquid that was in the bottom of the fryer drawer and in the bowl. I seasoned the roasted peppers with the cooking liquid, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and olive oil.

13 May 2024

Le château de Saint-Aignan

 


I took about 20 years worth of photos in Saint-Aignan on one day in May 2017. There are more than 350 of them, all taken exactly 7 years ago today. Here are some photos of the Château de Saint-Aignan, the main part of which was built in the 15th century, during the French Renaissance, Other parts of it, mostly ruins, date back to the year 1000 and others only to the 19th century.



I heard an interesting statistic on Télématin a few minutes ago. Do you know many restaurants there are in France? Two hundred thousand. It seems also that fewer and fewer people as a percentage of the population eat in restaruants on a regular basis. Younger people, especially, don't eat at traditional mealtimes, and they eat a lot of street food.

12 May 2024

Saint-Aignan shopping, and the château with views

Shopping for produce and seafood early in the morning at the Saturday morning market

The front, south-facing façade of the château de Saint-Aignan, and a wing of the building that faces east

The grand staircase that leads up to the château, and the views over the town from the top

11 May 2024

Around the church in Saint-Aignan

 



These are just a few pictures that I took of and around the church in Saint-Aignan back in May 2017. Saint-Aignan is about 120 miles south of Paris, 50 miles southwest of Orléans, 30 miles east of Tours, and 24 miles south of Blois. There's a TGV station in Tours and their are good train connections to Paris from Blois and Orléans. The town of Saint-Aignan itself is not really growing, but the area surrounding it is, with the construction of many new houses. Our house is relatively new (about 55 years old) and it's located just 1½ miles from the church in Saint-Aignan.(As always, you can click or tap on these photos to enlarge them.)