Un acheteur

It looks like I might have found a buyer for the Peugeot — and I wasn't even looking. I had parked the old car out back by the pond, thinking that if I had to have it towed to the mechanic's, it would be easier for the tow truck driver to get it from there compared to getting  it out of our driveway and through the front gate. It's been sitting out there for the better part of a week. I just went out and took a couple of pictures of it.

One of the guys who works out in the vineyard, JP, stopped at our front gate yesterday and asked if the Peugeot was for sale. I've known him for 10 years, but not well. He said his daughter had just got her driver's license and he was looking for clean little used car for her. We haven't yet talked about a price.

I told him where things stood — the car surely needs a new clutch and also needs some rear end work. My mechanic estimates it will cost about 1000€. Nothing is settled, but JP and his daughter managed to drive the Peugeot out about a mile on the dirt road and drove back. He said he had some trouble shifting gears, but thinks the car fits the bill. More as things develop...

Sunrise, sunset

The sun finally came back yesterday. It looks like summer weather will return over the next few days.

Sunrise at la Renaudière, 02 July 2017

Sunset at La Renaudière, 02 July 2017

This morning I have to go see the mechanic about the old Peugeot. If the clutch doesn't really need replacing, and it's just a cable problem, it will be worth fixing. If the repair is too expensive, it might be time to just junk the car. That would be a shame, because it's in such good shape inside and out otherwise — even though it's 16½ years old. I hope the garagiste, Dominique, will help me make the right decision. Big changes here this summer...

Chambord images and souvenirs

In the Château de Chambord there are 440 rooms, 262 fireplaces, 365 windows, and 73 staircases. That's what I read on one web site, anyway. And the plot of land it stands on measures more than 20 square miles and is surrounded by a stone wall that's 20 miles long.

The photo above is one that I took when we walked around the château. The ones below are photos that I took inside the château gift shop. There are more souvenirs to be had in there than there are rooms, windows, fireplaces, and staircases in the château.

I didn't buy any postcards...

...and I passed on the mugs...

...but I did let myself be tempted by a new mouse pad.

Feuilles de vigne farcies à la viande

Welcome to July. Our outdoor thermometer reads 14ºC this morning. That's only about 55ºF. It's supposed to be even chillier tonight. The good news is that the afternoon high temperature yesterday got up to 65ºF.

Since it wasn't too hot to turn on the oven (we weren't really tempted to use the outdoor barbecue grill!) we decided the time was right to make a big batch of dolmas, or stuffed grapevine leaves.

We had all the ingredients, including leaves from the grapevines in our back yard. Those vines produce a lot of pretty leaves but not very many grapes. We make dolmas nearly every year in June.

Here's very green grape leaf. I picked more than 50 of them from the six or seven plants in our yard.

The first step is to blanch the leaves in boiling salted water for 3 or 4 minutes to make them limp. Pliable might be a better word. Then cut off the stems.

I blanched the leaves on Thursday, doing batches of six and using two pans of boiling water. Then I put them in cold water to stop the cooking, drained them, and arranged them in a bowl to keep them in the fridge overnight.

The next day, I made a filling for the leaves. We had 600 grams of what is called « farce fine » in France. It's a mixture of pork and veal, finely ground with seasonings. Plain ground pork or beef would be good too. I added about a cup of rice that I had soaked in cold water, some chopped onion and garlic, herbs (oregano and mint), some lemon juice and zest, and a beaten egg.

The first step in making the stuffed leaves is to spread a leaf out flat on a work surface. Put about a tablespoon of stuffing on the middle of the leaf. In the past, we've made a filling of rice (or millet), herbs, raisins, pine nuts, and spices for dolmas.

Roll the bottom flaps of the leaf over the stuffing, then fold up the sides. Roll the leaf into a little log shape and place it so that the leaf tip is underneath. We both worked on stuffing the leaves so it didn't take very long. Pack the rolled leaves into a pan or baking dish so that they won't come undone as the cook

We had two layers in the pan, and I placed thin slices of lemon over the first layer before putting on the second layer of rolled leaves. Lemon is a very Greek flavor. You could put thin slices of tomato instead if you wanted. Pour in enough chicken broth to cover the leaves and bake them in a slow oven for about an hour, adding enough broth or water to keep them from drying out. And don't let them boil hard.

 Serve them hot, warm, or even cold. See the photo at the top of this post.