Friends and Food

My last posting left off with me looking for chocolate goodies to bring to Aaron and Wayne's house.  It was such a lovely evening, shared with old and new friends.  We attended a Circle of Missé* writing course back in 2010, where Wayne taught and Aaron cooked.  We've stayed in touch ever since.

Helen, who had taken the course with us, was there with her husband Nick, and this is the gorgeous basket of goodies they brought.  I do believe a few bottles of wine had already been taken out at this point!  The grapes are from their garden.

 

Aaron started us off with sautéed mushrooms on a crostini rubbed with garlic.

Circle of Missé was starting a new writing course, so there were students and a lead guest writer joining us for dinner.  This makes for very lively and interesting conversation.

The kitchen is just so beautifully done.  They had a fire in the chimney a few years back which allowed them to undertake some renovations to their space.  Walls came down, new appliances and cabinetry came in, and the place is now a chef's dream kitchen.  (Did you notice the TWO dishwashers?)

Next course was torn pieces of baguette dipped in balsamic vinegar and oil, then sprinkled with coarse salt.

A delicious "lasagna di carciofi, pinoli e primosale".  It usually has roasted pine nuts on top, as the piece below shows, but mine above was done without the nuts.  No allergic reaction wanted this evening!

Aaron had dipped some fresh figs in dark chocolate and sprinkled them with salt. 

These are the little cakes I bought at the bakery.  They were mousse bombs covered with dark or white chocolate, and some had raspberry coulis on top.  Little chocolate wafers on each bomb. 


The Vouvray champagne was chilling at this point.

We had a delightful evening!

* Link to the Circle of Missé posting I wrote in 2010:
http://france-encore.blogspot.fr/2010/06/circle-of-misse.html
 

***

The next night, we went out for dinner with the hosts of the cottage we are renting, Brenda and Roger.  We introduced them to a restaurant they weren't familiar with: Le Trait d'Union in Thouars.  I have to say that they enjoyed it as much as we did!  The food is truly above par and consistently so.  We have never had a bad meal there.

The salad is a meal in itself, with thinly sliced melon, red and yellow tomatoes, ham wrapped with cream cheese, herbed bocconcini, and a little vinaigrette salad on top.

Three of us enjoyed the quail.  It came with puréed yam, mushrooms, mangetout snow peas, zucchini casserole, and roasted potatoes.

One of us went with the fish, a "lieu jaune" in a beurre blanc sauce.  There were three different kinds of wine and some Perrier.  We feasted!

 

And the pièce de résistance, what we all came for: the "Soufflé à l'Angélique".  Oh my!  Such a fluffy soufflé encased in a crêpe and dusted with icing sugar powder.  It looks huge, but it is so light and airy that we swallow it up in no time.  The raspberry sorbet on the side had intense flavour and was a perfect match to the soufflé.

Believe it or not, when talking to Vincent (the owner), I mentioned how I would love to learn how to make that soufflé, so he invited me to come to the restaurant one morning when they're not too busy, and they will give me the recipe and show me how to make it!  A cooking class, no less!  You can bet I will not pass up this opportunity.

Another wonderful evening spent with new found friends.  Brenda and Roger have such interesting backgrounds and are very comfortable to be with.  We had hoped the evening would last longer!

***

"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

~ Mike McKnight