the briere family circus: mai 2016

dimanche 29 mai 2016

What would Julia think????

So yesterday I spent the entire day at Chendouit by myself planting shrubs, flowers…yadah, yadah. My sweet neighbor gave me some rhubarb from her garden. Upon returning to Caen I took the time to make the dough from scratch and preped the rhubarb to make a tarte this morning.

So this morning I rolled out my dough, which was mighty perfect if I do say so myself, and started spooning in the pieces of cut rhubarb that I had sprinkled with cane sugar the night before. I was thinking the cane sugar hadn't broken down very much as usual so I took out the bag and sprinkled some more on.

At that point (this was 8am this morning mind you) I realised that this was a bit strange for cane sugar. I had bought it in bulk and long since removed the label from the bag. After ALL of the rhubarb had been put in the dough I realised to my horror that it was not in fact cane sugar but bulgar.

Yes, bulgar. But hey, look at the photo above, that is bulgar and after a long day in the sun planting
and then baking at 8 am (perhaps not the best idea even for me a morning person) bulgar does look a lot like cane sugar if you aren't really paying attention and it is in the same bag with the other two types of sugars.

So, not being one to waste, I emptied the dough, rinced the rhubarb to get rid of as much of the now nicely puffed up bulgar as I could (not very much) and put it back in the dough. I added and egg and some milk, a bit of sugar put it in the oven and proceeded to have a good laugh.

Yes, Julia would be proud alright….When all else fails, proceed and don't tell your family. Wait until they have tried it to see if they notice. I mean rice pudding exhists, semola desserts and flan and the like so my tart shouldn't be too out of the ordinary. And darn it, I took the time to make it from scratch, so bulgar or not, I'm going to eat it.

I'll let you know how it tastes!

The latest….

Well, it's official.

This rhubarb tart tasted as good (if not better because it was made with soo much love) than all my other rhubarb tarts. You couldn't taste the bulgar, not one bit.

Which lead me to thinking… hiding extra fiber everywhere. Oat bran in your OJ, oatmeal in your tacos, what about some lentils in your next salad. Alright, just kidding. Except the lentils in your salad bit, that I actually do. Ha! Happy cooking everyone…..

Hodgepodge of good stuff….

More adventures in the world of bread….

This is a classroom map we found at a garage

sale which is now hanging in our living room. It's like 3x4 feet and is marked with the cash crop by region. It has another side as well. Made for us...

And what's that you say? Excuse me?

Here is one of the ears I am working one for the dance co. The one on the left was one I did years ago. It's about 1.5 feet tall. The two commissions I'm working on are almost three feet high. The abouve shot is just in foam which will eventually be covered in fiberglass and resin and then finished with I don't know what, yet….I'll keep you posted.

Weekend in the sticks….

A view of our place from our overgrown field

(but can you say lucious) back field. This is also the same field that our neighbor puts his poney and sheep. This is also the field that I forgot to close the gate and above mentioned poney walked out, into our yard, crossed the road and visited our neighbors yard. THANKFULLY his two boxers were not in the yard and thankfully some miracle arrived and between three of us we managed to get him back into our yard and by the glory of some higher power we were order to get him to go back into the back field. My heart was racing soo fast. Once back in our yard he was running around and I thought for sure he was going to jump the barbed wire and take off for an unknown destination. Or worse yet, just run into the barbed wire and hurt him self. Break a leg or something.

I was seeing my life flashing before my eyes…." Uh, I don't know quite how to tell you this but, I let your poney run away." God, I really was panicked.

And the very pretty gate that I found in the shed that only works to keep poney's and sheep out when properly put in place!

The lilacs on the back road….

and the crazy bunch of sheep.

They give me the willies!!!!

I am sure they would charge if given the chance.

But Super Seb would just fight them off with his sword

and his childhood power.

And when he's not fighting off crazy sheep and calming his mother down after almost loosing someone else's poney we let him drink copious amounts of alcohol. Only in the county though. And only before he has to operate the driving lawn mower.

No but seriously, we all had a good laugh because our neighbor had the largest bottle of pastis (licorice flavored alcohol you mix with water) that we had ever seen.

My passionflower vine flowered a week after I planted it. Made my day. I had these flowers in my hair for our wedding. Such a softie….. some other goodies to bring back.

And blurry but I think you will apreciate them anyways. They were in the cabinets when we bought the house. Masters of the universe drinking glasses…. "Skeletor" and "Musclor" …I get more beefy and confident every single time I drink from them I swear.

samedi 28 mai 2016

Soccer…

A view of the yellow colza fields on our way to the tournament.

It was on the outskirts of Paris about 2.5 hours from Caen.

Seb's team is on the 1st row, 2nd from the left, ASPTT

The kiddies stayed with host families while we hunkered in for a good night's sleep in our hotel. A bit home shopping network in the decor but the kitchenette did prove super handy.

And the breakfast was good….made to order eggs anyone??

We ate and then ate some more.

Seb's on the left next to the coach.

Hanging out in Nana's hood…..

Here we are watching this kitten (who looks exactly like ours) play with a mouse it had caught.

Just happily tossing it around, not eating it…yet.

Some superb barber shop chairs from a barbershop I never knew exhisted. Makes me want to be a man. Just for a day, not even, just long enough to go there and get a haircut.