Scripts, weather and cooking

Scripts, Weather and Cooking
Daniel has really got the bit between his teeth for the script of “La Partie de Boules n'aura pas lieu”. More than half-a-dozen pages this week and the skit shouldn't run longer than 20 minutes so he's well on the way into it. I sent him an email, in the style of the crazy Démokos character:
Un scénario parfait,
Je veux vous le dire,
Sans doute a-t-on trouvé
Un nouveau Shakespeare

Of course, there will be revisions and second thoughts but it looks like we should have something workable within a month. Then there's the question of the actors..........

The weather the past few days has been......inclement would be the good British term. Unusually for here, a combination of overcast skies, some rain and bitterly cold. Usually, when the Mistral blows, it chases away the clouds and leads to cold but sunny weather. Somehow, the Mistral seems to have chased away the sun this week.

It should have been a week to get on solidly with scraping the beams in my bedroom but the weather seems to have dented my enthusiasm. So I've been cooking (and reading) instead. The flanchet they sell here is the basis for a mean pot au feu so that's one of the dishes I've been preparing. A good chunk is enough for three people so Steve will come round and share it with me on Sunday and I'll have enough over for Tuesday. I've also done a veal, pork, bacon, onion, etc pie which Steve and I shared this evening, Jo being away in the UK.

My real pièce de résistance here though is, surprisingly to me, Shepherds' pie. It's hardly what you would call haute cuisine but the French don't have it and love it. Everyone I've served it to here has asked for the recipe! In particular, it's Daniel's favourite so I'll have to make one to keep him going on the script. Apart from the fact that friends and neighbours like it, it has good potential for jokes. I assume amazement that French laws don't allow the killing of shepherd's to make pies and suppose that some stupid EU health and safety legislation is at the root of it. I made a Shepherds' pie in January after returning from Christmas in England and pointed out that around Christmas was the ideal time to get shepherds. They would all be star gazing, searching the sky for something or other, so it was easy to creep up on them and hit them over the head. One of my other dishes that seems to go down well is petit salé. I can't remember seeing salt pork on sale in England but it's easily available here and adding some onion, poitrine fumé and a whole fistful of thyme to the lentils gives a real zip to the dish.

The weather forecast is hopeful so, with luck, I can move on from this bout of cooking and start to do some things outside (apart from boules).