QUICHE, MELTING SNOW AND LOCAL PRICES

Well I made myself a whole quiche this evening, being single is difficult for cooking.  I end up eating a handfull of nuts and a piece of toast.  Great for the waistline loosing kilos fast (well not that fast) but you feel like you haven't had a square meal after a while, so I made a quiche.  Courgette, Feta and Caramalised shallots.  It was delicious but think I'll be freezing the rest.

RECIPE

Three courgettes sliced longways and sauteed in a little oil with a chopped garlic clove.  Tip in to a puff pastry shell.  Slice one onion or one large shallot and fry in some oil. Add a table spoon of brown sugar and a splash of red wine.  Reduce until the onion is soft and add to the quiche base.  Mix together three medium eggs and 250ml cream (I used light cream) a pinch of salt and pepper.  Crumble two rounds of feta onto the courgette and onion base.  Pour over the cream and bake on 200C till set about 30 min.  Don't add too much salt to the cream and egg mixture because the feta can be very salty.  Enjoy warm with a salad or if you're like me skip the salad and pour yourself a nice glass of wine.

The finished Product

The kids pizza.  I buy the dough ready made and then we just bung whatever on top.  Really good.

As you can see the North facing slope is melting fast and the South facing slope still has plenty of snow.  We have had so many tourists but that's it, they are all off this weekend.  France breaks its' school holidays into three regions.  So when the kids have two weeks off, the other two regions are still at school.  When our kids go back the second region has two weeks off and so on.  So you end up with six weeks of busy season if you live in a seasonal town.  Clever really but annoying to the locals.  O and the dogs.  Why take your dog on a skiing holiday?  I don't understand.......

*  So you drive 6 hours to the resort - dog in back
*  Check into a tiny apartment - dog on balcony -7C
*  Go skiing all day and leave dog to bark at every passing thing on the balcony all day 0C or leave him    inside ALONE.
*  Take the dog for a walk at night when you get back - dark and -4C.......

No excellent idea, bring your dog skiing and then let it crap all over our pavements because that's what you do if you are French and have a dog.

The ski slopes (South) with plenty of snow on still.

I had a lovely catch up with friends and family today, on skype and the phone.  Our phone calls to all landlines to the UK and South Africa are free.  Yip FREE.  I even prefer the phone most of the time because Skype at the moment is delayed and I find the whole speech but no mouth moving thing very frustrating.  I was chatting to Lisa about local prices so I thought I'd put some down.  You can decide weather France is expensive or not.

In Euros......

A small loaf of sliced brown bread 0.80c - R 7.93
6 Carrots 0.57c - R 5.65
Small head of broccoli 1.39 - R 13.78
Fresh baguette from the bakery 89c - R 8.82
One Croissant from the bakery 1euro - R 9.91
6 litres of UHT milk 6.27 - R 62.17
Pack of two turkey scallops - 2.37 - R 23.50
Pack of 6 chicken breasts 6.79 - R 62.17
Pack of 250g mince 2.99 - R 29.64
Pack of 6 chipolata sausages 2.99 - R 29.64
Camembert 2.49 - R 24.68
A coffee at a sidewalk cafe (a very small espresso) 2euros - R 19.83
One take-away pizza from the local pizzeria 9.00 - R 89.24
Petrol per litre 1.59 - R 15.76
1.4kg fresh mussels 4.50 - R 44.62
A pass to swim for the afternoon in the heated covered pool Adult 5euros - R 49.57 and
Child 4euros - R 39.66
Dinner for two in a slightly upmarket restaurant with one bottle of cheap Rose, 1 starter, 2 mains, 2 desserts 79.86 euros - R 791.86
A frozen coffee/ice cream drink thingy from Mac Donalds 2 euros - R 19.83

And then there's skiing to give you an idea of what a day will cost to go skiing for an Adult....

Ski pass to use the lifts 27 euros - R 267.72
Hiring of ski's and boots 21 euros - R 208.22

Just in case you're interested.