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"What have you eaten" Parallel Chat

Good evening from Chalezeule, just outside Besançon.

My mother used to bottle tomatoes, years ago. I'm sure there are plenty of how-to videos on YouTube. What I want to know is can one do anything with green walnuts? There are loads of windfalls at the campsite here, and I am sure my mother used to do something with them, but can't remember what. I think I must text her to see if she remembers.

Meanwhile breakfast was a fried egg on baked beans on toasted baguette, and another small piece of baguette with butter and marmalade. Lunch was a fresh baguette (well, about 1/5 of one) with the end of the soup and a cold sausage, followed by a Sunday patisserie, which was a kind of chocolate mousse cake, incredibly delicious! Supper is about to be steak with peppercorn sauce, with some kind of potatoes, possibly mashed with cauliflower, and peas. Followed by - I was going to suggest the other two chocolate puddingy things, but having had chocolate at lunch, I think we'll probably have fromage blanc with strawberry compote! I

We are definitely on our way home now; only 4 more nights.
 
@MrsA2 I only freeze tomatoes too - or make a tomato sauce and freeze that in portions or in a dish to freeze like LC lasagne which uses tomato sauce.
@Mrs Redboots I will miss hearing about all your tempting French treats, especially the bread, when you return home - safe travels.
@jpscloud I'm concerned about @Annb too and missing her lovely contributions to the forum. Hoping she'll be back soon.
Our weekend went a bit wrong as our youngest son whose birthday we were celebrating wasn't well on Saturday so we were two visitors short and had prepared way too much food so it will be leftovers for days! So the Colin the Caterpillar birthday cake is having a couple of weeks in our freezer until son can come and celebrate with us in two weeks time. I'm hoping the chocolate covering doesn't lose its shine in the freezer! It only has a short date so didn't want to risk storing any other way. Freezer had to be reorganised to make space for Colin and is now completely full so no low carb baking until stocks have reduced more.
 
MrsA2 said:
Missed a few days, sorry! I too hope @Annb is OK.

Being on holiday with a dog means keeping up the exercise to allow a few carbs. Today was a 75 minute walk (level for once!) Followed by tomato and pepper soup and a large cheese scone in a cafe, then 75 minute walk back.
Dinner was cheese and lc crackers and 2sqs 85%

Yesterday was hm lc veg soup for lunch. Added chicken it to make a stew for dinner

Next query for the Gardeners...how to preserve glut of tomatoes without sugar? There's over 50 plants here and we've been told to help ourselves!
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I roast them and then store in the freezer.
Hopefully we will hear from @Annb soon; I’m concerned too.
 
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to fellow Canadians.
We’re currently in our winter space , so enjoying lovely sunny weather. Should probably be “putting away” the Canadian garden ready for winter though.
Breakfast was scrambled eggs, yogurt and blackberries. Never appreciate having to pay for blackberries!
Lunch was sardines on toast with shredded broccoli, brussels, kale salad.
Dinner will be at a lovely seafood restaurant so I’m still trying to decide what the treat will be.
 
Today started with a forest walk, fasting until lunch time, which was a superb pub roast. 4 meats including the nicest, softest rare beef I've ever had. I skipped the potatoes and Yorkshire and chose sensible veg. Still a massive treat at reasonable price (compared to our expensive South East). 2 spoons hubbys ice cream after. Drank only peppermint tea.
Our evening duties feeding the pigs when I noticed they'd managed to knock down 2 metal fences of their pen and could potentially escape!
We've only be given instructions about feeding which consists of filling a trough from the safety of outside the enclosure , so it was with trepidation I tried keeping them at the far end enticing them with windfall apples while hubby hopped over the far fence and got the 2 panels upright. Then I did a quick sprint round to the next door field to try tying them jn place while hubby tried from another angle. Pigs of course got very interested (these BTW should have gone to the abattoir last month so are huge hungry boys!!!)
Fingers crossed we've done enough. Owners come back late Tuesday but I have visions of pigs escaping before then and I've no idea what to do if they do. With luck they'll go into orchard and just gorge all the windfalls but that's got no secure fencing. The next field is used as Forest School!!!
I can contact the owner if need be, but they are in Greece.
Praying that they are where they should be in the morning
 
Lovely golden light early this morning. I need to cut the grass at least one more time, but it looks like a few days before we have consecutive dry days so today might be an indoor jobs day - I do have the garlic, elephant garlic and shallots here now so will need to plant those up soon but not today - I need to organise the freezers better, check what's lurking that I have forgotten about and use things up.

Porridge for breakfast, freezer surprise for lunch and tea.
 
@MrsA2 hope the pigs didn't escape last night. Sounds like a challenge.
Makes my challenges of the day ahead seem minor in comparison - I'll be ringing, coping with the choice of options and dealing with long queues listening to annoying music when trying to talk to a real person at a couple of organisations again today on behalf of my eldest son! At least it's forecast dull and drizzly weather so I won't feel I'm missing enjoyable outdoors walking or gardening time.
No real cooking to do today though as leftovers are on the menu again but may start the day by scrambling some eggs to cheer up a currently grey Monday morning here.
 
Good evening from Mirecourt, in the Vosges

We've had rather a dire day as some numpty knocked into the wing mirror of our motor home and broke it off not once, but twice! We got it replaced the first time, only for it to happen again a couple of hours later. Neither vehicle stopped! So we really haven't wanted much food. Breakfast, before all this happened, was a poached egg on a bit of lovely fresh baguette, although for once the poachies let me down and they were a bit of a mess. And my husband couldn't resist getting pains aux raisins when he was at the bakery, so I only had a very small piece of bread and then a pain aux raisins. Lunch was a very small piece of baguette with butter and a couple of slices of salami, with a couple of olives and a cherry tomato, followed by a not-very-nice pear. Supper has just been not quite a fish finger sandwich, but a fish fillet (with a little batter, but not much) sandwich with mayonnaise and peas, this on French oatmeal bread. And a stiff whisky and soda! Oh, and some more of that rather delicious chocolate dessert.
 
@Mrs Redboots how infuriating! I hope you feel better about it all soon and that fish sandwich with a whisky and soda sounds just the job.

I've had a hedgehog rescue day, I found a little one under the bird feeders at midday, cleary quite weak, absolutely plastered in fleas. So I popped her in a cardboard box in the polytunnel while I went to dig out the cat carrier and phone the rescue centre, but when I got back she had somehow got out of the box and disappeared! They really are escape artists.

Then followed several hours of feeling awful that all I'd achieved was to traumatise the poor thing, but I kept watch on the bird feeders and sure enough she came back there, so this time the cat carrier was ready and waiting. The rescue centre will do everything they can to get her healthy we'll release her back in my garden when she's ready.

With all that I just had some chicken skewers for lunch and cheese and crackers for tea.
 
jpscloud said:
@Mrs Redboots how infuriating! I hope you feel better about it all soon and that fish sandwich with a whisky and soda sounds just the job.

I've had a hedgehog rescue day, I found a little one under the bird feeders at midday, cleary quite weak, absolutely plastered in fleas. So I popped her in a cardboard box in the polytunnel while I went to dig out the cat carrier and phone the rescue centre, but when I got back she had somehow got out of the box and disappeared! They really are escape artists.

Then followed several hours of feeling awful that all I'd achieved was to traumatise the poor thing, but I kept watch on the bird feeders and sure enough she came back there, so this time the cat carrier was ready and waiting. The rescue centre will do everything they can to get her healthy we'll release her back in my garden when she's ready.

With all that I just had some chicken skewers for lunch and cheese and crackers for tea.
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Go little hog, ❤️, good for you for going to the trouble of helping her.
 
The good news is the pigs were there at morning food
The bad news is I checked again at lunch time and they were just about to break out!! This time the majority of the fence was down. So while I distracted them with windfalls hubby did a quick leap into the stinky mud and tied it all together but we had to phone the owner who called his handyman who arrived about an hour later to help do more permanent repair, fingers crossed.
Turns out they are kept in place by an electric tape but the battery had run out and the owner didn't bother to recharge it, thinking they'd learned their lesson (the pigs that is!) I think he's learned his lesson now!!
No one hurt, just very muddy and now fully understanding where the saying greedy pig comes from. Never seen so many apples disappear so quickly
All the excitement meant we didn't get out until late afternoon so just took dog to a lovely wood where she could run freely.

Mid morning I had scrambled with courgette. Lunch was missed.
Supper was chicken thighs with veg, and 6 sqs hubbys milk chocolate and a large glass red wine.
Phew!
 
Goodness me @MrsA2 what a caper with those pigs! Well done for coping with it all!

It's dark and rainy here but set to clear up by about 11am so later I will go and fill up the garden bin ready for tomorrow.

Porridge for breakfast, cheese and crackers for lunch and cauliflower cheese with chicken and runner beans for tea.
 
@jpscloud it's dark and rainy here again too but hopefully clearing later - had to put my garden bin out only half full first thing today as a mix of wet weather and a long time spent in phone queues yesterday meant I didn't get time to fill it. I hate putting it out not full to the brim!
I'm heading out for an haircut after breakfast and hoping it's stopped raining by then. Probably a poached egg for breakfast and - as the weekend leftovers that couldn't be frozen are now nearly gone - will probably do a chicken slow cooker concoction to serve with veggies.
@MrsA2 hope pigs are now contained safely, what a drama to deal with can see why you needed a treat afterwards.
@Mrs Redboots safe onwards journey today sounds very annoying being clipped twice.
 
My sister got given a hedgehog house some time ago, and my daughter gave my mother a wildlife camera as she loves to watch the birds on their bird table. Anyway, they have a male hedghog who lives in the house there, and my sister has set up a very awkward Heath Robinson arrangement for a feeding cage for him. He gets about 1/2 cup of kitten food each day, if he has eaten the last lot (sometimes he goes off in search of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, of course). Mind you, I half-think it's rats who eat the food, but the family say not.

Anyway, good evening from Amnéville, where we had always planned to be today. The garage rang up and said the wing mirror had been delivered, and we should come in in an hour, so we did, they fixed it while we went for a walk, and we were off. Such an expensive 24 hours - over £1,000 in total. We just hope the insurance will refund some of it, although the Swan Whisperer says he will only claim for one, as they might not believe we had two identical incidents on the same day.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs on a lovely fresh baguette (I did the bakery run this morning), and another bit of baguette with cream cheese and plum jam. Plus blood orange juice and coffee. Lunch was more bread with salami, and a tiny bit more with cheese, followed by the end of the pineapple.

Supper had been going to be risotto, but we were really tired after an hour in the wonderful spa bath they have here, and I couldn't be you-know-whatted! So we had a weird mixture of tinned squid in spicy tomato sauce mixed with microwaveable wholegrain, wild and red rice and frozen peas. And it was absolutely delicious, much to my surprise! Followed by fromage blanc with raspberry compote.
 
Mrs Redboots said:
My sister got given a hedgehog house some time ago, and my daughter gave my mother a wildlife camera as she loves to watch the birds on their bird table. Anyway, they have a male hedghog who lives in the house there, and my sister has set up a very awkward Heath Robinson arrangement for a feeding cage for him. He gets about 1/2 cup of kitten food each day, if he has eaten the last lot (sometimes he goes off in search of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, of course). Mind you, I half-think it's rats who eat the food, but the family say not.

Anyway, good evening from Amnéville, where we had always planned to be today. The garage rang up and said the wing mirror had been delivered, and we should come in in an hour, so we did, they fixed it while we went for a walk, and we were off. Such an expensive 24 hours - over £1,000 in total. We just hope the insurance will refund some of it, although the Swan Whisperer says he will only claim for one, as they might not believe we had two identical incidents on the same day.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs on a lovely fresh baguette (I did the bakery run this morning), and another bit of baguette with cream cheese and plum jam. Plus blood orange juice and coffee. Lunch was more bread with salami, and a tiny bit more with cheese, followed by the end of the pineapple.

Supper had been going to be risotto, but we were really tired after an hour in the wonderful spa bath they have here, and I couldn't be you-know-whatted! So we had a weird mixture of tinned squid in spicy tomato sauce mixed with microwaveable wholegrain, wild and red rice and frozen peas. And it was absolutely delicious, much to my surprise! Followed by fromage blanc with raspberry compote.
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Hug though for the cost but pleased you've got it fixed again. Hope insurance pays out.
 
There was another piggy breakout today. Luckily only into a neighbouring area but they had started to dig their way into a polytunnel of aubergines and peppers. Handyman was on site so we managed to rebuild the fence quite quickly.

Beautiful day weather wise so took dog to beach and had lunch in hot sunshine.
Afternoon was packing and picking produce as we move on this evening to second stop of this break staying with a friend.
Will miss this particular house, grounds and dog but definitely won't miss the pigs!

Breakfast was 2 scrambled eggs, lunch was prawn and smoked salmon salad, dinner was at an Indian restaurant. I had salmon in spinach (salmon palack). Not heard of it before but very tasty and theoretically quite low carb.
 
@MrsA2 those pigs are so naughty! They obviously fancied a mediterranian diet :hilarious:

It looks like a nice day today here so I will try to get the grass cut if it's not too wet from previous rain.

Porridge for breakfast, cheese and crackers for lunch, sausages and vegetables for tea (cauliflower and runner beans from the garden).
 
It's my rearranged flu jab later this morning - crossing fingers that I don't get my usual sore arm. Husband didn't have any issues when his was done a week or so ago but he often doesn't.
Eggs for breakfast, cheese or ham for lunch, and cod with veggies for dinner.
Promising day today maybe get the spring bulbs, I was kindly gifted by brother in law and his partner when they stayed this weekend, planted later after my jab and shopping - always good to see bulbs appear at the end of winter.
 
Good evening from Maroilles, home of the eponymous cheese (which we have bought some of. Tasting cheese is a bit problematic with my false teeth....). Pigs are a menace, but sheep are worse! I hope all of us who qualify will get a flu jab, but minus the side-effects. I have mine scheduled for next Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile we had boiled eggs for breakfast with cream cheese and Marmite soldiers, and another slice of the same toast with butter and honey. Plus orange juice and coffee, of course. Then lunch was a fresh baguette (sadly, a mass-produced one, but still good) with a Chinese-style soup (from a carton), salami and a tiny bit of cheese, but followed by caramel ice-cream. Supper is going to be the long-promised risotto, which is cooking while I type this. Butternut squash and mushroom. Not sure what we'll have for pudding. We have been drinking apple juice and some extremely potent cider! I know I've had a drink....
 
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