My La Giraudiere Experience - Day 4

July 1, 2010

Well, we welcomed in July with another hot day. Everyone had their respective tasks to do and went to them after breakfast.

Lidia went into Gite #3 to prepare the flan that we will have after our dinner tonight. Flan is a Cuban dish. (learned something new). It is a rich custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top. (Can’t wait to taste it!)

Therese joined Jim and Lewis today in making a clearing in the woods. (She’s in for a nice surprise).

It was intended that Minjie would join them as well, but due to a cold she caught while traveling to LG (from Paris), Paul thought that it would be better if she helped around the house. As such, Minjie, along with Vicki and myself, biked down to the bakery to purchase some fresh bread. We had to leave Kim behind, as the bike she was using broke down.

Not too long after we returned from the bakery, it was time for our French lesson with Celine. Although we are all at different levels of French, the lesson benefited all of us. Merci beaucoup Celine. Vous ȇtes un très bon professeur!

Since the lesson ended around 1 pm, we all pitched in to help Vicki prepare lunch. We must have worked up an appetite during the lesson. I don’t believe we had anything left over.

Around 3 pm, I began preparing the meal for the day. Tonight we will have jambalaya, baked chicken, and salad. Jambalaya is a Creole dish. I make mine with rice, tomatoes, and sometimes as many as three different kinds of meats: sausage, chicken, and shrimp (if you want to call shrimp a meat). Today I just used sausage. Of course, being in France, or rather, at LG, I had to improvise a little. I didn’t fret too much over it, as it occurred to me that everyone who cooked this week had to improvise and their dishes came out fabulous, so I hoped for the best.

We ate dinner a little earlier tonight to attend a concert down by the lake. I was pleased when everyone complimented me on the jambalaya. They seemed to really enjoy it. However, it was the flan that stole the limelight from the jambalaya! The flan itself was just beautiful. The taste of it was even better. (You know something is really good when you involuntarily make the “MMMM” sound every time you take a bite).

With such wonderful meals this week, Paul suggested an LG Cookbook, featuring the dishes cooked by the temporary residents. C’est une bonne idée, Paul!”

After dinner we all got ready to hear the live music down at the lake. (Poor Minjie stayed behind to nurse her cold). The music was very nice.

Equally as nice was the cool temperature. I actually needed a sweater that evening. We left the concert around 11 to head back home for a good night’s rest so that we could be fresh for tomorrow’s work.