Here is Marion, a.k.a, Cuisine Queen, hard at work buttering and spicing apples to be slid into the oven and baked as a side dish:
And here is Anne-Sophie, buttering up the chefs & spicing up the evening with her whopping tales, all the while sipping an (Alsatian) Kronenberg beer:
Well, we tried. And we almost succeeded. The unsuccessful parts were my fault, actually, since I hadn't mentioned the Challenge before the others' arrival (though the dinner was supposed to be Tuesday night, but was changed to Wednesday night because of the farmers' market - a pure coincidence!), and I changed my dessert idea at the second-to-the-last second, forgetting for that second that bananas aren't grown in Alsace, and rum is not distilled here, either. Eek! & Manu would have brought Alsatian white wine, except that my original plan was for a meal that went with reds. The seemingly minor addition of pork Kassler to the menu was made at the third-to-the-last second, so... so half of the wine came from a bit further than the 150 miles stipulated. Still! The bacon used in the fig & bacon roll starters, the pumpkins and the fresh corriander used for the purée, the pork Kassler, the apples, and the cabbage used in the salad were all from local producers, and all bought that morning at the farmers' market. The white wine was Alsatian and so was the horseradish. And the figs (see above) and the rum & bananas used as dessert were organic. Does that count at all, despite the fact that they had to be sent via pollution-prone airplanes? No? Shucks. Okay, well... We'll do better next time. But here's the truly local part, in any case:
As the remaining diners were gearing up for the brisk ride or walk home, Anne-Sophie's swank helmet came out (she got herself a beautiful white Vespa to go with it. Ehm... or was it the other way around?). And here's the result of our collective try at provding pictures of her eldest daughter for my mother, who complained very sweetly just recently about a perceived lack of same:
And here are Jimmy & Manu:
And here is... Jimmy?!
p.s. Jean-Philippe was washing wee boys at the beginning and readying himself for a trip to the Land of Nod when the camera came out again towards the end. But he and his taste buds were most definately there. The boys made a quick appearence after their bath, giggled & zoomed around, and were whisked away to two much needed beds.
