Dude, where's my blog post?

Facebook informed me today that my Fermented Librarian blog posts will no longer be automatically imported to my Facebook notes. Sure, I can post a link to my blog on my FB wall, but having my blatherings automatically imported to FB was far easier and user friendly. Je ne comprends pas!

In honor of the fact that it's cool and very windy today, I'm (re)watching A Year in Provence on DVD (book by Peter Mayle). John Thaw and Lindsay Duncan star as the Mayles, retired from Brit employment and living an idyllic existence in a 200 year old farmhouse in the Provence region of France. Or so they thought. In the first episode, le Mistral, a frigid cold blast from Siberia, blows in and freezes the plumbing solid (plomberie de Parisienne-- this is an insult). I have learned a fair amount of French from watching over the years, but mostly I just really enjoy the culture whiplash. No, I have never tried the recipe for Fox casserole, nor am I ever likely to try it.

We named one of our wines after a recurring character-- Charlemagne, the noisy rooster. Back in our chicken days, we had one just like him. Except our Charlemagne went beyond just being noisy; he was older and had long spurs, and he started wearing out our hens, then moved on to attacking the farm cats. The day he attacked me was the day he was "invited" to Sunday dinner. He was dispatched with a .22 (we couldn't catch him), plucked, cleaned and frozen. Even so, Charlemagne had the final revenge. Greg accidentally used the rooster to make fried chicken for me one night. It looked and smelled wonderful, but old roosters are (quelle surprise) very, very tough and only suitable for long-simmered chicken and noodles. The meat would not separate from the bones at all! We ate the mashed potatoes and gravy and gave the chicken to the farm cats, who happily chewed on it for days.

Other things I've learned from A Year in Provence: how to hunt truffles with a pig; how to play petanque; how to avoid hail during grape harvest; and how to excuse missing a deadline by using "normalement": I expect to post a new blog post each week, normalement.  :)