More Christmas market

This a continuation of a previous post on the Christmas market.

These clay figurines or santons are made in southern France and make up a manger scene (crèche). You can buy Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, kings, cows, (dogs, cats, goats, etc.), as well as people dressed from the different regions of France.

Têtes chocos are glorified chocolate-covered marshmallows, each one with a different flavored marshmallow.

Marzipan figurines--all to be eaten!

Christmas market at around 6:30pm. The large balls are strung across the square.

Neighborhood shops

These are some of the shops we walk past daily, just down from our apartment.

Bakery

Newspaper/magazine shop

Restaurants

A cool store

And so ends our stay. Thanks for following the news from Grenoble.

Last cooking class--French Christmas treats

This last class was all about Christmas treats. So for a change, no chopping of onions, shallots or garlic!

These are French classics: from left to right

mint chocolate truffles (truffes)-chocolate, butter, cream and 1 egg yolk
chocolate covered candied orange peel (orangettes)
coconut chocolate truffles (truffes à la noix de coco)
coconut "mounds", some with chocolate (rochers à la noix de coco)-unsweetened coconut, egg whites and sugar
chocolate covered candied cherries (cérisettes)
walnuts with marzipan (noix déguisées)
some more truffles

I also made caramelized hazelnuts and nougat (both not pictured). I brought home so many treats that I made up two plates to give away and we still have lots to eat!

Christmas odds and ends

Snow has finally come in large quantities on the mountains. This is the view from our bedroom window. Last week we received about 3 days rain in Grenoble, which, to the delight of skiers, is all snow at 2000 meters. Otto and Luc and willing Calvin students did go skiing on Saturday and had a great day.

This past weekend we decided to do a total market meal. Otto and I went to the market, not sure what the menu would be. This is what we came up with:

Pink trout (caught locally), zucchini and tomato and shallots for a sauce with the fish, bread, wine, 2 local cheeses, salad (grown just outside of Grenoble), and spice bread with clementines for dessert.


These are the bags you put your fruits and vegetables in. The bag advertises "Eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day for health and vitality.

Through school, Luc participated in a rock-climbing competition. Although his level didn't win, it was a good challenge. Luc is the the person nearest to the top.

A potluck with the volunteers at L'Echoppe--the food pantry where I volunteered this past semester.

I have seen a number of these dutch-made bikes around the city. Kids are strapped in the front carrier, along with some extra space for groceries, etc. I have also seen this bike with an attachment behind the seat to put a baby carseat!

Chocolate and pastry shops are full of these kind of gifts at this time of year. This is a tray of chocolates and almond-based treats that Otto received from one of the French ladies that housed a Calvin student. Anna loves the colored almond treats in the middle and we all (except Luc) love the chocolate.

Crêperie

Last night we went out to eat in a crêperie with the students. Although crêpes are a specialty of Brittany in north-east France, crêperies are found all over France. Typically the main course is a savory crêpe followed by a dessert crêpe, and all washed down with bubbly cider (containing a small amount of alcohol). This particular restaurant was very generous with its servings!

Otto and Anna ordered a 3-cheese crêpe, which came with a salad on top.

The crêpe is a very large and very thin disk-like pancake; the filling, in this case, cheese, is put on the crêpe; the crêpe is folded on all sides, like an envelope, to make a square, and then placed folded side down on the plate.

I ordered a goat cheese and bacon crêpe. Isabelle a mushroom, shallot and cream crêpe (her filling was on top), and Luc a ham and cheese crêpe.

The savory crêpes are typically made with buckwheat flour, making for a darker crêpe with a nutty, rich flavor.

My dessert crêpe: cooked apples (inside) with a salty caramel sauce on top. Here the crêpe is made with white flour. Before you ask--yes, it was very good.

Anna ordered a plain crêpe with salty caramel sauce and whipping cream.

Otto took a crêpe with chocolate, ice cream and whipping cream. No small portions here!

We could have taken the tram back to our apartment but the 20-minute walk back felt good after a copious dinner.

Odds and ends

About 2 months ago I found a caste iron fondu pot at a second hand shop.

So of course, we have been enjoying fondu--here a cheese fondu. I took the easy route and bought a ready-made cheese fondu package. Next week, though I will make it from scratch--garlic, white wine, kirsch, 3 different cheeses (beaufort, emmental, and comté) and nutmeg.

Isn't this a fun-looking cheese? It comes exactly like this, with all the ruffles. Tête de Moine is a Swiss cheese. Its name, which means "Monk's Head," is derived from its invention and initial production by the monks of an abbey in French-speaking Switzerland (Canton of Bern).

The curls are the result of careful scraping with a knife in order to develop its scented flavors.

Does it taste good? Oh yes!!

Our kids are taking a break from Saturday's homework. We are at the Christmas market, eating small donuts (sugar coated or nutella filled) and sipping hot spiced apple juice. I kept taking pictures of them with their mouths full and so I told them just to hold off on the food and smile . . .

Cooking class # 9--Pâtés and Terrines

For a long time I've wanted to know how to make a pâté or terrine! Today we made 3 different kinds.

Chicken liver pâté (pâté de foie de volaille) resembles a meatloaf, but is always eaten cold, often with some good crusty bread. It consists of a mixture of chicken livers, ground pork, and bacon. The flavor comes from shallots, garlic, herbs, hazelnuts and some brandy. Normally this marinates 24 hours, but since we didn't have that kind of time, we marinated it for 30 minutes and then cooked it in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. It has a wonderful flavor and very nice consistency.

Salmon Terrine (terrine de saumon). Terrine simply refers to the name of the container that this is usually made in. Like the pâté, this is a simple recipe: cooked salmon mixed with butter, yogurt, lemon juice and chives . The mixture gets pressed into a loaf pan and chilled 45 minutes in the refrigerator. It is served as a first course with some crusty bread and a bit of mayonnaise (homemade would be really good), or even with some guacamole.

Mango Terrine (terrine de mangue) is a lovely dessert, if you like mango. It can be served with some sorbet and a butter cookie. The technique is to layer in a small loaf pan a puree of mango (made of pureed mango, sugar syrup, finely chopped mint and gelatine to thicken the puree) with thinly sliced mango. The terrine solidifies after 3-4 hours in the refrigerator. This terrine can also be made with strawberries, peaches or apricots.

Last hike-Le Mollard

With dry and sunny conditions we took one more hike to the Vercors, the mountain chain I can see from our kitchen window and where much of our cheese comes from. We took a tram to the end of the line and from there started our hike up to about 1090 meters. It was an easy hike (not steep or rocky) and had many interesting things to see.

Several waterfalls at the start of our hike

We were pushed off the path by a herd of sheep making its way down the mountain. A shepherd was in the lead and a woman at the end with a couple of dogs to keep them on the right path. With snow predicted for this weekend, I think the farmers decided to finally bring the sheep down to where they could go indoors.

A traditional farmhouse in the Vercors. The left side is the "house" and the right side is for the animals. We were not sure if the right side was still used for this purpose.

For a different experience, this place was advertising "camping à la ferme"--camping on the farm in teepees and tents. Goats were grazing on the other side of the tents.

A final point of interest was a memorial to the French Resistance fighters of WWII. The Verscors was a center for the French Resistance until some 15,000 German troups came through the area and decimated the Resistance army, along with destroying farms and families.

We really didn't expect to see so much on our hike, but since the weather was nice and our initial destination of a farm up on the plateau came already at 11am, we decided to go further.

We are sad that this will be our last hike, but at the same time never thought we could hike this late into fall!

National Food Drive

Once a year, France has a national food drive. Volunteers hand out leaflets in all the grocery stores encouraging people to buy a little extra and give it to other volunteers at the end of the check-out line. It is a very efficient process since people can donate the food right in the grocery store

Saturday afternoon Otto and I with some other people from St. Marc's volunteered to hand out leaflets and pack food into crates. Like anywhere, some people don't want to take the leaflet, others ask what we are especially in need of (baby food, diapers, etc.). Some give generously, others not at all. One man commented that the government should be taking care of this, not volunteers. Another person who had paid for his groceries, had forgotten to buy extra for the food drive and so handed me 10 euros to buy something in the store. I bought a can of baby formula since I know that this is one thing many women ask for at the food pantry I volunteer at on Thursdays.

Last year 1,300 tonnes of food were collected in this area around Grenoble, the equivalent of 2.7 million meals!

Otto and Veronica (fellow St. Marc's member) handing out leaflets at the store entrance.

Christmas Market--Marché de Noël

This past weekend marked the beginning of the Christmas markets in Grenoble. Several squares around town are set up with wooden cabins that sell everything from Christmas trees to regional specialties to Christmas gifts (jewelry, wooden toys, winter accessories, etc.). The cabins are lit up with Christmas lights and Christmas music is piped in (much of it in English!). It is festive and fun to walk through.

This stand sells lights/candles.

Large honey spice cakes, often with orange flavoring are sold here (pain d'épices). They say that a large cake can take about 10 hours to bake. You are not obliged to buy the entire cake! The cake is cut into larger or smaller wedges and you pay according the weight of your wedge.

A Nougat stand--a traditional confectionery made of egg whites, sugar or honey and nuts.





The Christmas market is also a place to eat. An enormous pan of tartiflette is cooking. This is typical hearty mountain cuisine: cooked sliced potatoes mixed with bacon, onions and cheese.


And to drink. Here hot apple juice with mandarins is sold as well as vin chaud--a sweet and spicy hot red wine--an excellent drink to sip on when out in the cold.

Christmas trees are small--probably because they do have to fit in an elevator . . .

Walking back from the market, I notice a fellow transporting his tree back home on his son's scooter.

Beyond the Christmas markets, stores are decorated for Christmas; Christmas lights are strung across the streets and also in some of the trees. So yes, the holiday season is alive and well here too! We are still waiting for some snow though.

Cooking class # 8--Chutneys and duck in orange sauce

Today's class consisted of a lot of chopping in order to make the chutneys. The final product was both beautiful and very tasty.

All of them follow a basic pattern: chopped veggies, a vinegar (red wine, white balsamic, raspberry), a sweetener (honey, white sugar, brown sugar or a combination) and spices. The red onion chutney and the fruit (mango, pineapple and kiwi) chutney go well with foie gras (duck liver paste) or chicken and the mint/carrot/shallot/white and green pepper/ginger chutney goes very well with lamb or duck. Slowly cooking these combinations of ingredients over a low heat allows the vinegar to boil off, the chutney to thicken and the sugars to caramelize.

Cooking down the fruit chutney. The dark spot in the pan is not a spider but some star anise.

I took home three jars and since I wasn't serving foie gras --a specialty at Christmas time--Otto and I sampled them with some cheese and crackers. This turned out to be a nice combination.

From left to right: mint chutney, fruit chutney, red onion chutney

Canard à l'orange (duck in orange sauce)--if you like duck, this is a classic French dish. Normally an entire duck is cooked for this dish. We simplified things by using portions of the breast. The meat is seared and then a sauce is made of red wine/white balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, fresh squeezed orange juice and orange zest. The sauce is reduced and then orange segments and the seared duck portions are added at the end.

Our kids are not too keen on duck, so this became a dish for the parents! It is typically served with rice or steamed potatoes.