An American in Provence

Yesterday, Alain and I celebrated Easter as normal with a big family meal. Heck, it being a day ending in Y could be cause for a big family meal.

I baked bread, which is about the only thing I can do without giving them food poisoning. It is a multi-grain flour that all I have to do is mix with warm water, salt, the correct type of yeast (baking soda, not so much), and a couple hours of later and flour all over the kitchen, have bread.

We left Sunday morning around 11:20 to drive to his parent's house, about 40 minutes away. There was a huge traffic jam that took us about an hour to get through, so we didn't get there until 1. Were supposed to be there no later than 12:30. It was okay though, as they were still setting up the table, but we missed Manon's easter chocolate hunt in the garden. We sat down to eat, and here is what we had.

Starter: raw salmon slice, rice pilaf, gambas, endives, hard boiled eggs, asparagus (ooh! my favorite!). Then we had a hot thing in a shell. Sorry, can't get more specific than that. Then there was the main course, lamb and vegetables, followed by a fruit cake, a chocolate cake, and then later on an apple tarte. One bottle of wine and one bottle of bubbly was served, along with copious amounts of chocolate. All of this took about eight hours.

For more on Easter, please see my post from last year.