"There are no French peasants."

As you may have guessed from the photo-post without captions post, after a productive day of farm work, we sat down to a French provincial supper. French bread. Olive oil infused with freshly picked rosemary. 

It's not French but you work with what you have.

Wine. French Peasant Soup. Fruit and cheese. Cognac.

I thought the tablecloth was a nice touch.

We listened to some music and chatted with a friend (who reminded us that there are no French peasants). 

The soup is the second entry in The Spring/Summer Soup Contest. After it's assembled, it bakes! There will be a separate post.

Roasted Chicken of Some Sort

Dang it! I was so excited by the chicken that I forgot to take a photograph of the (homegrown, fresh) carrot, artichoke, etc. fritatta. 

On the way home this evening, Mr. Big Food asked me what we had in the way of dried herbs. We talked about the dried basil, dried celery leaves, etc., from the garden, and about the contents of our spice shelves (pl.), and then it dawned on me! 

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I've been kind of distracted today. So it took me a while to organize the things Mr. Big Food was telling me into a story I wanted to care about.

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Mr. Big Food used a very small chicken. We can get chickens <3.5lbs. at the Piglet! For the money, they are the best thing going right now. Expect to eat a lot of chicken. Beef isn't going on sale. 

(But it's almost grillin' season. And pork does go on sale.)

You score the skin and insert a clove of garlic and some herbs. And then you baste it with some olive oil (or melted butter or whatever), and put it in the oven. And every 30 minutes or so, you take it out and baste it with the juices and olive oil or whatever. 

Again, this is when it dawned on me!