Eye Candy

As you may or may not have heard, I was lucky to have the one and only Jess Mason visit us this past weekend. The moment my ancient camera (you know, the one that needs pliers to turn the knob) caught a glimpse of Jess's fancypants camera and keen eye for making even the ugliest parts of this farm pretty, it threw up the white flag. Therefore, this post is purely photos from Jess's camera. Remember, to view the entire picture, just click it (some of them got cut off because I have no clue how to format the HTML of this blog so that I can get wider posting space). If you'd like to check out the rest of Jess's pictures from her trip, just click here. Enjoy!

First, some pics from the farm:









And here, some pictures from our couple of days in Strasbourg, featuring traditional Alsatian architecture, Petite France, the most delicious pastry filled with muenster on a bed of sauerkraut, and our attempt at playing Snooker (which is like pool, only the table is GINORMOUS and you feel like you're hitting a golf ball across a football field with a tiny stick).












Thank you for such lovely pictures, Jess!

Teleski and Au Crocodile

Hugs and high fives, family and friends! I know it has been awhile since our last update, and my most sincere apologies for that. Life has been chugging away here on the farm - we have been keeping ourselves very busy with plenty of snow-shoveling, potato-peeling, house-cleaning, and animal-tending!

So, just a few pictures from two of our recent adventures. Gabriel works at the "teleski" during the week these days, and through that we learned of a bus that would take us up and down the mountain to see the sights. While we didn't attempt skiing, we did enjoy the scenery and got to see the latest addition to our fromage family, Lin, braving the cold weather to sell some of our cheese to the hungry masses.

"CHEEEEEEESE!" - on the bus up the mountain

(some views from the mountain)

There she is! Lin, selling our world-famous Tomme, Chevre, and Muenster.

And now, for all you lovers out there - some pictures of various foodstuffs from our Valentine's Day in Strasbourg.

First, we grabbed some coffee and croissants at our favorite cafe. In the croissants? Warm nutella and crunchy chocolate and hazelnut bits.

Owen perusing the menu at Au Crocodile.

The amuse bouche, from the bottom up - a tiny barbeque rabbit loin, "chicken noodle soup," oyster with champagne foam and gold, and a spicy snail egg roll. Up until our final savory, all courses were accompanied by a bottle of Moet & Chandon 2003 Champagne rose.

My personal favorite - "Carpaccio de Bar "fumé minute" au bois de Hêtre" - raw Bar (I couldn't find the American fish translation for this) that is smoked for just a minute in Beechwood. They presented it with a little glass dome full of the smoke.

"Salade de Rouget, caviar d'Aubergines, Creme de Rouget" - Lightly sauteed Rouget (another fish) with eggplant "caviar" (the little dollops at the top) and the Rouget cream (in the glass).

"Foie de Canard Poêle sur un lit de Roquette, Streussel a la bigarade" - seared foie gras on a bed of arugula with some berries and some kind of vinaigrette - O thinks sherry, perhaps.

"Noix de Saint Jacques grillees, Celeri Rave racon risotto a la Truffe" - St. Jacques scallops with a cheesy celery & truffle risotto. The risotto tasted like Kraft mac'n'cheese (in a good way)!

Of course - leave it to me to forget to take a picture of our final savory course - it was just too delicious! "Poitrine de Pigeon d'Alsace, Navets braises, Jus Arabica - Sauge" - Alsatian pigeon breast with braised turnips (and carrots) and sage. Served with, quite possibly, my favorite wine pairing to date - Chateau de l'Engarran 2003, Coteux du Languedoc rouge.

"La vie en rose" - for dessert, a chocolate-topped meringue which had a leche gelee on the inside (and raspberries). The accompanying wine was a 2006 Muscat de Rivesaltes, Domaine de Blanes.

And finally, the mignardises - (from the left) a very cool presentation of lollipops (in dry ice), apple & vodka fruit roll-ups, chocolate-dipped churros, a raspberry jelly with candied pistachio on a cookie, and some kind of chocolatey chestnutey truffley noodley thing. Yup, that last one is the technical description.

The meal was great, but what was truly impeccable at this 2-michelin-star-rated restaurant was the service. Every dish was presented with grace, warmth, and a caring smile. The entire front of the house team took special care to refill all glasses, hold all doors, and pull out all chairs when necessary. Based on the price and the appearance of our fellow diners, we knew it would be a fine-dining experience from the start. But even though the clientele seemed to be a bit pretentious for our taste, there was absolutely no stuffiness or arrogance coming from the service point of view (which we have unfortunately experienced in the U.S.). We presented the manager with two small wheels of our muenster as a "petit cadeau" (small gift) for the kitchen, and in turn, he presented us with a bottle of wine on the way out!

So, that's it for now. We hope you all are surviving the winter, especially those stuck in the snow on the East Coast. Our next post will occur after a visit from "mon meilleur ami" - Jess Mason!