Moroccan Christmas Dinner.

Preparation For Braised Oxtails In Red Wine.

Marinated Chicken Pepper And Lemon Kabob.

Peppered And Garliced Rib Eye / Barbecued Vine Tomatoes / Roasted Fingerlings

Roger Verge And Serge Chollet Cooking Class In 1978 And Again In 1991.

Claude Patry and Serge Chollet.

Claude Patry

Translating for Roger Verge and his Chef de Cuisine Serge Chollet in a cooking class in Palm Springs California. The bottom photos were taken in Verge's cooking school in the south of France  I translated for the class as most of the students were Americans or English. There is about 30 years difference between these two instances.

Chef Claude Patry

The  photo on top is of the retirement party of my good friend Claude. We share many happy memories together. This group consists of a huge talent of French chefs including Daniel Boulud from New York and Serge Chollet who was the chef at Roger Verge's Moulin de Mougins. This shows the scope of Claude's vast and international collection of professional and personal acquaintances  I should have been there but, much to my regret, I couldn't make it. My thoughts were with them.
The bottom photo is of one of his cooking classes.

Rosario Resort Orcas Island Washington State

More on this anon.

Publicity Shot For Esmeralda Resort California

Brekkers

Two Great Films

These are two excellent films. They do not go into as much as detail as Elizabeth R with Glenda Jackson or A Man For All Seasons with Paul Scofield but they give a great rendition of the times and the conflicts between Mary Queen Of Scots and Queen Elizabeth 1. I watch these very often and always enjoy them. Great performances , great price and great entertainment even for the casual student of history.

Spaghetti / Meat Sauce / Slightly Out Of Focus

SW"s Lamb,Cabbage And Potato Casserole.

Barbecued Salmon Steak / Cauliflower Polonaise .

A Few Good Films

Some good stuff I have watched over the past few days. Worth re-watching now and then.

Chicken And Root Vegetable Couscous With Preserved Lemons.

These photos are a little out of sequence but you get the general idea and this is not the first post on couscous. There are a million and one ways to make this dish and every cook has his own little secrets. The best thing to do is get a basic recipe and through networking, research or trial and effort find the one you like best and stick to it.

Appetizer.

Small appetizer plate  of hard boiled egg, tomato salad with shallots and beetroot vinaigrette. These are not tinned beetroots by the way. I cook them myself in a slow cooker with garlic, bay leaf, whole peppercorns and jalapenos. They are delicious. You strain the juice when they are cooked, then you peel the beetroots and put them in a bowl with the juice and a good measure of red wine vinegar. You can cook a huge batch of them at the same time and keep them in the 'fridge.