Minty uses her Jedi mind tricks to do many things like buy Cadbury Dairy Milk, dried sausage and choose what we eat for dinner.  Well, technically, fettucini or linguine or very flat noodles with meatballs. No matter, you make, you boil, you eat with sauce and stuff, ’nuff said.

I didn’t think to write up Spag with Meatballs until I was well on my way. Mostly because I’m sick. I feel like resting as this old dog would do.

or sun bathing like this young barn cat.

Yet people need food and our kitchen needs to keep on keeping on.

Noodles ready.  I made them with spelt.  In French it’s called “épeautre.”

• 1 1/2 cups of spelt
• two eggs

mix and knead. roll in a pasta roller

Sauce on. Very simple. For kids, I try to avoid too many notes.

• 1 small onion
• a bit of garlic
• tomato paste
• big…

A  simple cut for a fry pan.  I’ve sizzled up many a bavette and each time I wonder if maybe I could have finished up in a hot oven.  Yet each time, after a quick hot fry, it comes out juicy and tasty.

This is before:

It’s a Bavette.  100% grass-fed beef bavette from our farm.  In English, we call it a flank steak.

Hot pan a go-go.  A minute or so on one side,

Then introduce the other with the hot heat and some gros sel.

The hot duck fat gets that beef to be yum with a few flips.

After a rest, some pepper and a pat of butter, dig in.  I had no veg with this guy because I’m preparing Bambi.

Bambi is soaking.  The kids had manchons de canard or Gascon Buffalo Wings as I like to call them.

Kevin fell victim to the…

We recently sold out our veal boxes.  Thankfully, we managed to grab a t-bone to assess our quality.  Every time we sell meat, the fry pan goes on and we sample to make sure the work put in for tasty meat is going along smoothly.  Tasting a veal t-bone is a perk of farming grass-fed beef.

In France, it’s called a “cotes/filet a griller.”
In any language, it looks delicious.

I fried in a fat that can take heat.  Grass-fed tallow was ready to go.

After a gros sel, in to the hot pan for a right browning.

Then a flip.  And another flip and another flip.  I don’t eat veal rare, but I suppose you can.

Onions, shallots and garlic are ready to mop up the fond.

As the t-bone is resting, butter goes in for a meltdown.

The OSG absorb the butter as they mail-it-in as sauce…

We live in the heart of Gascony.  This means duck, wine, beef!, floc and Armagnac.  I love Armagnac.  These farmhouses get cold in the winter and nothing warms your body like a hot, hot chocolate with a splash of Armagnac.  It’s a bit chilly now, but not that bad.  Though we like to practice and prepare our winter habits in advance especially after a long day and especially when Die Hard 2 is up for viewing.

• Cacao Powder, 3 soup spoons
• Suger, five soup spoons then taste
• Milk, 1 litre
• Cream, 1 cup
• Armagnac, shot per cup or less

We have a big jug of Armagnac.  I pour it into something that will pour it into something smaller as to not lose any along the way with silly overpours.  The cup on the right is for the cook.  I have my Gascon Hot Chocolate neat, hold the chocolate.

But for…