Risotto night.

We arrived this year one week before Harvey and Carol. We promised them dinner on the day that they arrived. We all love pasta in Bolognese sauce. So, on the day they were to come in I got some tomato sauce, ground beef, spices and pasta. I made up a nice batch which we all ate hungrily as we had hiked a lot that morning, and they headed off to bed.

A week later was the payback. I do not have tha patience to make risotto, as much as I love it. I just don't like to stand and stir for the time required to make arborio rice turn so silky and rich.

Last year Carol and Harvey discovered frozen artichoke hearts, that cooked up like fresh, in a local supermarket. So they got them, arborio and numerous other necessities and made us a wonderful risotto. Here is Carol standing and stirring, those are the artichoke hearts on the chopping block.

Note to people who look forward to renting a house in Provence and cooking there. Bring a knife sharpener! Every house we have ever rented has had woefully dull kitchen knives. I bought a great hand held sharpener two years ago at a market day in Apt and brought it this time.

And, as Carol pointed out to me, you can get all varieties of soup in France. In cans and in those 32 oz. boxes like we get here. But there are no clear broths of any sort. No chicken, beef or vegetable cooking stock. Carol solved the problem with Knorr bouillon cubes.

It was our best meal in of the whole trip.