Brisket, broccoli greens from the garden and corn salsa.

Morsel dinner!

Meal #83: Lunch

Grilled duck breast with salad and bread, Amélie's family country house, Rodez, France

This was the best duck I’ve ever had in my life.  It was perfectly rare, but still had a great grilled flavor.  It was succulent, juicy, salty, fatty, incredible!  The salad was good too, as it had lettuce and potatoes from the garden!  Who puts potatoes in the salad?  But so so good.  Thank you François!

White beans with bread and a little more duck, Amélie's family country house, Rodez, France

I had no idea this dish was even coming.  I ate my amazing grilled duck and salad and thought it was the end of the road, but no, François had more in store for us!  She brought out this simple and awesome white bean dish along with more bread and more grilled duck!  The beans were excellent, perfectly cooked with tomatoes and herbs.  And the extra duck was as good as the first serving.  This was just lunch!

Meal #82: Breakfast

Crusty bread with butter and honey, Amélie's family country house, Rodez, France

This was a simple, but excellent, breakfast in the country.  Some perfectly crusty bread, coated in butter, and drizzled with honey made next door.  We even saw the clover field the honey is made from!  It doesn’t get more local than that!

Meal #81: Dinner

Vegetable lasagna, Amélie's family country house, Rodez, France

Amélie took us to her family’s country house, somewhere outside of Rodez.  It’s a super cute little farm house that has been in their family for hundreds of years.  It’s at least 400 years old, and has been added onto countless times.  It’s situated in the hilly farmland and pastures surrounding Rodez.  The view from the house was unbelievable.   We ate this delicious lasagna outside on the terrace in front of the glorious view.

Rabbit with salad and bread, Amélie's family country house, Rodez, France

This was our second course just after the vegetable lasagna, it was a stewed rabbit, awesome, with a crunchy piece of bread and a delicate garden salad with the perfect vinaigrette.

Amélie's family country house, Rodez, France

Amélie’s mother is waving to us from the kitchen window, Amélie and her cousin are on the terrace where we ate dinner.

The view from the terrace, Amélie's family country house, Rodez, France

This was our view from the dinner table!

Charity and Amélie working hard to help prepare the lasagna.

Look at that smile, all her dreams have come true!

Meal #80: Lunch

Ratatouille with little fried kale patties, Cyrille's father's apartment, Rodez, France

Amélie came over for lunch and brought with her this delicious ratatouille and crispy little fried kale patties.  We had never had these little kale patties before, but they were great.  The ratatouille was excellent, although it had no tomatoes as traditional ratatouille usually does.  The vegetables were soft and sweet, and incredible.

Traditional caneles, Cyrille's father's apartment, Rodez, France

For dessert we had this little traditional caneles.  They are spongy and sweet with a little touch of burnt flavor that gave it a sort of caramel flavor.  Excellent.

Meal #79: Dinner

Everything-out-of-a-can stew with frozen tuna pizza, Cyrille's father's apartment, Rodez, France

My magic chef wife did it again, she made food out of nothing!  We had a pretty decent stew consisting of only canned ingredients.  Sandra Lee would’ve been proud.  While its hard to say exactly what went into the stew, I do know for sure that it had lentils, chicken dumplings, and red wine.  I thought it was pretty good but Charity disagreed.  We do agree on the pizza though, it was dreadful.  Tuna and an ominous white sauce on a pizza crust with shriveled up and yellowed tomato cubes.  Wow.  When’s breakfast?