Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Bonne Année 2008

On New Year's Eve, for our repas du réveillon, we ate the traditional oyster feast.

We started out with some foie gras d'oie (goose liver) and some rillettes d'oie served with a grain bread from our local bakery and a few cornichons.

Three varieties of oysters. On the bottom are the spéciales.

After, we opened two dozen huîtres (oysters) that Ken picked up at Saturday's market in Saint Aignan. Six were called spéciales, six were called pleine mer, and twelve were called fines de claires. We've certainly eaten fines de claires before, but I think this was the first time for the other two varieties. We served the oysters with fresh pain de seigle (rye bread) from our local boulangerie, butter, and a mignonette sauce (vinegar, shallot, pepper).

A bottle of Loire Valley bubbly for the occasion.

We served everything with a bottle of sparkling Vouvray wine. Boy, was that good.

Apple tarte, fresh from the oven.

Dessert was an apple tarte that I made earlier in the day. What a great way to ring out the old year! Today, New Year's Day, we're eating black-eye peas in a French cassoulet with duck, lamb, and Toulouse sausages.

Happy New Year!

8 comments:

  1. Throughout the coming year, may your life be filled with little celebrations :-) of Happiness.

    I am having Coq au Vin for this New Year's Day.

    Bonne Année

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  2. Just love oysters! That tarte looks scrumptions and I know all about the bread from Ken's blog!
    Give Callie a kiss on the nose ;)
    Happy New Year
    As I am writing you're probably having your black-eyed peas.:)

    Claude from Blogging in Paris

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  3. beaver, many thanks! And coq au vin sounds great!

    claude, happy new year to you, too! Callie got her kiss!

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  4. I've never been crazy about oysters myself and negotiated them out of the réveillon we spent with friends...yours do look beautiful though.

    Best wishes for a healthy and happy 2008.

    And you must look us up if you ever make it down to Aveyron!

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  5. Yum! Looks divine. Happy New Year to you and Ken!

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  6. betty, many thanks, and we will certainly let you know if we head down that way. Travel is not easy yet with the puppy...

    ginny, it was delicious. Hope you and Mitch and G & M are all well. We loved the elves!

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  7. Oh yes, I forgot about Callie. I'm afraid we don't invite dogs at this stage...but maybe someday!

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  8. Not a big fan of oysters either, but everything else sounds delicious. We had a nice time at the party we went to on New year's and the food was divine but has anyone ever heard of Malibu Pie?

    I guess that is something the uber riche do. Make an enormous bowl of this as a way to show off how well you did the previous year.

    a bed of shallots, fromage blanc, and hard boiled eggs, topped with exquisite caviar. It was very ostentatious and not very good. Everyone else seemed to like it though. I just couldn't bring myself to scoop the caviar off the top and leave the egg, shallot, fromage goop. I might have preferred oysters instead.

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