Deep thoughts . . .

“It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth . . . And that we have no way of knowing when our time is up . . . That we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.”~Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

We have a lovely church down in the village. It dates back to Normal times, according to Todd, and is surrounded by hundreds of gravestones. You don't see that in Canada much. Most graveyards are quite separate from churches. I noticed that in France they are mostly in church yards as well. I think it is a lovely custom.

I love to walk around cemetaries. They're so peaceful and still. So quiet. It's a great time to think and reflect on things. I've had some of my best ideas and most profound thoughts in a cemetary. Cemetaries are also an important reminder of the frailty of our life here on earth. As you walk amongst the various headstones, you read name after name of people who, just like you, once walked this earth and had hopes and dreams, desires, loves . . . and now, they're simply no more here . . . gone. I wonder sometimes . . . did they acheive all that they had set out to achieve? Were they loved? Did they want for anything? Were they happy? When I see a headstone and it shows me that the person was quite young, I wonder even more. How sad it seems to me when it appears that a young life has been snuffed out prematurely . . .


All the more reason not to take our days here on earth for granted as we so often do, wandering through life and not embracing all the joy and possibility that each day presents to us, more opportunities to experience the sacred in the ordinary. Each day of this life we have, is so precious and important, and only ours to spend, it belongs to nobody else. We cannot afford to throw away even one important day by not noticing the wonder and the magic of it. Even the bible tells us that our days here on earth are numbered, and yet stil . . . a lot of us waste them away by wanting things we do not have and wishing for things that are yet to come.

We should be holding on to all the joy that we already have and lingering on the blessings of the here and the now . . . things like that special way pavement smells after a newly fallen rain, or the sound of a robin singing it's heart out in the bushes. The sight of early spring bulbs pushing their way out of the earth towards the sunshine, the soft feel of your lover's arms around you, the smell of your wee one's warm little heads . . . all the things we all take for granted each and every day. All the moments in life that are special and pass all too quickly. Here is where your true treasures lay, in the special moment of the here and the now that are singular to each one of us. Let's not waste another breath or a minute longer in taking all these wonderful blessings we have for granted. One day, we too will be planted in a garden of stone, and people will be pondering us and our hopes and dreams. I hope that when they look at mine, they will sense just how happy and content I've been . . . and how blessed.


Sometimes I like to cook something special for Todd, you know . . . just to spoil him a bit. To be perfectly honest, he's happy with whatever I put down in front of him, just so long as it's not made of pasta or chocolate. He never complains even then . . . I expect that years of having eaten out of tins has made him most appreciateive of any home cooked meal. He does love his meat and potatoes though. Plain and simple, these are his tastes. I cooked him some lovely gammon steak the other night which went down a real treat with him. I simply served it with some tiny boiled new potatoes, freshly dug from our garden, and some green beans on the side. This was special without going over the top, which is what he likes most of all. The recipe is very easily doubled, although you will want to cook the gammon steaks in batches rather than all at once. If your steaks are very large, cut them in half before cooking.




*Gherkin Sauced Gammon Steaks*
Serves 2
Printable Recipe

As the butcher explained to me, gammon is ham before it's cooked. It only becoms ham afterwards. The gherkins I use in this recipe are not the sweet, bright green, picked gherkins we get in North America, but the small tiny, slightly sour ones we get over here, which the French call Cornichons. They go so very well with the saltiness of the gammon. A dollop of sharp and tangy English mustard on the side also goes very well.

2 large gammon steaks (each about 7 to 8 ounces)
8 ounces dry white wine
6 small gherkins, finely chopped
1 ounce butter
1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 TBS flour
1 TBS chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
a knob of butter for cooking the steaks

Melt the first amount of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and then add the chopped shallot. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat for about 4 minutes, until the shallot is nicely softened, without allowing it to brown. Whisk in the flour and allow it to cook for about a minute. Whisk the wine in slowly, a little at a time, until you have a smooth sauce. Reduce the heat to low and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes while you cook the gammon steaks.

Trim the rind from off the gammon steaks, and clip the fat at half inch intervals all around. This helps to keep the steaks flat when cooking, otherwise they will all curl up. Heat a large skiller over medium high heat and add the knob of butter. When it starts to foam a bit and sizzle, add the gammon steaks and cook for two to three minutes on each side, until they start to brown slightly and the fat on the edges gets a bit crispy. Turn the heat out and finish the sauce.

Stir the chopped gherkins, parsley and lemon juice into the sauce. Taste and season with some salt and pepper. Heat through.

Serve the steaks with a bit of the warmed sauce spooned over top and the rest on the side so that people can help themselves.

We like to have this with tiny boiled new potatoes and a green vegetable.




Yesterday I spoiled him with homemade beer battered cod, which he really loved and went down a real treat. If you'd like the recipe, check it out on The English Kitchen.




PS - I don't know what's happened to my font today. It's gone all screwy and I've had to do multiple edits to fix it. Sorry about that!