A French Country Weekend

         It took almost three hours to find exactly the deep yellow and orange pansies I wanted for the large boxes next to our front door and big Chinese pots on the porches in the back of the house. The front features yellow, the back orange.

        Now, no matter how miserable the weather -- and it's quite miserably dark, drizzly and rainy -- these bright sunny flowers set the tone for the day. Mission accomplished.

         Just back from the last holiday luncheon celebration of the season. The vegetable accompaniment was divine, mashed potatoes and celery root. Since we were en famille (I do this with my best friends as well) I asked for the recipe.

Celery root.

          I thought you might like me to share: Peel and cut into rough cubes the potatoes and the celery root, put into a sauce pan and cover with milk, bring to a light bubbling and let simmer for about 20 minutes -- it depends upon the size of the morsels of course -- then simply mash the whole thing and add a little salt and pepper to taste. The procedure can be executed in a blender, but today's were hand mashed so the consistency was delightfully rustic, read deliciously lumpy.

          At the moment have no idea what will be on the calendar for next week, but I promise it will be full. I just wanted to wish you a lovely Sunday.