Bren Kübler

Sending yet more hugs and just wishing I could do something. Hug Cleo tight.
And yes, it's beyond bad luck - it's just unbelievably awful.

I make the vinaigrette with walnut oil, whatever mustard I fancy (mustard freak here) and white balsamico, which is mild enough not to overpower the oil.
Walnut country is, of course, next door (noix de Grenoble!). We do have a tree for our own supply of nuts and local oil producers for the oil.

Corporate-speak is one of my greatest peeves. I remember I once snapped at my daughter when she said she'd 'reach out' to me when she had a minute.
She's worked for several US companies (in marketing, yep) and now speaks it all fluently. But no longer speaks to me!

YES! And use walnut oil in the vinaigrette, ofc.

Same here. Back in the 70s I was forced to do an option on Middle High German as it was a prerequisite for the Dutch language option (go figure). I *hated* it. Not quite sure how I passed, but I did enjoy Dutch so it was worth it.

I'm really glad! I lived in Switzerland for 28 years, and was already a fondue/raclette fan by the time we moved to France in 2007. But with age (I'm old)... both now seem way too heavy although I usually cave and eat one raclette per year (and regret it).

But did you *like* it???

You need some excellent little potatoes with it too. And stab it and add some white whine (presume you found a recipe?).
And sure, blame away. It's the only 'melted' cheese meal my insides can handle. Not counting halloumi and I don't like baked Camembert (or Camembert in general).

Vacherin Mont d'Or - a French or Swiss cheese that can be baked and then treated like fondue. Delicious.

I love raclette but it doesn't love me. Fondue is the same. However, and weirdly, baked Vacherin Mont d'Or goes down just fine (and is rather delicious). Can you get it where you are?

I'm so very sorry, Roly.

According to replies on the thread, it's a fake. But sadly enough, it wouldn't have surprised me if it wasn't.

Same. It's the texture of tripe that gets me. Currently preparing beef kidney to be cooked slowly in red wine (plus carrots/onions). Half for tonight, half for the freezer.
Mr K likes tripe. He used to get it when I was away for work but as I no longer am, he is tripe-deprived.
Sweetbreads? Heaven!

We actually named her Melly (for the mélange of colours) but within days she'd become Duchess. And yes, you are so right. How old is she? Duchess age? She's gorgeous anyway.

Oh wow. She looks so much like the elderly and fragile 'Duchess' who rolled up here a few years ago. Was only with us for a year, sadly, but - like all the others - she had love (and food and comfort, all of which she so desperately needed).

I knew cheetahs purr but when I stroked one (in Botswana), it was absolutely stunning. And wonderful. And I cried like a drain.

Is that in Botswana? I visited a cheetah orphanage there, years ago. Stroked one. It purred.
I cried.
Also sat in a jeep for several hours (Kenya) because mum and baby cheetahs had a rest in the shade under it, and played around it. Driver: shall I call for another jeep?
5 people in first jeep: NOO!

Butcher's daughter here. We ate offal because it was cheap (and we could sell the 'better' parts).
Stunned that sweetbreads (which I love and which were then a 'poor person's meal' are now a delicacy and $$$ - at least in France).
Oh, and braised ox kidney? YES please!

Otherwise known as 'whisky berbère'.
If you are in Morocco, I am jealous. Very jealous.

Could well be how I found it! Sorry. I keep recommending it to people and forgot how I heard about it.

I'm eating all the *wrong* things. What tempts me is not the usual sort of thing I eat at all. Pass the pizza, the chocolate, the anything-with-pastry-and cheese.
I need to get back to 'proper' food involving vegetables and salads.

I've found that swearing in French doesn't seem as... effective as swearing in English, and I don't know why.
And why yes, I *can* swear extremely competently in French.
Maybe because I was brought up not to swear so the French seems like getting around the ban and thus not as satisfactory?

We'll be just the 2 of us, too. Wish I could beam you (and the new floofs) over.
I still have to get over the usual birthday/anniversary/Christmas triad of gloom somehow. Ugh.

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Have you read this? On of my major discoveries in recent years. It's extremely readable.
www.amazon.com/Talk-Wild-Si...

The major issues that have been plaguing me started *after* the pandemic, strangely enough.
I'm surviving. Not much more than that, tbh.
Please eat. If I was around I'd cook for you - feeding people seems to be my 'thing'.

Oh ffs. Sounds like a nightmare. I'm so sorry.

Oooh, I thought. That sounds like something I'd love.
So I looked it up for download on my Kindle and I bought it in 2012. Have just had it redelivered as it was on my previous device. Also, I am now old and forget things.
Thanks - time for a reread, obviously!

I'd go for broke and go back about 4 years, please. Possibly more, but that would already help.
Hope the day is improving now?

They are two lucky kittens!
As you probably know, Christmas and me don't mix but having that pair around would cheer *anything* up.
(But no - three cats quite enough... unless another abandoned one ends up on the doorstep, of course).

They are just... just...
(all the words, y'know).
And fabulous if they'll be there for Christmas.

Such a shame. All sorted now?