Black cat appreciation day

Well, she's black from the back :) Also, the only subject I photographed all day. Extra so you can admire her peepers. And also note that she has somehow mislaid the whiskers above her left eye! Hopefully they will grow back. Pot for scale. Many people walking past the window on the way to Sunday lunch admired her.

More kitchen labours today. While S prepared mini kebabs, I slowly fried a kilo of onions for about half an hour, stirring regularly and mopping my brow from time to time. Then I made a lemon cheesecake, which was still baking when we went out for the community Sunday lunch, so I had to pop back to check on it. So far so good -- it's in the fridge now.

Lunch was chicken tagine. Well, that's what it was described as; to my mind if it doesn't have fruit in it, it's not a tagine (though apparently I'm wrong about that). It was good though, if not as spicy as we would have liked (our French tablemates thought it was just right). Dessert was excellent pastries from a Moroccan patisserie in Narbonne ... I think we need to check it out next time we are there.

We were abstemious on the wine, and didn't hang around to chat, as when we got home I set to making some sourdough for tomorrow. The loaves are now sitting in the fridge for baking in the morning. It was so hot in the kitchen that I chickened out of making half a dozen and having the oven on max for hours.  We will supplement by -- shock horror -- actually buying some bread! Having made loads of starter in anticipation, I quickly made some crackers with the surplus to have with cheese.

We dined on the remains of our bottle of wine, and pâté on toast. Miss Matisse, after initial suspicion, tried the pâté and liked it.