Happy New Year!

Happy New Year and best wishes to my readers and fellow bloggers for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2011. As you know, we are in Sablet for the holidays. Our four grandkids are having a hard time, much harder than I thought they would, adjusting to the 9 hour time difference between California and Sablet. So the parents and we grandparents, are not getting much sleep.

So as you can imagine, life has been quite hectic since we arrived in Sablet, with tears here and there from tired and over stimulated children. We have visited Carpentras, Avignon, Vaison-la-Romaine, Séguret and Châteauneuf du Pape and this has given the grandkids a chance to run around and burn off some steam. More about these outings in future posts.

Last night, we finally had that fondue I have been dreaming about for several weeks. I decided to include several components of David Lebovitz's recipe in his post Making Swiss Cheese Fondue that I have not done before. The changes were finely diced fresh garlic instead of whole cloves and a 50/50 mix of Gruyère and Vacherin Fribourgeois cheese, both purchased from Josiane Deal at Lou Canesteou in Vaison-la-Romaine. We all agreed this was the best fondue we have had.

We had a nice green salad with a vinaigrette made by daughter Tricia and a Domaine de la Charbonniere Châteauneuf du Pape to accompany the fondue. We had steamed broccoli for Daughter Stephanie.

I wish you a year full of wonderful food and wine and good times with loved ones and friends. Thank you for reading my blog. I enjoy your comments and I look forward to chattng with you more during 2011. Gros bisous.