Hog Roast

On Saturday we were invited out to the lovely countryside of the Beaujolais region (the 'nouveau' wine may be bad but the area is stunningly beautiful)for a Hog Roast - Ozzie/French style.

Our hosts were celebrating their marriage with barbecue to end all barbecues, well he is Australian. It was a very bilingual occasion and great fun. They have a house in the area which they inherited from her grandparents and is actually an old saw mill and the buildings that go with it. It was last used in the 60's and the wooden sheds have disappeared but a couple of the buildings remain. The local planning permission is that you can build on the footprints of existing buildings, so they are camping out in one, while restoring the other into what will be a stunning weekend place (incidentally about 3 times the size of their town flat.)

So back to the hog roast. A spit was made using an old washing machine engine and some Heath Robinson like additions and, of course, half an oil drum. Several trees were chopped down (OK - they had to go anyway) a pig, a sheep and 3 kegs of beer were ordered, their friends were invited and fingers and toes were crossed for good weather.

Us guests arrived clutching bowls of salad, bottles of wine and two sacks of bread, and proceeded to start on the alcohol. You will be pleased to know that it was mainly the men who hovered around the spit and debated how hot the fire was, adding more logs, basting the meat etc, while mainly women sat around the table and debated how men were the same the world over - give them a fire and leave them to it. The children were running around playing football, petanque or pirates and trying to skim stones across the river - awe inspired by the finely honed skills of my friend and her childhood spent by the sea in Ireland.

It was one of those great evenings when you catch up with old friends and meet new ones. I was also formally introduced to the boulanger who bakes the bread for the Creche I work in. It was one of those 'I know you but I don't know where from' moments but then the two sacks of baguettes were a big clue. Small world!
The weather held out, the food was eaten, the drinks were drunk, no children drowned and several hours later I went home, rather unsober and smelling of woodsmoke!

By the way, even though we were missing mint sauce and apple sauce, the pig and the sheep were done to perfection. Yum yum.