I Hate Winter, Well....Not Really....

I hate the rapidly shrinking days...I love hot weather and hate cold hands! I love to bike and don't feel inspired to do it when the temperature starts to fall. I hate colds and runny noses, dressing in layers, I spend hours and hours splitting and cutting wood. then start worrying about the price of fuel oil and if there is enough insulation on the house. I don't even want to think about gaining weight because I can feel it creeping up on me every minute!
On the other hand, I am so gourmand and there are things that I would never think of eating in the summer that I crave in the winter. I say I hate the cold, but once I am outside, I usually am out all day long. I love taking long walks in the forest with J. Edgar, my dog. Once I start working, I forget the cold and by the end of the day, when I come in and light a fire, I have quite an appetite.
I love winter because I get to eat one of my very favorite things, Tartiflette! It's such a simple thing, potatoes and cheese and a few other things, but if my wife says that she is going to make tartiflette for dinner, she can ask me to do anything.
I like making it as well, but it is so much nicer if someone makes it for you. Tartiflette and a garlicky green salad is a complete meal.
The only thing that might make it difficult to make in the USA is finding Reblochon cheese, but I think that you could use a few other soft slightly fragrant cheeses to good advantage. I have seen tartiflette made with camembert. Try this:
You will need a baking dish, preferable glass or earthen ware. Butter it.
Boil 4 or 5 nice firm potatoes.
Mince an onion and sautee lightly in a little butter or oil
Add maybe 150 grams of diced smoked bacon (perhaps it would be good to boil the bacon first if it is American bacon to get rid of some of the fat and salt)
Let the bacon and onion sautee together for a few minutes
Thickly slice the potatoes and put a layer in the baking dish, then put half of the onion bacon mixture over them. Then repeat.
Pour a little cream over the top, then the reblochon in slices.
Then pour a small glass of dry white wine over the the mixture. Pour yourself a glass.
Bake in a hot oven...240 Centigrade or 400 Farenheit
The cheese will melt and brown on the top and begin to cook with the wine and the smell becomes indescribable!
This is one of my favorite things and one of the main things that makes winter bearable to me.....Okay, so I eat more chocolate than I normally would too....
Tatiflette! not to be confused with Mctartiflette!

Mctartiflette, available only in France...don't even ask..............