Shopping in Strasbourg - II

A while back, I had the pleasure of spending a day in Strasbourg looking for food. While I find that my local vegetables from my farm guy are better, it's just fun to shop in France. Of course, Germany isn't cut off from the rest of the world and you can get things here, but the variety in France makes things fun. Like chickens with heads & feathers. Fun. A mountain full of avocodoes. Fun. Wine barrels from the 15th century. Fun (although I'll pass on the wine).

Here a few samples of what I saw:

A wine vat dating back to 1472. The wine in it has only been served 3 times - the last time being as General De Gaulle visited Strasbourg, and the city just returned to France immediately after the Second World War. The vat is located in the Cave Historique des Hospices de Strasbourg. That's right - the city hospital has it's own wine cellar. It dates back to 1395 and was an effort for poorer people to have health care. They couldn't pay with money, but they paid with wine. If you can read French and are interested, you can find more info here.

View of the Strasbourg Catherdral on the way to the market. The second tower was never completed.

Fresh chicken at the market. Note the yellow skin. While I didn't buy these birds, the ones I bought were equally yellow (but headless) & absolutely fantastic.

Time for a break with the Salad Gourmande. Shrimp in cocktail sauce, tomato with shallots, an oyster, crudites, a salad of celeriac? in a creamy sauce, a thick slice of bayonne ham, melon, smoked salmon and foie gras. Under all of this, there is in fact lettuce.

The grocery store where I do my shopping. I go there for the food, not for the carousel. Honest.

I heard that there is an avocodo shortage in North America this year. I'm not too sure whether or not this is true, but I didn't see any signs of a shortage in the supermarket.

When I'm driving over the border with a cooler, I always pick up some oysters. Bear in mind that Strasbourg is still 8 hours away from the sea. The 2 hours seems to make all the difference because they have better seafood than we do in Germany.

I'm not too sure if I actually bought any of this wine, but there was something strangely appealing about the mountain of bordeaux. It was so cheap, I should have bought the whole mountain. Or at least a little rock.

So that's a little bit of what I do & what I buy when I go to France. Reason enough, non?

Why I Love my Farmer-Guy

Recently, I posted about a misunderstanding that I had with my vegetable guy. I can't afford to get into arguments with my vegetable guy. Here's why:


Fresh corn, peas, zucchini, FRESH FIGS, potatoes, a gagillion tomatoes, lettuce, potted mint, and cauliflower. All from the local farm. The eggs and the blueberries are from other local farms but sold in the farm shop.

Normally, I go to their stall at the market, but when I go to the farm itself, it's just fun. Plants that I can't grow, local fresh veggies - all grown on site. The bunnies & guinea pigs in the front are an added bonus.


Lenz Garden in Heidelberg. Click here for directions and opening hours.

So Long, my Fair Avocado!

Avocados are more difficult to find here that in North America, and they are often unripe in the store. They need to wait on the counter until that perfect moment arises - but sometimes, I'm too late. That was the case with this green trooper.

I realized that it's finally time to send off the avocado on my counter, but I wanted to do it right. I think I bought this avocado to take with me to work - it was supposed to be my out from cafeteria food. I had high expectations of it and I let it down. It needed to make it up to the avocado. I wanted to give it a Mexican avocado in-tummy-ment. The best way to do this, I thought, was Mexican burgers, with homemade salsa & guacamole.



Mexican Burgers
250 g ground beef
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/4 tsp chilli pepper
1/4 tsp paprika

Mix all ingredients together. Allow to sit for 30 minutes. Shape into patties & grill.

Salsa
150g red & yellow tomatoes, seeded & chopped
2 tsp chopped fresh coriander
1 small red onion, chopped finely
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp or more chilli pepper, depending on taste

Add all ingredients together, allow to marinate for 30 min.

Guacamole
1 dying avocado (must be very ripe)
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp chilli spices (mix of cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, chilli powder)
2 tsp lime juice
salt & pepper to taste

Mash all ingredients together.

Arrange burgers on a tortilla, cover with guacamole & salsa & try to eat.

It was a fun tribute to a fruit that held so much expectation. It still has a comrade in the fruit bowl. I will take him to the hallowed halls of my office tomorrow. Maybe not. Maybe the dying plants on my desk will scare it too much.

Rain Roasted Tomatoes

It's one of the rare breaks in this year's rainy season. Instead of going outside & enjoying my fabulous balcony (it has live plants on it!), I spend my evenings in the kitchen with low maintenance food. Take the humble tomato, for example. It is capable of so much - everything from the ketchup to pizza, to sauce, to a salad caprese, to gazpacho, to being stuffed; it can be a star yet it is not afraid of being in a supporting role. To think that the Europeans were afraid of the tomato when it first came from the Americas - they claimed that it gave rise to passion, and although I think they meant carnal lust, I am still passionate about fresh, local tomatoes.

The local farm has many fresh tomatoes. I had a minor argument the other day as I was discussing which tomato would be best to roast. My trusted green grocer wanted to direct me towards meaty tomatoes. I however, wanted the sweetness that the smaller varieties have.

Smaller tomatoes, with their inherent sweetness, lead me to the bottle of balsamic vinegar I bought in Italy a while back. It's a 12 year old & rich & drippy & thick. Plan: Roast tomatoes with olive oil, drizzle with balsamic vinegar & sprinkle with sea salt when they come out.

Rain Roasted Tomatoes
300g small tomatoes
1 Tbsp olive oil
sea salt
balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 160°C.
Slice tomatoes in half.
In a bowl, gently toss sliced tomatoes with olive oil to coat.
Place tomatoes on baking sheet & roast for 45 minutes (will take longer with larger tomatoes).
Sprinkle with sea salt & drizzle balsamic vinegar on top.

I'm amazed by the sweet caramel of these tomatoes - in fact, I was just picking it off the baking dish. Maybe I'd try some rosemary of thyme with it, and I have to say, I was very happy. But in retrospect, I have to admit, there is nothing worth getting into an argument with my vegetable guy for. Vegetable guy: I'm sorry. I'm more than happy to try again with meatier tomatoes.

Find the Fungus

Sometimes, I know what things are called in German but am oblivious to their English names. Until recently, this was the case with Mu-Err mushrooms. As I saw a package of them in the store, I was surprised to learn the English name: Black Fungus. When choosing an English name, they should have had a marketer involved. Or maybe they should have paid the translator enough money to care. I didn't think that I would be buying black fungus, but the Chinese masseur told me that it's good for something. I can't remember what, I just know that I should be eating it. Black Fungus. Yum.

It doesn't taste too bad, actually, I like both the taste as well as the texture, although I know it turns most people off. Today, I'm making a wonton soup with hidden Mu-Err mushrooms - I'd rather call them that than the unappetizing, unfortunate English name they've been given.

Wonton Soup with Hidden Black Fungus
Wontons
300g ground turkey
3 green onions, chopped
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
3 Tbsp chopped black fungus (make sure it's rehydrated!)
1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp black pepper
wonton skins

Broth
1 tsp oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp minced ginger
4 c chicken broth
1 carrot, finely sliced
3 Tbsp thinly sliced black fungus (again, make sure it's rehydrated, following package directions)
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp soy sauce
3 green onions, chopped

In a bowl, mix all wonton ingredients except wrappers. Fill wrappers with 1 tsp at a time & pinch into pouches. Set aside.

In a saucepan, gently sautee garlic & ginger in oil. Add carrot & stir until softened. Add chicken broth, mushroom, sesame oil oyster sauce & soy sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer.

Gently drop wontons into a separate pot of boiling water. Allow to simmer for 5-6 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer wontons to broth. Garnish with green onions.

A light broth with turkey instead of pork, plus supposedly healthy mushrooms makes me feel as though I'm doing good things for myself. I know there's less fat, more liquid (always good) limited carbs, and a bunch of minerals. Now if I only knew what those minerals were good for & why the Chinese masseur recommended I eat them, that'd be even better.

Bul Go Burgers

It's July. This means burger season. If I have to go out in the rain to grill my burgers, so be it. It's summer.

There's a little supermarket not too far from my home. They don't have everything there, but they do have great veggies & the beef is freshly ground. I go in, with the plan of making korean-style beef burgers, I come out & feel as though I will be swept away with the flood rains pouring through the city. No matter, I have everything I need (an umbrella), so I walk home, start cooking & hope that rain will stop.

Bulgogi Burgers with Sweet Potato & Zucchini Fries

330 g ground beef
2 Tbsp red wine
1 Tbsp each minced garlic & ginger
1 green onion, chopped
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp panko (or regular breadcumbs)
1 sweet potato, peeled & sliced thinly
2 zucchinis, sliced thinly
1 medium onion, sliced
Kimchi

Mix beef, wine, garlic, ginger, green onion, soy & panko together, shape into patties & allow to sit (covered, in the fridge) for 30 minutes.
Make zucchini & sweet potato chips: add slices to hot oil & drain.
Sautee onions unitl translucent.
Grill burgers.
Serve burgers with Kimchi (store bought) and cooked onion rings.

Hopefully these rains will stop for more than a few hours. There was a day of sun this week, maybe there'll be another one soon.

Chicken Soup for the Rain

As you may have gathered by now, we are in the middle of an unseasonably wet summer in Germany. It's not raining again, it is raining still. Sometimes I don't understand our perceptions of food and weather. In cold weather, we eat warm soup. Yet in South East Asia, the temperatures are hardly polar, yet they still eat soup. Maybe it's just because soup is good. I like soup a lot & I often lament the fact that Europe sees soup solely as an appetizer. Granted, there is the potage or stew, but it's not the same - it's thicker & not quite as messy. I love phô in all its forms and would immediately marry the man who takes me to a phô restaurant on a first date. OK, maybe not, but he'd score huge points, in spite of broth in his beard.

The idea was to grill the chicken for the soup. It's summer. I'm supposed to grill things. In spite of the rain, or perhaps because of it, I'm not going outside to use the BBQ. I'll use a frying pan instead to brown my meat.

Grilled Chicken Soup

2 chicken thighs, cut at joints
2 Tbsp red miso
1 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp red wine
1 tsp neutral oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp minced ginger
1 Tbsp minced lemon grass
100 g mushrooms, chopped
500 ml chicken stock
1 dried chilli
90 g cooked soba noodles (1 prewrapped roll)
100g spinach, cooked or frozen
2 green onions
handful chopped cilantro

Create marinade of miso, garlic powder & wine. Add chicken, score legs lightly to allow marinade to penetrate. Set aside.

Over medium heat, warm oil & sautee garlic, ginger, lemongrass & mushrooms. Add chicken stock & chilli, lower heat to simmer & cover.

In frying pan over med-high heat, brown chicken, skin side down, turning to brown evenly. Chicken will not be cooked through before you remove from heat.

Place chicken in soup mixture. Allow to cook until cooked through.

Shortly before serving, add cooked spinach, (if using frozen, allow to thaw in soup), add noodles, onions & cilantro.

As in winter, I was grateful for a warm broth. I'm not grateful for the mild winter of July, but all things considered, at least it's a mild winter. I think I should just move to Spain.

Stuffed Stuff

The markets are the only indicator of summer that I have around here. It's rainy, it's cold & I am not planning any beach vacations *sigh*. I don't deserve any pity though, because I'm still able to get all the fresh goodies that my farmer's market has to offer. This weekend, I went out & got some freakish pepper tomatoes and a round zucchini. They say that the pepper tomato is like a bell pepper, but once you have it, you'll never go back to peppers. That sounded like a challenge. I had a red bell pepper in the fridge, so I decided it was time to take all 3 veggies & make Stuffed Stuff.

Stuffed Stuff
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow pepper tomato (or other large tomato)
1 round zucchini
1 cup quinoa, cooked
200 g mushrooms, chopped finely
1/2 red pepper, chopped
100 g ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
sprig each of rosemary & thyme, chopped (or use 1/2 tsp dried)
1 c tomato sauce

Cutting around stems, create a lid for pepper, tomato & zucchini. Seed, or with the zucchini, scoop out the inside, and set aside. Save zucchini bits.
Sautee scooped out zucchini, mushrooms, chopped pepper, garlic, onion & herbs until translucent. Add beef & continue cooking until it is cooked through. Mix with quinoa.
Stuff veggies with quinoa mixture.
Place stuffed veggies in baking dish & place tomato sauce around.
Bake at 170° for 30 minutes, or until done.

I loved the fact that the quinoa got crispy. I also loved the tomato. I'm not too sure if it will keep me off of bell peppers indefinitely, but it'll keep me away from bell peppers as long as the tomatoes are available. Given this German summer, that might be 3 more days.

Coffee Date with Blueberries & Peaches

In a few hours, an old friend from university will be coming over for coffee. In Germany, Sunday coffee is a sort of institution. It's not just coffee, it's also cake & all other goodies that fill you up with sugars & flours & make you not want dinner. Well, forget that - it's an old friend, not someone I have to impress. It's about seeing her again, not about the food. Well - not as much about the food.

Yesterday, I went out to the farm & in my "everything is fresh & I need it all!" frenzy, I got some vineyard peaches, as well as some blueberries. Neither are local, but both are fun. The vineyard peaches are flat & perfect for grilling, but I needed something to go with the blueberries for the pie. Cut them up & away I go. This is wine country- there have got to be more flat peaches out there.

Blueberry Peach Pie Crumble
1/2 roll puff pastry, or 1 pie shell
1/2 c flour
3 Tbsp dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp butter
pinch of salt
250 g blueberries
3 flat peaches, or 2 round ones, sliced
3 Tbsp light brown sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
zest of 1/2 lemon, grated
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Roll pastry into pie form.
Mix flour, sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, butter & salt to make a sandy mixture. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix remaining ingredients. Put fruit mix in pie shell & cover with crumble mixture. Bake at 180° for 30 minutes.

I've been looking forward to making a pie for months now, ever since I got my new pie form when I was at home a few months ago. An amazingly wonderful person gave it to me as a gift & if I can't share the pie with her, then I can at least share it with an old friend.

Goat Cheese Tomato Tart

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the farmer's market. The market is full on Saturdays, but on Wednesdays, it's a little smaller, a little less busy and a lot easier to graze at. I went to my regular stand and bought berries for jam, and then I saw the tomatoes. Oh the tomatoes! I bought a few different varieties with different things in mind. OK, I bought a few different varieties as I was salivating like one of Pavlov's dogs. I didn't have a clue what to do with them, but I knew that with these tomatoes in hand, I could trick myself into thinking that it's not rainy, and summer is just the way it should be.

I decided to use the meaty tomatoes for a goat cheese tart. It's still raining out, as it has been for the past week, and I'm in more of a tart mood than a gazpacho mood. I need something warm. I need something with carbs that will disolve on my tounge before I can even swallow them.

Tarte aux Tomates et Chevre
1 1/2 c flour
3 Tbsp butter
50 ml hot water
2 Tbsp olive oil
6 tomatoes
2 Tbsp tapenade (black olive paste)
1 Tbsp herbes de provence
150g goat cream cheese
2 Tbsp yogurt (if needed)
salt & pepper
grated pecorino

Dissolve butter in hot water, add oil. Add to flour. Let rest for a few moments.
Seed & slice tomatoes & set aside.
Knead flour mixture to make a dough, adding water or flour if needed. Roll out to fit your baking pan.
Mix cream cheese and herbes in a bowl. Add yogurt if needed to reach a creamy consistancy. Add salt & pepper to taste.
Cover dough with a thin layer of tapenade. Cover dough with cheese mixture. Place sliced tomates on top. Add grated pecorino & bake at 200° for 30 min.

There's something really strange about there being fresh, local tomatoes and it only being 21° outside. I'm not complaining, but I do find it odd. I don't feel like making the gazpacho but I am completely in favour of warm dishes that are packed full of flavour. I'm in favour of closing my eyes and savouring the season.

Tomatoes, Zucchini & Eggs

It feels as though I am constantly cleaning out my fridge. I don't buy food with a plan to cook it, I buy food because it looks good & then I have to find some sort of use for it while it still looks good. The zucchini in the fridge was like that. I made zucchini chips a while back, and while I need to refine this technique, I didn't feel like deep frying. In some sort of an effort to make a balanced meal, I made a tomato salad and a zucchini quiche.

Tomato Salad
6 small tomatoes, sliced
6 leaves of basil, torn
sherry vinegar
olive oil
salt
pepper

Arrange basil & tomatoes on plate.
Top with vinegar, oil, salt & pepper.

The tomatoes are starting to get a lot better now, so they don't need much else.


Zucchini Quiche
2 small zuchinnis, sliced lengthwise
olive oil
1 package puff pastry
5 eggs
1/2 c milk
3/4 c grated cheese
1 tsp thyme
salt
pepper

Sautee zucchini in olive oil until it is bendable.
Line baking dish with puff pastry.
Place Zucchini ribbons in pastry dish.
Beat all other ingredients together & cover zucchini with egg mixture.
Bake in oven at 170° for 35-45 minutes, until browned.

I cleaned out some stuff from my fridge. Now I'm on my way to the market to restock. On the way over, I'll have to rethink this system.

Pork (Brontosaurus) Ribs

Every time I eat ribs, I feel like Fred Flinstone. I'm not too sure what it is, maybe it's the primal act of gnawing at bones, maybe it's the eating with hands, maybe it's because I like mine a little charred, or maybe it's just because I watched too much TV as a kid.

I recently got called out of town on short notice. This meant that the colossal amount of meat in my fridge had to be frozen. I had the clever idea that I would pre-marinate everything in zip-loc bags, allowing all the flavours to blend as they thawed. In theory, a clever idea. In practice, I should have labelled the packages more carefully. "Pork Ribs" only helps me so much. I opened the bag & smelt garlic and ginger, I could see black & chilli pepper. There was some sort of liquid - I'm not sure what it was.

I braised the ribs in the oven at 150° (300°) for 90 minutes in beer, then, when they looked like they were falling off the bone, I slapped on some homemade sauce (BBQ seems to elegant). and grilled them for 12 minutes until they were as charred as I like them.

Rib Sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp Worchester sauce
1/4 c ketchup
1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp dried, minced onion
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Mix everything together & put on ribs. If you prefer, you can even use real onion & real minced garlic, but I was feeling rustic.

I gnawed on the bones in desperate need of dental floss, and felt like a citizen of Bedrock. The only thing missing was the bone in my hair.

Don't Tell My Mom I Miss Her!

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit the family. It wasn't under the best of circumstances, but it made me realize how long it's been since I've seen my extended family and how far away I am from everything I grew up with. There wasn't the same food that normally waits for me, but I was only home for a few days. As luck would have it, on the flight back to Germany, I met a woman who comes from a neighbouring island of my parent's home. We chatted and discovered that we had much in common. She asked me if I cooked traditional Caribbean food, and I said, I try. Do you cook eggplant choka, she asked, to which I said Yes.

It isn't really true. I don't cook eggplant choka. I try to cook it and I don't get it right. I eat it when my mom makes it, when she leaves it unattended on the stove for a few minutes, only for it to be half-gone by the time she returns. And me, of course, I have an unusual lack of appetite. My mom never says a thing, and I think she's come to some bizarre recipe calculation of how much she has to make so there's enough left for dinner.

This evening, I thought of the woman in the plane & I thought of my mom & I realized I really wanted eggplant choka. I called my mom and she walked me through as I made my snack. It was simmilar, but 1) I didn't listen to my mom & I added too much tomato and 2) it's just not the same if I'm legitmately allowed to eat it before dinner.

Eggplant Choka
1 medium eggplant, roasted
olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 plum tomatoes, chopped
pinch cumin
salt & pepper to taste

Slice eggplant open, extract seeds, press out water.

Sautee onions & garlic in olive oil until translucent.

Add tomatoes & cumin and continue cooking over med-low heat until tomatoes fall apart.

Add eggplant and cook until warmed through.

Salt & pepper to taste.

Serve warm, ideally with roti (West-Indian flatbread) or just eat from the stove. It's a snack before dinner, which feels like being at home, but moreover, it was a good chance to talk with my mom.

Hot Weather Hot Chocolate

It's 27° in my apartment, and while I know that this is not much for most people, it is enough to make anyone in Germany melt. We're just not used to functioning in this weather. Many Germans will go off to warm sunny vacation spots & love it, but to work in this heat? Forget it.

The weather doesn't normally stay this hot for long, so it hardly seems like a worthwhile investment to get air conditioning for a few sticky weeks in summer. I'm onto other ideas: a fan bought is Spain as a constant fashion accessory, a cool foot bath, I'm even thinking of a kiddie splash pool for the balcony. I just tried out my newest cool-me-down: mint hot chocolate.

If you can still drink coffee in the heat, why not hot chocolate? And paired with some mint from my balcony, it seems like the kind of thing to cool me off.

Mint Hot Chocolate
1 cup milk
1 heaped teaspoon sugar
1 - 2 tsp cocoa powder (to taste)
1 sprig mint

Cook milk, sugar & cocoa, being careful not to let the mixture boil. Crush mint. In a cappucino frother, froth everything together. Alternatively, mix vigorously or use a blender.
Garnish with more mint.

The menthol in the mint is cooling, and the hot chocolate was soothing. I still might need to fill that pool, though.

Excursion to Alsace

It was Canada Day, it is Independance Day. What better way to combine these 2 national holidays than by paying a visit to the country that provided both Quebequois & the Statue of Liberty? OK - I wasn't thinking of any of that when I planned the trip, I just took the day off & I wanted some good food.

Alsace, like the rest of France, is full of good food. Also, I can get there on my commuter ticket. I packed an overnight bag, slapped on some sunscreen & got in the train. It then promptly started to rain. Most of the day was spent running from one cafe to another, sampling local wines along the way. The wines were Rieslings & Edelzwicker, and we ate a cheese platter, a Tarte Flambée, and some Escargot. They actually had frog legs available, but I wasn't that adventurous.

The cheese platter had a regular hard cheese, a camembert, chevre, butter and a softened buttery-like cheese with herbs. Much better than the stale crackers on the table. I have to figure out what the softest cheese was - I think it was like a cheese ball, but in slices.

The escargot was good, but the tarte flambée was fantastic. We ordered the traditional tarte, which is topped with creme fraiche, onions & lardons - something akin to cubes or slices of ham. The tarte itself was very thin, crispy & in spite of the toppings, it was a light snack.

After having slept back into sobriety (it was really rainy), I went out for dinner & was dazzled. The French have this way with the fixed course menus. I opted for the 3 course dinner & a bottle of 1998 Bordeaux, plus an Auxerrois as an apperetif.

As a starter: a skewer of shrimp and prawn, on a bed of spaghetti a olio. The oil was lightly peppery and garlick-y, and the shrimp were good.

Main course: Duck breast, cooked a la point (they even asked how I wanted it done), in a cherry sauce, with a chili polenta. It was matched well with the 1998 Bordeaux.

For desert, there was a trio of mousse au chocolat, served in layers, as a little cake. From the bottom, there was dark, milk & finally white chocolate. On the side was whipped cream and a vanilla sauce with stawberry sauce swilled in.

After sleeping in this morning, we went to a local bakery for breakfast. French breakfasts aren't all that substantial, but they have fantastic baked goods. We ordered the "full" breakfast, which included cooked ham, cheese (including camembert), butter and jam. The 1/2 bagutte per person reminded me of why France is so good. I don't know if I've had a baguette like this outside of France, and while I am trying to reduce my empty carbs, I could not resist this freshly baked treat.
Another hour until the next train home meant I had a little more time to oggle patiseries. I really should have bought the Kugelkoepff - the local specialty that looks like a bundt cake, but I was really full. There were also macaroons that looked fantastic, but I was afraid of them getting crushed en route.

The town of Wissembourg isn't that far from here. I think I'll be going there more often to eat, but I'll check the weather reports first.