• Got chocolate?

    A photo of Louis with a chocolate face.

    Today's recipe is: Molten Chocolate pudding
    It was recently brought to my attention that I have as yet to post a dessert recipe. Quel faux pas! What a mistake! Last year, I was given a chocolate cook book and am becoming a legend with my chocolate desserts. Death by Mississippi Mud pie should actually be the title of one of my posts. One slice and your mind is in chocolate heaven and your tummy is in serious danger of explosion. A sheer joy is what it is. Today you are meeting Louis, my biggest chocolate fan. Don’t those two teeth and that gorgeous big smile say it all? His beautiful big sister, Emma, and he are both big chocoholics, but Louis does take the (chocolate) cake in this department, if you’ll pardon the pun.

  • Mystery Murder Dinner

    Today’s recipe is: Carrot Roulade/Swiss Roll
    When (my darling) Em and Pikey first invited us to a murder mystery dinner, I had no idea what to expect. That no-one was to actually die, seemed fairly logical, but what then? We each received our own personal invite with the character you were to play. I was Angel Roni, the beautiful (thank you, Em!) young daughter of the deceased, and Joerg was Rocco Scarfazzi, a slightly dodgy Italian businessman. We dressed as our roles required – me in a short black dress with fishnet stockings/nylons and Joerg with his head almost shaved and in a dark suit – and hoped the whole way to their house that we wouldn’t be stopped as we looked like a hooker and her pimp!

  • Asseing - you try and say it!

    Today's recipes are: Moroccan Marinated Carrots; and Dried fruit Cake
    I find some French words harder to pronounce than others and this is such a word. You don’t say the end of the word, but you make sort of a nasal thing so that (a French person) would immediately write ‘ng’ on the end in spite of the fact that you never actually pronounced them. With or without ‘ng’, Asseing is a beautiful village in the foothills of the Pyrenees – the mountain range that separates France from Spain. We had a lovely Moroccan lunch there with Ginette and her friends (now ours too!) Kristel and Nicolas. It was the end of March and the weather was still a little cold, but we Europeans go out rain or shine as we would otherwise never get out!

  • Leek and Potato Soup

    A photo of Leek and Potato Soup.

    Joerg is one of the world’s greatest gardeners. If he leaves a tool out with a wooden handle, voila, we have a spade tree. In February, we cut back the vines at the front of the house and he stuck some of the off cuts into the ground….now we have more vines to cut back. Same with the red currant bushes. He also always plants as though we are going to be asked by WHO to supply food to all of Africa on a daily basis. My current surplus is leeks, which was preceded by winter lettuce and Swiss chard. We let one chard plant go to seed last year, let it self-seed and we get new plants coming up daily. Anyone out there have chard recipes for a desperate woman?? Anyone want any chard plants??

  • The 5 year old connoisseur

    Today's recipes are: Artichoke 101; and Vinaigrette with capers
    A photo of a Lemon Caper Vinaigrette.

    “Lamb is very good in a brown sauce with figs”, Lily bluebell informed me. I was quite taken aback. She is after all, only just 5 years old – I mean literally as I was at her birthday party last month. Clearly this blog has hit rock bottom if I am getting recipes from 5 year olds. Lily and Charlotte (her 3 year old sister who as yet has given me no recipes) were very excited about visiting our new baby rabbits and I said that we also have baby lambs that they could come and see. I deliberately said see and not eat, but it seems that French children know a good meal when they hear it. I also think that she has as yet not made the correlation between the cute and cuddly lambs and the delicious meal she was describing!

  • Lunch in Spain or Restaurant for masochists

    We love popping over the border to Spain for lunch. It sounds so exotic (and I suppose it actually is!). We live about an hour from The Pyrenees, the mountain range that forms the border between France and Spain, and an hour and a half from our favourite Spanish restaurant. Its everyday fare of excellent quality cooked over an open fire in the restaurant. The two women who run it are incredible characters – one makes Attila the Hun look like a nice guy, and the other has two beauty spots that I swear are on a different spot every time we go there. And don’t think that the service is going to get better when Senor Pascha gets there – he does NOT work, but will take your money, soon as he’s finished doing whatever it is that he’s (not) doing!

  • Pizza Dough 101 and a Smoked Salmon Pizza

    SUBTITLE: BRAS, PIZZA AND CO.
    A photo of a smoked salmon pizza slice.

    What does buying a bra have to do with pizza, you may ask. After the following ordeal, I needed some sustenance, i.e., food. I always need food when I am stressed, happy, sad, up, down…..so basically always. And so it was the pizza place in St. Gaudens that was to fulfill my ravenous appetite. If you happen to go there for lunch, try to sit on the left side upon entering – the lady that serves the right hand side hasn’t as yet heard that smiling does not cause an immediate and painful death…..

  • Girls day out vs. Ladies luncheon

    Today’s recipe is: Sweet corn chilli flan
    A photo of a Sweet corn chili flan.

    A friend recently told me that she went to a Ladies Luncheon (as opposed to a Girls Day Out). I have never actually been invited to a Ladies Luncheon. There could be several reasons for this, but I think it’s possibly because I’m not a lady. And it’s not that I haven’t tried. I put on high heels, nice dresses buttoned most of the way to the top and sip demurely on a cold glass of white wine. That’s the first 10 minutes. Then I’m knocking back whatever drinks are passing my way, my dress is unbuttoned most of the way to the bottom and I’m telling rude jokes. This will not do at a Ladies Luncheon, but a Girls Day Out is something different. Yes, we too have lunch in a feeding frenzy type of a way, but there are many differences so I will give a short list of the major ones.

  • Pumpkin Chestnut Soup

    A photo of Pumpkin Chestnut Soup.

    Mid-April we were invited to a dinner party at Sally and Ed’s, along with Jane and Rob. Sally has eleven Siamese cats so one feels like you’re in kitty heaven! They also have 3 dogs, 30-odd sheep, 6 horses, lots of chickens, a couple of ducks and a Guinea pig called “Poo”. Occasionally I house sit for them for a few days, which is always fun and sometimes interesting, like the time Tiger Lily, one of the kitties, decided to use my shoe as a kitty tray…..!

  • Jill's 50th and other birthdays

    Today’s recipe: Sausage Pie
    A photo of Sausage pie on a mixed plate.

    I am absolutely terrible at remembering birthdays. A couple of years ago we were invited to one of my absolute best friend’s birthday parties and I completely forgot that it was her birthday on that day. We arrived at their home, chatted a bit and one of the other guests (who had flown from England to France for the event) mentioned that she had brought a special birthday cake with her. From another country, through 2 airports, 2 hour security checkpoint lines, with the icing still intact and no slices missing.