Any cheerful news today? (Nothing negative please! šŸ™‚)

Talking of dinner, I managed to cook a very pleasant if slightly scruffy chicken and leek pie tonight, pastry not being my forte (this is my first pie since the age of 12 - my wife is good with pastry and always manages these things).

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That looks excellent to me @Ancient_Mariner - and expanding your skill set is a fun thing to do :smiley:

Also on the topic of dinner and of getting distracted as @JaneJones did - We had eaten our excellent starter and main course yesterday evening and my partner had made a blackberry and apple clafouti (a real favourite) when I looked up from my book and noticed a) that heā€™d disappeared and b) that there was a worrying burning smell. Heā€™d just nipped of while waiting for the last few minutes of cooking in order to send a ā€œquickā€ emailā€¦ :roll_eyes:

(In the end, parts of it were still delicious so not a complete loss but if I hadnā€™t got such a sensitive sense of smell - the only sense that age has left me with - it would have charred to a cinderā€¦ )

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I bet it smelled a lot better than the smell of burning thermal packs :wink::laughing:

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Oooh, yum. I think thatā€™s about the only thing we have as a culinary claim to fame here in the limousin, oh and PĆ¢tĆ© aux pommes de terre. We may have all the cows but seemingly we donā€™t do anything interesting culinarily with them :joy: I should do one research and try find some more local dishes.

I love clafoutis! I know the original was a cherry version and Iā€™d always thought about making that as my partner loves cherries but everything Iā€™d read about it said it was heavy and a waste of cherries so I never made any sort until a couple of years back. I can only assume that someone said this once and it got repeated without anyone ever checking :roll_eyes:

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My second batch of English bacon was ready this morning. Had bacon butties for lunch. I think Iā€™ve cracked it as it was delicious :drooling_face: :drooling_face:
The secret was the right cut of pork along with the addition of Prague Powder to the mix. Before anyone mentions it, I know whatā€™s in it and I know that itā€™s no longer commercially used in France for cured (but not dried) pork products like bacon.

Hereā€™s a picture

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In Herault black berries are smal lwizened things. One of the few things that I miss of England is Blackberry and apple pie.

How wise of God to have arranged for them to ripen together.

Drool :sunglasses::sunglasses::grin:

Todayā€™s cheerful news is that weā€™ve finally jumped through all the hurdles and got the keys to a room generously provided by the Mairie for the first proper meeting of our Association :smiley:
OK, there were only 6 of us but we couldnā€™t publicise it until we were sure of the room and timings etc. Next stop a notice in Ouest-France newspaperā€¦ my goodness this is useful for learning about how things work :rofl:

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Well done !

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Thank you @Stella - I even got a friendly response from the dragon on the desk at the Mairie when we took the keys back this afternoon. Hope that lastsā€¦

If you remember to leave the room tidy, switch off the lights (and the heating if appropriate), lock up and give back the key promptlyā€¦ the dragon will gradually come to hold you in high esteemā€¦ and might even smile :hugs: :rofl:

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Iā€™ve only just recovered from drooling over that bacon.
Donā€™t do it to me with apple & blackberry pie as well.

One thing Iā€™ve learned from my local Leclerc is a few cassis (if you can find them) go excellently into an open-type apple pie as well.

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You can grow cassis easily, you donā€™t get as many as you do on a redcurrant or white currant bush, but enough.

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You could just stick a bit of good crĆØme de cassis in with the apples. Worth trying anyway :slightly_smiling_face:

Hmm itā€™s actually the cassis skins that make up a lot of the flavour scattered through the pie with the caramelised apple slicesā€¦ I might look into growing some. Would have to be well away from other bushes thoughā€¦ a number of other small round black berries are poisonous

Distinctive leafā€¦.should be able to tell the difference!

We grow casseille now - a cross between cassis and gooseberry that is positively perfumed and crops heavily.

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I had a bush of those, my hens LOVED them so we got almost none, but it was worth it seeing the hens feasting on them and clearly enjoying them.

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We have blueberry bushes and get almost none of the fruit. the blackbirds adore them. I brought a bush in its pot up onto our terrace in the vain hope we might deter the blackbirds - not a chance, they are practically at our feet! In the sentiment of this thread - nothing negative - I will add it is lovely to have the blackbirds so close. :slight_smile:

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I keep intending to net my blueberries as I do with redcurrants but somehow the blackbird usually beat me to it :smiley:

I have a new casseille bush - never seen them before - and am looking forward to seeing what the fruit is like!

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