A Boozy night out

Des has recently joined a local walking group. Most members are 60ish. Every Thursday afternoon, they meet up at 1.30pm then mostly drive to a nearby village to begin their walk of about 12 km. They always end up at someone's house afterwards for a glass or three!They love it if it someone's birthday, an excuse for an even better celebration. Last week Bernard was celebrating his 60th so they all went there after the walk. Non-walking partners were also invited along for the evening. After a lot of aperitifs and nibbles. all 20 of us sat down at a long table in the huge garage. We had a delicious fondue vigneron (you cook your delicious cubes of beef steak in boiling red wine flavoured with vegetables and herbs- definately my favourite fondue!) Much red wine kept flowing. Later the massive cheese board arrived. Finally a huge,delicious, chocolatey birthday cake appeared and of course champagne to drink with it. It was a great evening with much singing, joking and hilarity.
Although I didn't drink too much, I did suffer with a bad headache the next morning but then I always get one if I eat cheese at night or drink sparkling wine like champagne or cremant late, but I had such a good time I am not complaining!

Membrillo or Quince Jelly

I have been really remiss lately, this is the first post for ages. Sorry, will endeavour to be more productive from now on.

I tasted some membrillo recently for the first time and really liked it. As quinces are really plentiful here in France in autumn, in fact loads of people are trying to give them away to all and sundry, I thought I would try and make some.

I searched the internet for a recipe and eventually chose this one as it wasn't as sweet as a lot. Pushing the mixture through the sieve was hard work, so I helped matters a bit by putting the mixture in my mixer to break it down more before sieving it. Also within minutes of starting to cook the puree with the sugar, it had started to catch on the bottom of the pan. Luckily I had a brand new non stick wok so I finished the cooking in that. I was really pleased with result. it is delicious sliced with cheese, game or pate or just eaten on it's own.

MEMBRILLO

1.5kg Quinces

approx. 750g Sugar per litre of puree

Wash all the fur from the quinces then chop up - there is no need to peel or core them. Just cover with water and simmer until flesh is really soft and collapsing - about 1 hour. Break down a bit more in a mixer before pushing through a sieve with the back of a wooden spoon. Measure the puree, there should be about a litre.

Put the puree into the pan with the appropriate quantity of sugar, bring to the boil and cook gently for about 45 - 60 minutes until the mixture is so thick that drawing a wooden spoon through it, the puree parts and leaves a line at the bottom of the pan. You must stir often as the thicker it gets, the more it can stick and burn.

Either pot in clean sterilised pots or put into a lightly oiled roasting tin. When it is cold, it can be cut up into squares then wrapped in clingfilm. It will store in the fridge for 6 months.

FLOWER STORIES



The public flower displays in our area are always marvellous but this year has been exceptional. The designers seem to have made a big effort to introduce different and unusual plants as well as the more usual ones like pelagoniums and trailing petunias. I took the photos today so it is really at the end of the season, they will all be changed to the autumn displays at the beginning of October, but I think they still look great. These photos were taken at at a small town just a couple of kilometres away from our village. It's population is only about 5500 and yet it is full of displays.


These leads me to a story about flowers when we first lived in France many years ago. At the supermarket which I use a lot, there appeared in the carpark a large marquee. When it had been erected, there then appeared a big banner saying " The chrysanthamums are coming" (This took place about the 22/23 October. I was completely mystified by this and later that evening, told my husband about it but he couldn't come up with any possible explanation. A couple of days later, I found that the marquee was full of hundreds of chrysanthamum plants, all colours and absolutely covered in flowers. They were not expensive and I think I bought a white plant to have indoors. We found out a week later that the 1st of November is a big holiday in France, called Toussaint (allsaints day in UK) and everybody buys the plants to put on their relatives graves on that day. They do not have the plants indoors, especially the white ones as they are put on children's graves.

HONEYCOMB ICE CREAM

Every year when various grandchildren come to stay, there are always certain things that they want to do or places to visit. It becomes an annual ritual. For my grand daughters who have just been staying here, they always have to visit a local honey farm and stock up on honey and honey sweets. There is a small departmental store in our nearest town where they like to go and stock up on pencils, pens, rubbers etc.etc. for going back to school. I know they can buy all these things at home and probably cheaper this year with the exchange rate as it is but again, it is a ritual! And we have to make honeycomb ice cream! I make it once a year because I know it must have lots of calories! I have had the recipe so long that I do not know where it came from! It's delicious, once a year!

5 tbsp white sugar

2 tbsp golden sugar

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

500ml/1 pint whipping cream

1 tin condensed milk

Start by making the honeycomb. Place the sugar and syrup in a saucepan and cook over a low heat until the sugar melts. Boil rapidly until the caramel is a mid-gold in colour. Remove from heat and sift the bicarb over it. Stir the frothy mixture then pour on to a greased baking sheet. Allow to cool then break into smallish chunks.

Whip the cream until floppy then beat in the condensed milk. Continue beating until the mixture is quite stiff. Fold in the honeycomb and any crumbs. put into a freezer proof container and freeze for about 8 hours or overnight. It does not require any stirring.

LEMON CHEESECAKE

My grand daughter Kiera yesterday asked if she could make a lemon cheesescake for dessert. I sorted out a recipe but had to change the ingredients somewhat as I didn't have all the things. It turned out delicious so here is the recipe. I did'nt use the sugar as the biscuits I used were already sweet enough.

Sian, my other grand daughter wanted to also do some cooking so she made a Thai green chicken curry for dinner with just a little bit of help from me.

Quick Lemon cheesecake

About 10 digestives or 15 plain smaller biscuits

60g butter melted

1 teaspoon soft brown sugar (optional)

1/2 tsp ground ginger

125 g cream cheese

225g mascarpone

60g caster sugar

150ml thick creme fraiche or whipped double cream

Grated ring and juice of 2 lemons

2 egg yolks
3 sheets leaf gelatine

Lightly oil a 20cm flan tin with a loose base. Combine the melted butter, crushed biscuit crumbs, ginger and optional sugar. Press into tin.

Blend egg yolks, sugar, cream cheese, mascarpone and lemon rind in a electric mixer bowl, together with thick creme fraiche or cream. Soak the gelatine sheets in cold water for about 5 minutes. Heat the lemon juice to nearly boiling point, add the squeezed gelatine and stir until melted. Leave to cool then add to the mixture and blend again. Pour into tin and leave to set for about 3 hours.

MOSAICS

I have my eldest son and his 3 daughters staying this week. The eldest Kiera,who is 16 and the youngest Sian, who is 12 wanted to make a mosaic. I had the tiles so I just had to buy some squares of MDF called medium in french. I had a book on mosaics and they based their squares on a design from this book but changed a lot and I think produced some really good work for two complete beginners. All their own work!

BOTTLING TOMATOES

I have so many tomatoes! One of the easiest ways to preserve them is just to freeze them whole. When you want to use them, put them for a few seconds under the hot tap while they are still frozen and the skin peels off so easily. The tomatoes I froze last year lasted all through the winter with no signs of deterioration. However my freezer is full so I have started bottling them again. It's quite easy here in France to find preserving jars very cheap at brocantes (Junk /car boot sales), you just must remember to replace the rubber rings each time you use them. Here is the method I use which always seems to work.

Cover the tomatoes with boiling water for about one minute then remove the skins. Roughly cut up the tomatoes and place in the jars, pressing the fruit down. You will find by the time you have reached the top of the jars that there is enough juice to just cover the fruit. I usually do about 4 jars at a time, each one a 500g jar. Close the lids lightly without doing up the clip. Cook for about 1 hour in the oven at 150 degrees. As soon as they come out of the oven, do up the clip. Leave to get completely cold. Then test the seal by opening the clip. If the lids remain closed, all is well and you can reclip them and store. Otherwise you will have to use the tomatoes up quite quickly.

PEACHES ETC

This has been a fabulous year for fruit due to the very good spring weatherwise with no late frosts to damage the blossom. I have been struggling to deal with all the gluts of cherries, plums, blackberries and early yellow peaches. Now the white peaches are ready. All the branches are weighed down with fruit. If Mr O had'nt propped most of them up, most branches would have broken by now! Last year There were 6 peaches on the tree! I have made a start with a simple recipe for a summer dessert.

PEACHES IN FRUIT SYRUP

Put 15o ml /1/4 pint of water into a saucepan with the thinly peeled rind of 1 orange and 1 lemon. (Use a potato peeler for this) Add 115g caster sugar. Heat slowly until the sugar has dissolved, then boil quickly for 5 minutes. Strain. Skin and slice 3 or 4 peaches. Put them in a bowl. Pour over the syrup and the juice of 1 lemon. Cool and chill before serving.