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Gemonimo

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Posts posted by Gemonimo

  1. Where do you get your 'dried' tomatoes from. I have never seen or used them.  I am very curious.  Especially as friends in France, with family from near Bari in Italy didn't know what they were either. They do know fields and endless fields of tomatoes.

    I dry my own.  I always seem to have futures in tomatoes and living alone I can't eat them all and there is no point in giving them away - everyone else has tons, too.

    I take out the 'tail' then cut them in half vertically. I then put them face down on an oven tray which I have oiled and covered with herbes de provence, pepper and sea salt. I then turn them over and put the tray in the oven at 120degrees and let them dry out for a few hours.  It's worth keeping your eye on them as they can go from nearly done to overdone in a matter of minutes. I like mine not too dry but chewy.  In the autumn when I'm drowning in a sea of tomatoes I dry them and freeze them in bags of 200g and use them all winter - a bit of sunshine on a cold day.  I preserve red peppers this way, too.

     

  2. [quote user="cooperlola"]

    [quote user="Gemonimo"]I just edited the recipe..... I should have posted lcm (min) not 5cm!![/quote]D*mn because I thought for a moment you might be adding the missing meat.[Www]

    (Sorry, Gem.  [:)]  Bad carnivore joke.)

    [/quote]

    [:D][:D][:D] I'd love to know how it turns out when anyone makes it.

  3. I had guests yesterday and made a cold vegetable lasagne pressé. Sounds complicated but it's really a doddle:

    Line an oiled bread tin with plastic wrap in both directions.

    Preparation: Boil three or four lasagne sheets until cooked and keep them in the water;

    Take three roasted peeled red peppers and cut into quarters;

    Slice and fry thinish slices of green and yellow courgettes;

    Assembly: Lay slices of roasted pepper inthe bottom of the prepared tin;

    Cover with a slice of cooked lasagne;

    Cover with a layer of ricotta cheese and sprinkle with lots of chopped dried tomatoes

    Next add a layer of courgettes, then repeat the process until you finish with a layer of lasagne.

    Close the lasagne tightly with the cling film . Lay a piece of heavy cardboard wrapped in foil on top of the lasagne and put it in the  fridge weighted with an o.j. carton or whatever in order to press it.

    After 24hours remove the lasagne from the tin, unwrap and slice in 1cm slices (any thinner and the slice will fall apart). It looks very pretty with all the colours.

    Very important... Season well as it can end up a bit 'fade'. I have fiddled around with the basic recipe and added olives, anchovies and I always serve it with a liquid pesto or a balsamic vinaigrette.

    Yum, yum, I'm having the leftovers from yesterday for lunch[:D]

  4. Visiting my 98yr old aunt in her residence today and I was most impressed with the efforts the staff were making to keep the residents cool, even for a Saturday when they are short staffed and rather olé olé. After the 2003 disaster they don't want to be caught with their proverbial knickers down[Www]
  5. I prefer the second but think that the first would look better with the wedding band.

    I never had an engagement ring and really didn't want a wedding band either as I was passing through my feminist period[Www].

  6. Whenever I make a Tatin like Idun I fry the apples, butter and sugar first. I then put them in a baking pan which has a circle of papier sulfurise on the bottom. After baking when the Tatin is tipped onto a serving plate, the papier sulfurise can be peeled off without anything sticking to the pan.
  7. [quote user="idun"]

    I will never understand children's shoes in France. First pair we bought for our eldest was when he started to walk. Husband took him and came back with nubuck suede and would you believe 'white', cost in 1983 was around £30. I then took him for his next pair. Different shop, similar prices, they showed me what I would call boots of the sort that I had seen polio sufferers wear when I was a kid, only without the calipers.  So I said 'mon enfant n'est pas handicappé'. Well if looks could have killed then I would have been dead or struck down in that shop. As I spoke, I realised that all the other Mamans were putting such boots on their tots.

    Well, no actually, they are ugly and horrible things and I disapprove completely. The assistant insisted that it would help him walk, but as I could walk and had not had such things inflicted on me, I decided against. She found me some lovely proper shoes for him, bright red, lace ups in leather and I would have been happy, but no foot measuring for width. And they were almost £40.

    The other mamans royally ignored my auvoir as I left the shop, sort of blinking and looking at one another with disdain at this evidentally sotte anglaise.

    [/quote]

    [:D][:D][:D]

  8. [quote user="Frenchie"]

    The initial question remains, any clue to keep snakes away ?( as far away as possible !!!!)

     

    [/quote]

    So far all I have learned is that noise keeps them away but I'm much rather find a repellant. 

    Off topic for a moment, when I was reading up on Elderberry Syrup before I made some, I discovered that after fermenting elderberry leaves in water, the resulting liquid is a mole repellant.

  9. [quote user="Gardian"][quote user="Gemonimo"]

    Apparently they don't like noise so in order to avoid this happening again I'm going to play Cadillac Ranch by Bruce Springsteen fifteen minutes before we eat and see what happens.

    [/quote]

    Better still - 'Des O'Connor's Greatest Hits'.  Sorted.

    [/quote]

    My son suggested Julio Iglesias, that way they will remain comatose while we eat[:D]

    On a more serious note, this year does seem to be a 'snake year' as my neighbours have really been infested with them.  Being a card carrying, palombiere owning frenchman, he dealt with them in the only way he knew how. Yuk.

  10. I thought they ate rats and mice but according to Wikipedia, they eat other snakes so if that's the case, why don't they just eat each other and then they'll disappear[:D] 

    They might have woken up when we arrived to eat under their bedroom[Www]. Apparently they don't like noise so in order to avoid this happening again I'm going to play Cadillac Ranch by Bruce Springsteen fifteen minutes before we eat and see what happens.

  11. Sunday lunch under the wisteria covered pergola was transformed into mild, no major hysteria when three big couleuvres dropped from the wisteria to join us.

    Normally they stay quietly in the rockery minding their own business but this was altogether a new dimension.  Does anyone know how to repel couleuvres or have any astuce for preventing them getting to the pergola in the first place as I really don't want to eat inside until the autumn. I should mention that they missed the vegetable jalfrezi by centimeters[:-))]

  12. Clair, I'm sure there are 'derapages' in all countries, France included. It requires a courageous professional to blow the whistle but if these residencies aren't staffed by qualified and trained personnel, then nothing will improve. Caring for the handicapped and the elderly is, as I mentioned, a vocation and not many people have that calling. Taking on 'carers' because they couldn't find any other job is making the problem worse.

     

  13. [quote user="woolybanana"]It sounds as if these places are being staffed by low life for cost reasons whereas they should be staffed by the dedicated and caring; a question of money?[/quote]

    Spot on, Wooly. But is there such a profession in the UK? In France there are Educateurs/trices Specialises  in centres for the mentally handicapped (I know, not PC but it's the term used in France), the training is long but the profession is at least respected although not brilliantly paid.

     l'objectif de l'éducateur spécialisé reste le même : préserver ou restaurer l'autonomie de ces personnes en les valorisant par le biais d'un accompagnement collectif et / ou individualisé, un étayage relationnel, par la possibilité d'animer des activités socio-éducatives, travail avec les familles... Profession phare du secteur avec les assistants de service social, les éducateurs spécialisés ont pour mission d'aider les jeunes et les adultes en situation de handicap, en difficulté sociale ou dans le cadre de la prévention et de faciliter leur insertion sociale. (Wikipedia)

    Caring is a vocation, not just a job.

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