Frenchie Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Hee Hee Ok,I'll go for May 1st ( though I wonder what he's wearing on his arms ) [:D]At least, that keeps us busy while we don't sleep![;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchie Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 I must be the only one still awake, so I'll go and watch TV..Sleep well my friends.[kiss] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 I finally gave in and got up! Kettle's just boiled; I'm having hot ginger and lemongrass cordial, which I find delicious, but whatever you fancy......if you're awake.Hope you've managed to sleep, Frenchie. Remember it's not your lovely menu that's important tonight, it's just you; amend it, cut corners, whatever helps! I do hope you have managed to get things dried out and are feeling calmer; it must all have been a very nasty shock for you.[:(]You must try to take some quiet time for yourself, even if it's a bath with candles later today; stress can do nasty things to the body, and you must take care of yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milkeybar kid Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 Did your private mail get fixed? Cos I have just sent you a pm, shout if you dont get it!!Smile smile.MBK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 MBK, received, message sent to you and postmaster notice arrived back! Will try email shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 MBK, just had an email returned now! I'll try again later; email and pm buttons have disappeared.16.16 email returned again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 Happy Christmas to all insomniacs [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 Hope you all had a lovely Christmas Day and that santa and his helpers brought good things. I imagine Frenchie fast asleep following her recent extra hard work with the flooding, followed by all that cooking yesterday! I obviously didn't work hard enough, although I thought I worked quite hard at all that eating and drinking. [:)]We went for a drive after Christmas lunch at a hotel in the country - went to Christmas Common, which seemed appropriate. It was very pretty, but there wan't as much snow around there as at home. Waved at Jeremy Paxman and his dog!I wonder why this thread never made it to the top of the charts yesterday; my other post in the early hours did, but this one languished in the foothills!Kettle's on; I'm having another ginger and lemongrass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchie Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 Hellllo!You are right, all the work linked to sorting out the flooding + cooking a lot yesterday got rid of my insomnia [:)]I slept on and off , but finally managed to sleep from 2 am to 8 am, which is ok for me !Don't jump to the conclusion that I need a good flooding a week or a whole big family to cook for !! [:D]PS : I think my coquilles St jacques were dead gorgeous LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 Nah, couldn't sleep. I think all the food I had at my friends' for the reveillon was still hanging around last night!Anyway, Christmas day was glorious weatherwise: sunny, mild, all the buds and catkins out on the trees.Today started off with lots and lots of ground frost which all then cleared and another lovely day.I'm giving lunch to my French teacher and her husband and to a Dutch couple so it's pretty traditional. Soup, fish, meat, cheese, pudding.Been cooking and cleaning part of yesterday and most of today. That's the problem when the sun is out, the windows look disgusting and the dust motes!!!!!!!!!!!!!Going to make some mince pies soon, but we have to have our own dinner first! Dog's been fed so she at least is pretty happy!Don't know if I'll sleep tonight: might do as I didn't sleep much last night. Got to get up early tomorrow to get the meat into the four bois-charbon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 Ok, here's the menu as pretty much cooked:Soupe aux legumes (garnished with parsely from the garden)Fish cakes (with a sprinkling of dried chillies) served with my special coleslaw made with red cabbage, sultanas, homemade mayonnaise, onions, garlic and lightly roasted walnuts from our trees. Oh, fish cakes fried in breadcrumbs made from my own homemade bread (LOL, the things you do to use up all your foodstuffs without waste!!!)Roast pork French style cooked in the bois-charbon oven Savoury rice with onions, garlic, touch of fresh root ginger, tomato puree, red pepper, peas and green beans (très colourful!)cheeses: cantal, camembert, etcmade a special fruity loaf but it's turned out crap so it's mincepies with ice-creamcoffee with fruit pastilles and chocolatesDon't know if it's a balanced menu but it's all my favourites and OH doesn't eat meat so he'll have enough to eat and discreetly not touch the meat and no one will notice.Then I have at least 4 more lunches to do over the next 3 weeks or so. Therefore, if you have any suggestions of menu that I, with my limited cooking skills can manage, I shall be very grateful for and, hopefully, I shan't lose sleep over it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 [quote user="sweet 17"]... that I, with my limited cooking skills can manage [/quote]Your cooking skills sound OK to me, and definitely not on the limited side. I just wish I was as imaginative as you obviously are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 Aw, Sue, how kind you are! I do love cooking and I like to invent stuff.Of course, I am really spoilt here as I have 3 ovens, a couple of grills, 4 burners, a wok thingummy, etc etc. But meat in the bois-charbon is a cinch; just put the stuff in and 5 or 6 hours later, get it out and it's done to perfection!I hope your Christmas went well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 [quote user="sweet 17"]I hope your Christmas went well? [/quote]Splendid thank you. Probably due to the fact that we were invited round to friends, so I didn't do any of the cooking!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchie Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 [quote user="sweet 17"]Of course, I am really spoilt here as I have 3 ovens, a couple of grills, 4 burners, a wok thingummy, etc etc. [/quote] W O W ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 LOL, Frenchie, it's like a professional kitchen here. One electric oven with fan and plate warmer, one electric oven with multi functions including a rotissière and electric grille, one bois-charbon oven that cooks meat so tender you wouldn't believe. Then there is the top of the bois-charbon oven, 4 gas burners, a huge wok burner (très puissant), a big planche de gril to go on top of that. Then I have a big extractor fan with 4 speeds...c'est vraiment rigolo but I don't like to run out of ovens or gas rings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchie Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Do you own a restaurant ?? [blink]I have only one oven, but my kitchen is pleasant, and quite big, I love it, that's good because cooking is one of my favourite activities! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Alas, I don't think anyone would actually pay to eat my food![:P] More like I have to pay them to come and taste it.No, we had a totally unexpected legacy from a distant relative (someone I used to give Christmas dinner to for many years) and I used the money to buy this great, big oven and I have named it after the person whose money bought it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted December 28, 2009 Share Posted December 28, 2009 Kettle's on, if there's anyone out there.Sweet, I've just been reading your menu and about your kitchen; both sound super! You menton a fruity thing that didn' turn out well - was that your stollen? What went wrong? And what became of the cheese scones? We had a nice plain Sunday lunch. I'd bought a Waitrose curry for Thursday or Saturday lunch, which gave way to other, rich food. So out it came yesterday - delicious, and with 2 onion bhajis! [:D]I'm off to the sales today; stock up at John Lewis on towels, for when our bathrom is finished. I banned OH from continuing with it until after Christmas, but we'll be into 2010 for the next bit, as he didn't get the floorboards last week because of the icy roads, and they're shut until 4th Jan. I expect it'll be all systems go then!I'll see what M & S has, and the very nice furniture shop in town, amongst others. We're planning heading for France in th car in Feb, so some shelving might be nice, maybe a TV too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 28, 2009 Share Posted December 28, 2009 GG, you're so mean talking about John Lewis and M & S! All I have is Ikea!Seriously though, it's nice but affordable things for the home that I miss most of all. Things designed with a bit of flair and quiet good taste. For example, curtains: I'm not sure where I can find refined- looking, sober, even a bit homespun things to hang at the windows and not these wretched nylonny, voile, embroidered ghastly flimsy "chiffons" that pass for curtains here. And, before anyone tells me why bother with curtains, I have to tell them that we do not have shutters, that shutters are too expensive to have installed, that we do not have central heating and the cold and draughts are NOT preferable to having no curtains. There, I'm at my grumpiest so don't anyone contradict me or they'll really feel the sharp edge of my tongue!Yes, GG, lunch was really nice. No, didn't do the cheese scones as I was clapped out preparing all the food: even had home-made breadcrubs for the fishcakes (which the French absolutely loved) and cracked and roasted my own walnuts to go in my red cabbage coleslaw.The fruit thingy was a barm brack which I thought would be plainer and less rich than Christmas cake but, for some reason best known to itself, it didn't rise as well as normally. The stollen, on the other hand is still "resting" but I will let you know how it turns out.In the end, I made mince pies and they also all disappeared. However, to tell a story against myself, I asked the OH to clean the salad for me and, guess what, I forgot to serve it!!! Yes, told you I was losing my grip, didn't I? As I had the savoury rice with lots of colourful vegetable in it to serve with the pork, I was going to provide salad with the cheese course. Only, the salad stayed in the spinner.When OH eventually reminded me about the salad, sometime after cofees, pâtes de fruits and chocolate pralines were served, I said, "Oh no, it is Batavia" and because the Dutch people obviously know about Batavia being a former Dutch colonial town, they had a very good laugh and my feelings of respectability were restored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted December 28, 2009 Share Posted December 28, 2009 GG, just to end on a happier note from the previous post, the French neighbour has just paid us a visit, bringing to show us in her arms, her new puppy!She brought her children as well and was all smiles, cuddling and kissing the dog. Her eldest son, who was home on holiday, came as well. So that was a happy hour or so. Everyone can now say "aaahhhhh"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted December 28, 2009 Share Posted December 28, 2009 Sweet, sorreee about mentioning M&S and JLP; but it was all very pleasant. Got there at 09.00, having scraped thick ice off the car windows. No queues, found all the towels I wanted (they're now washed, dried and in the airing cupboard), and a few more things besides. Alas, no shelves or TV, but they weren't must-haves. So when the bathroom is finally finished, I'll have the new towels all ready. You do make the cold draughts in your abode sound very bad, Sweet; maybe you could look on JLP or M&S website for some lovely curtains; I'm sure they could send them. Or I could ask for some swatches for you from JLP, post them out for you to try. They had some quite nice curtains in the sale, but I don't need any really. I'm supposd to be altering a duvet cover I bought a few months ago to fit either side of the patio windows in the living room in France; not to draw shut, just to make the place look a little more cheerful when the shutters are down on winter nights; it looks very clinical. The duvet cover had just the shades I fancied without being garish, and I couldn't find curtain material that was just right. If I don't get started in the next day or so the year will have ended without even taking it out of the wrapping! Still, it could be a good NY's resolution! [:D]I was so pleased to read about your new neighbours bringing their new puppy to show you! It was such a sad story, but it seemed to me they would choose another; lovely ending! Ahhhhhhhh! [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchy Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 If only bars were open at night in France ! When I can't sleep, I blog. My last one is about france, let me know what you think of it www.b-french.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceni Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 Frenchy - not a criticism just a comment. I don't know why but I find white on black difficult to read and normally would not bother.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchie Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 What?? Another Frenchy? I'm supposed to be the only one !! L O L [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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