Blogday 2006!

Today is Blogday 2006...

So what???

Special post for Felinity

we saw this during our holidays and thought of Felinity!


;)

Update on last week's BBQ

Last Saturday we had friends around for Trave's birthday. The menu was as follows:

- Canapés (Red pepper tapenade & black olives / Pesto & Parmesan / Houmous & Cucumber)


- Burnt meat for the meat-eaters

- Tofu & veg kebabs for the vegetarians


- Pasta salad (as posted previously)

- Lettuce with cucumbers and tomatoes

- Lemon cake and fruit salad (with watermelon, yum yum)


And... let's not forget that Trave was presented a Dr Who cake, representing the Dalek. It has a button you can push which says in a robotic voice: "EXTERMINATE" "EXTERMINATE". Trave now occasionally uses it when he wants to show disapproval ;)

Thanks M!

Cereal galettes

Our internet router is still not sorted but Trave has built a temporary fix :)

These cereal galettes are really nice. Mix 1 egg with 1 glass of milk. Leave 80g of cereal flakes to soak (millet, rye, etc...) for 10 min. Add herbs, spices and either a handful of grated vegetable (carrot, celery, potato...) or a handful of grated cheese. Arrange little pancakes of the mixture in a hot frying pan and fry on each side until brown. Serve with fresh vegetables and lettuce. You can also add the creamy leek sauce which recipe I gave earlier this month.



Notre installation internet n'est pas encore réparée mais Trave a trouvé une solution temporaire :)

Ces galettes de céréales sont vraiment bonnes. Mélanger 1 oeuf avec un verre de lait. Laisser 80g de flocons de céréales (mil, seigle, etc...) macérer dedans pendant 10 min. Ajouter des herbes, des épices, et une poignée de légumes râpés (carottes, céleri, pomme de terre...) ou bien une poignée de fromage râpé. Arranger des petites galettes sur une poelle bien chaude et cuire jusqu'à ce que chaque côté dore. Servir avec des légumes frais et une salade verte. Vous pouvez aussi ajouter une sauce crémeuse au poireau dont j'ai donné la recette au début du mois.

Power still down

Some of our appliances are still not working, and Internet is not up-and-running yet. Many TVs blew up in our street. Electricy and telephone lines were hit.

The BBQ was good on Saturday and it did not rain as much as it could have, although it was not good enough to play darts. We had invited our next door neighbours who had both just moved in. It's always good to know your neighbours. They are really nice people.

Trave's parents are taking us out to the Saxon Mill tonight. I am looking forward to it. Great setting and great food!

End of work lunch break.

Après les orages de la semaine dernière quelques-uns de nos appareils sont toujours hors-d'usage et Internet n'est toujours pas réparé, d'où l'absence de messages. Beaucoup de télés ont sauté dans la rue. Les lignes d'électricité et de téléphone ont été touchées.

Le barbecue était bien samedi et il n'a pas plu autant qu'il aurait pu, mais il ne faisait pas assez beau pour engager une partie de fléchettes. Nous avions invité nos nouveaux voisins qui viennent juste d'emménager. C'est toujours bon de connaître ses voisins. Ce sont des gens super sympas.

Les parents de Trave nous emmènent au Saxon Mill ce soir. C'est un pub près d'une rivière qui fait de la très bonne cuisine !

Oups... c'est la fin de la pause déjeûner au boulot. A+

Yesterday's storms

we had impressive storms in the Midlands yesterday and I was completely soaked by the time I got home after work. I cycle to work everyday and it takes me about 20 minutes. When I got home the power was off. After we put it on again, we found out that the stereo and Trave's digital radios were not working. And the internet router is out of order too (I am writing this during my lunchbreak) so I might not be able to post over the weekend. I hope we can fix the stereo and that the weather is OK tomorrow because we are having a few friends around for a BBQ to celebrate Trave's birthday.

Happy birthday!


Here is a picture taken yesterday evening by RL a colleague of mine:

Risotto & courgettes

I love risotto dishes: it tastes good, you can use any vegetable you have at hand or make a plain milanese risotto if you don't have any vegetable at hand, and it is quick and easy to make!

The photo shows the risotto I made yesterday, which included dry Vermouth, courgettes, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes (from the garden), and sun-dried tomatoes.

J'adore les risottos : c'est bon, on peut utiliser n'importe quel légume qu'on a sous la main, ou même faire un risotto nature à la milanaise si on n'a pas de légumes, et c'est rapide et simple à effectuer ! La photo montre le risotto que j'ai fait hier, qui comprend du Vermonth sec, des courgettes, des champignons, des tomates cerises (du jardin), et des tomates sèchées.

The photo below shows our first courgettes from the garden, picked last week. They have been very late and less productive than usual this year. We will need to ask Trave's dad when we see him next week. (It's Trave's birthday this Friday, oooo)

La photo ci-dessous montre les premières courgettes cueillies du jardin la semaine dernière. Elles ont été tardives et moins productives que d'habitude cette année. Nous devrons demander au père de Trave quand nous le verrons la semaine dernière. (c'est l'anniversaire de Trave ce vendredi, houuuuu)

Summer plate

I have tried marinated mushrooms for the first time last weekend. Not sure about the texture! But if somebody has a good recipe for it, I'll give it a try. I have made the marinade with 1/2 extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 white wine vingar, 1 red chili, herbs, and seasonning.


J'ai essayé de faire une marinade de champignon pour la première fois le week-end dernier, mais je ne suis pas convaincue. Si quelqu'un a une bonne recette, j'y donnerai une seconde chance ! Cette marinade était composée de 1/2 huile d'olive extra vierge, 1/2 vinaigre de vin blanc, 1 piment rouge, herbes et assaisonnement.

Latest juice & bread

This is a very refreshing mix:

1 generous slice of watermelon
1/2 pineapple

If you have a juicer it will take you no time. If like me you use a liquidiser, then you may want to deseed the watermelon which is a bit time-consuming. Definitely worth it though!


Voici un jus de fruit très rafraîchissant :

1 grosse tranche de pastèque
1/2 ananas

N'oubliez pas d'épépiner la pastèque si comme moi vous ne possédez pas de "fruitier". Cela prend du temps mais cela vaut le coup.

My secret sausage recipe!

I have tried several sausage recipes and this is by far the best one.

What you need to make 8 sausages:

180g freshly grated cheese (the sausages keep their shape better if made with freshly grated cheese) I use cheddar but you could have them with caerphilly, gruyere or any other medium-hard cheese you like.
115g fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs (ideally with home-made bread!)
1 leek, chopped finely
2 eggs
2 TBSP parsley
1 TBSP marjoram
1 TBSP wholegrain mustard
salt & pepper

+ dried breadcrumbs

Mix all ingredients in one bowl EXCEPT FOR 1 OF THE EGGWHITES and dried breadcrumbs.

Shape the sausages, dip them in the eggwhite which you would have whipped until frothy, and then roll them in the dried breadcrumbs.

In the oven for 15-20 minutes, turning once. Serve with fresh vegetables.

I once served it with a cheesy leek sauce as well as veg. Nice! (cook a couple of leeks cut into chunks in boiling water, drain and process in food processor with cheese and black pepper. you can add cream if too thick)


J'ai essayé plusieurs recettes de saucisses mais celle-ci est la meilleure.

Pour 8 saucisses il vous faut :

180g de fromage fraîchement râpé (type gruyère ou cheddar)
115g de pain complet émiété
1 poireau
2 oeufs
2 c. soupe de persil
1 c. soupe de marjolaine
1 c. soupe de moutarde avec les graines
sel et poivre

+ chapelure

mélanger tous les ingrédients SAUF 1 DES BLANCS D'OEUFS et la chapelure.

former les saucisses, les trempées dans le blanc d'oeuf fouetté puis rouler dans la chapelure.

Passer au four pendant 15-20 minutes en tournant une fois. Accompagner de légumes frais, et pourquoi pas d'une sauce au poireau fromagère ? Il faudra pour cela cuire à l'eau deux poireaux coupés en gros morceaux, puis les passer au robot avec du fromage râpé et du poivre, et avec une touche de crème si la sauce est trop épaisse.

Pango Mango

Fancy a new smoothie recipe? Here it is:

2 peaches
2 mangoes
200ml freshly squeezed orange juice
5 TBSP yoghurt
1 TSP vanilla essence


Vous avez envie d'une nouvelle recette de jus de fruit ? En voici une :

2 pêches
2 mangues
200ml de jus d'oranges pressées
5 c. à soupe de yaourt
1/2 c. à café d'essence de vanille

More beautiful scenery from our holidays

A few more pictures of the outstanding landscape we have come across and cycled along. Is it worth wasting so much fuel to fly the world when such nice areas are close to home?

Empire of the Ants

I have just finished reading Empire of the Ants (Les Fourmis) by Bernard Werber. It is absolutely fascinating. This book is a crossing between horror sci-fi, philosophical tale and a biology lesson, if this makes sense as a description!

This is the story of a scientist who dedicates his entire life to the study of ants. Or maybe it is the story of the social structure of the ant world and how it interacts with the human race.

I never thought I would like reading about insects but they are the real heros in this story. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I have read the 2 first books of the "GOD" trilogy (third coming up in 2007) and was seduced by the style and the ideas behind it. Unfortunately it has not been translated so I cannot share the experience with people here. In the ANTS series, only the first book has been translated :(


There is a moment in the Empire of the Ants which describes the nuptial flights of the queens-to-be and the following day (last Saturday) there were hundreds of ants taking off in our garden!!! This a very weird thing to observe after reading the book I tell you! So I took a few pictures but my camera is not powerful enough for that sort of shot. You can only see black dots which are supposed to be queens-to-be ants. I hope they have colonised the neighbours' garden, not ours ;-)

Italian savoury pastry

I have tried this for the first time last weekend and it was really nice so I will share the recipe with you.

You first need to arrange a pastry with either filo (as per picture) or puff pastry in a 20 cm diametre dish. Arrange at the bottom of the case little balls of spinach. Mix together 225g ricotta cheese, 100ml single cream and 2 eggs, and pour over the spinach in the pastry case. Arrange strips of red pepper and sprinkle with pine kernels on the top. In the oven for 20-30 min and serve warm or cold with a green salad. Red peppers can be replaced by mushrooms or any other vegetable you like.



J'ai essayé cette recette le week-end dernier et c'était délicieux donc je vais partager cette recette avec vous.

D'abord vous devez arranger dans un plat de 20 cm de diamètre une pâte brisée ou de brick. Arranger des boules d'épinards dans le fond du plat sur la pâte. Mélanger ensemble 225g de ricotte, 100ml de crème liquide et 2 oeufs, et verser la préparation dans le plat. Arranger des lamelles de poivrons rouge et parsemer de graines de pins. Dans le four pendant 20 à 30 min. Servir chaud ou froid avec une salade verte. Les poivrons peuvent être remplacés par des champignons ou autre chose.

Vienna

Back from Vienna where I was for work for a couple of days to visit a customer. And actually managed to see some parts of the city this time, if only briefly given the pouring rain we had during the whole time! The city seems lovely though and the architecture very rich. I hope to be able to see more next time. I came back with an umbrella, which is handy given that I forgot mine in the cinema a few weeks/months (?) ago.

De retour de Vienne où j'ai passé deux jours pour affaires. Et même que cette fois-ci j'ai réussi à voir quelques quartiers de la ville, même brièvement à cause de la pluie qui n'a cessé durant tout le séjour. La ville semble superbe et son architecture a l'air très riche. J'espère pouvoir en voir plus la prochaine fois. Je reviens avec un bon parapluie, ce qui est excellent vu que j'ai oublié le mien dans une salle de cinéma il a de cela quelques semaines/mois (?) !

First Salad with Home Grown Tomatoes

At last! It was worth the wait: a delicious salad with our own cherry tomatoes which we had yesterday.

A big thank you to trave's parents who supplied us with the plants and thumbs up for my favourite gardener.

Enfin ! Cela valait la peine d'attendre : une salade délicieuse avec nos propres tomates-cerises du jardin, que nous avons eue pour dîner hier.

Un grand merci aux parents de trave qui nous ont approvisionnés en plantes et bravo à mon jardinier préféré.


Also took a picture of the loaf of bread (plain white) that I made two days ago and which we had with the salad.

J'ai aussi pris une photo du pain blanc que j'ai fait il y a deux jours et que nous avons dégusté avec la salade.



And to terminate this festival of mixed tastes, I give you a tip for a delicious Apple Blush which will give you loads of energy:

3 apples
1 or 2 handfuls of strawberries
1 nectarine or peach
apple juice -> quantity to suit your texture tastes

All in the liquidiser (or juicer if you have one)... very nice. Although given the choice I would go for the Pink Melon recipe I posted here a few days ago.

Pour terminer ce festival de goûts, voici la recette pour réaliser un délicieux jus de Pomme Rougissante qui vous donnera tout plein d'énergie :

3 pommes
1 ou 2 poignées de fraises
1 nectarine ou pêche
jus de pomme -> la quantité peut varier selon vos goûts en matière de texture

Le tout dans le mixeur... c'est très bon. Quoique entre les deux, je choisirais la recette du Melon Rose (Pink Melon) que j'ai donnée il y a quelques jours.

Cheddar

We took the bus, or buses, to Cheddar on Thursday 27th July. From Mark to Wedmore then from Wedmore to Cheddar.

We first visited Gough's cave. I enjoyed the visit and the audio guides were OK. I sometimes find them... unsuitable.

Cheddar cheese used to be stored in these caves! Actually, some parts of the caves just looked like a gigantic melting piece of cheese!!!


We visited the Cox cave and did all the other attractions, including the mysterious, terrifying 'Crystal Quest'.... Ooooo... I won't tell you more, I might give away details which would spoil your visit.

After lunch we decided to go on the top of Jacob's ladder from which there is an outstanding view of cheddar, and we walked along the gorge where we got fantastic shots of the area.

After this long walk we went to a teashop where we ate an icecream made with local double cream... MMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

We then headed off to the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company to vist the manufacturing process but unfortunately, the visits had terminated 30 minutes beforehand, bah! We still went to the shop and after trying most of them, decided to buy a wedge of mature Cheddar, with which we made sandwiches for the next 2-3 days. Yum Yum Yum!!!

On our way back we missed the last bus between Wedmore and Mark, so had to walk the 5 odd miles. No Colin to rescue us this time!

Cheddar is really nice and the walk is definately worth doing, even if it is hard work on a hot day.

Burnham-on-Sea

Wednesday 26th and Friday 28th we went to the beach in Burnham-on-Sea. It took about 30 min with our bikes and was a nice ride, especially the last 2 miles along the sea.

There were many kids on the beach, some of them somewhat unskilled for animal spotting, as they kept shouting "bloody pigeons" at the seagulls...

Oh, and... I got interviewed by a journalist from BBC Bristol! They were asking tourists if the plan to build a windfarm in Burnham would scare them off. My answer was: should I be more scared of a few windmills or of the nuclear power plant which fumes we can see from the beach? I said I was more bothered about the plant and by all the traffic and car parks occupying all the space along the beach. Apparently, this particular nuclear power station is leaking... and so did its previous version, and guess what? they want to build a third one as well!!!

We stopped at a shop on our way back and bought all the necessary to have a BBQ that evening. It took a while for it to start but we really enjoyed it.

We listened to BBC Bristol Breakfast programme the following morning but did not hear my interview :'(

Wedmore

On our first day we decided to take it easy and just walk around the surrounding countryside. We first walked to Mark, bought sandwiches from the local shop/post office and asked for bus timetables but they did not have any left. They receive a handful of them for the whole year! From Mark we went to Wedmore via narrow countryside lanes and this was quite a pleasant walk.



In Wedmore we tried another Post Office, then the paper shop and again, asked for bus timetables, request at which they laughed: "bus timetables??? you'll be lucky if you find a bus at all!!!", was their answer. Realising we were getting short of cash, we asked for the nearest cashpoint: re-laugh "cashpoint? you guys have just arrived here, haven't you?". We tried the bank, which closes at 2.30pm. At this point we were pretty tired: we had probably walked at least 8 miles so decided to head off for a pub, or rather the pub, as only one was open. Trave went back to the papershop to buy a paper and realised that THERE WAS a cash point inside!!!! Had we been subject to some sort of joke???


Walking back towards the campsite and thinking of the 5 or 6 miles ahead of us our saviour Colin suddenly and magically appeared and gave us a lift back to Splott Farm.

Saved again!

Tonight's dinner

Spicy Nut Roast with a Tomato Red Wine Sauce

This is a very nutritious recipe full of goodness.

- grease a tin with butter & cover it with baking paper
- mash 225g potatoes
- fry 115g sliced mushrooms + 250g mixed chopped nuts + 1 onion + 1 or 2 garlic cloves + 2 TBSP mixed herbs + any spice you like
- add mashed potatoes + 55g grated Parmesan + 115g full fat soft cheese + 4 eggs to the nut mixture.
- spoon in a loaf tin and cook in 190 degrees preheated oven for about 1 hour.

Sauce:
- 3 big tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped + 2 TBSP tomato purée + 5 TBSP red wine + 1 TBSP red wine vinegar + pinch of caster sugar. Bring to the boil and cook until tomatoes have reduced. Blend or press through a sieve.

(you can cheat as I did yesterday and use a can of chopped tomatoes if you don't have any tomatoes at hand or if they are out of season)



Rôti de noix épicé sauce vin rouge

Ceci est une recette très nutritive, et riche en protéines.

- beurré un moule à cake et le recouvrir de papier sulfurisé
- mettre en purée 225 g de pomme de terre
- poêller au beurre 115g champignons émincés + 500g d'un mélange de noix en morceau + 1 onion + 1 ou 2 gousse d'ail + 2 c.soupe d'herbes + épices préférés.
- ajouter à la mixure de noix la purée de pomme de terre + 55g de Parmesan râpé + 115g fromage entier style 'Philadelphia' + 4 oeufs.
- étalé la mixure obtenue dans le moule et cuire près d'une heure dans un four préchauffé à 190 degrés.

Sauce :

- 3 grosses tomates, épluchés, épépinnées et émincés + 2 c. soupe purée de tomates + 5 c. soupe de vin rouge + 1 c. soupe de vinaigre de vin rouge + une pincée de sucre fin. Mettre à ébullition et réduire les tomates. Passez au mixeur ou à travers un tamis.

(vous pouvez aussi tricher comme je l'ai fait hier et remplacer les tomates fraîches par une boîte de tomates émincées si vous n'avez pas de tomates fraîches sous la main ou si elles ne sont pas de saison)

Pink Melon Smoothie

I tried a new fruity combination yesterday. There is no existing word to describe how good it tasted!

1/2 melon
2 handfuls of strawberries
5 TBSP plain yoghurt
6 TBSP apple juice

mix it all in a blender... and enjoy!





J'ai essayé une nouvelle combination de fruits hier. Il n'y a pas de mot pour décrire à quel point c'est delicieux!

1/2 melon
2 poignées de fraises
5 c. soupe de yaourt nature
6 c. soupe de jus de pomme

le tout dans le mixeur... et dégustez !