Villingen Schwenningen

 Nope, even though I took German through school I can't pronounce it either.  Anyway a lovely town in the heart of the Black Forest.  Some great restaurants and we stayed in an incredible apartment 10 minutes walk to the old town.  I love Germany.  It's so relaxed.  If you want to eat at 6 or lunch at 2 you can unlike France!

Chabichou de Poitou

 To say this cheese is epic is no exaggeration.  When properly ripe is is 3 cheeses in one.  The amazing rind, the gooey inside layer and the crumbly centre.  It's so very clever.  How these cheese makers do it .... who knows.  The history of this cheese is centuries old and in fact it was declared the best cheese in France back in the 16th century.  

It has held an AOP status since 1990 (one of only 46 cheeses in France to do so).  The name originates from Arabic, chebli meaning goat and Poitou-Charentes from the area it is produced.  

I like to keep it for a week or so after the best before date to give it time to develop extra nuttiness and goo.  It becomes almost alive. 

It is absolutely stunning served with melon, roasted dates and walnuts on a beautiful late summer day in the Haute Marne with a chilled bottle of Viognier.  

NZ

 I have just come back from the most amazing time in NZ visiting the fam.

Not much to say other than it was unreal.  Juanitz & Mark picked me up from the airport and cooked a beautiful dinner.  The next morning she drove me to Whitianga, stayed for lunch then drove back to Auckland.  So very generous of her.

I spent almost 2 weeks just pottering around with Joey and dad.  We had a couple of lovely get togethers with Juanita, Mark, Katya, Soph and Lily.

It was just fabulous.  

That's my dad.

Anyone would think it was solely based on the kitchen table.  Well yep it was really!  But a touch of gardening too.  Little Joey is a wee cutey pie in the garden.

Cammey had her cute on too with her new addition of a daffodil.  

Lily was anywhere the fam was, unless it was bedtime of course!

Beautiful lights in the garden.  Perfect on a late winter afternoon.

That's my Joey.

And I have a really cute video of my dad watching (yet again) Are You Being Served.  But it's too large to upload.  So once my pea head has worked out how to minimise that (ie Andy does it for me), it'll have to wait.  

10 Year visa ....

I got my 10 year visa here in France and I'm so proud!  It turned out to be super easy despite my nerves.  The language exam was good and I'm all set now for al long as we want to stay.

We had lunch to celebrate:

Salade de Chèvre Chaud.   Absolutely delicious and a very classic light French lunch.  It is typically made with Crottin de Chavignol (made traditionally since the 16th century, protected AOP status since 1976 and made in a small region around Chavignol (go figure) with unpasteurised goats milk.  They are cute wee cheeses, weighing 60gms.  Anyway, for me an easy way to do a chèvre chaud is using feuille de brick (brick pastry which is Moroccan but easily available everywhere in France).  Instead of using a flour, egg, breadcrumb mis then panfrying, it's so easy just using brick pastry then oven baking it.

Served with a simple salad, roasted dates and walnuts, a simple vinegarette, bread etc.  A gorgeous bottle of Burgundy.  Just lovely on a beautiful summers day here in the Haute Marne.  

A perfect way to celebrate my personal accomplishment.  

We had a luncheon on the terrace...

The cat was asleep.  Dead fast, doing what he does best.

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It was a stunning spring day so we decided to have a luncheon on the terrace.  The blue cheese is pretty special,  A Fourme d' Ambert.  It dates back from the 8th century.  It is a full fat sheeps milk blue (50% fat), creamy and utterly delightful.  This is now my favourite blue cheese.

Along with our cheeses we had pear, date walnut salad.  A favourite of ours,  but this time we roasted the dates in the oven.  Remember Joey, all those years ago when you did that?  Those chewy yummy dates stayed in our heads.  So, paired with fresh pear, chewy toffee like roasted dates (thanks Joey!), roasted walnuts, amazing cheese.  Utterly yum.  

Toasty roasted chewy yummy with cheese.  Addictive. 

Spring is here in Signeville.  Our Cherry blossom is always the last to blossom in the village which makes it extra special. 

 

The cows are out!

They are so sweet, mooing and jumping at the bottom of our section.  It's always a spring delight to see our cows back.  

Luncheon on the deck

 If there's something we love to do from time to time on beautiful days is have a wee luncheon on the deck.  This one was with sourdough of course, 2 types this time.  A walnut date sourdough and standard.  I made a pear walnut and date salad and we had Delice de Mussy Chaource.  A cheese from a small fromagerie in Chaource, about 1hr 30 from here.  It's covered in chopped walnuts.  Cheese and walnuts are very good friends.  We also had a truffle affinois.  Both extremely delicious with a nice bottle of Gewurtztraminer.  

A very pleasant way to pass a spring afternoon.  But we need to buy that hammock!