First fire this autumn....

 

My wee bubs in the morning....

 

Poor wee Nudgicles.....

We thought he was coming right, but no.  I consulted Juantiz. She's like a vet is our Juanitz.  She said she thought he was OK.   As long as he's drinking and eating, he's OK.  Poor wee blight.  The thing is, taking the wee guy to the vet right now is complicated.  One at a time, standing outside (or sit in the car hoping you'll know when you are called in). I admire our vet making things so absolute.  She is precise and super clean (and lovely)  but it becomes tricky right now if we need to take him to the vet.  Thanks Juanitz, we will continue to monitor the wee blight. 

Overproofed sourdough, the result inside....

 It might look OK but to me, it's a complete failure.  Disregard the blurred photo 😶.

This is not a good sourdough bread result.  The crust isn't there, the crumb is too tight (although still a good bread to eat).  It certainly didn't taste like a yested bread but it wasn't a great loaf.  It's quite technical and I am going to report my failures more.  

Overproofed sourdough....

 I completely overproofed my bread last night.  I meant to pop it into the fridge before bed but completely forgot.  I've forgotten a few times before but instead of letting it carry on as normal, tonight I just baked it as is.  It was OK.  

So a big fat lesson to me.  If I've overproofed my dough,  just bake it Nat.  It isn't as good.  The crust isn't as perfect but at least it's still a nice loaf of bread which I thought was completely fucked.  Wait until the next day and it's a disaster.  Whew.  Still learning......

Dinner tonight.....

Another gorgeous night in the cave.  Actually, we were happy not to go down there given it was the perfect 26deg but the wind was really strong, verging on pretty unpleasant.

 

We did another pasta dish, fresh pasta as we’ve been making, with a ragu sauce, charred flatbreads and salad.  We love this pasta.  It def makes home made pasta easy and servable but most of all absolutely delicious.  

 

Yum.    

 

Little Nudge has had a touch of the flu

But he's all good now, sort of.  He slept it off for 36 hours and his dry nose became wet again.  He's a wee trouper.  He's not 100% hence me being able to take this photo of him and his cuzzie bros.  And his dad.  

 

Our dinner tonight

I took the day off running and we went into the big smoke (Chaumont).  The reason was for Andy to get a blood test.  He went 1 week prior at 0900am to only find a huge line of people not distancing themselves and I mean huge lines and then the diagnostic clinic itself was stuffed full. So, he came back home immediately. 

Today we went together and pitched up at 7.30am only to find the same huge fucking line of people not just out of the clinic but in the clinic also.  We did some research. France is using diagnostic clinics to check for COVID.  I mean WTF?????

 

Anyway, Andy did not go in.  We did a drive-by.  The same as he did the previous round.  

 

There is no way we are risking catching COVID for a simple blood test.  Geez, France!! What’s up?

 

We went to the gorgeous E.leclerc supermarket in Chaumont and sat outside the place until it opened at 08.00am.  

We bought Gilt head bream, sea bream, dorade.  Whatever you call it it’s a gorgeous fish

and it was so fresh.  As fresh as fish gets.  

We were going to eat outside, but then a storm hit so we sent everything to the cave.  We cooked the fish on the big pan Philippe gave us and Andy had pre-seasoned.   It was a delicous dinner and really cool, sitting in the cave with the storm outside.  

 

  

 

Edible doormouses, in the house.

 Or is it edible doormice in the house?  Anyway.   We had some serious scratchings going on the past couple of weeks and it was becoming quite a distraction (to say the least). The majority of it seemed to be under the kitchen cupboards.  Behind the kickboards.  

The tipping point was last night.  Even with an unwell Nudge he still soldiered on and tried to get that beast (he got the tail and there was quite a bit of spattered blood).  I went down to check things out and it was the tail of an edible doormouse.  We know the look because we've had one before.  

I've gotta salute wee Nudge.  Even in his weakened state, he managed to say "fuck off edible doormouse".  

Poor Andy.  So I took myself off for a run this morning and Andy had to deal with the whole situation.  Which he did.  He found the hole, he plastered it up, he had to crawl around on his knees.   He had to take the fridge and dishwasher out and clean all the edible doormouse's pooh and he also at the same time used the opportunity to run a cable and put an extra 3 electrical sockets in.  I've been wanting an extra socket on the left-hand side of our bench top for ages.  He's so clever.    

Summery - doormouse is out of the house.  I have the extra socket I've been after.  Andy has a sore back.  Nudge is not well but tried to stand up to the doormouse despite his sickness.  We pulled through.  (well all I did was mop the floor and clean the kitchen.  The boys did the rest).  Whew!

Fresh pasta with pork vindaloo.

Despite Nudge’s illness we still had a delicious dinner.  We had left over pork vindaloo and made the pasta we made recently (which is the easiest fresh pasta style to handle).  It was absolutely delicious.  With salad and parmesan and charred flat breads.  It might be fusion but it’s the sort of ‘fusion’ that works.  It was unreal.     

 

Wee Nudge, he's got a touch of the flu...

Poor little kitty cat.  He came back yesterday really late for his lunch and seemed a bit off.  So we decided to keep him inside to monitor him.  He’s been sleeping mostly solid with just a couple of bounces of energy.  He’s eating, not hungry eating but at least he’s eating.  He has a wee temperature.  (His nose is dry and his ears are hot).

 

So, we will keep him safe inside for a couple of days and hope he just sleeps through it. He’s a sleeper is our Nudge.  When times are tough he just sleeps.  

 

Beef ragu with fresh pasta

We had leftover beef ragu which was beef cooked in Osso Bucco style (ie white wine, chicken stock, acidity, the beef was unreal).

 

So, with our leftovers, we roasted down tomato with olive oil, herbs and garlic and added it to the beef.

 

We made fresh pasta.  We watched a Jamie Oliver recipe on the tele.  He really has some good ideas does Jamie.  Lasagne style sheets then cut randomly so when they cook (within in 2 minutes) they were beautiful.  The little cuts meant the pasta became a sort of parpadelle without the fuss. 

 

It is difficult to explain but the result was so gorgeous.  

We made a simple salad. Et voila.     

 

 

We have a lunch this weekend.  We have invited Fanny from down the road and Ziggy from the Chateau Orquevaux.  Fanny is an artist, we've had them before so it’s a nice mix. 

 

I have made Joey’s crumble recipe to go with my melted sweet apple lasagne (think sweet apple dauphinoise) which I’ll serve with a crème anglaise. 

 

We are doing a simple potato tortilla Spanish style for lunch with salad and roasted tomatoes and bread.  

 

Fingers crossed, but I think it’ll be good. 

Check out Joey's crumble recipe!  It's unreal.  Like wee morsels of shortbread.

 

The disinfectant advert....

There was an advertisement when I was a kid.  On TV and I guess I was 7-8 yrs old. It was a Dettol (or similar) add where the whole house was plopped into disinfectant. I loved that advertisement. I just wanted everything to be plopped into disinfectant. It was my dream.  I have issues hence that add being such a focus.  Our house was always super clean.  It wasn't our house that wanted me to plop it into the dettol it was just the idea of every single thing being disinfected at once.  I was a little nuts and still am with that sort of thing.  Hence my personal extreme COVID measures. 😓 It takes time.  But it's for our safety. We are on our own here.  If we both get sick we are quite stuffed.   

I'm still the little girl in the sandpit running in to wash her hands every time they get "dirty mummy".  Then running out to play again...........

Baking for the neighbours and dinner tonight.....

I bake for our gorgeous neighbours regularly.  But lately, I’ve been very slack.  The reason is, instead of berry porridge for brekkie we’ve been eating cake or (the bestest of late) burnt butter folded bread (croissants on steroids). Therefore, I've been baking for us.

 

So today, being Sunday .. we made our neighbours some cinnamon rolls. 

 

They were bloody amazing.  We were so proud of those cinnamon rolls (but we wish we did an extra tester (for scientific reasons:)

 

We had an awesome day,  making dauphinoise, beef stew and cinnamon rolls together.

 

No COVID.  No leaving our property.  Just flour, sugar, cinnamon and loads of butter with potato cheese butter beef and yummy stuff.

We finished off our perfect day with dinner in the cave.  A proper dinner.  I didn't take down the camera (bummer because it was amazing) but the potato dauphinoise with beef stew (osso buco style with white wine but with beef, not veal.) We still added the gremolata.  It was a gorgeous meal and an example of how beef can be cooked fresh like veal, with white wine and acidity.

Yum.  We had the best day.  I should have worn my jammies it was that good.   

 

Dinner in the cave...

It was windy outside so we decided to cave it.  Pasta, with a rich roasted tomato ( roasted down tomatoes  with  plenty of olive oil, whole anchovies , garlic, herbs from the garden - our current favourite is 

Savoury.  It is gorgeous.  Finished off with hard cheese  and lemon zest.  

With a simple salad....  Yum.  Scrum....... 

 

Smoked paprika with smoked chicken.......

We had dinner in the cave, it was 30 deg and we decided it was too hot to eat comfortably ouside.  

In the past few days we treated ourselves to buying a load of smoked Spanish paprika, online.  Hot smoked and sweet smoked, so now with our chipotle chillies we can do some serious justice to smokey hot heat, Mexican style (not proper Mexican because we don't have the ingredients but improvising....) 

Tonight was smoked chicken leg with potato cooked in the fat of the chicken, tomatoes slowly roasted with smoked paprika, olive oil, garlic, herbs from the garden.  The potato soaked up all of the juices.  We had a simple salad and charred flatbread with a yoghurt coriander sauce.  YUM.   Seriously.  

 

 

Andy's work shop

Andy’s been working in the dark in the old house.  

 

Until now.

 

He brought in power using electricity from our cave ( he bought a huge mother of an extension cable that is weather proof) and dug a trough so that it lies under our driveway.  

 

So, he’s fitted power sockets and bought lights.  He can actually see in there from today!

 

This house dates back to the 15-1600s.  It’s a beautiful old building.  We won’t be restoring it but it is Andy’s workshop and it’s quite an amazing one.  If only the walls could speak….

 

My new lame

I make bread.  A lot. I haven’t bought bread for over 2 years.  I make sourdough, but the problem with pure wet sourdough is it’s a bit tricky to handle and to score before cooking. 

 

I have the handling sorted (sort of) but the scoring is another animal.  Andy bought me a lame which technically is good, but it’s not strong enough for the wet dough I use and just comes apart.  It would be OK for a yeasted bread which is dryer and easier to score, but not for proper sourdough wet types.  We didn’t know this until we tried.

 

I was watching a bread guy on youtube last night (for an hour).  He was awesome.  He was so matter of fact, talking through his daily bake in his bakery.  He uses a “monkey wire lame”.  

 

I showed Andy the monkey wire lame online.  We knew it wouldn’t work exactly for me because I cut my bread in a pot rather than on the flat so I need the handle for elevation.  This afternoon he grabbed one of the new razor blades we have for my bread, popped out to the old house for a bit and came back with the perfect lame tool for me.

 

I couldn’t have possibly bought it online.  

 

How awesome is he!