Shopping Challenge November 2nd shopping

Took a little longer to do the shopping today, around 20 minutes, but it is the weekend.

Spent 115,07€ that included a jar of piment d'espelette which was incidentally the most expensive item on the list at 12,65€!

Here's what we will be cooking and eating this weekend and early next week:

Beef Bourguignon ( made earlier this week for tonight)

Magret de Canard En Saumure, Roti au Miel ( duck breast with honey)

Carrot, Tomato & Feta Soup

Home-made Pizzas

Roast Chicken with vegetables ( going to the market Sunday morning)

Chocolate Creams

Apple & Pear Cake ( to use up the fruit the children have not eaté from last week) 

*bought some artisanale (craft) sausage meat too for a meal to cook and freeze for next week.

Halloween part 2

                             

Alexis just arrived home weighed down by a a big bag of sweets and very happy.

For the fourth year running he stayed overnight a Jeremy's house and this year they had a special Halloween menu prepared for them.  You would have to have a good imagination to decipher le menu, but what a great idea and such fun, I love it.

Pumpkin Seed Cod by Nigel Slater

We bought the third Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries last week and it's probably my favorite one of all.

Alain cooked his first recipe from it last night and it was so good. The pumpkin seed crust was a real discovery as I didn't think that I would like them much, but 

How wrong I was. What a delicious moment we shared at home with the four children in their rooms....bliss.

Laschamps to Aydat day 4 and 5

We left Archipel Volcans around 10am on the fourth day.  This place could have been amazing, I mean it's perfectly situated, and the building and grounds are spacious, modern and there's lots to keep children amused in the gardens (trampoline, football, bowling.....)
But it turned out to be our least favourite place we stayed in.  Firstly the staff changed all the time, the person who greeted us, who was lovely, by the way, we never saw again. Same thing for the person on the front desk, never the same face, at breakfast too, and when we left, another new face. It just felt a bit unfriendly and lacked atmosphere.  The food too, was disappointing, looked good, but fade, and they never used any wonderful local produce available in this region, for example, cheese, the only opportunity to taste some, was at breakfast!

Off we went, on to Aydat, it was hot again, walked quickly and covered the 13 or so kilometers fast.  On the way down to Aydat, we passed Chocolat's field for the night and decided rather than force him to walk to the hotel with our bags and then walk up again, we'd unload our stuff then and there and left him to graze.

Our hotel was 20 meters from the lake and our room was clean and had a tv which pleased the children.  We slept upon arriving, only to go down for dinner that evening.  The food was good, the terrace quiet at first then later noisy, not a problem, but the amount of smokers were.
The next day, we hiked up high on the other side of the lake, then dropped down to have a picnic on a small strip of beach which we had all to ourselves.

After, the children played and we read.

And we shared a lake chilled beer, can't get much better than that.

Back

We are back, after three weeks of holiday's in different regions of France, it's good to be back.  
The weather is blisteringly hot (too hot for me, reminds me of the heat in the south of France), and apparently it's going to last until at least Thursday!
We ate a Little Gem and peach salad with a fromage blanc dressing for lunch and it was good.   
Tonight Alain's making zucchini cakes and cod with lime and thyme and a strawberry and mascarpone tart to follow, lucky me, no cooking and a much delayed birthday tart to enjoy (fingers crossed)

Easter cooking with the children

 We have spent a lovely calm weekend with the children, cooking a lot, talking, reading together, it's been great.  Alain and I managed to run twice (6km and 10km) and with our average pace is above 10km per hour, which for us, was unimaginable for us a couple of months ago.   
Gabrielle and Marie-Kate have been wanting to help more cooking, especially since Alexis went away on school camp.  Saturday night they made some delicious veal cordon bleu's (no photo).  On Sunday they prepared ricotta, strawberry and raspberry trifles.

To finish of the weekend, Alain and Marie-Kate made fresh pasta (dough and all) for their very first time

While they cut more tagliatelle, I made a makeshift rack using a broom stick and tea towels to hang them over and dry a little.  Yes, the lengths vary, but the tagliatelle with mushroom ragu sauce was excellent.  

Alexis' letter from Auvergne

This letter may our day on Saturday.  Alexis is having a great time in the Auvergne and this letter shall be kept safely forever my me.
If you can't read French though, Alexis does mention the fact that the tomato soup wasn't good... now that's the fussy Alexis we know and love.

Fast Food and Meringues

 Meringues are very popular in our house at the moment, we make some a couple of times a week. Usually I just dollop big spoonfuls on a baking take like above,but last time I decided to be less rustic and use a piping bag. They looks great and I never got a chance to take a shot of them.

We don't eat at  Mc Donalds, Quick or KFC but I recently found a fast food sandwich here that has  been a big hit here at lunch-time. All you need is some Dijon mustard, some ham, cheese, a handful of potato chips and some pickles (or spinach ) and you assemble it all, then squash down another slice of bread and warm it up in a skillet with some butter and serve it with a salad. Yummy

Verjus (ex Hidden Kitchen) A must

I have read a lot about this underground restaurant called Hidden Kitchen via different food blogs and I've always been curious about learning more and eventually perhaps eating there.

Braden and Laura, the people behind this idea, came from America to open up a private supper club, where once or twice a week, they would host elaborate 10 course meals in their apartment in Paris. Globetrotters, lots of Americans, Europeans and French would share the same table and enjoy the one of the ultimate food experiences one could ever wish for.

They have been so successful, Hidden Kitchen is no more, instead they have opened their very own restaurant and wine bar not far from the Opera Garnier in Paris.

 A couple of days ago, I received an email from Laura to tell me she had two places available to eat  at Verjus, of course we eagerly accepted, and last night was the big night, and boy it was awesome and one couldn't have wished for better company.
We dined with some great people, ate the most exquisite food with perfectly paired wine.
For the amuse bouche we had a spring roll with mussels with a shot of caramelized fennel soup, what can I say, just perfect and the mussels were divine.
Next, we were served a charred sweet onion with a millet and quinoa risotto and citrus. I loved the risotto but wasn't that keen on the sweet onion, that for me, just wasn't sweet at all and hard on the palate.
The butter poached langoustine with red cabbage tortellini mint and caper was excellent overall, the langoustine tail was a little too small, but the amazing red cabbage tortellini made up for that. The texture of the red cabbage was almost meaty and a real delice.
Next up was the house smoked salmon with celery root, buckwheat, mustard and roe served with the best wine of the evening. This was one of my favourite courses, and I definitely want to try to smoke our own salmon at home.
The Veal cheek turned out to be veal shoulder served with pine nut butter, nori, salsify and fried herbs was excellent but a tad too salty, however, the pine nut butter and the fried herbs were to die for.
Ok even though it's only 9 am, this course makes me want to run back to Paris and have more, now, and lots of it.  Beer braised pork belly with white miso labne, raw beets, kimchi vinaigrette was just delectable or as Alain would say le petit Jesus en culottes de velours.

To finish with, we had a dark chocolate ganache with pineapple and rosemary (not habenero) sorbet, banana and hazelnut. I'm not a big sweet tooth and I am hard to please, and although this dessert was good (probably great for others), it just didn't do it for me, the sorbet was good and the banana and hazelnut too, but the ganache was not that dark, with a lack of intensity.

photo not taken from restaurant, I ate the whoopie pie before thinking

But  guess what, just before leaving the table, we were treated to a whoopie pie that just was so scrumptious, and we'll be making some of these today.


If there's one place in Paris I really can't wait to go back too, it's here.  And in the bar, we got to taste some Japanese whisky that was heavenly. Next time we'll try the fried chicken at the bar that's something not to be missed. 


Note;  It would have been nice to have some good butter to go with the bread, butter similar to that of Le Cinq, now that would be something.

En Attendant Godet

Ce soir nous allons sortir en amoureux à Paris...non je plaisante, en effet nous irons à Plaisir.

D'ailleurs, ce sera la première fois que nous sortons de notre nouvelle maison sans enfant sauf pour faire des courses).

Quel exploit...si on arrive à partir.

Update

We made it there, the play was excellent and the company too.

Before going, we had hoped to grab a bite to eat at KFC (not enough time for a restaurant with only 30 minutes to spare) Unfortunately we were forced to retreat and watch the play on an empty stomach because of the CGT (French Union), who were blocking the entrance in support of a KFC worker who'd been sacked...Vivre La France!

Sunday's Soup

My favourite soup tureen

After a hard day decluttering, we made a easy soup and the girls chopped up some melon and some mozzarella to make a salad for us all to share.

We're still eating outside, both for lunch and dinner, as the weather's still great. (probably will till the clocks go forward towards the end of October).