It is true! So we need to...It is just the teenager and I this evening and we are looking for nutrition rather than style in our dinner...We have quiche of courgette and carrot made last week and frozen...One of my favourite 'vegetable medleys'* that has many guises...tonight it is just a carrot, two small potatoes and some frozen peas with some jar mayo...homemade macedoine :-) ...And then the wild garlic...I approached it like buttered spinach...wilted in a pan...then I went off piste with it and added sultanas...Don't laugh! they really did add something...It was good but the wild garlic remained 'chewy' according to the teenager... although she did eat it all...I reckon we got our 'five a day! 'I am aware photographing my plates that we always eat off the worst china we have...It should break soon and then we can use some nicer plates... * vegetable medley I use this in a lot of my recipes and it is simple... depending on what I have and what I am doing it varies...At it's most basic it contains carrots potatoes and 'something' green...It can also have cauliflower, broccoli, turnip...I start with peeled chopped carrot...sometimes circles, sometimes chunks...put into cold water and bring to the boil...then add the potato cut into similar sized chunks...when that comes to the boil add cauliflower...basically keep adding your veg based on how long it takes to cook...If my 'green' is frozen peas as it was this evening they get added last then switch off the heat and drain the veg...Sometimes I just turn it into macedoine with jar mayo...sometimes I make my own mayo...sometimes I use an oil and garlic sauce...I also use this method to make a vegetable korma...
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Teenager optional! Bless her little bare feet and may I be forgiven...Teenagers can be useful...Today our annual pilgrimage to collect wild garlic...I know where it grows and have been collecting it there for over a decade...but today I 'conveniently' forgot that it was on the other side of the river...Fortunately I had the teenager with me...That water was cold, it is April and we are in the mountains but she was willing...I love her soooo much...wild garlic pesto for supper...I am not sure if I have a recipe as such but nuts, cheese, olive oil, salt and wild garlic...I also added a clove of 'proper' garlic...I had some pine nuts but there weren't really enough so I also used some ground almonds...I used a very full salad spinner of the wild garlic...the rest will be used for other meals...I just wizz it all up to make the pesto...It can be quite dry so I also stir through some of the pasta boiling water as we are serving...Delicious, healthy... my spring tonic Firstly tell her you will take care of her phone... Direct her gently... When your teenger has dried off and warmed up take your haul home Make your pesto...glass of wine not compulsory but definitely adds to the experience Please do remember to feed your teenager...Disclaimer: No teenagers were hurt in the making of this post
Sometimes we don't need many words...My terrace yesterday evening before our first supper of the year taken outdoors... Ok I still have washing to dry!
I haven't done a before and after for a while...let's call this one room three, it is my 'family suite' It has two interconnecting rooms and so I have arranged it as a double and twin room come sitting area...The twin area before: The twin area today sadly this floor was covered with self levelling cement on top of the old tiles so as of yet I haven't been able to restore it and have had to put simple carpet down but one day I shall fully restore it: The double room was one of the most intact areas of the house when I bought it but what possibly doesn't show in the before picture is the textured wallpaper that I spent a busy couple of days stripping nor that the charming black 'skirting board' is actually some sort of sticky tape! The double room today, it does still need some 'finishing touches' as it is a bit bare I think. The floor cleaned up a treat and on this floor I discovered a cat paw print embedded in a tile:
Why do I live here? Today I needed to take my car to the garage in the next village 6kms away. A friend offered to give me a lift home after I dropped off the car or I could have waited for the bus...But today is the first day of spring and to celebrate that I actively WANTED a walk so I decided to walk home on the 'passa pais' also known as the 'voix verte' (http://www.ot-caroux.fr/fr/bouger/voie-verte.html) It is a large section of the old railway line connecting Mazmet to the coast at the moment it runs for 76km between Mazamet and Bedarieux...I have walked various stretches of it before but not the bit I did today...Corniou to St Pons: 6.5km... Starting in Corniou and looking over part of the village...I knew it was going to be hard...Comfortably strolling in the sunshine at the beginning of spring with just the sound of birdsong for company...someone had to do it :-) The voix verte is pretty flat for most of its route...It is of course an old railway line! Walkers seen: 6, Cyclists: 2, Dogs: 1, Butterflies: countless... On the outskirts of St Pons I saw a sign (the walk route is well signposted) directing me in two opposite directions...both saying: St Pons 2kms...I knew where one would take me to but not the other...Oooooh rebel that I am I took the unknown route...It took me high! But what a treat... I love not quite not knowing where I am when I walk...But I ended up in St Pons in the right 'quartier' for home...I had left the garage at 2pm and the garagiste had told me he would call me when he had a price for the parts and work on my car...As I stepped off the walk path at 3.15pm and back onto the street my phone rang and it was the garagiste with a quote for the work...An ouch moment but I was so calm and de-stressed by my walk that I barely noticed...
When you start a blog and you try to find readers...you sort of have an obligation to update your blog relatively regularly...And dear readers I haven't done that...The reality is that sometimes life is throwing you lemons...but not the sort of lemons one can make lemonade with...perhaps they are lemons that just need to be left until they cease to be so sour...I think now my lemons are ready to make a mighty fine and rich lemonade...So I am going to try to rejuvenate my blog...and the mythical chambre d'hote that to be fair even I didn't think would be mythical for this long will one day exist..Within the silence things have progressed.... just quietly...I think that now it is time for my house to wake up and prepare to be ready to welcome people...
My second guest room is now up and running. It hosted its first guest the weekend before last...As I sort of seem to do things backwards...I took a booking for it then I had to finish it. It used to look like this: Stripping the wallpaper I found the final layer and the newspaper backing dated from 1836, the paper had been stripped before but some bits had evidently been just too glued and so had been left...I decided to leave them. I figured that if they'd lasted that long they should last a bit longer. Here they are: After a bit of work (I am being modest!) the room now looks like this...sort of! This room I have decided to prepare as both a twin or double so that it can suit different people..I took the pictures before it was quite finished and before I could present it as a double so you can only see it as a twin...but it can be both...It also has things such as bedside tables in it now as well. I'll stop now before I confuse myself!
Gosh I've been lazy writing this blog...but I have been busy here. Here's one of my little projects, (I do like a little project that has a beginning and an end that arrives relatively quickly). The teenager was away for the weekend and whilst I could have gone out dancing, I could have lounged with a good book or I could have slept, I decided to do something with these sad and ugly chairs: I spent 25euros on a tub of paintstripper and some wire wool, everything else I had hanging around. This is what I ended up with...I know you can only see one but they are both done now, I was just too impatient to wait until I finished the second one before photographing them. They are sitting in my guest coffee area (coffee area...sounds good huh) or rather they are for sitting on! I'm quite happy with them...I wasn't quite so happy when I was sanding them!
I like to think I will welcome anyone to my little offering and can cater to most diets...Last weekend I had a quite unusual guest. I have to say he was quiet and undemanding. He didn't comment on the bed or the breakfast but I do believe he enjoyed his stay although he did need a bit of cling film for his onward journey ...Ladies and gentlemen let me introduce Noel...possibly the most travelled holidaying fish in France...His chauffeurs were cool and friendly as well!...Noel enjoying table d'hote...
We English think we know tea and of course we do! I recently had the most lovely French guests who also know tea, they know it so well they make it...We're not talking builders black here, we are talking refined and delicate. Having stayed in my room they promised to send me samples of their tea to try...and they did...and I have been 'testing' it on my guests, they have all loved it...They don't just make tea they also make amazing aromatic salts. The only problem I have found with the tea is that the packaging is so beautiful that it takes a very brave woman to open it! You can find their tea and salt here: www.la-recolte-de-meme-renee.fr (ha I don't know how to do a link on this blog!) The herbs are grown locally to me and if you are passing pop in and enjoy a cup
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