Goat’s cheese and caramelized apple salad.. and ochre abundance.
Once again, I had to scratch my head to think of a recipe that would accompany the stunning ochre colours of fall. Of course not only in colour, but also in taste, spirit, ambiance..Of course..cheese. I can’t believe I haven’t shared this simple salad yet. It can be manipulated and changed according to the seasons and is always a winner with its warm toast, cheese and apple and fresh green salad.
Une pincée de fleur de sel:
- Place the apple rounds and goat’s cheese on toasted bread before putting under the grill.
- Take care to slice your apples, bread for toast and cheese more or less the same size.
- Use slices of Camembert instead of goat’s cheese.
- Use pears or quince instead of apples.
- Use brown sugar to caramelize the pears or quince instead of honey and serve with a helping of quince jam/jelly.
- Play around and make your own combinations to serve a melted cheese and apple/pear/quince salad.
..stillife nicked by a chicken..
..stillife with Royal Gala apples..
..walnut oil, walnut vinegar, raspberry vinegar, truffle vinegar..
Our fall colors have only now really reached their peak and the ochres are in abundance. I don’t have much to say, except that nature is at the moment an explosion of magnificence..
à la prochaine!
Ronelle
Quince crumble with orange and ginger..and bistrot flavor.
Quinces are bistro food…either in the form of jams and jellies or simmering on the stove for a compote or in the oven as a side dish. In season, freshly picked from the garden, on the market, they are on all the bistro menus for as long as the season lasts. And a crumble says it all. Comfort, warmth, flavor, senses, laughter, friends, cosiness, delicious.. a few words to capture a quince…and a bistrot.
Une pincée de fleur de sel:
- Boil the seeds and inner core along with the dice of quince – it flavors the mixture ant thickens the syrup.
- Replace the ginger with cinnamon if you don’t like ginger.
- Make smaller ramequins of crumble and serve as part of a plate of three dessert.
- Use apple with quince.
..whipped cream, slice of orange and a ramequin of crumble..
..ingredients..
..Bistro flavor..
Life is a ratatouille, a blanquette, a bourguignon. It is a tartelette, a crumble, a millefeuille… life is a bistrot. No Michelin star restaurant, or any well known chef or trendy novelty or brocante can capture French life like le bistro. It is the place we go for our lunch or dinner because it feels like home. It is the place we go for our café, because that is where our friends are.
..bistrot at Coin Perdu..
We depend on the chef of le bistro to entice us with le plat du jour, or better yet, le menu du jour, where we sit back with a carafe of house wine and wait for our entrée et plat, or plat et dessert. The menu for the day mostly consists of either a starter and main course OR main course and dessert. Of course written on the blackboard, since the menu of the day follows the season! So never trust a bistrot without a blackboard!
.. plat du jour at Coin Perdu…
Bistrot life is just in my blood I guess. I love my coffee and croissant. Freshly squeezed orange juice. Pierrot gourmand. I love the simple French home kitchen where life is about family, friends and food. Around a bistrot table, discussion is always about the food. Of course other subjects are touched, but the food is always an obvious point of discussion…”is it delicious, or not so good today? Too much salt on the salmon? Too little butter in the sauce? Is the housewine good with the bourguignon? Is this year’s November Beaujolais better than last year..?”
..also called café des artistes..
I love the typically bistrot serviette, which speaks of the simplicity, but warmth of the French home kitchen. Simplicity doesn’t mean uninteresting or plain or boring, on the contrary. The French kitchen is filled with the exiting freshness of each season, whether it is in setting the table or making a soup or serving a Paris-brest. Frou-frou is left to the stage at Moulin rouge..in the bistro kitchen the soul is naked and simple..honest and true.
..des serviettes de mon bistrot..
I love La place, where a bistrot is always nestled between tables and chairs, people and fountains, pigeons and dogs of all colors. It is a place where the placid passing by of the morning makes way for the clutter of knives and forks, the clinking of glasses and loud chatter of happy eaters at midday.
..and outside we’ll find la place du café..
Some of my most favorite Bistrot books, which I know almost by heart from reading them again and again. They can be found on amazon.fr.
..Esprit bistrot..
..”Lotte de Bretagne piquée au chorizo, risotto façon paella”-Bruno Doucet à La Regalade
et bistro L’Ami Jean..
..Bistrots de chefs à Paris..
..Cyril Bourlois – bistrot Aux vieux comptoir..
..Simplement bistrot- Yves Camdeborde..
..La tarte fine aux pommes – Yves Camdeborde
..Bistrot; autour et avec les recettes du Paul Bert – Bertrand Auboyneau et François Siumon..
..l’cailler du bistrot et une serveuse..
..Un café à la campagne – Christophe Lefébure..
..to the left: Chez Baudy à Giverny, where American artists gathered at the turn of the XIX and XXth centuriesto be in the presence of Monet..and ancient cafés to the right..
Ambiance – Champignons d’Octobre.
Armed with my camera and macro lens, my boots and hat, I headed for the woods.
Goal?
But…champignons of course!!
..my favorite hat..
Note: I’m not a mushroom expert, except when it comes to eating them, in which case I do have a strong opinion. So I may be wrong in my classification of these mushrooms. It is very difficult to identify them, since some are so close in appearance and character. See the end of the post for the sources I tapped into. The photos are of course my own.
..Entoloma lividum - toxic, under leaves
.. Hypholoma fasciculare – a poisonous mushroom, very common, grows on dead wood..
..Polypore feutré (Inonotus cuticularis)- a parasite that live on the damaged parts of live trees..
..armillaria gallica – toxic, grows on dead branches and leaves
..dacrymyces microsporus -grows on dead branches and tree trunks..
..Clavaire etroite – common on dead leaves and rotting wood..
..Russules Maculée – common under leaves on alcalic soil..
- More photos can be seen in my gallery in the sidebar: Champignons d’automne.
Sources:
- http://mycorance.free.fr/index.htm
- Le nouveau guide des champignons – Cécile Lemoine
- Champignons -Polesse Jean Marie
- Les champignons de France – Hervé Chaumeton
I will soon have to go back into the woods, because I haven’ captured even half of what is still out there; And some of my photos didn’t turn out good enough which I’ll have to redo. So, until such time…
♥ don’t eat mushrooms which haven’t been identified by an expert..
♥ keep unidentified mushrooms apart for the others..
♥ clean your hands after touching a strange mushroom..
♥ don’t forget your camera..
à bientôt!
Ronelle
Chili peppers stuffed with rabbit..and a home library.
I had left over rabbit. And small chili peppers. Some goats cheese. Herbs. And guests for dinner. As un apéro, these would do perfectly.
But BEWARE: They are very hot. While I was preparing them, I took a tiny bite from one and it was fairly piquant, but not as I expected and I continued happily. BUT THEN… later the afternoon, I propped a smallish whole one in my mouth….well, I flounced desperately around the kitchen table, like a horse being backed for the first time. I fled outside in the rain for oxygen and help. Not finding it there, I scrambled back to the fridge and gulped down 6 joghurts… I think next time I will use the mild spanish red pepper instead…but oh, these look SO pretty on a platter…!
- Use left over chicken or duck or turkey instead of rabbit.
- When using duck, leave out the cheese and replace with balsamic vinegar and grated apple, sprinkled with lemon juice.
- Ricotta cheese or créme fraîche can be used in place of the goats cheese.
- Serve as a sterter with a small green salad, or serve as an apéritif with a cold white wine.
- If the chili peppers are too hot to your liking, use the long Spanish red peppers instead and cut them shorter from the thin point upward.
Apart from smelling freshly brewed coffee when entering a home, few other things can give a home that feeling of lived in comfort, cosiness , than seeing books…stacks of books, or shelves overflowing with a chaos of books. It doesn’t matter if it is a formal library or the living room where books are strewn on the table and couches. I’m not talking about the pretentious shelves and more shelves of beautiful books, only admired for their leather covers…No, I love entering a home and seeing books everywhere, inviting me to take on from a shelf or pick it up from a table or chair or even the floor….open it up and page through… read the end…the sinopsis and discover a little bit about the owner’s taste and likes and discover new titles…
We don’t have a libraryat home, only “corners” of books which I try in vain to keep neat. Now I look past it and only try to balance out the stacking in order to prevent a shelf from breaking. And I LOVE it when people come here and pick up a book…!
..books at home..
..books in corners..
..books on the coffeetable, by the bed, decorating corners(which I HAVE read and still reread, yes)..
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I bought this beautiful and inspiring book on libraries a while ago: BIBLIOTHEQUES – l’art de vivre avec des livres by Roland Beaufre and Dominique Dupuich..
..BIBLIOTHEQUES - l'art de vivre avec des livres by Roland Beaufre and Dominique Dupuich..
*All the following images are borrowed from the book:
These next two libraries, are my most favorites in this book…if you leave me in either of these two, I’ll just happily disappear and you’ll never see me again!
..from the family Tazi, at Rabat..
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Another wonderful treasure of books!
..library of the Parisian decorator, Laure Welfing in Tanger..
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This library below is beautiful…too beautiful actually. I feel like someone’s is whispering…:”Don’t touch”!
..a bourgeoise library in Tanger..
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Don’t you just love a space like this, with so much to see and look at and loaded with personality…except for that spider on the lamp shade of course…
..working space/library of Gilles Neret in St-Germain-de-Prés, journalist and editor..
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This inviting couch and the lamp won me over!
..library/working space of art writer, Francois Jonquet with a bohemian flavor..
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A bit less chaotic, but still inviting with its couch and music station, the warmth of family photos, botanical prints…and of course…MANY books!!
..library of decoration journalist, Pamela de Monbrison..
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I hope this kicked you into a mood of reading, like it did me…and instead of watching a good DVD this weekend, let’s make it one of reading those oldies we haven’t touched in a while!
..bon week-end!..
Ronelle
Ambiance 22/10: Spaghetti squash with three-tomato-sauce..and autumn flavour.
Spaghetti squash makes for an quite an interesting meal…served with a homemade tomato sauce, or with oven baked tomatoes. Especially great for those who want to cut down on carbohydrates…and calories..
Suggestions:
- Don’t overcook the squash, or else it won’t shred off in strands, but be mushy.
- The squash can alos be cooked in the microwave oven – prick all over with a knife and microwave for about 15 minutes or more until the skin is tender but not soft. (whole squash of about 1 kg)
- The squash on its own is fairly tasteless and bland, so take care to make your tomatoes/sauce flavorful.
- Instead of oven baked tomatoes, a tomato sauce can be made by sauteing some onions, adding chooped tomatoes and reducing at low heat until thick anad flavorful. Season with salt and pepper, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and add shredded basil leaves.
- Chopped olives and parmesan cheese can be added when serving the dish.
- Marinate tomatoes are tomatoes that have been dried in the oven until semi dry and still holds juice. It must be refrigerated and doesn’t keep as long as dried tomatoes, but is much more flavorful.
- This spaghetti with sauce can be served as an accompaniment to any kind of fish.
♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣
I don’t do a lot of fall decoration, but I do like a little pumpkin and some fresh autumn fruit here and there. Some leaves… Nothing very whoo haa. Just a little something. A little autumn flavor brought inside.
Normalement je ne fais pas trop de décoration d’automne, à l’exception d’une courge çà et là. J’aime aussi les fruits saisonnales en abondances , comme des poires, de jolies pommes de saison et n’oublie pas de délicieux coings! Et bien sur, les belles feuilles mortes, que je ramasse quotidiennement partout sur mon passage, remplacent les bouquets de fleurs estivales. Je ne fais rien en grande pompe, mais tout ça donne juste un petit gout d’automne dans la maison et ses alentours.
..autumn leaves in white vase..
Flowers get replaced by autmn leaves and greenery, picked up on walks by the Loire..in vases, in bowls.
..autumn leaves..
White pumpkins make for attractive decor everywhere in the house. place some small ones on a stack of books, or on top of some dried moss, stack them in urns and pots…
..sandpot with pumpkins...and old books with pumpkins..
Their shapes and smooth whiteness harmonize well with the rustic texture of outside walls and pots, urns and wooden surfaces.
...urn with pumpkins..
Outside they can stand quietly beside a pot planted with white cyclamen. Or even inside keeping a vase of drying hydrangeas company. Alongside apples, they seduce us with color and form. A still life.., there.., to admire and enjoy the quietness of autumn.
..autumn decor..
♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣
..bon week-end!..
Ronelle
Apple cake..and “le marché des douceurs à Montlouis s/L”.
Our youngest daughter loves apple-anything and she started baking this cake when she was only knee high. It is from The Australian woman’s weekly home librabry – Cakes and slices. We’ve changed it only a little . The recipe directs to cut apples in quarters and then cut 3/4 trhough in slices and then press into the dough. It gives a beautiful cake, but makes the slices too big(to include apples in each slice) so we cut the apples in slices and spread them through out the cake, which gives a less attractive cake, BUT much more moist and of course delicious!
PS: forgive the bad photo..I was being pushed on with the photo, because my daughter didn’t want the cake cold…and after all, she DID bake the cake..!
Suggestions.
- Pears could be used instead of apples.
- Instead of inserting the apples slices all over the top of the cake, the apples can be cut into courters and then sliced only 3/4 way through. Press into the cake at the edges. I gives a prettier cake, but the slices won’t be spread through out the cake.
- Gelatin powder can be used…1 tsp.
- Best when served slightly warm with a spoonful of whipped cream on the side…or my ever trusting naughty crème fraîche!
- It can be stored for two to three days.
Last weekend, Montlouis held its yearly, autumn “marché des douceurs. A lot of eating and drinking, socializing and selling marks the day and if one arrives home hungry you have only yourself to blame!
Le week-end dernier etait le marché des douceurs en centre ville de notre petit village si sympa, avec des rencontres de Montlouisiens si sympa. C’est la fête automnale annuelle et on y mange et on y boire. On discute dans les rues, on vends et on achète . Si, après tout ca, on rentre à la maison sans un sourire ou encore affamé… eh bien, c’est pas à cause d’un manque de la nourriture ou un manque de divertissement!
...local organic vegetables...
..directions to Montlouis..
..en vélo..
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..poduits Basques..
..crépe au nutella..
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...fondants chocolats, macarons and nougats from Tours...
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...fun for the kiddies...
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la fameuse Géline de Touraine
..la barbe à papa..
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..tumbling flowers..
..menu de la loire à 15 euros..
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...the fish from les Animalis...
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..."M le fermier" and his vegetable "sculptures"...
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
…à la prochaine…
Ronelle
Ambiance 1/10
So we have arrived at October for 2010….and of course…weekend! I will continue working in my garden, preparing it for autumn, cleaning and changing, planting some bulbs… What ware your plans for this first weekend of the beautiful month of October?
Voila. On est arrivé en Octobre 2010. Et en plus…le weekend! Je continuerai à travailler dans mon jardin. L’automne demande la plantation des bulbes, le nettoyage, le bouturage et la préparation pour le printemps. Qu’est ce que vous prévoyez vous pour ce merveilleux weekend d’Octobre?
…cloches in an autumn garden…
And any suggestions for a good movie for the weekend? How about some suspense this time…Johnny Depp in Secret window..
Quelques propositions pour un bon film? Peut être un film suspense…Johnny Depp dans Fenêtre secrète…
…Secret window…
…bon weekend!..
Ronelle
Sorrel and rocket cappuccino..and the chicken chronicles II.
When something is in abundance, we should make use of it…like the sorrel in my garden, which is growing profusely. Not to mention the rocket, which is close to taking over the garden. Combine the two in an early atumn soup, sprinkle with some pistachios and cut some baguette to accompany.
Suggestions:
- Spinach and basil leaves can be used instead of the sorrel and rocket.
- The green peas are added for a green color…don’t boil the peas so they lose their green colour.
- Potatoes can be added for a more consistent soup.
- Be sure to sauté the sorrel beforehand in a bit of oil to prevent a sour taste to the soup.
- Use a cuppaccino frother to make milk froth for a light version, or use whipped cream instead.
- My way of making a creamy milk froth: Use cold, half fat milk. pour up to the marked level of the frother and froth until creamy. warm in the microvwave until the froth rises to the top. (Keep an eye on it, it haapens very quickly).Remove from the microwave and stir with a metal spoon until the mixture is nice and creamy.Spoon onto your soup(or coffee). The froth will hold its shap for quite a long time. For a cold soup, omit the heating.
- This soup is delicious warm or cold.
…bon appetit!…
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…while the soup is busy simmering… an update on the chicken chronicles...
I mentioned in a previous post: Asparagus with poppy vinaigrette and a confused chicken, that the one hen turned out to be a rooster, which forced me to give them to a friend living on a farm. It broke my heart to see them go and I especially missed Petronella, the rooster terribly, with his wonderfully cockey attitude! But they are happy where they are now and Petronella can crow to “his” heart’s delight without worrying about neighbours. Here they can be seen as cute tiny chicks…A simple salad and special corners.
After a while I got two new chickens…Tartelette and Omelette. Two Pekin bantam little chickens in the colour of Touraine…a soft grey, called “porcelaine“. They soon filled the sad corners of my heart…isn’t it amazing how much love we have to give? They are two adorable little featherfooted friends and I couldn’t ask for better chatterboxes to bring fun and laughter to my days!
Early mornings begin with joghurt. Healthy chicken food the rest of the day and a gouter(snack) late afternoon is their favorite joghurt again, some grated coconut and a few shreds of salami…yeah yeah…I know… chickens know nothing about joghurt and coconut…, but then I also think these two chickens don’t know they are chickens!
Where Tokala and Ayiani(my two beautifully chic cats)ignore me for the better half of the day to live their royal life, Tartelette and Omelette are just too eager to follow in my every fresh footstep, to entertain and be entertained all the way. They fiddle around under my easel in my atelier during the day, groom and massage their feathers by my feet and slip into the kitchen when I’m not looking to nestle in “their” corner for a nap, while looking at me with flirty eyes and charmingly tilted heads, begging to be allowed to stay…now tell me…how can I refuse such seduction?
…à la prochaine!
Ronelle
