18th November
Despite the grim weather we had a really good day. I dropped the children off with their grandparents where they were to spend the day doing some French and maths and James and I were left to our own devices. For James, this meant working on a film project for a client’s website and for myself, I decided to get started on trying to use up some of the hundreds of apples we’ve collected. The orchard here has 13 apple trees, although 11 of them are cider apples. We have collected huge bagfuls of apples, most of which have been eaten by the pigs but the apples collected from the eating apple tree have been sitting waiting for me to do something with. Today I finally had the time to slice and cook the apples gently in a large saucepan with a little pinch of cinnamon, some sugar and some mixed spice. Then, I piled the soft steaming juicy pieces into freezer proof dishes and piled on generous helpings of crumble mixture. Viola! Four large spiced apple crumbles for my chest freezer. After a morning of hard labour in the kitchen, James treated me to lunch in a local restaurant. One of the good things about France is their cheap, all-in lunchtime menus. For 12.50 euros a head we supped on chicken terrine, belly of pork with a barbeque sauce and vegetables and then a selection of mini desserts with coffee. Add a very delicious glass of Cote de Rhone and we were satisfied, happy bunnies for the rest of the day.
Despite the grim weather we had a really good day. I dropped the children off with their grandparents where they were to spend the day doing some French and maths and James and I were left to our own devices. For James, this meant working on a film project for a client’s website and for myself, I decided to get started on trying to use up some of the hundreds of apples we’ve collected. The orchard here has 13 apple trees, although 11 of them are cider apples. We have collected huge bagfuls of apples, most of which have been eaten by the pigs but the apples collected from the eating apple tree have been sitting waiting for me to do something with. Today I finally had the time to slice and cook the apples gently in a large saucepan with a little pinch of cinnamon, some sugar and some mixed spice. Then, I piled the soft steaming juicy pieces into freezer proof dishes and piled on generous helpings of crumble mixture. Viola! Four large spiced apple crumbles for my chest freezer. After a morning of hard labour in the kitchen, James treated me to lunch in a local restaurant. One of the good things about France is their cheap, all-in lunchtime menus. For 12.50 euros a head we supped on chicken terrine, belly of pork with a barbeque sauce and vegetables and then a selection of mini desserts with coffee. Add a very delicious glass of Cote de Rhone and we were satisfied, happy bunnies for the rest of the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment