January walk

Yesterday Mystery Guest and I took advantage of the mild winter we're having (unlike the horrible snow from the last two years!) This winter we had a few days of frost back in October but nothing since then. But don't think I'm complaining! Living out here in the countryside where people aren't used to snow, where no one has snowtires and the roads are rarely plowed I'm perfectly happy with the mild temps!

But yesterday you would have thought it was an early spring day once the sun came out. We drove over to Carteret which isn't too far from where we live. We walked down by the church ruins (which you can see in yesterday's post) and since it was really low tide we walked all the way down to the water passing by some crazy shellfish which we found out later (thanks to Facebook!) are gooseneck barnacles and apparently a delicacy in Spain and Portugal. In the center picture you can see how clearly we could see Jersey yesterday, beautiful.

We were playing the goats scampering over the rocks by the point when we realized the tide was coming in so we made a mad dash over the rocks to get to the other side. Once along the main beach (where those cute beach cabins are) we hiked back over to where the car was parked following the Sentier des Douaniers and saw one of their old stone shelters overlooking the sea.

It was a beautiful day, every five seconds that came out of my mouth but I couldn't help ooohhhing and ahhhhing! :) Work has been off to a great start but being stuck in an office all day it sure was nice to get outside and have the sea air deep in my lungs.

Christmas lights

When I was in Caen the beginning of December I got to test out my new remote that Mystery Guest gave me for my birthday. It was freezing cold that night so we didn't hang around to play with all the options/lighting modes but this picture came out pretty good. They did a nice job of "painting" the front of the Mairie with a light display.

drool

My new creation - Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies (Cx4? does that work as a nickname?) Anyway my mom sent me a little care package and only a few of the candy canes made it intact. Rather than eat all the little pieces myself I decided to re-create my alltime favorite combo: chocolate and mint.

My favorite ice cream.
My favorite candy (junior mints & after eights).
My favorite tea (peppermint with a square of chocolate on the side.

Yup, been my favorite since I was a kid.

Since I'll be selling my cookies at the market in Caen tomorrow I thought it was the perfect opportunity for a new Christmas cookie!

(anyone notice it's been photographed on my new cookie stand??)

shameless

In case you don't follow me on twitter or on facebook... some shameless self-promotion (heck it is my blog!) for my cookie website and my holiday special! What else would make a cookie fanatic happier than a personalized cookie jar filled with homemade cookies? Honestly, I can't think of anything!

Oh, and for anyone in the Caen area I'll be at a mini Christmas market put on by Greedy Guts on December 3rd!

sharing Normandy

Part of my family is in Normandy visiting for a week. My little sister flew in all the way from Australia! We've mostly been hanging out around here and I'll go through my pictures later but I wanted to take my sister down to Mont Saint Michel just because it really shouldn't be missed! The weather was beautiful today so we jumped in the car this morning and drove down.

It was a little crowded because of the school vacation but we got to visit the abbey in relative calm and I got to use my new app - AutoStitch to do some panoramas!

 And of course I played around with the video app again too... Makes a boring video a little more fun :)

out of the oven

deux americaines dans la manche

I met one of my good friends, Sarah, when we both lived in Caen and worked at the university. Since then I moved out to the countryside and Sarah moved to Paris to get her Masters and then as of a few months ago, get an amazing job doing what she loves in Paris.

But every hardworking Parisian girl deserves a break in the countryside! This weekend happened to be one where her boyfriend was on a business trip and where my Mystery Guest was gone helping some friends with their house in haute-normandie.

So girly weekend in Normandy it was! Luckily for us the weather is the best we've had this September, beautiful sunny skies, no cold wind but a gentle warm breeze and of course the scenery around here is pretty spectacular!

It was mademoiselle's request to eat at the Auberge des Grottes which is a charming restaurant out on the very tip of the peninsula a the Nez de Jobourg. They didn't have any place left for dinner so we decided to go for lunch. What an amazing lunch, oysters on the halfshell, sauteed scallops, lamb, cheeses and dessert... YUM. Plus the restaurant is literally out on the tip and our table had one of the best views overlooking the sea.

After lunch we decided to take a hike and we ended up at a quiet little cove where you could hear the waves rolling over the pebbles making the most delightful tinkling sound - Sarah said it should be the sound you put on those machines to fall asleep. I agree. I was too lazy to take off my shoes to dip my feet but Sarah went for it. I had my camera all prepared to catch her screams as her feet hit the ice cold water but she said that it was not cold but refreshing - a true Normande :)

I had wanted to take her to visit a Cidrerie in the area but apparently you had to reserve the guided tours in advance... oh well next time! We still go to wander around the orchard (full of ripe apples!) and sample some of the apple juices, ciders etc and bought a couple bottles of course.

When we got home we took a little walk around to enjoy the end of the day and ran into my neighbor. When we mentioned that we had been out to Jobourg she asked if we had seen Paul.... ummm... didn't know any Paul... Turns out there was a book and then a documentary written about a old farmer and his life. She gave us a lesson in patois and then lent us the DVD and we watched it last night. It was so sweet and it was fun to see the same scenery that we had just seen that day. The only problem was that Paul really mumbles and half speaks in patois so I think we missed quite a bit of dialog!

Chickens and rainbows

Last night I looked out our sliding glass door only to notice a chicken out for a stroll on our newly paved road. It must have flown the coop - literally.

As we were cracking up I looked over and there was the most beautiful double rainbow on either rise of the house; the first one I've seen since we moved here.

I take the escaped chicken and rainbow as good signs :-)

peach pie 2.0

I made peach pie this morning. The last time I made one was two years ago according to my blog!  We're invited to a friend's house for lunch and I wanted to take a dessert that wasn't too rich and chocolaty. I got some white peaches and even made my own crust this time around. I'll let you know how it tastes... I can't really cut a slice out before we go... although I'd love to!

Garden update

 Yup, garden update. I ran around taking pictures of my garden to blog while Mystery Guest started up the BBQ! We had his family over for a good 'ol fashioned American BBQ for lunch. On the menu? Homemade burgers (this ain't no MacDo!), marinated chicken, potato salad (with purple potatoes!) and his mom brought over some salad and some carottes rapees. Unlike a French lunch there was no entree nor cheese course but we did start off with an apero before hitting the cheeseburgers and fixins! Of course for dessert I had to go a bit nuts with not only cookies but a big Red Velvet that always impresses people :) Yum.

So everything was yummy and we had a great time sitting outside enjoying the sun (which decided to show itself after a good week of rain around here - good timing!) and I gave a couple tours of my garden:

 Blueberries on the left, tomatoes in the middle and a combination of pumpkin, butternut and corn to the right.

 Monster pumpkin!

 Love the little tendrils that hook on to anything and everything!

 Zucchini!

celebrations

I'm still trying to recover from a HUGE weekend! On Wednesday we drove up to the région parisienne to attend one of Mystery Guest's best friend's wedding. Thursday was the bachelor and bachelorette parties (respectively!) I was lucky enough to be invited and had an absolute blast with the girls!! They were all so nice and fun. We drove into Paris and went to a hammam where we melted away and then enjoyed a fantastic lunch on their terrace. Afterwards we took the bride back to her house (blindfolded of course!) where we surprised her with a chef à domicile for a cooking class.

Friday was lots of prep getting things for the wedding organized and helping them out as much as possible and wouldn't you know it, the beautiful weather on Friday turned into huge thunderstorms ALL DAY LONG Saturday. They had booked a stunning manoir just over the border in Haute Normandie (near Vernon) and were disappointed that instead of walking around the grounds we were huddled under umbrellas. But it didn't ruin anything for the guests, we had a great time. The ceremony was simple and sweet and they booked in 3 acapella gospel singers which really got the audience in the sprit of things. The cutest thing was when their little 18 month old son brought up the rings and then stayed to boogie with the singers :)

Dinner was exceptional delish guinea fowl trou normand for the boys and violette granita in champagne for the girls! plus all the desserts... the table we were put at was just the best. Great people, fun to talk to and have a good time and then dancing the night away. Mystery Guest even busted a move and taught me a thing or two! I have to say I'm always in shock when I see 60 French people hear a song and all of a sudden line up and bust out the line dancing... cracks me up! They didn't understand why I was laughing so I said imagine you're in the States and all of a sudden a group of Americans jumps in a circle, joins pinkies and busts out the Breton dancing - I think they understood ;-)

The weather Sunday was iffy but we still had a great post-wedding BBQ before hitting the road. The bride's mother made my day with a huge pack of Ghirardelli chocolate that they had brought back from their recent trip to the US... yummmm!

Good thing there are no major plans this weekend because we've got to get ready for the Danish invasion in 10 days!

Sark

Wow Sark... It really was amazing! We totally lucked out with the weather - beautiful sunny skies and a smooth crossing over. We took Manches Iles Express out of a nearby port. There was a quick stop in Jersey and then the boat continued on to Sark. We arrived around 10ish local time (UK time) and the boat left Sark at 7pm local time so a full day to explore! Our round trip ticket on the boat came to around 47 euros per person. The other way you can get there is to fly, I think most of the flights leave out of Saint Malo though.

It is a tiny island and with no cars allowed, only tractors, horse-drawn carriages and of course bikes! I had take a look at some of the different bike options before leaving and found a good deal at A to B Cycle Hire which was 6£ per person (but they had an ad in the map from the ferry terminal which gave us a discount making a total of around 10£50 I think for both of us. After that we basically explored the island! Given that there are no cars there are also no paved roads! Even the "main drag" is a dirt road and felt like a cross between the Wild West and Victorian England! We enjoyed a fantastic cream tea, "toasties" for lunch and then a snack at the gardens in the afternoon. 

I wouldn't say there is much "to do" there other than enjoy the wonderful countryside and views the island has to offer. There is a little micro-climate around the islands so they often have better weather than we do just on the other side. 

It was a fantastic day, a great way to clear your head and to really feel like you've gone really far away (even though you can see France in the distance!) The people were really friendly and welcoming and all in all a great atmosphere on this little remote island. Highly recommend it!! The other thing that would be fun to do is island hopping between Jersey/Guernsey and Sark, one of the other operators from Normandy was offering a type of package and often times has special offers on, Vedettes du Cotentin if you're interested. 

Sark Flowers

I'm sorting through a million pictures of beautiful scenery... for now just a little teaser of the beautiful flowers on Sark.

Fog lifting in Normandy

morning munchies

bunnies in our front lawn this morning. munch munch.

country life

Another quirk living in the country -  the bakery truck! Think the milkman but for bread! In some areas there is a bakery truck that stops by every day or multiple times a week. Ours comes on Tuesday and Friday afternoons around 3 or 4pm. I've never bought bread from the truck, although I have bought it from the bakery it comes from.

I didn't buy any today either because a few weeks ago we bought a bread machine so I've been playing around baking my own bread. I know it's another "kitchen gadet" but we've been buying more and more whole grain, spelt and other "fancy" breads which can cost a good 2 or 3 euros for the small loaves (300grams or so). With the bread machine I can make a 750g spelt bread for 1.15 euros and they've been turning out pretty good! Plus, I mean come on, how good is it to set the timer and wake up to fresh bread?

I make the dough in the bread machine, it takes 1 hour and 30 minutes but does all the kneading and rising for you. Then as the last few minutes are ticking down I turn on the oven to get it nice and hot and pull out the dough. I shape the dough and then let it sit for 5 minutes or so while the oven is finishing preheating then stick the bread in. It takes about 20 minutes or so to cook and voila! Fresh bread! I guess it is time consuming but because you're not having to sit over it or anything you can start the machine and then go do something else.

I'm curious to try Ksam's monkey bread one of these days... oh and there's a "jam" function on it too...

American cake

For our weekend away near Etretat visiting friends for the long weekend I was in charge of bringing desserts. To celebrate my new Frenchness (received my confirmation letter in the mail today!!!) I brought a bottle of bubbly as well as cookies and a Red Velvet cake :) I was hesitant bringing an American style cake (not worried about the cookies, they've proven themselves time and time again) because they have a tendency of being too sweet with cloying icing. But with all the rage of Red Velvet these days and help from a Jamie Oliver recipe (which I like since it is in grams instead of cups) I busted one out.

The batter was unbelievable, silky smooth and so sexy. I made the cake at home as well as the frosting (cream cheese with real Philadelphia! YUM!) and then put it together once we arrived with some fresh charlotte strawberries from the market on top.

Needless to say it was a huge success, even those who were not the biggest cake fans really enjoyed it and the cake itself was very chocolaty but not too sweet. I had avoided making a layer cake thinking that too much icing would have been overkill but everyone said that next time I should do it :) Happy days.

The weekend was really fun, relaxing and just hanging out. The weather turned into thunderstorms with wild flashes of lightening on Saturday night and then it poured buckets all day on Sunday which was too bad. But with yummy desserts, fantastic coffee and their new "tea machine" we managed to suffer through it :)

Red Velvet - Jamie Oliver (serves 24, I halved it)

Cake
200g unsalted butter, room temp
600g sugar
12 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
12 tbsp red food coloring (I didn't add this)
8 heaping tbsp cocoa powder
600g flour
500ml buttermilk
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Frosting
300g unsalted butter, room temp
600g powdered sugar
450g cream cheese
3 tsp vanilla
lemon zest and juice

Preheat oven to 180C. Line the bases of 2 x 25cm cake tins with greaseproof paper. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, food coloring and salt. Fold in cocoa and flour carefully then stir in buttermilk.
Mix the bicarb and vinegar together in a small bowl until it fizzes, then stir into cake batter.
Divide the mix between the two tins and bake for 25-30min until risen and cooked through. Let sit for 15 minutes to cool and then remove from tins and cool completely.

For the frosting, cream the butter and powdered sugar together. Beat in the cream cheese. Fold in vanilla and lemon zest/juice. Chill until needed.

When the cakes are cool top one with a layer of frosting, carefully place the second layer on top and using a spatula spread the rest of the frosting on top.

MilkJam tip: top with fresh strawberries and call it "velours rouge" :)

fresh out of the oven

Did I hear someone say cookies?

wild roses

Walking around the other day I noticed some wild pink roses nestled among the thorny blackberry bushes. They are not going to win any prizes based on looks alone but they smell absolutely amazing!

newborn

Yesterday we went on a long road trip with Mystery Guest's parents to the Paris region for the day. The first grandchild in the family was born to Mystery Guest's brother and his wife Thursday morning so we had to go meet the little bub!

It was a long drive (we left at 7am and got home at midnight) but we got to spend some great quality time with the new family. He made a few little newborn cries but mostly lots of yawns and was so quiet and hardly stirred when passed from one pair of arms to another but he did open his eyes from time to time so we could check out his baby blues.

The best part was when he was moving around wanting to nurse and finally found his thumb and started sucking away :) Cutest little thing and he made MG tonton for a first time and me an auntie for the first time!