Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen

Cottage(Quark) cheese with honey roasted tomatoes.

I love tomatoes baked to a confit in the oven.  I also love dessert. So serving tomatoes as a dessert is nothing strange  A creamy faisselle (quark/cottage cheese) locally made, some cherry tomatoes drizzled liberally with honey, sprinkled with chopped fresh mint and roasted in the oven to caramelize, is a perfect cheese/dessert to round off a meal. I added  in season cherries to add some seasonal spirit. It is a recipe with so many variations. I hope you’ll play around with it and come up with combinations that you love.

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Recette:

ffaiselle & honey tomatoes recip

cottage cheese with roasted honey tomatoes

cottage cheese with roasted honey tomatoes-001Pincée de fleur de sel:

  • Use enough cherry tomatoes, because it shrinks away a lot during the roasting process.
  • Use maple syrup instead of honey.
  • Add other red berries of your choice instead of cherries.
  • Serve the roasted tomatoes with a thick creamy yoghurt instead of the faisselle(quark/cottage cheese).
  • Serve the tomatoes in a little bowl on a cheese platter with an assortment of cheese for a buffet.

cottage cheese with roasted honey tomatoes-010     cottage cheese with roasted honey tomatoes-002

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Posted on by Myfrenchkitchen

Chocolate pan cake… and a 30th birthday.

Turning 30 is a big occasion. Our eldest turned 30 this month and she had her friends from Toulouse come to Coin Perdu to celebrate. She wanted this chocolate cake which we have been baking for years in our home. Really a deliciously decadent cake and so easy and quick. I found it years ago in Annette Human’s Winning recipes 3. It is from Renie Conradie who got it from her husbands stepmother, grandma Polly. Well,  there you go.. a recipe that withstood generations of baking and is still going strong.

chocolate pan cake 25-02-2014 20-36-10chocolate pan cake 25-02-2014 20-56-57chocolate pancake recipe

Pincée de fleur de sel:

  • Baking the cake at 170 °C will prevent the cake from cracking and rising to a point in the middle.
  • Gently hit the the bottom of the cake pan on the table surface to get rid of air bubbles.
  • Add 1 tsp extra cacao to the cake mixture for a darker cake.
  • Serve with whipped cream or ice cream or créme fraìche.
  • The cake becomes tastier the longer it stands.

In his speech mon chéri said he remembered the day he turned 30 years ago.. He thought he was old then. With our first daughter turning 30, he wondered how he should feel now. the nice thing about having children turning 30, is that we felt 30 again too, being in the company of all the “20’s-going-on-30’s” and all the “30-something’s” for a whole weekend,
..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 05-07-002

Preparations were done on Saturday by everyone for a rustic-shabby-chic evening, which lasted until Sunday morning at 4. I was just about to call the police to complain about the “kids” keeping me awake, when the last one crawled into the barn and a faintly familiar silence fell over Coin Perdu. It lasted only few hours before the first morning coffee announced the next chapter of busyness

Marinell 30 and, Dimanche 23-02-2014 23-02-41

..preparing gazpacho.. Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 00-24-41

..Some British Pimms..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 02-58-58

..the apero table..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 02-59-58..Serrano ham from Spain o,narustic shabby chic ham board..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 03-14-34..chilling..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 03-09-03

..friends starting arriving..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 03-17-44..I want to sabre my own champagne!..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 05-11-38

..1, 2, 3 et voilà!..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 05-11-41

..oh dear…a little too much muscle!..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 05-11-56

..joghurt marinated legs of lamb..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 05-35-50.. chickens basted with apricot puree..Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 06-57-36

..preparing the buffet table..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 06-59-03

..fire and food..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 06-59-13

..salmon fillet..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 07-00-23

..old fashioned coke..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 07-01-08

..always a fire..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 07-50-39

..night falls..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 07-52-41

..a chandelier in the walnut tree for some romance..

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 07-56-05

..eating...

Marinell 30 ans 23-02-2014 08-21-16

The day after the night before always starts in slow motion. Crawling out of tents, coffee with brioche, and a shower finally opens up heavy eyelids. so much so that a rugby ball can be thrown about by the brave, others go for walks and pick wildflowers(which would find their way onto my dressing table, since it was mother’s day), some just hang around in a deep chair, and the real brave ones get onto a horse. Finally everyone gathers to fill stomachs on leftovers, tent pens are pulled out, cars wave goodbye and the sun sets on a 30th birthday. Long may she live to remember this year!

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