June/July at Coin Perdu.

June and July went by so quickly, I am still wondering where I was..I fell and broke my leg 2 weeks ago, so my moving about is somewhat restricted, especially here in the barn and on the rugged terrain of Coin Perdu. The crutches drive me nuts, but they are my best friends at the moment. At least my biceps are now something to look at. I’m not doing a lot of cooking, if any and it is only the most easiest of cooking – a handful of tomatoes from the potager on the plate with the salt and pepper pots beside it. A bowl of peaches. Half a chicken done by mon chéri on the barbecue. A tub of ice cream. A slab of Lindt fleur de sel chocolate.Lots of water to prevent the leg from swelling. More chocolate and ice cream. Macarons. Don’t you think I am a good girl for eating so healthy?

broken leg

WARNING: This is a fairly long post! I am also adding my Facebook page if you would like to follow and my instagram account as well as Lindiwe, our german shepherddog’s account.

In the meantime, the garden is running out from under my hands. Our summer has been very hot up to now and very dry and the garden is showing signs of fatigue without water and my loving care. It is big holiday time and France has come to its summer standstill. No one is available for helping in the garden. But it was nonetheless so beautiful before the drought took over and I thought I’d share it with you, since I can’t really show you my plate of tomatoes with salt and pepper or half a chicken on my plate…even though it was as goo..ood!

June/July 2015 it started off lush and green in May, everything was flowering beautifully, newly planted lavenders santolinas…

Garden in May-001

..even when the pool was being built, it looked…OK

building pool

summer 2015 new pool

iceberg roses, feverfew,, salvia nemerosas to name but a few

Garden JUNE 2015-003 Iceberg roses lavandes grosso rosier suneva Salvia nemorosa

On the terrace with Partia, purple oxalys, herbs..

Pratia angulata(blue star creeper) purple oxalis sage

..My beloved olde world flower, the hollyhocks, a lost sunflower that sprouted from the birds’ winterseeds and even dried roses..

hollyhocks

dried white rose one sunflower

 

..new additions to the family are the two babygees, who mon chéri calls Hansie & Grietjie, some cute chicks and Lindiwe, our german sheperd dog, who has her own instagram account, should you be interested in following!

hansie & grietjie

Lindiwe-020

Lindiwe in pool

And of course hours spent around the table..our favorite pastime, you could say.

summer 2015-003 summer 2015-004 summer 2015-006 Summer July weekend Summer July weekend-001 Summer July weekend-002 Summer July weekend-008 summer lunch

à bientôt

Ronelle

 

Mini cakes “Nantais”..and some spring impressions for Easter.

When I think of spring and Easter, I think of Easter eggs(of course!), roasted lamb, asparagus and petits pois, daffodils, blossoms, new born animals playing on green prairies with yellow dandelions. A beautiful time of year.  For this Easter, we will enjoy some oeufs cocotte, salads, some oven roasted rosemary lamb  and we will probably finish our day with a mini Nantais cake. Made to stand for 2 days, its flavour just gets better and better. It can also be baked as one big cake, but a change is always good, so I made it into individual mini cakes.

Gateau Nantais(recipe from PATISSIER, le Petit Larousse)

La recette.

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (gas 6, 356°F).
  2. Grease a cake tin(20cm diameter), or mini cake molds of your choice.
  3. Beat together 125g soft butter, 125 g castor sugar and 100g ground almonds until creamy.
  4. Add 3 eggs, one at a time. Beat until well mixed.
  5. Add 40g flour, 2 TBSP of apricot jam and 50ml of rum. Mix until the mixture is light and fluffy
  6. Pour the mixture into the greased cake tin of the mini tin. Bake in oven for 40 -50 minutes for the large cake tin, or 30-40 minutes for the mini cakes. If the surface gets too dark, cover with a sheet of tin foil or brown paper. Test with a skewer which need to be dry when pulled out.
  7. Prepare the icing: Mix together 50ml rum with 100g icing sugar. Pour over the cakes and serve.

Serve 6 people

Pincée de fleur de sel:

  • Bake the cake about 2 days for a more flavourful cake.
  • Replace the rum with lemon juice of 1 lemon if you don’t want alcohol.
  • Replace the rum in the icing sugar with a few drops of lemon juice.

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Spring impressions

The garden is far from finished – I walk around with a knee brace after hurting it with a fall, the days are filled with rain the ground is soaked…so working is not very apparent. At least the bulbs planted in fall have no problems showing off their splendour. So.. to accompany this Easter posting, here are some images from the garden beginning April.

..Bienvenue dans mon jardin à Pacques..

Garden 20151..Early morning light..

tulipes-006

..A bed of daffodils, tulips and muscaris..

Tulips for Easter-004

..No need to encourage the chickens to go play outside!..

Tulips for Easter-007 Tulips for Easter-008 Tulips for Easter-009 Tulips for Easter-011

..Two chicks, only 3 days old..

Tulips for Easter-014

..daffodils waiting to flower..

tulipes-001..A mix of daffodils, fancy pansies, borage and the last of the Hellebores flowering..

Garden 2015

Ronelles art-watercolor-flower paintings-white tulip

..Have a lovely Easter time..

Ronelle