Jamie, a hero amongst men

 Let me tell you about Jamie.  Jamie Oliver,  successful, talented British cook, writes great cook books with recipes that work.  Took England by storm many years back and is now out to conquer the world..  His is a real success story that you have to be happy about, because he's such fun to watch and never seems to take himself too seriously.

Now let me tell you about my son away from home, studying in the UK, and how Jamie has contributed to his happiness and slightly overblown ego.   My first born loves to impress.  Not necessarily  a quality or a fault, it's just the way he is.  Fun loving, sociable but rarely happier than when swimming in admiration.  His first year at university, cooking his own food,  he has made it a question of Gallic pride to prepare good food for himself and for friends.   Thanks to Jamie's books and website the boy is in demand and happy.  Friends are falling over themselves for invitations to his dinners, and frankly the child's head has never been so big!

So thank you Jamie for your laid back style, your energy and your delicious recipes which bring joy to us and those at our table!

Here are a couple of our favourites:

Fish, fennel and tomato salad

Mix together a good lug of extra virgin olive oil, a nice squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of salt and pepper. Drizzle this all over the fish then pat on the chopped marjoram or oregano. Put your fillets on the hottest part of the grill (make sure your grill is really clean to prevent the fish from sticking).

If your fillets are 2cm thick, they’ll only need about 2 minutes cooking time. If the fish breaks up, don’t worry as you’ll be flaking it up later anyway. If it still has the skin on, cook it skin-side down as it’s less likely to stick. Once cooked, remove to a warm plate.


To make the salad, finely slice the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Arrange on your plates. Finely slice your fennel bulb and dress it in a bowl with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper then scatter over your tomatoes. Finally, spoon over your fish, flaking it as you go. Scatter over your reserved fennel tops, drizzle with the balsamic vinegar and scatter with chilli, if using, to finish.

and a truly wicked dessert, which incidentally I'll be preparing tomorrow evening for friends:

Baked Chocolate Pudding

Melt 125g chocolate with the coffee, then pour into small ice-cube moulds and freeze until hard. Take 6 small 3 inch pastry rings, dariole moulds or cappuccino cups and grease well with some butter. Place in the fridge while you make your sponge mixture. Melt the remaining chocolate with the butter in a bowl over a pan of boiling water, then in a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with the sugar until firm. Fold the yolks into the cooled chocolate and butter mixture, then add the almonds and flour. Finish by carefully folding in the egg white mixture. Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5. Take your moulds out of the fridge and spoon a little mixture into each one, then push in a cube of the frozen coffee and chocolate mixture. Cover with the rest of the sponge mixture so each ice cube is completely enveloped. Bake in the preheated oven for about 18–20 minutes, then remove carefully from the moulds while hot. Serve immediately sprinkled with hazelnuts.

I wish you all a happy and delicious weekend!

photos and recipes jamie oliver

La chambre de mademoiselle

There comes a time when a little girl needs to make her mother understand that she's growing fast.  She knows that her mother really knows.  That she's already noticed the jeans getting shorter, and the telephone bills getting longer.  But she needs to be sure that the MESSAGE is getting through.  She decides that she no longer needs a little girl's bedroom, she needs a big girl's room.  A canvas upon which she can project her own image as that of a beautiful glamorous soon-to-be young woman!!

The first thing to be expulsed from the little girl's room, is the dolls' house.  If ever there were a symbol of childhood this is it.  The mother had made it herself, and furnished it with love and attention.  And it was played with alot but that era is now past.

So the dolls' house is evicted on to the landing,  but still the mother doesn't look like she's going into re-decorating mode.

Perhaps a little gentle stimulation... decorating magazines are left lying around, their pages strangely fallen open at pictures of beautiful sophisticated and feminine bedrooms.   Colour cards from the paint shop are regrouped in suitable complimentary tones.  Even the mother's girlfriends are made unwitting accomplices and innocently remark how exciting the bedroom project sounds, apparently not noticing the mother's surprise.

Finally the mother decides that she can play smart too.  Mind you, it's not that she doesn't like re-decorating, she loves it.  But sometimes mothers have to simultaneously play the role of she who pleases and she who disciplines.  And so it is that a deal is struck, "Here's the deal" exclaims the mother triumphant, " you improve your school work, I improve your room."  Strangely she doesn't sense her daughter's air of triumph.

You really would think that after almost 20 years as a mother, she would realise when she's been outwitted.  But no, foolishly she prefers to believe in the obedience and good intentions of a teenage daughter, and in her own cleverness.  And so she goes to bed happy in the sure knowledge that she has single-handedly found a way of motivating her beloved daughter to try a little harder at school.

To be followed...







photo.  Homes and Gardens

The great importance of an open fire

I realise that lucky people like the lovely Millie of The Laurel Hedge may be in the middle of a southern hemisphere summer, but I'm sorry to say that it is not the case for all of us.  One of our consolations for this ongoing cold is to light a fire and focus on indoor activities .  If I were a saint I'd be starting some pruning in the garden, but I am not!  The most strenuous my gardening gets at this time of year is turning the pages of a book and forming very good intentions about how the place is going to look this year.
It's also a good time to decorate.  When we restyled our sitting room, or salon, as they say here, a couple of years ago, we looked at alot of antique fireplace surrounds to replace the old marble one.  Some vendors leave them outside, in all weathers,

whilst others have very fancy showrooms and design a would be setting around the fireplace.

In traditional French country homes there are always several fireplaces, we regularly use three,.  One in the sitting room, one in the dining room and one in our bedroom.  In the end, we had our fireplace carved from stone by a local specialist.  This meant we were able to have a design we liked  made the right size for our room.   Our wonderful carpenter then made us these doors to cover the shelves either side, and voila!

Tea-time

I may have lived in France for a very long time, but few things could be more british, and few things could make me happier than a real tea-time.  My children are too big now for big birthday tea parties with ribbons, balloons and fancy cakes.  But I so love baking for a real tea that I am capable of contriving situations so that friends find themselves at home, with as many children as they can muster, just in time for tea in front of a roaring fire if it's cold, or out on the terrace when sunny.

The real british classic is the Victoria Sponge, coffee and walnut is our favourite.

Half the fun is the presentation, I love to see eyes feasting before a cake has even got to the lips!

Some classics need no introduction, and recipes like these are so easy, that the children can make them themselves from an early age.  One of my daughters is turning out to be a really good pastry cook.  As my grandmother used to say, she has cool hands and light fingers, you can't make good cakes without them!

I saw this picture in Country Living and I've promised myself that next time I'll try and produce something this pretty.