The magic of words

A colourful hello from France

I am sorry I have neglected you this year, the often-unseen faces who take your time to read my words. To ghost you with my silence was unforgivable, as was losing sight of the fact that you might need a smile or a hug from France to brighten your day.

A recent chance meeting at work has made me realise that this blog was so much more than just my words and waffle.

“You’re the lady who writes the blog that kept me sane during lockdown” 

Uttered by a stranger as she walked into the Château de Javarzay this September, and wow, what an opening sentence that was. As is so often the way, the universe had aligned to ensure her unannounced visit to the museum I so often talk about here, fell on a day I was working.

Thanks to my daily blogs, written over five years ago, she knew all about me, our family life and how we’d spent those weird months of lockdown. From day one it had felt important to record our time during those extraordinary months, but I had little idea of the importance they would have on those who were looking in from their own topsy turvy lives. I still don’t even know this lady’s name, but she did share some of her lockdown story with me this week. Hers was so far removed from the blissful family bubble we emersed ourselves in, so to learn that my diary helped her through a traumatic time was humbling and I shall treasure her words forever. Her visit has inspired me to open a fresh notebook, pick up my trusted pen and let the words flow once more. 

Finding the time to write is now more of an issue for me than it’s ever been, as life has changed direction again. When I began blogging, over eighteen years ago, it was my way of remembering those early years of our family adventure in France. I was a stay-at-home mum, with a husband who worked away from home, and even with a vegetable garden, orchard and a small menagerie of chickens and ducks, there were many lonely hours when Ed was at school or tucked up in bed of an evening. Blogging filled the gap, giving me somewhere to release my thoughts, and putting a humorous spin on things that hadn’t gone to plan became like a kind of therapy. Connecting with readers all over the world as I shared our life was an unexpected bonus.

Since March of this year, I have been working at both the château and the library in Chef-Boutonne, a dream combination of roles that I still have to pinch myself to believe is true. However, with no two weeks being the same, life can feel a little crazy sometimes with no routine to follow. It is a great memory exercise for my brain though; what day is it? Where am I working today? What time do I start and what time do I finish? So far, so good – I’ve always arrived at the right place for the right time. In an almost complete role reversal of our early years in France, it is now Adrian who is spending more time home alone than I do. This has been a huge learning curve for him, especially this autumn where he has mastered the art of preparing windfall apples for the freezer, ensuring our winter breakfasts will be just as delicious as our summer ones. I’ll even admit that his method is much more efficient than mine, although it does produce more washing up.

Today, as I celebrate my 54^th birthday (if I say that quickly it doesn’t have time to register how old I am), it seems the perfect opportunity to hit publish on this blog once more and to say thank you for reading. I will be back soon, sharing some of our camping mini adventures from this summer. 

Jacqui

Walnut, Apple and Quince Tart

Walnut, Apple and Quince tart

I’ve been rooting around in my dusty archived files looking for this delicious recipe that I originally posted on my old blog in October 2011. I had a real longing for this sweet and sticky tart, no doubt due to the fact that I’m just starting to collect this years walnuts and my kitchen is overflowing with ripe apples and quinces - I make no apology for the fact that most of my recipes are seasonal. This tart is equally as delicious when made with sliced apples or sliced quince although the original recipe (given to me many years ago) was just for a walnut tart so feel free to omit the fruit, but I think the crisp pastry, the fruity layer and the sweet crunchy topping all work very well together.

Pre-heat the oven to Gas 4.

Grease a flan dish (I use a 30 cm one) and line it with pastry (I use 100g butter rubbed into 180g plain flour and a pinch of salt, then brought together with a beaten egg and a small amount of water if necessary. This is then wrapped it in clingfilm and left in the fridge for at least an hour before rolling out). Ready-made pastry would work just as well, and would no doubt look far neater around the edges than my attempts, but I don’t worry about that as long as it tastes good.

Prick the base of the pastry with a fork, line with greaseproof paper and baking beans and blind bake for about ten minutes, until it is just starting to colour. Allow to cool slightly.

Spread a little quince jam all over the pastry base, then lay thinly cut slices of quince or apple, slightly overlapping each other, and sprinkle them with brown sugar. Place in the fridge while you prepare the walnut topping.

Walnut and Quince tart

3 tblsp butter

100g light brown sugar

2 eggs beaten

60ml of walnut liqueur or Cointreau

1 tsp vanilla essence

200g shelled walnuts

Melt the butter, stir in the sugar and then add the beaten eggs, liqueur and vanilla essence and mix well. Stir in the walnuts then pour this mix over the quince and carefully spread into an even layer. Bake until golden brown, approximately 45mins Gas 4. Allow to cool before serving.

Autumn Apple Cake

Today I’d like to share with you the recipe for THE only cake that I used to make when we lived in UK - my pre-baking years. If I remember correctly this was my cake of choice because it is an easy method and the recipe only requires one egg, something I rarely had in my kitchen. Oh, how things have changed.

This year’s apple crop has been exceptional and having made plenty of chutney, my mincemeat for Christmas, my spicy apple cake and dried apples, I was looking for something different to do with them. This recipe seemed the obvious choice and it was just as delicious as I remember, plus the boys loved it. It may just be me, but I find the process of rubbing the flour and butter, plus the smell of baking to be quite comforting, especially this week, when there seems to be lots going on and my organisational skills are being stretched – if in doubt bake a cake!

Autumn Apple Cake

Autumn Apple Cake

(Please note this can be made at any time of year, but my baking tends to be seasonally affected by what is overproducing in the garden).

225g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

115g cold butter, cubed

2 dessert apples

115g caster sugar

55g sultanas (or other dried fruit – I used cherries)

1 egg beaten

A little milk

1 tablespoon of Demerara sugar

Line a loaf tin or 20 cm round cake tin with greaseproof paper and pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl with the cold butter and rub together until mixture resembles bread-crumbs. Peal, core and finely dice the apples and add to the mixture with the sugar and dried fruit. Mix in the beaten egg to form a soft dough, I find I need to add a little milk at this stage, but you don’t want too wet a consistency. Press into the cake tin and sprinkle with the Demerara sugar. Bake until risen and golden brown, which takes about 30 minutes in my oven. This is the perfect cake for an afternoon sit down with a cup of tea.

Apple, Quince and Cinnamon Cake

This week will be an apple themed one for us as the trees are groaning with fruit and with the wind and rain over the weekend, windfalls have been tumbling. Here is the recipe for the layered cake I made on Sunday, a variation of my fat free cherry cake. I also used the cinnamon sugar to sprinkle over thinly sliced apples that I dried in a low oven (100c) for an hour and a half. These will be stored with my dried cherries and damson plums and will be great to add to my breakfast cereal in winter.

Apple, Quince and Cinnamon Cake

Ingredients:

Cinnamon sugar (1tbsp icing sugar mixed with 1 tsp of cinnamon)

Three or four apples

One quince

3 eggs at room temperature

65g sugar

110g plain flour

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp natural yoghurt

Line a flan tin with baking paper and using a sieve, sprinkle over a layer of cinnamon sugar. Peel, core and thinly slice half the apples and layer in the flan tin. Sprinkle the apples with more of the cinnamon sugar. Peel, core and thinly slice the quince and lay over the apples, then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and repeat with the remaining apples.

Beat the eggs and sugar for at least five minutes until very frothy and pale. Gently fold in the yoghurt and then half the dry ingredients sieved, then the remainder. Try and lose as little of the air as possible. Pour the batter over the layered apples and quince and bake in a preheated oven (gas 4) for about 20 mins, or until the top is golden and springs back to the touch. Leave to cool and then turn out upside down onto a plate. These fat free cakes will dry our very quickly as there is no butter, however they never last too long in our house and we always serve with a healthy dollop of natural yoghurt which helps to keep it moist and adds a touch of luxury.

A walk in the orchard

I took a stroll around our orchard and potager today with my camera and thought I would share a few of my favourite photos. It was so nice to have the sunshine back and the forecast for next week looks pretty good too. This is good news, we have managed to do some picking this week, but there is so much work to do, especially weeding in the potager, we need the good weather to get us out and about. There is still plenty of produce to harvest, which means plenty of fun in the kitchen for me and plenty of recipes to share with you.

Have a lovely weekend and I hope the sun is shining for you too.

We have the BEST apple crop this year

Perfect Peaches

Almost time to start the walnut harvesting

Hanging grapes on the pergola

My favourite boy

Not so welcome guests in the potager

My rambling butternut

An autumn rose

Cherry Mincemeat recipe

Cherry Mincemeat

I am not one to talk about Christmas (or even start thinking about it or pressie shopping) in September, except for one thing, the mincemeat for my mince pies. Now is the perfect time to start making this, especially as my recipe uses cooking apples, which are falling like the rain here at the moment. The flavour will be so much better if made now, bottled, and left to mature in a cool, dark cupboard for a few months.

Here is my tried and tested Cherry Mincemeat recipe, adapted from a lovely old jams and preserves book from Mum that dates from 1977 and was produced by The British Sugar Bureau. It is packed full of jams, chutneys, relishes, sauces and 1970’s styled pictures. 

Retro 1970s cookbook

It is retro, but I love it. I am busy making this in batches and we are all looking forward to the smell of freshly cooked mince pies in a few months time – for my pastry recipe, see here.

700g (4 1/2 cups) mixed dry fruits; sultanas, raisins, cherries

150g (1 cup) glacé cherries

100g (1/4 cup) cut mixed peel

250g (1/2 lb) cooking apples, peeled and cored

100g (1/4 cup) shelled walnuts

250g (1.2 lb) shredded suet

450g (2 cups) demerara sugar

2 tsp mixed spice

Cognac to mix (or rum or sloe gin)

Coarsely mince or finely chop dried fruit, peel, apples and nuts. Add the suet, sugar, spice and enough Cognac to give a moist mixture. Stir well and leave to stand, covered, for 2 days. Stir well again and put into sterilised jars. Cover as for jam and leave to mature for at least two weeks (but longer if possible) before using.

Courgette Chutney

During the summer I make lots of chutney using the excess fruits and vegetables from the garden. As well as a great way of preserving the gluts the chutney is delicious with cold meats, cheeses and in sandwiches and is enjoyed as much by Adrian’s parents as us. Here is my Courgette Chutney recipe; at the beginning of the season it is a Cherry and Courgette chutney, then it becomes Plum and Courgette chutney and finally Apple or Quince and Courgette chutney at the end of the summer.

Chutney with cheese & saucisson 

500g courgettes (zucchini)
500g cherries/plums/apples
2 medium onions
2 fresh chillies (optional)
500g demerara sugar
2 tsps ground allspice
2 tsps ground cloves
1 tsp sea salt
black pepper
1 heaped tbsp chopped or grated fresh ginger
2 tsps tumeric
700ml cider vinegar

Dice the courgettes, stone the cherries, stone and chop the plums or peel and roughly chop the apples/quince and finely chop the onions. Seed the chillies and chop finely.

Put all the ingredients in a large pan and bring to the boil. Cook over a medium heat for as long as it takes for the mixture to thicken (about an hour).

Spoon into washed and sterilised jars and when cool place in the store cupboard. The flavour will be better after a month and they will last at least a year if kept in a cool dark place.

Fat Free Cherry Cake Recipe

Cherry harvest at www.frenchvillagediaries.com

Here is my most baked cake recipe; I like to indulge in a slice of cake every day, and making it without fat means I can do so without worrying about the consequences. I generally make it with cherries as in our orchard we have five huge old cherry trees as well as about the same again in younger trees. There are at least three different varieties with red and yellow fruits, all with a slightly different harvest time. In a good year we could pick, over a six-week period, hundreds of kilos of cherries. We can’t pick them all and we can’t use all that we do pick, but the birds and the neighbours help us out there. Our freezer comes into it’s own as a lot of the cherries are stoned using my fantastic Leifheit Preserving Cherrymat Cherry Pitter Machine, Plastic, White, frozen on trays and bagged up to be turned into Fat Free Cherry Cakes all year round. You could of course use any fruit of your choice, if we have them I also use halved plums or peaches and sliced apples, pears or quince, all are delicious.

Cherry stoning at www.frenchvillagediaries.com

Ingredients:

Enough cherries (or fruit) to fill the bottom of a lined flan tin

3 eggs at room temperature

65g sugar

110g plain flour

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp natural yoghurt

50g ground almonds

a few drops of almond essence

Fat Free Cherry Cake www.frenchvillagediaries.com

Beat the eggs and sugar for at least five minutes until very frothy and pale. Gently fold in the yoghurt and almond essence, and then half the dry ingredients sieved, then the remainder. Try and lose as little of the air as possible. Pour the batter over the cherries and bake in a preheated oven (gas 4) for about 20 mins, or until the top is golden and springs back to the touch. Leave to cool and then turn out upside down onto a plate. This cake will dry our very quickly as there is no butter, however it never lasts too long in our house and we always serve it with a healthy dollop of natural yoghurt which helps to keep it moist and adds a touch of luxury.

Au revoir iWeb

Welcome to the new look French Village Diaries Blog

I have been blogging (on and off) for more than six years and in that time Apple’s iWeb software and I have become very good friends.  It is simple to use and enabled me (with no website design skills at all) to make myself a unique site with a blog page, although I will admit having Ade around helped when things didn’t quite go to plan.  However the time has come to move on and I have been busy creating the new French Village Diaries here on Blogger.

Whilst iWeb made some things very easy, there were some limitations.  Having made the decision to get an iPad I wanted to be able to do as much with it as possible, but despite iWeb and iPad both being from the same Apple family you can’t use iWeb on an iPad, but Blogger on the other hand can be updated via an app or online.  There were also quite a few things I wanted that iWeb couldn’t do, like the ability to add a ‘subscribe to this blog via email’ button, or that fantastic feature from LinkWithin that suggests other similar posts you may also like to read.  I can also now ‘label’ all my posts with key words like ‘recipe’ or ‘review’ so there is no need for separate pages on the site indexing all book reviews or recipes that I have posted, a quick click on a label word (on the sidebar on the right) and all relevant posts will be displayed.  I think it makes for a cleaner and tidier site.  All recent posts and book reviews have already been moved over, however the recipes and guest posts are not here yet, but will be soon.  I will not be moving every post, but some of my favourites may find their way back in someday.  Also, from the tabs across the top you are just one click away from direct access to my Amazon Bookstore and Special Places in France, our holiday home listings site.

I hope you like it too and please feel free to let me know what you think in the comments, thank you.