Pipriac Church

I had to park by Pipriac Church today, so I thought I would take some photographs.









The war memorial on the opposite side of the road.

Another way to get to Half Acre Farm

Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi

Mikes birthday yesterday, some photographs to follow, but this is the song from the dodgems.

Endangered species

Haggis (Microvis sp.) evolved from highland Celtic Pygmy Sheep.
The Oggy (indigenous to Cornwall, Devon and Somerset) resembles a large hedgehog.
Wurzels (West Country) and Neeps (Scotland) are arboreal relatives of rabbits.
Welsh Rarebits are an increasingly rare hybrid between a hare and a rabbit.
The traditional dish of Toad-in-the-Hole, Greater Striated Warbling Toad near extinction.
Hot dogs in the UK are made from weasel-like amphibious canines hunted in the East Anglian fen.

To read more about these endangered species go here

From my book

Cookery for the working classes.
TOAD IN THE HOLE.

To make this a cheap dinner, you should buy 6_d._ or 1_s._ worth
of bits or pieces of any kind of meat, which are to be had
cheapest at night when the day's sale is over. The pieces of meat
should be first carefully overlooked, to ascertain if there be
any necessity to pareaway some tainted part, or perhaps a
fly-blow,as this, if left on anyone piece of meat, would tend to
impart a bad taste to the whole, and spoil the dish. You then rub
a little flour, pepper, and salt all over the meat, and fry it
brown with a little butter or fat in the frying-pan; when done,
put it with the fat in which it has been fried,into a baking-dish
containing some Yorkshire or suet pudding batter,and bake the
toad-in-the-hole for about an hour and a half, or else send it to
the baker's.

Dogs Cats and Mice

Three dogs and three cats and we still have mice. But one thing we say at Half Acre Farm is "only kill what you are prepared to eat".



Chocolate mice anyone?

Shopping in Redon

Herbs and spices.


Cassoulet and Confit.
Yummy, Breton Gateau.
Cakes


Saucisse
Get out of the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bloody VSP, he's not going to be stopped for speeding here.

Coming for Coffee? How to get here.

But its a very bumpy road, a wet miserable day.

Advert.

Looking at the E book of cookery for the working
classes the original book  may have carried adverts
if it did these were two of the products.

ROBINSON'S PATENT GROATS,

For more than thirty years have been held in constant and increasing
public estimation, as the purest farina of the Oat, and as the best and
most valuable preparation for making a pure and delicate GRUEL,which forms a light and nutritious support for the aged, is a popular recipe for colds and influenza, is of general use in the sick chamber, and alternately with the Patent Barley is an excellent Food for Infants and Children. Prepared only by the Patentees,


ROBINSON, BELLVILLE, AND CO.,
PURVEYORS TO THE QUEEN,
64, RED LION STREET, HOLBORN, LONDON.

My New Cook Books

The introduction reads;


My object in writing this little book is to show you how you may prepare and cook your daily food, so as to obtain from it the greatest amount of nourishment at the least possible expense; and thus, by skill and economy, add, at the same time, to your comfort and to your comparatively slender means. The Recipes which it contains will afford sufficient variety, from the simple every-day fare to more tasty dishes for the birthday, Christmas-day, or other festive occasions.

In order to carry out my instructions properly, a few utensils will be necessary.Industry, good health, and constant employment, have, in many instances, I trust, enabled those whom I now address to lay by a little sum of money. A portion of this will be well spent in the purchase of the following articles:--A cooking stove, with an oven at the side, or placed under the grate, which should be so planned as to admit of the fire being open or closed at will; by this contrivance much heat and fuel are economized; there should also be a boiler at the back of the grate. By this means you would have hot water always ready at hand, the advantage of which is considerable. Such poor men's cooking-stoves exist, on a large scale, in all modern-built lodging-houses. Also, a three-gallon iron pot with a lid to it, a one-gallon saucepan, a two-quart ditto, a frying-pan, a gridiron, and a strong tin baking-dish.Here is a list of the cost prices at which the above-named articles, as well as a few others equally necessary, may be obtained of all ironmongers;

A cooking-stove, 2 ft. 6 in. wide, with oven only £1 10 0
Ditto, with oven and boiler £1 18 0
A three-gallon oval boiling pot £0 4 6
A one-gallon tin saucepan, and lid £0 2 6
A two-quart ditto £0 1 6
A potato steamer £0 2 0
An oval frying-pan, from £0 0 10
A gridiron, from £0 1 0
A copper for washing or brewing, twelve gallons £1 10 0
A mash-tub, from £0 10 0
Two cooling-tubs (or an old wine or beer cask cut
in halves, would be cheaper, and answer the same
purpose), each 6_s._ £0 12 0
------------
£6 12 4 (6 pound 12 shilling and 4 pence would have the same buying power in the 1850's as £387.27 now)
------------

To those of my readers who, from sickness or other hindrance, have not money in store, I would say, strive to lay by a little of your weekly wages to purchase these things, that your families may be well fed, and your homes made comfortable.

And now a few words on baking your own bread. I assure you if you would adopt this excellent practice, you would not only effect a great saving in your expenditure, but you would also insure a more substantial and wholesome kind of food; it would be free from potato, rice, bean or pea flour, and alum, all of which substances are objectionable in the composition of bread. The only utensil required for bread making would be a tub, or trough, capable of working a bushel or two of flour. This tub would be useful in brewing, for which you will find in this book plain and easy directions.

I have pointed out the necessity of procuring these articles for cooking purposes, and with the injunction to use great care in keeping them thoroughly clean, I will at once proceed to show you their value in a course of practical and economical cookery, the soundness and plainness of which I sincerely hope you will all be enabled to test in your own homes.
_______________________________________

Since buying this book I have found a free E version, click here to read on line or download.

Charles Elme Francatelli

http://www.thecooksguide.com/articles/francatelli.html

Evil cat

Don't you hate traffic jams

Cruel Woman Dumps Cat In Bin

What an awful woman. This is a major story on the UK news. She must be worried sick now, GOOD.

A new blog I'm reading

Chez Loulou

Articles on cheese, moving to and living in France and the costs of living in France, also cheese.

From Chez Loulou

Chez Loulou began in January 2006 because I wanted to give others a glimpse into our life in this beautiful little corner of France. It includes stories about the delicious food and wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon region and France in general, photos, photos and more photos of the stunning scenery, travel experiences around Europe, recipes of my favorite sweet and savory dishes and the ever-present challenge of French bureaucracy.

It also includes cheese. Lots of cheese! In April of 2007 I started a project to taste each and every French cheese available in France. Some say there are around 600 while others say there are over 1000. I have my work cut out for me.

Rosies savoury bread and butter pudding.

This could be called and English breakfast bread and butter pudding. As I posted on my last posting you don't have to stick to my recipe here, have a look in the fridge and see what you can use. Slightly different to a sweet pudding, no sugar and less milk, I've added an extra egg and crème fraiche to give it more of an omelette taste.

350ml milk
3 good tablespoons crème fraiche
5 eggs
Enough bread to cover an oven proof dish twice
Butter
Black pudding
Bacon
Mushrooms
1 Onion
1 Courgettes
Emmenthal cheese grated.


Chop the onions and fry slowly.

Slice mushrooms, black pudding,
bacon and courgettes and fry all together.

Butter bread both sides and put a layer in a oven proof dish, spread the fried meat and vegetables over the bread , season and put another layer of the bread on top.

Mix together the milk, crème fraiche and eggs and pour over the bread,
Sprinkle grated Emmenthal cheese over the top.
Bake at 200c till golden brown about 15 mins.

Rosies Bread and butter pudding

Usually, once a week a buy bread for the animals called Pain Dur, Hard Bread, Normally I but from the bread shops, I get a bag of stale baguettes and other breads, I grind a couple down for bread crumbs for use in the kitchen, the rest I feed to the chickens, ducks and turkeys. Sometimes I buy from the supermarket, now this can be a mixed load of bread stuffs, occasionally pain au chocolate, croissants and Swiss fruit cakes, the load could include fruit cakes and grain breads as well, the beauty of the supermarket breads is that they are normally in date. Today I bought a bag of bread from Intermarche, nearly all sliced loafs and dated 25th August, today is the 23rd, so I'm making bread puddings, 1 sweet and 1 savoury. I've also put 4 loafs in the freezer for another day, the rest in the animal feed store.

Just because you don't have all the ingredients listed here shouldn't necessarily stop you from cooking this, this recipe calls for sultanas and dates, after it was cooked I realised I had a couple of bananas, I would have liked now to have done banana and date, maybe you could try cooking that. Let me know how it turns out.

Ok, glass of wine in hand, the recipe;

Sliced bread (enough to put 3 layers in your dish.)
Butter for spreading
Seedless dates, chopped
Raisins and sultanas
4 eggs
450ml milk
2 tablespoons sugar
Vanilla essence
Ground hazelnuts.


Butter bread both sides, I keep the crusts on (according to my mother keeps your hair curly), remove stones from dates and chop.

Put a layer of the buttered bread in an oven proof dish, spread the dates over the bread, then put on another layer of bread and put sultanas and raisins on top of this.
Cover with last of the bread.

Beat eggs, sugar and milk together, add vanilla and pour over your pudding, pressing the bread down to help soak up the milk, its important the top layer gets some of the milk, add more milk if necessary. sprinkle with hazelnuts and a little sugar and bake, for about 15 mins till golden brown at 200c.

Advert

A man holding his chopper, shiny helmet.

Intermarche Redon, don't now how but a glass panel had been broken. the pompiers were called in to take out the rest of the glass, sorry I've got no close ups, click on each picture to get a better view.

Goodbye ponies

DIY

After 5 yrs of drafts coming from the gap under a single glazed door I've finally got a new one, I was a little concerned as to how UPVC would look on my house, but I think its OK, if I had the stones on show maybe not, but because the house is rendered I think I can get away with it. Now over the next couple of months I want to change the rest.




Pauls just got to fill the gap in above the door.

New cook books

I think it must be that your approach to food. It sounds odd. Unfortunately it is odd. BUT only because the vast majority of people (particularly here in the UK) are such nerds about food and most are quite incapable of cooking anything. This is why we substitute this almost total lack of cooking with looking at other people like Jamie Oliver cooking for us on television as a substitute for actually doing it ourselves.

How pathetic is that !
Taken from Jamie Oliver's website, read the rest of the article here

I've ordered four new books.









.
Jane Fernley Whittingstall is the mother of Hugh and her website is the goodgranny.com a site for by Grand Parents for Grandparents.