Sold subject to contract.

My parents house is sold subject to contract, I will write more later.

Beetroot and chocolate brownies

CHOCOLATE BEETROOT BROWNIES
250g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
250g unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus more for greasing
250g caster sugar
3 free-range eggs
150g self-raising flour
250g beetroot, boiled until tender, peeled and grated

1. Preheat oven to 180°C,Gas Mark 4. Grease a baking tin of approximately 20 x 30 x 3cm

2. Break up the chocolate into pieces, cut the butter into cubes then mix them up a bit in a heatproof bowl. As the oven begins to warm up, put the bowl onto one of the shelves for a few minutes until the chocolate and butter starts to melt. Stir, and put back into the oven for a few more minutes to melt completely.

3. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a bowl until combined, then beat in the melted chocolate and butter until smooth. Gently fold in the flour then the beetroot - be careful not to overmix or it will make the brownies tough.

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth over the top with a spatula. Bake for about 20 minutes. A knife or skewer pushed into the middle should come out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Don’t be tempted to overcook them! Remove the tin from the oven and leave on wire rack to cool before cutting into squares.

I didn't have any dark chocolate so used this instead.

Shopping

There was a thread running on Angloinfo about how expensive food was in France, the person starting the thread was saying that shopping came to about €600 a week. Theres a big difference between being on holiday and living some where but even so €600 just for food and drink is ridiculous.

Theres a few posts about Pot au Feu on my blog, this is good winter fare. Simply its a stew, traditionally cooked on the fire, for a couple of years I used to start this on the stove then when simmering away used to transfer it to the top of the wood burner, now I have my slow cooker, at less than €3 per Kg this piece cost €2.84, in a stew with veg this will make a hot nourishing meal for four. When I see offers like this I buy a few and put them in the freeze.

Grilling steak, perhaps I will cook them a little more than I would normally but 5.90€/kg theres a lot of meals here.

Sausages, what more do I need to say, buy large packs when there on promo.

This is Panga, a Vietnamese fish, very nice and cheap, but I'm now finding bad reports about this fish, the way its farmed and the rivers it lives in.

Buy the wine on promo

Rosies Courgette cake

150 g flour Self raising or use levure chimique
200 g bacon bits
100 g chopped Chorizo
400 g grated skinned courgette (Peeling them is up to you, but I did)
1 Carrot
1 sliced onion
3 eggs
2 tablespoons of oil
2 or 3 tablespoons of milk
100 g grated cheese (Cheddar, Gruyère or Emmental)

Grate all the vegetables

Fry the onions and meat, empty on to kitchen paper to soak up the fats.

Squeeze a lot of the water out of the veg, wrap in a tea towel and twist.

Put the flour in a large bowl with a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper.

Make a well in the middle and put the oil and the eggs in. Mix slowly until you obtain a smooth mixture. Add the milk and mix again. Add the grated courgette and carrot  gradually while you keep on mixing. Finally add the meat and  the onion followed by the cheese.

Put in a greased loaf tin

Bake at 180c, for about an hour

Ideally serve warm not hot, but just as tasty cold.

Naughty but nice

But not to often.

New carpet on stairs

I'm actually tempted to carpet the bedrooms.

Its never to early to get a job

2yr old Kenzo, picking grapes.

Whats on, Today. Carentoir

At the Ferme du monde, Le Bois Brassu 56910 Carentoir.

Fest deiz, musique à danser avec le groupe Dalc’h ataù, les chanteurs de Bovel ; atelier de fabrication de galettes ; restauration sur place, galettes saucisses frites.

Also at Augan (56)

A Noce bretonne is a Breton wedding party, held every year and is now in its 43rd year.

Rosies Stuffed Marrow

Cut into thick slices. Press out the seeds then use a knife to tidy the slice up

Stuff as you like, I used mashed potatoes and black pudding.

Preheat oven to 200c

drizzle with olive oil and wrap in foil, bake for 45 mins

Remove from oven, here I have added Gruyère cheese and smoked Ham,Leave foil open and bake for a further 15 mins

Serve

Rosies Nettle Soup

Collect a good pile of nettles, take the younger top leaves.

Wash them well

Fry an onion in oil then add nettles, a few stalks aren't going to do any harm

Add chopped up potatoes ,and garlic cook till the leaves wilt, about 5 minutes.

Add about 600ml of milk and 300ml of stock*

Blend, adjust seasoning.

Serve

A visitor and some flowers.

In my garden, happily walking around with the chickens and ducks, most birds that come into the garden take food and leave, this Hoopoo or hoopoe bird hangs around for hours, Sorry about the quality of the photo, took it with my phone through a window.

Flowers in Sixt

A field of sunflowers.