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I've been tagged by Kelly from the Occasional Epicure for the childhood food memories meme and since i've been more than excited.
Actually i already had a little list of favourites in my head since i love to cook from my childhood memories : from delicious gaufres i used to make with my grandmother to a rich and luscious hot chocolate.

Unfortunatly i had to choose five memories between the huge list i have in my head. Prepare yourself to fall into my childhood land!

Les Orangettes de chez Rohr avec Papa
When i was a child my mother was working as a nurse in an hospital so i couldn't see her a lot but as my dad worked at home we could spend a lot of time together : he even used to bring me with him when he had work appointements.
And one of my favourites was when he had to go to Cannes for one of those appointements because if i hadn't been naughty (and i've never been) we went to Rohr a very (and by "very" i mean very very) chic patisserie - on rue d'Antibes- where we had Orangettes.
Orangettes are candied orange peels coated with bitter dark chocolate. Not the usual favourite for a 5 years-old. And to tell the truth i think i didn't like these that much but i liked to be with my Papounet in this beautiful place. I mean he made me feel like i was the most important person in the world at that exact moment and i think this is great, for a child, to feel the love.

La glace au Mont Blanc de Maman
One day my mum turned back home with icecream lollypops mould. The week after there was a huge brocante in the village. The weather was pipping hot and i remember going home after hours spent selling gadgets and other things and there i found my mum offering me this lovely custard coloured iced lollypop.
What a souvenir! I can't even describe the taste but I can say that at that moment i felt like if i was in a cocoon. The simple evocation of it makes me shiver.
Lately i've been desperate to try to whip it up but my mother can't remember how she did. Now the only thing i can do is to buy loads of Mont Blanc and try try try...

Les boulettes de viande du Pot-au-Feu
Every Sunday or so my mum made pot-au-feu, beef cooked in water with vegetables, potatoes and a bouquet garni and served with a tomato bechamel. I loved to make a mash with the veggies and the meat, then form a small mount, make a hole in the center and fill it with the bright-red tomato sauce. And i had my errupting volcano.
But i loved even more the fritters my mother made with the leftover meat and potatoes. It was delicious eaten with a leaf of crispy green salad. I must admit i still love these fritters; i love them so much i buy the meat, poach it and then make the fritters - minus the pot-au-feu.

Les crêpes de chez Adieu Berth'
Adieu Berth' is a small (but renown) creperie in the old Antibes and when i was a child we used to go there with my parents for a crepe or two (certainly 2 indeed). I loved the atmosphere of the unique and tiny room (which was actually at my size) : the only lights came from candles and the crepes were extremely good. I always took a Pirate (with sausage, ketchup and cappers) as my father, my mother always ordered a Roquefort ( the famous blue cheese with cream and walnuts) or a Saumon and then we all had an Octobre avec boule de vanille each (chestnut puree, chantilly and vanilla icecream). I was even allowed to taste some sweet cider, which i deeply loved.

La soupe à l'oseille de Grand-Mere
I love Odette, my grand-mother. She's one of the most important person for me as she is always there when i need her. And as a devoted grand-child i loved (and still love) to spend weeks in my grand parents lovely house in Fouras a little village of Charente Maritime (to help you find it on the map i can say that from the house of my grand parents you can see fort boyard - yes yes the same as the one in the famous game).
My grand-mère always makes a delicious sorrel soup using the home grown sorrel. Actually at the first sight you could say : a child eating a soup that looks like white broth with green things floating in the middle? But i'm fond of this soup since i first tasted it. This may be the best soup i ever had in my whole life. I love you grand mere and grand pere.

Here finishes the journey, i hope you enjoyed my childhood memories; now i have to choose 3 of you (and i can't tell you how hard this was since all the blogs i read already have been tagged):
Keiko from Nordljus - the most beautiful food blog on earth and Keiko is probably one the rare person who hasn't done this meme yet.
Nic from Baking Sheet - a great blog, a great cook; what's more to say...
Kelli from Lovescool - a wonderful blog created for the love of dessert (and everyone knows dessert is my favourite in cooking...)

Labels: random sweetness

In class we have a module called de la vigne au vin [from vine to wine] and the aim is to produce your own wine. T
his is actually so very easy.
Last monday we went to a vineyard "Domaine de Candie" where we picked up grapes ( i should say lots of grapes) - truth to be told picking up 20kg of grape was a bit exhausting but i hope my wine will be good.

Anyway after doing all that exhausting work we mashed the grapes to get all the beautifully scarlet juices and we added some yeast so that we'll have a wonderful wine in less than a month.

The wine we'll produce is a Syrah. I'm not a pro about wine but i can tell you it will have delicious flavours like red fruits and banana...

Just a short note : i wanted to excuse myself for not being very active. I'm so sad i missed SHF but i couldn't havbe done something anyway : i don't have a oven.
I'm also sorry for my english : it's not easy to speak in precise words about a subject on which i can hardly speak in french (ie wine).

Labels: drinks, garden and campagne

We had a party few week ago and the theme was "The Caribbean"; so i stocked up lemons and limes and ended up by having far too much.
Then i though a good way of using all these citrus fruits would be to make a kind of lemonade.


CARIBBEAN LEMONADE
makes 1,5L

3 lemons
4 limes
275g sugar
1200ml sparkling water

Take the juice of the lemons and of 3 of the limes; you should get around 250ml juice. Dissolve the sugar in it by stirring for a minute or so. Add the sparkling water and slices of the remaining lime. Chill in the fridge and drink.

Labels: drinks, recipe inside

As i still don't have anything at home to cook i decided to spent some time in the garden while the sun is still here. Today it's lovely and sunny and a little wind prevent the weather to be too hot to stay outside. I can really enjoy being in the gaden, playing with the dogs and looking around to see how beautiful Nature is. And this is a good occasion to improve my photography as i'm quite (not to say completly) a beginner. Please be indulgent !

A nice spring of lavender, not completly opened. I love making lavender madeira cake using the lavender i got from the garden. I enjoy resting in the hamac - background, it is so relaxing.

Yum, a lovely raspberry and cream tart. I love love love raspberries. This tart - bought from the supermarket (don't make that face, i promise it is good, even delicious...) is very refreshing and not too sweet. A good buy for sure.

Oh, who's there : a little family of warthogs; they're so sweet, aren't they?

Labels: garden and campagne