Thursday 13 August 2009

Enya



Our latest addition to 'Animal Farm'.......Kate has been saving up all her pocket money, has sold her saddle (!!!), has worked for Papa in the surgery and emptied his pockets before loading the machine......and managed to come up with enough dough to splash out and buy her new friend - the 'handbag' arrived yesterday much to the joy of her new mistress!!

Wednesday 12 August 2009

Holidays


















A few photos from our holidays - Venise, Croatia, Vienna...

Moules





Time to get back to 'normal' .....whatever that is, as the holidays are over...
We drove from Benoistville to Paris, then on to Venise for 3 nights (check out Novotel - kids go free until the age of 16...great breakfast buffet and often a pool which, given the heat that we're not used to, is fab)and from there to Croatia where we met up with some pals for a week of sailing....and ended our holiday in Vienna...

On the cookery front, I felt like Rick Stein when 'Gus' our friend and skipper went diving and presented me with a bucket of fresh mussels ....
So,obviously, busman's holiday apart, I had to come up with something to feed the crew...

Mussels in Garlic butter...easy, tasty - a classic french recipé. All you need is:

Garlic butter (see prawns in garlic butter recipé) and cleaned, debearded mussels...

Place mussels in a large, heavy based pot with a glass of wine, cover and place over a high heat for 3 - 4 minutes, shaking pot now and then, until the mussels have opened. Drain into a colander, tehn break off and disgard the empty half shells, leaving the mussels in the other shell.
Preheat the oven/grill to very high. Place a little garlic butter on each mussel ( yes, a very good friend of mine tells me life is too short for stuffing mushrooms - mussels too I imagine, but what a taste....)
Put into oven until bubbling hot and serve with lots of crusty bread and a dry white (Muscadet/Rosé)