Getting to grips with the past!

Hello there .....long time ...no news ....we've been busy!
I've been learning the art of mastering a real, 18th century, wood-burning oven - you know the kind the French built in their gardens after 1789 - the French Revolution !! Any other nation would have managed to bake bread in their kitchen - over the fire or whatever - but here, food is all-important, bread, a daily feature and in the past, beautiful outhouses with refractorty bricks were built 'dans le jardin'!
Take the word for bread - pain - I've learnt that the word for 'friend' comes from bread....i.e he, with whom one shares one's bread - copain!
But, the bread ovens weren't only for bread - everything can be cooked in an oven - the taste, second to none...
Whole pigs were cooked, rice puddings, roasts, terrines and much more...
Fascinating stuff...great food.....great fun!

Don't count your chickens...

before they've hatched......
Gloria is once again the proud Mum of 6 little chicks....

At first I was afraid..I was petrified!

Thought that I could never hatch without you by my side....


Thank you Tom, our three-legged cat, and Kate, for guiding us to Gloria....

This morning,9 year-old Kate was on animal duty..... she'd to feed the dogs, the cat, check that the horses had water, collect the eggs in the straw ( our hens lay in the straw, always in the same place, and take it in turns to do so !) and feed the chickens...They were starving and chicken run wasn't in it as they appeared from nowhere around the grub. And yes, there she was...Gloria, out for a morning stroll.
We watched her cautiously from the kitchen window and found her hiding spot....amongst the flowers! Tom has been hanging around there for awhile now so, I reckon that when we come back from our holidays, the place will be like something out of Hitchcock's 'Birds'!!!

Gloria's gone again!

For those of you who've visited La Blonderie (the Wilde Kitchen) over the last few months you may be interested to know that our 'Titi' Cotentine chicken, Gloria, has gone missing! Last time we were certain that Mr.Fox had been to visit until one morning, as I fed the other animals, I came across, what I believed to be, one very lifeless chicken in the old hay cart...that was, until she blinked!!! Gloria was hatching!!!
Being from a housing estate in the suburbs of the Big Smoke (Dublin), I'm still learning a little every day about country living, and, believe you me, it's amazing.
Gloria had befriended Tom, the cat,who surveyed her cautiously during her hatching period, while Stevie, her rooster, flirted with Dubh and Dearg, our egg-laying chicks!
Three weeks later Gloria became the proud Mum of 9 little beauties...
and I fully understood the expression 'Mother Hen'...

Summertime and the livin' is easy.....

Well....Let me tell you that when my beloved invited me to Normandy for the very first time (14 1/2 years ago)the sun was shining...apéritifs were taken out of doors as I thought to myself 'la vie est belle'.....and on February 14th......

I arrived here with all my worldy belongings in the boot of the car on June 29th 1993 and it lashed rain all Summer long....

History repeats itself and here we are again.....and I'm quite sure that my favourite photographer Thierry won't mind if I share his great photo with you.....

Anyway who cares? It could be a lot worse. On RTE radio one morning (thank you Internet..I feel I've got a friend or two in the kitchen who speak my language!) the story went that someone complained about a lack of Summer when a caller rang in and stated:'We did have a Summer...it was lovely on Thursday!'

My french pals put that down to Irish optimism so lets get on with it and make the most of what we've got!

And so for a Summer Special.....try out this apéritif:

Add some Tonic water to Martini Bianco, a few ice cubes and a slice of lemon...

Desperate Housewife?

My friend, Sandrine,(alias Lynette) tells me I'm lke Susan out of our favourite American series.... she claims that all kinds of crazy things happen to me....

And sometimes, she's right!!

D-Day arrived.....THE photographer and the Americans were coming....

I was wrecked already.....the garden was perfect, the hair done.

Cleaning Diva, Marie 'Miracle' had indeed worked miracles once again....

Just a quick run over with the hoover and we're in business.....having peeled spuds for the Dauphinois, cried over the shallots, shucked about 50 oysters, prepared a leg of 'Barbeque' ( one of our lambs!) made the pâte brisée for the tarte tatin, fed and freed the chickens for the day, collected the eggs, fed Tara and Sammy, ran down to the end of the avenue for the croissants, which our boulanger kindly delivers on Sunday mornings......and all that before the arrival of Mr. Séni, photographe..... rendezvous 10 heure.....

Dressed in my red, satin, Gabrielle-style dressing gown that Ellen had so kindly given me for Mother's Day, the previous Sunday, an old T-Shirt of Philippe's (J'aime les vaches on the front...' I love cows'!!) and my wellies, I rushed around when out of nowhere, a guy appeared in our hall, telling me he was terified of dogs and apologizing for being an hour early........AN HOUR EARLY....I will never get used to the French attitude to early morning!!

I politely told him to lose himself for at least a half hour, reassuring him that the dogs had been fed, and we'd start again later...

The rest of the day went off a treat........

Experience Normande

I had a very interesting phone call one morning, as I ran around the kitchen hoovering up the remains of a weekend of cooking and gardening, from a very professional and talented photographer, Thierry Séni.( for confirmation of the same please visit http.//tseni.canalblog.com)
Thierry had been asked by the Normandy Tourist Board to take a load of photos for their website on the 'Expériences Normandes'and the Wilde Kitchen had been chosen to take part.....I was estatic!
One slight problem that I couldn't reveal to this charming individual on the phone - I'd no reservations for the month of June.....Panic strikes, Sinéad has a near-knicker attack, but where there's a will there's a way, and so my evening I'd roped in a group of American victims and had a confirmation from a couple of Aussies.....perfect.