Mosaic Monday # 54 = that was the week that was

So, that was the week that……….  it never seemed to stop raining with the odd thunderstorm thrown in for good measure.

Maybe that's why the kitchen has been the heart of the home a little bit more than usual, well when it's wet outside and you can't play in the garden there is only one thing to do. 

Keep Calm & Bake!

Let me tell you about my new toy the Panasonic bread maker, why I left it so long to get one of these beauties astounds me.

All I have to do is put flour, salt, sugar, butter and water into the bread pan, tip yeast into the dispenser, put any extra ingredients such as poppy, sesame, pumpkin and linseeds into another dispenser, choose the menu setting and loaf size, set the timer and head off to bed.

Next morning the aroma of freshly baked bread wafts up the stairs, a great start to our day. (Please excuse me if in my excitement I’m preaching to those of you who regularly perform this magic in your own kitchens on a daily basis but I am quite besotted).

The SP took me rather seriously when I said I needed to order organic flour over the internet.

The supply chest.

Sweet Sarah @ Hyacinths For the Soul recently shared the Wimberley Valley  Gourmet pecan and banana bread recipe. I’m afraid that pecan oil hasn’t yet made it to a supermarket near me (I daren’t mention it to the SP or else there’ll be another big box arriving from Amazon) so I used walnuts and walnut oil instead,  

A delicious sweet treat we’ll be enjoying often, perfect either with morning coffee or afternoon tea.

Backtracking slightly, in August our neighbour very kindly brought me a large bag of plums from his garden which I turned into jam.

A few days ago he brought apples, such a nice young man!

It took just 6 of them to make an apple cake and four jars of spicy apple, raisin & tomato chutney to enjoy on curry nights.

For the chutney I used a recipe from Mary @ One Perfect Bite, a food blogger whom I’ve followed for many years. You can get the recipe here (or from my Pinterest board) if you’d like to give it a go, so easy and very tasty.

And finally from the kitchen… on Thursday I bought a brioche loaf from some children who were out  in the village raising funds for the Cartigny L'Epinay/Verlar Twinned Town committee. On Friday 4 apples and a handful raisins turned the brioche loaf into a delicious pain perdu (bread and butter pudding).
A large dollop of crème fraiche and dessert was ready to serve..

One last thing…………just wanted mention a book that kept me company during the rainy afternoons this week “The Chemist” by Stephenie Meyer (author of the Twilight series).
I highly recommend it, the SP enjoyed it too.

It was a good week for satisfying appetites……………………………..

Normandy Life

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