1001 Courgette/Zucchini Recipes

O.K. it's a slight exaggeration.

I don't have 1001 courgette recipes to share with you today, but if like me you have been growing your own courgettes this summer you probably feel like you've tried at least that many ways to prepare them.

Here are a few that I've tried.

Courgette, mushroom and mozzarella tart

Like pizza only better!

Lemon Zucchini Muffins

I took Lynn's recipe for Lemon Zucchini Bread which she posted on her blog Happier than A Pig In Mud and tweaked it to make muffins.

Courgette chutney

I love to make chutneys and found a great recipe for spicy courgette chutney on the River Cottage  website, it's delicious.

Chocolate zucchini bread

The chocolate zucchini bread was another recipe I found on the BBC Good Food website. I have a monthly subscription to the magazine but use the website to search for recipes to match the ingredients that I have to hand.

Courgettes and tomatoes
waiting for goat's cheese and thyme
stuffed chicken.

It's easier to print the recipe from there rather than prop the magazine up in the kitchen where I inevitably spill something onto the pages.

Courgette & Brie soup

I've had the New Covent Garden Soup Company's Book of Soups for many years and have tried quite a few of the recipes.

One we like very much is Jason Stead's Courgette & Brie Soup.

Here's the recipe (tweaked just a bit):

450g/1lb courgettes/zucchini, sliced.
2 medium sized potatoes, about 350g/12oz, peeled and chopped.
1 onion (white or yellow) finely chopped.
1.2 litres/2 pints vegetable stock (a stock cube is fine).
225g/8oz Brie. Remove end rind and cut into pieces.
salt & feshly ground black pepper.

Put the first 4 ingredients into a large saucepan .
Cover, and bring to the boil then simmer gently until the veggies are tender. This'll take about 15 mins.
Stir in the brie until it melts.
Allow the soup to cool a little then blitz it with a hand blender or in a liquidiser.
Taste for seasoning.

This is a versatile soup that can be enjoyed hot or cold.

Think about pouring chilled soup into small shot glasses or expresso cups as an amuse bouche, a great way to greet guests as they arrive at your house for a dinner or cocktail party.

Just in case you feel you need to add more "ways with courgettes" to your repertoire, click on the following links.

Courgette, mushroom and mozzarella tart. (BBC Good Food)
Lynn's Lemon Zucchini Bread
Pam the Jam's River Cottage Courgette Chutney
Chocolate Zucchini Bread (BBC Good Food)
Goat's cheese & thyme stuffed chicken (BBC Good Food)

Joining the Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays

Weekend Cooking @ Beth Fish Reads

and also La @ A Musing Potpourri

for the End Of The Summer Celebration Party

August 31st.

P.S. Sending all best wishes

 to any of my blogger friends

 who are suffering

 at the hands of Hurricane Irene this weekend.

Stay indoors and stay safe!

What a surprise!

Every morning whilst sitting up in bed drinking tea I like to gaze out of the bedroom windows at the surrounding countryside.
There are usually at least three or four Normandie heifers in my line of sight. The field next door is home every year to a small herd of 11 of them.
A heifer in case you didn't already know is a female bovine between 2 and 4 years of age who hasn't yet given birth to a calf. Then she's a cow.
So you can imagine my delight not to mention shock, on Friday, when I spied this little chap running across the meadow.

All that chasing soon tired him/her out and so it was time to head back to mum for a rest.

Later that day we caught up with the farmer who owns the heifers and asked him about the calf.
"C'est une erreur"! he said.

It seems one young heifer met up with a neighbours taureau, quite unchaperoned, and this little guy only 3 days old, was the result of their romance.

After rounding up the rest of the herd the farmer with his wife and sons caught up with the mum and her little one, loaded them into the trailer and took them up to the farmyard to be better cared for.

Au revoir Tinkerbell! (it may be daft but that's the name I gave the calf as soon as I saw it flitting around the field!).

Joining The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays #62

with this bucolic tale from rural Normandy.

Pink Saturday

Inspiration for Beverly's Pink Saturday party this week

came from some pretty pinks

which make my craft room/sanctuary/attic bolt hole

one of my favourite places to be.

Pink scrapbook pages,
 Pink Daytimer (love it!),
 Pink Roses from the scrapbook
 and Pink Radley dust bags and boxes.

I didn't take part in last weeks Pink Saturday but I visited quite a few of those bloggers who did.

One blog which was new to me is Raindrops and Daisies.

It caught my eye because of the doggy thumbnail pic and the title Pink Tongue!

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm a sucker for pooches, so how could I not click through?

When I visited the blog I discovered that a Mr Ben lookalike lives there!

Poor old Oscar broke his leg when he jumped over a wall and landed on some ice, he's been back and forth to the vets ever since.

Hope you're feeling better now Oscar.

This weekend Pink Saturday is participating in
The Miracle Makeover Weekend
Click here or on the sidebar button to find out how you can play a part in
Charlie's Miracle Makeover.

Bon weekend a tout.

Room By Room with cottage and vine

Rene @cottage and vine has launched a new monthly party this week

 which will feature our homes "Room By Room".

Do please come on in.

The first party is taking a look at entrys/foyers, or what we Brits would call "the hall".

Because the hall here at the Presbytère is a T shape with the staircase going up on the left and doors leading off left to the dining room, right to the library and at the back into the cloakroom, there isn't room for too much furniture.

The ornately carved chest of drawers and the mirror above are permanent residents. I change the objects on top regularly to suit the seasons.

I have a large pewter collection which is usually only displayed during the autumn and winter months but some pieces I love more than others and keep them out year round, such as the bowl, jug and plate.

The clock and the chair are mainstays of the entry way decor too, the plant in it's blue and white delft jardiniere tends to wander from room to room, again depending on the season.

The antique oak captains chair was a gift from friends many years ago, the quilted cushions are vintage and came from an antique fair in Maine.

Some architectural details

A view of the garden through the double front doors

Thanks for taking my Open House Tour,

 I hope you enjoyed your visit,

and thanks too, to Rene for hosting Room By Room.

Click here or on the sidebar button to take more house tours .

Linking this post also to
Bunny Jean's Wednesday Bunny Hop
a new weekly meme.

Wordless Wednesday - Incy Wincy Spider

It's Wednesday and Wordless................

Click here for more WW

Nothing but blue skies from now on................

Summer has returned to Normandy and blue skies are the norm (!) once again.

For Mary's Mosaic Monday at the little red house and Blue Monday with Smiling Sally a little taster to brighten your day.

If the sight of blue skies fills you with joy,
if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has the power to move you,
if the simple things in nature have a message you understand,
Rejoice, for your soul is alive.

Eleanora Duse

As some of you will already know Sally has been hospitalised for some weeks now
 but the latest on her blog is that she's doing o.k.

Do pop over for a visit and say hi to Sally's grandaughter Lauren
 who assisted Sally with this week's Blue Monday.

Les Nympheas
Monet

I scream, you scream, we all scream for Ice Cream!

July, it seems, is Ice Cream Month and the 17th of July is National Peach Ice Cream Day according to my list of American Food Holidays!

Would you like to join me in the garden to celebrate?

Where would you like to sit?

My contribution to the Ice Cream Socials being hosted this weekend by

Suzy @ Kitchen Bouquet

and

 La @ A Musing Potpourri

Peach Melba Knickerbocker Glory - a Barney Desmazery Recipe from BBC Good Food.

It's so good and so easy and soooooooooo delicious

you're probably going to want to try it yourself!

This one is yours, grab a spoon and dive in!
You can even dip the madeleine into the sauce, I won't watch, promise.

Ingredients:

300g raspberries

50g caster sugar

200ml double cream

4 ripe peaches, halved - stones removed

8 scoops good quality vanilla ice cream

and a large handful of flaked almonds, lightly toasted.

This is so easy:

Blitz half the raspberries with half the sugar and a splash of water to make a raspberry sauce, then tip into a small bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the cream with the remaining sugar until stiff and spoonable, then set aside. Thinly slice the peaches.

In tall sundae glasses, layer the peach slices, raspberries and raspberry sauce, finishing with scoops of ice cream, a generous spoonful of whipped cream and a scattering of flaked almonds.

Serve straight away with long spoons.

and, since this is a social event after all

I'll be linking this post to

Beverly's Pink Saturday gathering @ How Sweet The Sound just so that I can show off the gorgeous pink hydrangeas that are still blooming so beautifully,
The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays

and also

Mosaic Monday with Mary @ the little red house. one of my favourite blog parties.

Please pop in and say Bonjour to all of our delightful hostesses this week
by clicking on the links above or on their buttons on my sidebar..

Bon weekend a tout!

Bastille Day July 14th - La Fête Nationale

Today, July 14th is Bastille Day, a National Holiday in France and as I lay awake in bed last night listening to my neighbours celebrating into the wee small hours I was thinking of the evening about 20 years ago when we saw "LES MISÉRABLES" at the Palace Theatre in London's West End.


Embarrasingly I have to own up that I had no difficulty falling asleep that evening, that's right I fell asleep during the performance.

Have you ever fallen asleep somewhere where you shouldn't have?

Do tell! .......there'll be a small prize for the snooze I consider to be the most embarrassing!

Linking this little post to

 French Inspiration Thursday @ The French Cupboard

 click here to be inspired.

Debbiedoos "Magazine Copycat Challenge"

Today Debbidoo is hosting a Magazine Copycat Challenge party.
I read about it on Ricki Jill's blog Art@Home  this morning and it sounded like fun.

As chance would have it the July issue of one of my favourite decorating journals, Campagne Decoration, had just arrived and as I leafed through the pages I found my inspiration for the challenge.

I took a vintage French enamelware utensil rack, threaded it with garden twine (supplied by Sean The Gardener) and hung it on a sunny wall in the garden.
I found three small plant pots sitting beneath my potting table, took three marigold plants from an urn at the front of the house and voila!

My Campagne Decoration Magazine Copycat shot.

Click here to see more copycats and maybe join in the fun.

Linking this post also to

Inspiration Friday with Heather and Vanessa @ At The Picket Fence
Seasonal Sundays with The Tablescaper
and
Mary's Mosaic Monday @the little red house.

Trees and Poetry.

After the spring flowers have faded and become just a distant memory the trees in our garden step forward to delight us with acid green leaves and neon pink and gentle white blossom.

TREES

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day

And lifts her leafy arms to pray,

A tree that may in summer wear

a nest of robins in her hair

Upon whose blossom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems were made by fools like me

But only God can make a tree.

­Joyce Kilmer

The Sound of the Trees

I WONDER about the trees.

Why do we wish to bear

Forever the noise of these

More than another noise

So close to our dwelling place?

We suffer them by the day

Till we lose all measure of pace,

And fixity in our joys,

And acquire a listening air.

They are that talks of going

But never gets away;

And that talks no less for knowing,

As it grows wiser and older,

That now it means to stay.

My feet tug at the floor

And my head sways to my shoulder

Sometimes when I watch trees sway,

From the window or the door.

I shall set forth for somewhere,

I shall make the reckless choice

Some day when they are in voice

And tossing so as to scare

The white clouds over them on.

I shall have less to say, But I shall be gone.--

Robert Frost

cherry blossoms

with the morning moon

still in the sky
(old traditional Haiku translated by Robin Gill)

Trees

Trees just stand around all day

and sun themselves and rest.

They never walk or run away

and surely that is best.

For otherwise how would

  squirrel or robin find its nest?

Aileen Fisher

Many thanks to NC State University for sharing these poems on their website.

Trees of Strength

Please join me over at A Southern Daydreamer and Susan our gracious hostess

for Outdoor Wednesday

click here or on the sidebar button.

Linking also to a new blog that Ricki Jill led me to,

Mamarazzi's Dandelion Wishes 

and

 My Happy List