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!

Bobbie Flay's Grilled Chicken Paillard with Lemon and Black Pepper and Arugula-Tomato Salad

Joining Lynn @ Happier Than A Pig In Mud for July's Celebrity Cook - Along with TV Chef Bobbie Flay.

Strange as it may sound but before this month I didn't know who Bobbie Flay was.

Seriously!

But through the wonders of the Internet, and trusty ole Google, I was soon able to put that right and found this easy chicken recipe on The Food Network.com.


The recipe was featured in the series Boy Meets Grill in an episode entitled French Bistro Grilling.

Fat Tree Semillon - Sauvignon Blanc, New South Wales, Australia
went well with the dish.

Although we do have a small Weber BBQ I decided not to use it that evening, opting to grill the paillards on a heavy bottomed, ridged grill pan, on stop of the stove.

Much easier and not so messy!

As I happened to have all the ingredients, except for red onions, it was the perfect dish for a Sunday evening dîner pour deux au jardin.

Grilled Chicken Paillard with Lemon and Black Pepper and Arugula-Tomato Salad.

·    1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

·   1 small shallot chopped

·   1/4 cup pure olive oil

Freshly picked rocket from the potager

• 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground fresh black pepper
• 4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, pounded thinly
• Salt
• 1/2 pound arugula (rocket/roquette)
• 2 ripe beefsteak tomatoes, diced
• 1 small red onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced ( used salad onions instead)
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (I used balsamic just because we love the taste)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for garnish
• Lemon halves, for garnish
• Whisk together lemon juice, shallot, olive oil and black pepper in a large dish. Add the chicken, turn to coat then marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.

·    Preheat grill to high. Remove chicken from marinade, season with salt on both sides and grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side or until golden brown and just cooked through.

·   Combine arugula, tomatoes and onions in a large bowl, toss with the vinegar and oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

·   Place each piece of chicken on a large plate, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and top with some of the arugula-tomato salad.

·   Garnish with lemon halves and serve.

Délicieux

Don't forget to head over to Lynn's
and also to a new blog find
Beth Fish Reads for Weekend Cooking.

Click here for more Bobby Flay recipes.

Bon Appétit 

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.

Did you ever have one of those days?

Did you ever have one of those days when things just don't go your way?
I'm not talking about a really Bad day (with a capital B) just "stuff" you could have done without?
Well, dear  reader, I had one of "those" days yesterday
I spent over an hour looking high and low through the house for my camera because there were pix on there that I needed to tweak before completing some blog posts.
Looking for it in places I knew it couldn't possibly be (under the dog bed; in the fridge) but looking anyway because it just wasn't to be found anywhere else.
Eventually I found it quietly sitting in a decorative Quimper bowl on a window sill where I had placed it earlier, before getting fresh sheets and pillowcases from the linen cupboard.
Of course!
Then when I finally went up to switch on my PC I discovered that the Velux window in the roof (my room's in the attic) had been left open overnight.
That meant that the rain which had been bucketing down all morning (literally bouncing off the pavement outside) had totally soaked everything on my desk beneath said Velux window, including above mentioned PC!

Before the rain!

Mouse, mouse mat, mug mat, blue cotton throw from Ikea that covers my table, note pads, pens, pencils, leather office chair, books, camera case (yes, I know, be grateful that the camera wasn't in it's case at the time!), dish of sweets and a teddy bear companion not to mention the rug beneath the desk and chair.

The rain went through the rug and into the floor tiles.

Every thing sodden!

After clearing up the mess and taking the rug down to the garage to dry out I gingerly powered up my laptop and all seemed well.

That is until I began to write this blog post, then weird things began to happen.
The number seven started to appear in the text 7777777777, and my Ashampoo Photo Commander went haywire.
Help!
I called the Senior Partner in for a consult, he knows a thing or two about computers.
His advice, use a hair dryer!
Strange but true. So that's what I did and after 15 minutes powered up again.
Still not right, so I turned it off and left it overnight to dry out and fingers crossed it seems to be o.k. now.
Has your computer ever gone on the blink?
It's a scary feeling to think that you might not be able to access all your "stuff" ever again.
I've learned my lesson, and will be making sure I back up to the desk top more often in the future.
(and of course that the Velux window is shut tight at the end of each day!)
Looking forward to a better day today, and wishing you the same!

July - Potager Update

Here's a quick update on how my garden grows.......................
This morning in between rain showers I spent some quiet time hoeing, weeding and generally tidying up the potager.

Dwarf runner bean"Hestia"
The seeds were a gift from Gay

Getting my hands in the dirt is my idea of fun, no gardening gloves for me, which is why I recently joined Sharon Lovejoy's Grimy Hands Girls Club.
Thanks to Pondside for pointing me in that direction.

Dwarf Haricot beans

Lynn @ Happier Than A Pig in Mud recently shared her recipe for Pickled String Beans, in a week or so I think these guys will be ready to be picked and pickled!

Top: second sowing dwarf haricot seedlings.
Middle: Spicy, peppery rocket..
Bottom left, just visible: Red oak leaf salad.

I think that this is my favourite time of the year, when all the hard work starts to pay off.

It is one of my life's joys, each evening, to carefully step between the rows and pick mesclun leaves for the salad bowl or a small handful of yellow and green dwarf haricot beans to go with a simple steak and frites.

Courgettes; round, green or yellow, (zucchini) get a quick egg wash and breadcrumb coating, before frying gently in butter, they go well with steak too.
Or I could make zucchini bread.
I came across a great recipe on Becky's blog " Not Your Ordinary Agent" earlier this week.

As well as cauliflower and cabbages I planted Chinese leaf a type of crunchy oriental cabbage, for the first time this year.

It has a very mild flavour and can be eaten raw in salads, steamed to serve as a side vegetable, or added to a vegetable stir fry for a quick and easy supper dish.

Today's potager produce; yellow and green courgettes; a handful of beans; chinese leaf for steaming
and
a pretty blue hibiscus flower.

Joining The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays

and

 Mary @ the little red house for Mosaic Monday.

Click on the links above

or on the sidebar

 to visit their wonderful blogs.

Watery Wednesday

Joining Watery Wednesday this week for the first time

and also

Outdoor Wednesday with A Southern Daydreamer.

I took these shots recently as we walked along the banks of the River Vire in Saint Fromond, a small sleepy Normandy village, typical of this area.

This village is about a 5 minute drive away from our home and we often stop here to take our dogs, Ben & Fleur, for a walk along the river bank en route to Carentan or St Lo.

67 years ago during the invasion of Normandy, as part of the "Avranches breakthrough", this is what was happening in this exact spot.

SAINT-FROMOND/AIREL Manche - 17 km north of Saint-Lô
The 30th Infantry Division seized a bridgehead on the river Vire
At the beginning of July 1944 the battle seemed endless for the Americans in the Norman bocage. On the left wing of the front line they reached the river Vire. On 6 July Airel is liberated. The following day on 7 July American artillery opened fire on the western bank of the river Vire. It is a preliminary to the assault of the 30th Infantry Division under General Hobbs who must cross the river Vire in Saint-Fromond. At 4:20 a. m. boats carried out the first assault wave, then the second under heavy German shelling. Infantry climbed the opposite bank and pushed back a German kampfgruppe. The engineers started to prop up the old stone bridge, and at 12:30 p. m. the first tanks crossed the river; a floating bridge allowed the passage of light vehicles. Saint-Fromond was liberated. North of the town the Americans spanned the canal Vire-Taute in front of Saint-Jean-de-Daye. On 11 July a German counter-attack of the Panzer-Lehr Division failed to drive back the bridgehead.

Source: 1944 The Battle of Normandy - The Memory

 with heartfelt thanks and gratitude

for those who fought for our freedom.

Lest we forget.

Happy Birthday USA!



Timothy K Hamilton created this amazing image.

Wishing all our friends across the pond

all the very best

 on your 235th Birthday!