Tarte Tatin

I’ve wanted to make a tarte tatin for a while, but I’d never had a suitable dish to make it in, however I recently found one online. it’s a metal, nonstick pan with a thick bottom and a rim to be able to hold onto when turning it out. With my new tin ready I thought I’d give it a go and try it out on some friends for Christmas. Here’s how to make it.

I bought 6 large, juicy, eating apples from the market. Any apples, like golden delicious, pink lady or gala are all suitable, even a tart Granny Smith can work.

Peel and core them, and chop into quarters. Leave in some water with a splash of lemon juice added.

Melt 125g butter and 125g of sugar in the pan, add some vanilla (essence or from a pod). Once it’s all melted carefully add in the apples and cook covered for about 20 minutes. I put some tin foil over them. They need to be just tender, and to keep them succulent keep basting them in the syrupy liquid.

Then take the apples out, and simmer the liquid to reduce it to a thick syrup. Once done remove from the heat, and carefully place the apples back into the pan, coating them once again in the syrup. I did round side up.

You then need to lay the ready rolled flaky pastry over the top and tuck the edges in. It is then baked for about 30 minutes at 180°c

Remove from the oven, and leave for about 5 minutes, but not much longer, as the syrup will start to firm up.

You now need to very carefully tip it out by placing a plate over it, and tipping it upside down. Careful as the syrup is hot.

Serve with some cold creme fraiche, it’s absolutely delicious. I will definitely be cooking this for our guests table d’hôte next year.

A different viewpoint

Although there was a light breeze, and the air was a little bit chilly, we decided to take a walk along to Landreville, the little village next to ours. I had brought a flask of coffee, which we enjoyed as we sat at the viewpoint overlooking the village. It was some very welcome quiet time, and simply beautiful.

The walk back took us along the line of trees that edge the vineyards, which are all dormant now, and look very lean. Most of the vines have been pruned back, so they are ready to sit out the winter.

As we returned, our village was looking still, although there were a couple of farmers working in their fields in the valley below. We’d been out for a couple of hours, and as the village came into sight we started looking forward to getting home lighting the fire and settling down for a relaxing evening.

This view is looking back towards Viviers-sur-Artaut with the point de vue in the distance.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas everyone. Thank you for supporting us this year by reading our blog, and a special thank you to everyone that visited us at our chambre d’hôte. We wish you all fun, laughter, and happiness for 2024.

It’s been a fabulous year making new acquaintances, new friends and beautiful memories.

Joyeux Noël, Jo and Brian.

Sweetly scented

I bought some little hyacinths yesterday to make a couple of table decorations. I just love hyacinths at this time of year, they not only look good, but their scent is very sweet.

I had bought a couple of old terrines earlier in the year from vide greniers and this was a perfect way to use them.

I potted them into some compost, then covered the top with moss. To add a seasonal element I cut some short pieces of pine to use with some dried white flowers I had, and positioned them around the edge.

I’d bought a battery powered candle from ikea last week, so I’ve added this to the centre of one, along with some rosemary for added scent.

All rather beautiful and very festive, it will look lovely on the Christmas table.

Somewhat cheesy

We nipped to the market yesterday to buy some vegetables and visit the cheese stall. Oh decisions decisions, there’s such a gorgeous array of tasty cheeses, it’s so hard to choose. We plumped for a goats milk Tomme, a bleu des Causses (a creamy blue from the French Pyrenees), some moelleux du Revard, and a slice of saint Paulin, which is similar to a port salut. There’s a few there that we have not tried before, so definitely looking forward to tasting them over the festive period.

Whilst we were there, a group of schoolchildren came and sang some Christmas songs, with their very enthusiastic music teacher who was playing the guitar.

As we stood and watched them, more kids seemed to come from all across the market to join in, it was a fabulous atmosphere.

Perfect action

The fire is burning well, drinks are poured, and the chocolates are out ready to be chosen. Looks like a few have already been nibbled. It’s the last film of the day, so we feel an action movie would be a good choice.

What better one than lethal weapon. I’d forgotten how much I liked Mel Gibson in this. Him and Danny Glover work so well alongside each other, and it has great pace. A perfect way to finish off movie day 2023.

Hotdog!

We couldn’t have a movie day without hotdogs, so I cooked some chipolatas and we enjoyed them in some baguette with HP sauce. Sometimes it’s the simple things that work perfectly.

Our next film we had chosen was a James Bond movie. We both have fond memories of sitting down on a Christmas Day afternoon and enjoying the recently ‘released to TV’ Bond movie.

Any guesses on which one we chose?

Home Alone

Strangely enough we have never watched home alone, and as it’s one of the most popular Christmas movies we chose to watch it next.

So popcorn ready, we’ve settled in for a bit of Christmas slapstick comedy.

Snowballs

We feel it’s time for a little Christmas drink, something warming but refreshing.

I absolutely love an advocaat at this time of year, so Brian went and made a couple to accompany our hot sausage rolls which I’d just taken out of the oven.

I’ve got no idea about what this movie is about, but we just got a monthly subscription to Disney for €5,99, and Brian chose this to watch. Exciting.

Movie day, morning

We headed downstairs this morning excited that today is movie day. A bit of a tradition in the Simpson household at this time of year. I think it’s come from previously living very hectic lives, so what we do each Christmas is chose a day when we do nothing but watch Christmas movies. It really makes us stop and completely switch off.

The day has started with a beautiful old black and white movie. I love the fashion from this era so it’s a great choice for me.

Toast and coffee ready, we are all set to start our day.

Anyone home?

We woke to a crispy morning. The lawn was glistening with a thick, white frost. I suggested we had brekkie first and then head up to the point de vue for a bit of a stretch, and to get us moving.

At the top, as we sat overlooking the village, I said to Brian “I wonder what everyone is doing?”. I’m always fascinated when the village is so quiet, I ponder whether the villagers are at home doing homely things, or out and about.

We could see at least four chimneys puffing out smoke, so we knew some of them were settling in the warm.

My pondering over, we headed back home to start our day. I had a beef casserole I wanted to make, it’s a Flemish recipe which uses a dark ale to help make the gravy, rich and flavoursome - so I set about that.

Fitting in

Brian has finally achieved the colour he wanted in the wood beading. He is adding it to the kitchen cupboard to hide the strip of hue lights he will be putting up, so it was time to fix it all in place.

I was very pleasantly surprised as you really cannot tell the difference between the piece of wood he has added on, and the rest of the cupboard.

He does want to fill and sand the corner of the cupboard, where it’s a bit damaged, but that can wait until the new year now.

Light strip stuck on, controls placed on the wall, crikey I’m well and truly loving my new lights.

U hooked

There was a little job I wanted to redo this week, our curtain up at the front door had broken away from some of the curtain hooks. It hadn’t surprised me, as the curtain is really heavy, and I’d used plastic hooks with wooden rings. It was just not a strong combination. I’d bought some metal rings, metal curtain hooks and a metal ‘U’ hook to fix onto the curtain tape to strengthen the whole fixing.

I started by sewing on the ‘U’ hooks.

Brian then helped me hook in the curtain rings and attach them back up onto the pole.

We are super pleased in how much stronger everything is, and how much easier it is now to pull the curtain across. It saves a lot of drafts this time of year.

Champagne quiz 2023

Today we launched our 2023 Champagne quiz, just a little bit of fun for our blog, instagram and linkedIn followers. Last years quiz was really successful, and was enjoyed by hundreds of people keen to learn more about Champagne.

If you’d like to have a go yourself the link is below. It’s just 15 questions and takes about 5 minutes, so a perfect way to test your knowledge of one of the most delightful of drinks.

Champagne Quiz 2023

Christmas baubles

Yesterday we nipped back to Bayel to collect our glass Christmas baubles. I have to say I absolutely love them, and could easily go and make more now. Maybe we could do it again next year.

For now though I’m going to enjoy the two we made, the big question that needs answering though, is where shall we hang them?

Trimmings

Some weeks ago now we started on creating our handmade Christmas cards for this year. It was probably one of Brian’s more technical of designs. Which was a build of 4 Lino cuts to create the image of a champagne coupe.

The design, I thought, was gorgeous, although I had no real concept of what was needed to create it. That came over time, as he gradually explained to me what we needed to do, or rather what I needed to do with a scalpel, which was an awful lot of cutting!

Cutting done, we started the printing. The first layer didn’t work well, the paint was just not clear enough, so we ordered some liquid online to help add opacity to the paint.

A few days later, and we were back in business. First the yellow, then green, red and finally black. We then added a little ‘joyeuse Noël’ for a focal point.

I shall post the finished card just before Christmas.

One more stop

We drove up past plateau blu today, I find it quite irresistible to not stop, the view is always so stunning, it really doesn’t matter what time of year it is.

What I was also loving was the little Christmas scene they had displayed in the centre of the nearby village of Noé les Mallets, how delightful.

La grande swag

One little Christmas tradition we seem to have created for ourselves, since moving to France, is going out to collect foliage for our Christmas wreath, then returning to make it. I love being out in the open air and creating something beautiful from what we find around ourselves, it provides a real sense of home.

This year my friend was joining us for our greenery search, and after, she wanted to learn how to make her own wreath.

Hunting for the right materials can be a little perilous, but we soon had a good collection to take back. The brightest red berries are always the hardest ones to get to.

With all our greenery arranged around our dining table, I started by refreshing my wreath from last year and showing Sharon how to prepare the base for hers. I’d stripped all the old foliage off and added fresh moss where needed.

Brian wanted to make a swag, to go across the top of the gate. He always goes big, so I did need to give him a bit of a helping hand.

Once we had the moss bases on the wreaths we could start adding on the different pines, ivy, then finally the berries. They were all looking pretty good.

Brian went out to prepare some wire hooks to hang the swag, and put in a loop over the gate for the wreath.

We were all very pleased with the result. I’m actually really loving it against the shabby gate.

Boule de Noël

Today we were heading to Bayel, a small village about a 40 minute drive from us which was once famous for its glass and crystal factory - Cristellerie de Champagne. We were not quite sure what to expect, but I’d booked us onto a Christmas glass ball blowing workshop. We were each going to get the opportunity to blow our very own ‘boule de Noël’.

Sadly the glass factory, which had been producing items for over 350 years, closed its doors in 2016. Prior to this, in 1994, thanks to the volunteers of the Bayel Tourist Office, the Bayel Crystal Museum had been created. So through this small but delightful museum the glass and crystal creations live on. The museum is set over two floors, and details the tools and skills that are required to produce such unique pieces. There is a wonderful old film that is shown at the end of the museum tour which touches on the history and the wealth of industry this small village brought to this area of France.

Some of the finest pieces of glass are displayed within the museum, commissions from l’Orient Express, Cartier, Hermés and Fabergé being some of the most delicate and beautiful.

To help protect this important historic, cultural business it has been labeled a ‘Living Heritage Company’, recognising the glass factory for its talent and glassmaking know-how. Now the small team of professionals ensure their master craftsmenship is shared, and hosting these seasonal workshops is one way to do that.

As we stepped into the workshop area, the heat from the furnaces hit us.

We were first asked to choose our colours. Not as easy as I first thought, I wanted red, but there was about four different reds. I chose a darker red colour and Brian chose red and white, in a slightly brighter red.

Our part in the creation was to blow slow and steady down the long metal tube, I managed to achieve my ball in one long puff.

Brian took a few puffs. If you went to fast then the ball would be too big and the glass too thin, so it was all about a steady controlled exhale of air.

Once we had created the ball, then the glassmaker added a glass ring on the top to make it possible to hang.

They needed to cool slowly so we will go back next week to collect the finished articles.

Newsflash!

It’s arrived.

And what a great way to celebrate, finally we have both received our carte vitales, what a fabulous Christmas present.

And thank you Sharon for opening your bottle of Prieuré 1515