Marmalade

Yesterday I did all the chopping for my marmalade, and left the peel soaking in the juice overnight. This morning I added 4 kg of sugar—I use confiture sugar, which just helps the set. The longer you boil a jam or marmalade the stickier, or more set, it will become, however it will also make it taste more caramelised, so you need to work out what you prefer. I often prefer a fresher, fruity flavour.

Once the sugar has been mixed in, and it feels like it’s all dissolved, you can start to warm it up. You need to achieve a rolling boil, which is so easy on an induction hob. I’d always been committed to gas previously, but the village isn’t plumbed in and I didn’t want tanks, so I reluctantly went to induction. It was a stroke of luck for me though, as I find induction so controllable and so easy to clean.

It takes anywhere between 20–45 minutes to achieve a setting point. Check this by placing a saucer in the freezer, then when you think you’re ready, take the cold saucer out and drop a bit of marmalade on it. If it wrinkles when you tip the saucer it’s ready.

I’d prepared my jars by washing them and popping them in the oven for 20 minutes. It was time to fill them, and seal the tops. For ease, I either use screw tops if I have them, or the rubber seals.

Once they’ve set, I’ll label them and store them in the cupboard to let them settle for a few weeks, but first I think I’ll be having a little on my toast, just to be certain it’s okay.

Bridle joints

So far Brian has cut grooves in all the pieces of wood for the doors, but I couldn’t see how they were all going to fit together. The answer is ‘bridle joints’, which will allow the ends to slot into one another and will make the door frame stronger. He drew a little picture to show me.

Apparently they’re not the easiest thing in the world to cut, but he said he could do half by table saw and half by hand.

The bits he could do by table saw are the male parts, which he does by adjusting the saw to the height of the cut needed and then passes the wood over it time and time again, moving it a fraction along each pass. It’s very time consuming, but faster, and more accurate, than doing it by hand.

The outcome looked pretty good.

He then had to cut all the female joints by hand, which took much longer.

He now has all the parts of the jigsaw. Can’t wait to see how it comes together.

Liquid gold

I was looking forward to making my marmalade. I had been reading about how the making of marmalade at home is a dying art, partly because Seville oranges are less prolific, but also because people just don’t seem to have time or the want to do it. I actually find it very relaxing and very satisfying. Maybe it’s because I love eating marmalade, and I’d much rather know that the marmalade I eat is made with organic oranges and lemons. Although I have to admit I do not use organic sugar.

Incidentally you won’t find ‘marmalade’ in France, here it’s called ‘confiture d’orange’, or citrus jam.

Unlike jam, you need twice the weight of sugar to fruit. I had approximately 2.2kg of oranges, and used 4kg of sugar, rounding the quantity down slightly for less sweetness. I also added three lemons, for a balance of acidity.

Start by cutting the oranges and lemons in half and squeezing out the juice. Then scoop out the remains of the fruit and pips and put all the pulp and pips into a piece of muslin cloth and tie it off.

You then need to slice the skins, thin or thick, however you prefer.

I’ve used quite large quantities, as I wanted to make enough for our summer guests, but halving the recipe should still give you six to eight pots and makes it easier to do. I use a large jam pot to prepare it all, but all you need is a thick bottomed saucepan with a lid.

Pop everything into the pan - juice, muslin bag filled with fruit pulp and pips, and the sliced skins. Then add some water, a litre per kg of sugar. I added four litres of water. Cover this and leave to soak overnight. This helps the skins soften, and they will be well distributed throughout the finished marmalade.

I have left mine on the stove to do its thing, ready to be cooked tomorrow.

Update

Having a presence online has massive benefits. Firstly, it enables us to reach so many people, which means my blog is read by people all across the world. It also means people can find us, just by looking at their phone or computer. Which is brilliant when you’re a small, boutique B&B in Champagne.

However the website needs regular care, as the platform we use is constantly being updated, which means adapting the website for the latest changes. It’s also important for us to keep our website current and fresh, to ensure our readers and visitors have a pleasant experience, and to make sure all the photos are up to date.

We will often chat between us, to discuss what’s needed; what works, what doesn’t work and what we’d love to do. Brian is the one who knows how it all works though, so, with some input from me, he takes care of it.

For a few weeks he has been wanting to move our site to an updated version that our platform had recently introduced. However, this came with a couple of worries, which I know had been playing on his mind. Firstly, would we lose all the blog pages? And secondly would the diary still work after the update? Both of these could cause a lot of heartache, and difficulty, but he knew it needed to be done. He’d had a few days working in his workshop on the doors, in the cold, so I suggested that maybe he has a change of scenery and spends the day working on the website. After a day of testing and checking, then changing things and testing again, the move over went pretty cleanly, apart from a few little things that need fixing. Phew!

A big thank you to those readers who have spotted a couple of issues for us. We really appreciate your input, and Brian is working to get them corrected.

Measure thrice…

The process Brian’s following for the doors to the library is to measure, create an accurate plan, cut important pieces, measure again and then cut the connecting pieces. It’s all very meticulous and makes the process quite slow, but he’s wary of making errors. Making a door like this is all new for Brian, and it’s so easy for it to go wrong, and not fit, so we’re happy for him to take his time.

Confident that the pieces he has so far are correct and match the drawings, he pressed ahead with cutting the other pieces.

He now has all the pieces he needs, he just has to cut all the bridle joints…I say just!

Edgy bits

Using the router properly for the first time was a bit daunting for Brian, but the pieces he did yesterday went well, and I think his confidence is growing. A quick check to see if the plywood will fit in the grooves he created also helped.

Happy that the grooves had worked he moved on to the channel around the edge of the doors. This is a typical old French way of overlapping the door to the frame, presumably to prevent light spill and drafts.

He didn’t want to take the router right to the edge at first, so he had to finish the ends by hand.

It was a bit slower, but he was happy with the outcome.

Getting in the groove

Brian had made an early start in his workshop, measuring, marking up and cutting the wood, ready for him to start routing the grooves out of the pieces of wood that would frame the actual door. These grooves are where the panels will slot into.

It was a very long process, as he was taking his time routing only a small depth each time, repeating it 3 or 4 times on each piece of wood. Although we will be painting the door, we have used oak that we had left over, which will also add strength.

Inspiration

We were waiting for a collection this morning, for our pool robot. It has to go back to the company we bought it from to repair one of its rollers. However we didn’t know when they were coming, and I wanted to get to the market. I was literally walking out the door, when I called to Brian, “They’re here”. What great timing, as it meant we could go to the market together, a little visit we enjoy having on a Friday morning.

I was hoping I could buy some Seville oranges, to make some marmalade. After a good search around all the stalls, which had lots of different oranges, I could only find Navels, which I know can make a good alternative to Sevilles for making marmalade. I bought around 2kg, quite a lot, but during the summer our B&B guests enjoy eating my homemade marmalade on fresh baguette for breakfast.

The fresh produce on the stalls, looked very tasty, and enticing. I get very inspired to try different dishes when I see the beautiful (often organic), locally grown ingredients.

I will have a peruse through some of my cookbooks to decide what to cook, but first though I need to make the marmalade.

A spot of lunch

Yesterday we needed to pop into Bar-sur-Seine to pick some wood up for the doors Brian is about to make for the library. We had thought about trying to reclaim some doors, maybe from an old wardrobe or old armoire, but although we’d found some beautiful pieces of furniture on our visits to the local charity and depot ventes we did not find anything that really suited.

So, Brian has drawn up a plan to make them, and has already found the planks to make the frames from his wood store, but we still needed to buy some wood for the panels he will inset.

We headed off to Weldom, our local DIY store, to buy the wood which we had already ordered via the internet. When we arrived it was ready and waiting for us on a trolley to load into our car.

With the wood in the back, Brian suggested we head to a favourite restaurant of ours—Le Jardin des Tonnelles—for a spot of lunch before heading home. What a perfect idea. After a couple of cheese gougeres each, to entice our taste buds, we tucked into our main courses. Brian had ordered the rabbit with a tarragon sauce, and I had the kidneys with little roast potatoes.

A very impromptu lunch, my favourite kind, and all very delicious.

Full speed

We woke to a chill in the air. The sun was bright, but we could see the morning frost scattered on the slope, just a little dusting of white. “Fancy a short walk after breakfast?” I suggested.

I’d seen a path on a previous walk, which we hadn’t walked along before, and I was interested to see where it came out. I could see on the map that we should be able to walk down to the point de vue from it, so it could be a convenient addition to some of our local walks. After breakfast we headed out. The air had warmed slightly and by now the frost was all gone.

The path I’d spied took us straight across a field, reaching far out to the horizon. As we walked and chatted four deer ran at full speed ahead of us, from the safety of the woodland to our left, into the safety of the woodland to our right. We could feel the thud of each landing as they leapt across the field in their eagerness to reach a sheltered place.

A bit further along Brian spotted a fossil. It would have been part of a much larger organism—an ammonite—with a big curly shell, which would have lived here in the Jurassic or early Cretaceous periods.

It’s fascinating for us to find these, but we always wonder how difficult it must be for the farmers ploughing and harvesting these fields, as they are just covered in stones like these, as you can see behind Brian’s hand.

Bienvenue

We’ve had a flurry of new subscribers to my blog since Christmas, which is so wonderful to see, and I wanted to take the opportunity to say ‘Welcome’ to you all. It’s great to know that people are still interested in reading about our life in rural France—our French adventure.

It’s been almost five years now since we moved to Champagne and I started my blog, but it feels like yesterday. I still get excited when we experience something different and a little blog immediately starts forming in my head. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s such a pleasant way to reflect on our days, helping us see all the wonderful little things we could otherwise take for granted. I now wonder how I could live without putting my thoughts down somewhere. And I think Brian really enjoys capturing the images, his way of seeing things is far more visual.

Also, a big thank you to everyone who continues to support our blog. By reading it you help us to promote our little chambre d’hôte here in the Champagne countryside, and for that we are very grateful. Please feel free to share the link with family and friends if you think they may also enjoy reading about our little slice of life in France.

Merci et bonne journée.

La Chandeleur

La Chandeleur, or some may know it as Candlemas day, is the French pancake day, however France typically offers crêpes, which are a thinner, lighter version of a pancake. La Chandeleur marks the end to the Christmas season. It’s celebrated on 2nd February, which, for someone coming from the UK who has always taken the end of Christmas being the twelfth night or 5th January, seems a little bit late.

The Tradition of La Chandeleur has apparently been celebrated in France for centuries. The day is linked to the return of light after the dark winter months. I like this thought of welcoming back warm spring days in the garden, tidying up leaves, cutting back the hedges, pruning the roses and enjoying the colour of a spring garden.

The round shape and golden colour of the pancakes or crêpes are said to symbolize the sun and its light. What a perfect food for this celebration. Our favourite type of pancake is with bananas mixed in, I then enjoy them with lemon and sugar, whilst Brian takes a simpler route of just maple syrup, but lashings of it. I’m not sure the French would agree with bananas symbolising the return of the sun, but they’re very tasty.

Spring pots

I know I say this every year, but I do love spring. Maybe it’s because that’s when my birthday is. I just love seeing the little Green noses of the bulbs starting to poke their way above ground, waiting for the weather to warm just a little bit more.

The bulbs I’d potted into my jugs and tureens last week have been brought into the house now, and they are enjoying the warmth and starting to come into flower.

I find putting a little moss around the top of the planter helps keep the moisture in, but also adds to the natural look.

Handle with care

I hadn’t realised that Brian had been putting off attaching our new handles to the cupboard doors. I thought he was just waiting until he’d made the final cupboard door. But he told me yesterday that he’d been concerned about not getting them level.

After a bit of encouragement, he decided today was the day. First thing first, remove the old handles. We were missing one, which is why we had to buy replacements. We’d found some old style ‘arts and crafts’ ones on the internet, which would suit our styling really well. He got the trusty laser out to ensure they would be level across all four doors.

I was curious then, as he pulled an old cereal box out of the recycling. And proceeded to trace and cut out, what looked like a template. He used this to accurately position where he needed to drill the holes in the doors, and then carefully screw the handles on.

Voila, four beautiful looking new handles, that are laser level. Just perfect.

A painter’s light

Famous as the inspirational country residence of Renoir, Essoyes is a beautiful village just five minutes from our Chambre d’hôte. This bucolic little village had such an impact on his spirit that he decided it would be his final resting place. His grave stone, alongside his wife’s, is kept immaculately in the tranquil village cemetery.

We had to pop in to Essoyes for a couple of small jobs. The light when we arrived though was so magnificent that we decided to take a walk around the village.

It’s such a beautiful place, and with the Renoir museum, his studio and his recently renovated home to visit it’s a lovely day out.

All lit up

When we bought our house, back in 2015, one of the only rooms that had a light in it was the old library. We hadn’t paid much attention to it, and it was looking a bit unloved and very dusty. We had even thought about replacing it, but I realised I really quite liked it—it just needed a bit of care.

Brian took it down for me earlier this week, and I started to carefully clean it. I obviously can’t get it too wet, but careful washing of the crystals and metal arms soon had it glistening.

There were three candle-like casings covering the light bulb holders, which were looking a bit tired. We were going to replace them with new plastic ones, which we had bought a while back, but when we removed them we realised they were tubes of wood, with plaster mouldings. Obviously original, we instead gave them a coat of paint and slid them back into place.

Whilst I did this, Brian got on with fitting the ceiling rose.

The next step was to pop a new connector onto the wires, and Brian created a small metal hook to hang it safely from the ceiling through the centre of the ceiling rose. We also needed to add a ceiling cup of some kind to cover the wires, fortunately a trip to Brian’s ‘box of treasure’ revealed a suitable porcelain cup to use.

Brian also suggested that we need to look for some shades to fix to the bulbs, “hah, I already have some” I exclaimed, and dashed off to find them. They have a simple, cream silk covering, but are quite pretty. I’d bought them a while back, thinking our dining room shades would need replacing at some point and these would work perfectly. I can easily look out for others though.

With everything now in place the tricky task of fixing it to the ceiling began. Jobs that require your arms to be above your head are always a little difficult, and this one was particularly tricky, but we were soon admiring our sparkling newly renovated chandelier.

A thousand layers

A good friend had bought us a tube of crème de marron, from Boissier a celebrated shop in Paris, and it set Brian thinking. “I’d like to make a millefeuilles” he said. Well a millefeuilles is a rather dainty little pastry made with puff pastry and crème patisserie. We’d never made one before, but how hard could it be?

We started by baking the puff pastry between two metal baking trays, to stop it from rising. When done, Brian cut them into equal sized rectangles.

I made a crème patisserie with a secret ingredient (some really fresh, farm made advocaat from Bruges). We dolloped on the crème patisserie, in between the pastry layers. A few drizzles of the crème de marron, some whipped cream and they were ready to go.

I think we still have a bit of work to do on the presentation, as they may have looked a little rustic. However they were quite delicious. I do have a few ideas on how we could improve them.

Pizza

We love discovering a new restaurant in our area, and last weekend some friends introduced us to a nice little bar that also served pizzas. It has been recently renovated and is situated opposite the train station in Vendeuvre-Sur-Barse, so will hopefully get some good custom. It was a very pleasant, lively atmosphere when we were there.

They have a wood fired pizza oven, and offer two sizes of pizza, although we all went for the 31 cm, as we were all hungry. Brian had the calzone, which is a pizza wrapped over into a kind of pasty.

It was a very enjoyable evening, and we came away thoroughly full up.

Finishing line

The library really is in its final stages of finishing. Over the past few days Brian has finished putting the coving up, which has really pulled the room together. It’s amazing how coving finishes off a ceiling. We personalised ours by using plain coving as a base, then added an additional wooden moulding strip to give it more presence, and more in keeping with the house.

On the bookshelves he still has one final upright to go in, but I’ve been a bit slow in getting it linseeded. It’s done now, so that will happen very shortly.

He’s also just stuck two of the top decorative pieces into place on the uprights. Again, these really bring the bookcase and drawer unit together.

He’s also cut the wood to fit the gaps below the drawer unit. These have been linseeded now, and will be fitted once fully dry.

We had thought we should do the cupboard door before we start the main door into the room, but we are conscious we would like this door completed before March, and that really does not seem so far away now.

A lot of chocolate

There’s little wrong with a breakfast of croissant, confiture, yogurt, fruit juice and coffee, but I felt Brian might appreciate a little change, so I thought next time I’m at the supermarket I’d get him some cereal.

The next day, I found myself in the breakfast cereal isle, looking to see what they had, but ‘ooh-la-la!’, there were so many chocolate cereals. Now I know the French are partial to a hot chocolate in the morning, and a pain au chocolat, but goodness, this seemed a tad too far.

I persevered though, and a bit further along I found some familiar branded cornflakes. Brian is very happy with a little crispy change, and for me it’s banana and bran.