Category Archives: Baking

Soft centred Sundae…..

There is such a silence this Sunday morning. Even the birds are in quiet contemplation. The soft hum of the computer and the click clack of the keyboard  is all that breaks the hush. Once it would have been the … Continue reading

Posted in 2013, Art photography, Bad luck, baking, Baking, cake, coffee, Cooking, desserts, Digital photography, Expectation, food, Food and Photography, Food photographer, France, Fruit, Les Saints de Glace, Miracle, muffin, oranges, Photography, photography course, Photography holiday, St.Mamert, St.Pancrace, St.Servais, Sugar, summer, Sunday, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 32 Comments

Nobody hears an apple scream…..

Had the Swiss version of apple ducking taken place in the present “caring” climate, William Tell’s son would have been whisked away by Social Services before you could say “Please, Daddy, stop firing arrows at my head”. The Swiss, with … Continue reading

Posted in 2013, apple crumble, apple tart on puff pastry, apples, baked apples, baking, Blackberry, Caroline Conran, Cookery Writers, Cooking, crumble, Demerara, desserts, Digital photography, Excellence, food, Food and Photography, Food photographer, France, Fruit, Granny Smith apples, Humour, Language, Molasses, Photography, photography course, Photography holiday, puff pastry, Recipes, Sugar, tart, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 52 Comments

Ladies who lunch..Chez Papa..

Uncovering treasure is not an accurate science. I say this with an authority that I do not possess, as treasure and I are rarely, if ever, seen together or even spoken of in the same breath. The same can be … Continue reading

Posted in 2013, Art photography, Baking, Bistro, Choc ice, Chocolate, Coffee, Cooking, Cuisine bourgeoise, desserts, Digital photography, Drinks, Excellence, Expectation, family, financiers, fireplace, food, Food and Photography, Food photographer, France, French countryside, friendship, harmony, Humour, Kitchens, Noa grape, perfect day, Photography, photography course, Photography holiday, summer, Uncategorized, Vines, Vineyard, Wine, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 49 Comments

Je mange bien tous les jours…..another week of good food.

Les oeufs meurette are an intense combination of eggs, lardons, mushrooms, shallots, garlic and red wine that has the power to revive me when I’m not at my best. It has nothing to do with the wonderful recipes from Laurence … Continue reading

Posted in 2013, Baking, bream, Cookery Writers, creme fraiche, Cuisine bourgeoise, Digital photography, Eggs, Fish, Fruit, Health, Illusion, Indolence, Laurence Mery-Clark, Liver, Money for nothing, Oeufs meurette, offal, pasta, Pear Clafoutis, Pears, Photography, photography course, Photography holiday, Recipes, Stephane Reynaud, Vegetables, Virtual, Weather, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 41 Comments

I’ll be yours in buttons and bows…..

I had a favourite aunt who was firm in the belief that men put on dresses when they wanted to appear really important, and it appears that the clergy are keen followers of my aunt’s views. The Ku Klux Klan … Continue reading

Posted in 2013, Arrogance, Art photography, baking, cake, Digital photography, Excellence, Excess, feather, food, Food and Photography, Food photographer, Humour, hypocrisy, Icing sugar, Illusion, Photography, photography course, Photography holiday, Religion, Sugar, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 36 Comments

the bitterness of sugar…..

Financiers the world over are suffering and my heart bleeds for them, poor little bankers. These sanguine emotions have awakened the atavistic cannibal in me, so I’ve started to eat them, financiers that is, at every opportunity. One might say … Continue reading

Posted in 2013, Arrogance, Art photography, baking, Baking, Cooking, desserts, Excellence, financiers, financiers, Photography, photography course, Photography holiday, Recipes, Sugar, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 46 Comments

Cracks start to show in cake security..

The picture above clearly illustrates the shortcomings of the cake safe. Having made a cake, I place it on a cake stand under the cake dome where it will be free from the ravages of mice, should there be one. … Continue reading

Posted in 2013, Baking, cake, Cooking, Cream, Digital photography, Eggs, food, Food and Photography, Food photographer, Humour, Phantom, Photography, photography course, Photography holiday, Still life, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 46 Comments

Hot chocolate virgin…

This country drips chocolate from every pore. In provincial France,  good chocolatiers are nearly as ubiquitous as shoe shops, which only sell grotesque shoes, opticians and dodgy hair dressers upon which trio the French economy appears to depend. The illusion … Continue reading

Posted in 2013, Apricot jam, Art photography, baking, Baking, Brownies, Digital photography, Dogs, Expectation, food, Food and Photography, Food photographer, France, Hot choclate, Humour, perfect day, Poodles, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 39 Comments

Too many cooks…..

If there is one thing that I cannot abide. If only there was but one thing, rather than the extensive and ever growing catalogue of things that I cannot abide: but that is not the case. The furnace of my … Continue reading

Posted in 2013, Arrogance, baking, Baking, Cooking, Cream, Dante's Inferno, desserts, Digital photography, food, Food and Photography, Humour, Kitchens, Memory, Photography, photography course, Photography holiday, Savage Breast, Sugar, tart, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 34 Comments

Drive out the blues with brioche and apricot jam…

There is a mordant sadness, that is nearly tangible, about such a miserable February morning as this one . Normal antidotes, such as lighting the fire, and listening to Radio 4 with a steaming bowl of coffee cupped between slowly warming hands, seem … Continue reading

Posted in 2013, Apricot jam, Brioche, Coffee, Digital photography, Emotion, Excellence, food, Food and Photography, Food photographer, harmony, Humour, Metamorphosis, Photography, photography course, Photography holiday, Rain, Sunday, Sunday breakfast, Toast, Weather, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 46 Comments