Animal Rescue

I have been asked by a friend of mine to promote this very important cause.

Animal Rescue
Hi, all you animal lovers. This is pretty simple… Please tell ten friends
to tell ten today! The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough
people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated
every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute (How
about 20 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box ‘fund food
for animals’ for free. This doesn’t cost you a thing. Their corporate
sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to
abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.
Here’s the web site! Pass it along to people you know

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

Please give it a click, it will help all those needy suffering animals!

 

What are you reading?

Whilst in hospital last year on permanent bed rest waiting for my little one to make an appearance I read a mountain of books. My tastes were varied and ranged from Labyrinth by Kate Mosse where I could vividly imagine the characters & the places since the book is based in the Aude & Hérault, to the Janet Evanovich books – which made me laugh out loud I thought my waters would break and then I worked my way through several of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith. The nurses were all amazed at how much I read. Apparently most mums-to-be watched tv!

Now motherhood is in full swing my reading time has almost vanished and it seems to take me ages to finish a book.The last few days the weather has been stunning and as a result I have sat Manon Lily in her pram in the garden and allowed myself the luxury of a glass of chilled white wine from Cambriel’s at Ornaisons and my latest book – The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. This morning the tears flowed as I turned the final pages of this stunning read. A story of bonds, sorrow and eventually honesty. I can’t wait to buy his second book A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I would be really interested in seeing the film The Kite Runner but fear that it may not live up to the book and my own expectations. Having said that the trailer for the film looks fantastic! I have just googled the trailer and am amazed to see there are different versions of the same trailer. Here is another version for the film.

Speaking of reading & writing, Diane over at Much of a muchness has a real skill for covering books. I keep persuading her to come and take part in our Rencontre de l’art & des saveurs in April and can’t wait for her to launch her own etsy site to sell these stunning works of art. I’m sure she won’t mind me showing you a couple of them….

This one is aptly named “snakeskin”

and I just love this “striped album” too

Diane has recently passed on an award to me: read about it here.

A polymer clay creation for Yo!

Since the oven is off and out of bounds for a couple of weeks as building working has begun in earnest in the soon to be new-look Lunes Bijoux studio, I thought I would share one of my previous creations with you.

The necklace is made from polymer clay and is really light to wear. I was asked to produce something striking in reds, oranges & yellows and was really given carte blanche to produce exactly what I felt like. I love it when my clients just let me be so creative! I was dying to experiment with lots of contrasting patterns & tones and since I knew the person I was creating for I knew she would be able to carry off such a bold design.

Using rolled canes, mokume gane & skinner blends I came up with this striking piece. The great thing about it is that it is totally unique and Yo knows that when she wears it she will never bump into an exact same copy! It’s one of my guarantees that I will not produce exactly the same twice and having hand mixed the colours I don’t think I could re-produce it again if I tried!

You are Toadally Awesome Award

What’s that saying it doesn’t rain it pours? Well now I have increased my circle of blog buddies I am now on the end of receiving and giving awards. I think like many other bloggers I will have to have a separate page for these! I can live in hope!

Colin over at Life has passed this award onto me from Kim at Purplefrogcat. My sincere thanks to Kim for launching it and to Colin for passing it on. Kim asks that each person awarded hand it out to 15 bloggers (I don’t know that many…..) will have to get networking!

I think I will come back and pass this award on as my circle of buddies grows…..

Wow a first for me!

Many thanks to Susie at No damn blog for honouring me with my very first award!

  I am going to pass this award on to Matt & Angela of Two Yolks a fab blog dedicated to their culinary experiences! And also to Kristin at French Word-A-Day such a great blog to read, shame it’s only three times a week now!

On another note I was featured in the Midi Libre newspaper yesterday. It was an article regarding the Arts & Culture association in Luc Sur Orbieu and our forthcoming event.

Work has started on the studio and Andy my husband is demolishing walls as I write. Manon Lily is fast asleep and I have boxes of gemstones to pack up and protect.  So without further ado….

An award for…..

I haven’t been on the blogging scene long and am still learning the hows, whys and wheres but I do feel that I am making progress! My progress has come about not only by trial, error and fiddling but also thanks to the help & support of a few key people.

Therefore I would like to present the following awards to the following buddies!

to Colin of Life thanks for showing me the scroll box!

to Diane at Much of a muchness who makes stunning books but hasn’t got around to selling them yet! If only she would come to France!

to Susie at No damn blog whose book I read before meeting her on Total France then finding her here!

Rubs & Marinades

We BBQ all year round and as a consequence I love marinading meat & fish. A while ago I was sent an on-line copy of Jamie Oliver’s book – then one that was never really published. For easy of use I have printed off his marinade / rubs and have them to hand in the kitchen. So I just thought I would share the following with you….

Cajun Spicy Rub

2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon black peppercorns, ground
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
3 tablespoons onion flakes
2 tablespoons dried oregano
Salt

Fennel Seed, Thyme and Garlic Rub

4 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 good handfuls fresh thyme leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf, ripped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Hot and Fragrant Rub

2 tablespoons fennel seeds, crushed
2 tablespoons cumin seeds, crushed
2 tablespoons coriander seeds, crushed
1/2 tablespoons fenugreek seeds, crushed
1/2 tablespoon black peppercorns, crushed
1 clove, crushed
1/2 a cinnamon stick, broken into small pieces2 cardamom pods, crushed
Salt

Rosemary, Garlic and Lemon Marinade

2 good handfuls fresh rosemary, pounded
6 cloves garlic, crushed
10 lugs (10 tablespoons) olive oil
3 lemons, halved, juiced and skin squashed
Freshly ground black pepper

Yoghurt, Mint and Lime Marinade

1 pint natural organic yoghurt
2 good handfuls of fresh mint, chopped
2 limes, zested and juiced
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, crushed

Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A couple of lugs (2 tablespoons) olive oil

Asian Marmalade

2 stalks lemon grass, crushed and bruised
1 small handful kaffir lime leaves, torn
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 thumb-sized piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped
2 limes, zested, halved, and juiced
10 good lugs (tablespoons) olive oil

 

 

Chicken & Apricot Tagine

I love trying out new recipes and often follow a hunch I have for something mixing flavours and textures to suit.

The following recipe is my own “concoction”. It serves 6 people

You will need

6 chicken portions

3 lemon confit

garlic

ginger

ras el hanout

1.5 litres of chicken stock

2 medium onions

4 large tomatoes

1 can of chick peas

handful of dried apricots

3 tablespoons of tomato puree

Method

1. Brown the chicken portions in a large pan / tagine
2. Add chopped garlic and ginger, season.
   
3. Add the lemons to the chicken (if you don’t have confit available I boil them and then squeeze insides through a sieve)
4. Add 3 desert spoons of Ras el Hanout spice stir and slowly add about 0.5 litre of stock, bring to boil.
5. Add chopped onions and chopped tomatoes along with chick peas and another 0.5 litres of chicken stock. Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Check every now and again to make sure it is not sticking, add extra stock if necessary.
6. After about an hour taste, season if required, at this point I always add an extra desert spoon of spice and tomato puree along with the extra stock.
7. Simmer again – the longer the better. In total I cooked mine for about 2.5 hours.

To Serve

• About 10 minutes before serving add the apricots
• Serve with either rice, pitta or potatoes.
  
• We had a crisp white wine to accompany the soup – Carte Noire from Bérail Laragrde, Luc Sur Orbieu