Sunday 15 July 2012

Bastille Day Dinner


Margaret's table setting for the meal.


Fleur de Lis serviettes


The centre piece: a small statuette Martin brought back for me from Paris,  a bottle of brandy, a few red, white & blue things and a small replica gargoyle from Notre Dame.

Initially dinner was going to be for three.

Then five.

Then six.

Then eight.

All that changed was the main: had been planning a French CafĂ© style steak and triple cooked chips.  Not too happy doing steaks properly for eight people at once so went to Plan B.

And so, the meal:

Pink fizzy drink (The Arrogant Frog brand, I couldn't resist.)
Musette de Paris CD on as mood music. (Stereotypical French piano accordion music)

Starter: 
French Onion Soup.
◊ cooked 2kg of sliced, sauteed onions in the slow cooker for 6hrs.  Will definitely do that again.

Main 
Boeuf Bourguignon
◊ Made at lunch time and put in the hay-box for the afternoon and then into the oven when the potatoes went in.

Potato Dauphinoise
◊ Nothing different here, potatoes, onion, garlic, cream & milk baked until crisp on top and soft in the middle.

Green Salad
◊ With French Dressing, of course.  Proper vinaigrette, home made.

Dessert
Tarte Tatin and cream.
◊ Used Golden Delicious apples and had enough for a double layer of apple crescents (cut into eighths).

Cheese platter was abandoned due to lack of interest.

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Wednesday 11 July 2012

Clever Little Google! Sneaky Little Google!


I had heard about things that you could do with Google Images - notably dropping an image into the search box and letting Google Images look for matches.  Said to be a good way to identify those long forgotten buildings in your holiday happy-snaps.

Tried it with the photo of Martin & Roni, above.

Google Images found no matches as such but was able to recognise the poster on the wall behind them.



Monday 9 July 2012

Three Boys and a Girl

Martin & Roni

Our three sons - Simon, Richard & Martin.
Inverse relationship between height & age.
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