Storm Xynthia
March 2010
In the early hours of Sunday morning (1st March) we were awakened by the sound of hurricane winds battering the house.
We get quite a lot of high winds here so we are quite used to it but this was something different. It just seemed to get louder and louder and we thought the house was going to blow away! We could hear tiles coming of the roof and lots of crashing and banging. We were wondering what we were going to find when the morning came.
By early morning the electricity and phone were both down, thank goodness we have a gas hob at least we could have a cup of tea!
We were very lucky here as we only had a few tiles off the roofs and two trees uprooted. We believe the forest which is opposite us saved us from the full force of the wind. You can see from the photos below it just uprooted massive trees in the forest.
Further down in the Vendee region and in La Rochelle there was devastation. Boats were lifted out of the water in the harbour and roads and houses were destroyed. We consider ourselves quite lucky to have only been without electricity and phone for one day only as there were over a million homes without power.
Leave a Message [1]
The great wall of logs!
February 2010
Well they have certainly had a busy day in our local forest!
Requested recipes
January 2010
Blackcurrant or Blackberry tart.
Use a very rich pastry either bought or make your own and line a flan tin.
For the filling.
500g of whichever berries you are using, stalks removed.
2 eggs
125g unrefined caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling.
175ml double cream
25g flour
1 dessertspoonful of crá½³me de cassis .
Heat the oven to 200c/ gas 6
Place the berries in the prepared pastry case. Mix together the eggs, sugar, cream,flour and cassis until smooth and pour over the fruit.
Lightly sprinkle with a little extra sugar and bake for 35 minutes or until it is firm to the touch.
Blueberries or raspberries can also be used for this tart.
Recipe for Perigordine walnut cake
January 2010
250g shelled walnuts
120g unsalted butter
250g brown sugar
4 eggs
Preheat the oven to 150c (300F /Gas mark2)
Create the cake mixture
Add the walnuts (reserving ten for later) into the blender and grind for two minutes on full power until they have the consistency of breadcrumbs. Whisk the butter and sugar in a bowl and then stir in the ground walnuts using a spatula.
Add the eggs
Separate the egg yolks from the white and add the yolks into the bowl of walnut mixture, on by one. Beat the whites until they become stiff and then fold into the mixture.
Place the mixture into a well greased and lined spring form baking tin. (line with baking parchment.
Place into the centre of a preheated oven and bake for roughly one hour. After about forty minutes, check it. Carefully spear the centre of the cake with a skewer and if it comes out dry the cake is ready.
When ready to serve sprinkle the cake with icing sugar and decorate with the remaining walnuts.
Merry Christmas and a happy New year to everyone
December 2009
