Lemon meringue pie

Pie dish 30cm diameter and 5cm deep
This size fits the round pastry from our supermarket
Short crust pastry to cover the pie dish. It can be sweet or not (or puff pastry also works)
Lemon curd (or other flavour curd or apple puree) to fill the dish about 1.5 cm deep (this recipe makes the right amount)
Meringue  (4 egg whites, 200g sugar)

Blind bake the pastry while you make the meringue
To make the meringue beat the egg whites until stiff and standing in peaksa. Add the sugar and beat a little bit more until well mixed.
Put in the curd and then the meringue - spoon the meringue round the edge first and smooth it to touch the pastry, then fill in the middle

Cook for 30 mins at 180°C

Yet more skiing photos

Lots of the snow melted because it got warm and rained. But then it got colder again and snowed for a couple of days while we were up there creating a winter wonderland a new.

However the light was quite flat and it was hard to ski because everything just looked white and it was really hard to see dips and stuff, resulting in a few falls when my brain freaked out that the world had flipped upside down.

We were just about to call it a day when all of a sudden the sun came out and we were able to ski the beauuuutiful powder. Out legs our now knackered!

You will notice Doug's new jacket.

Footcare on the farm

Sadly not all sunny days can be spent skiing. There is still all the animals to look after (and of course the bedroom).
We moved the sheep and wormed them and at the same time gave them a foot trim. They get this done every three months.
The horses get their feet trimmed every 2 weeks in the summer and every 3 or 4 weeks in the winter when they are growing more slowly. Generally we like to do it on a less rainy and muddy day - so the sun coming out meant it was time to get to it.

Here is Owen's super muddy foot pre trim

Poppy inspecting Owen's trimmed foot.

What a mucky horse

Hello I got left behind when the rest of the flock moved because I am waaaay too stupid to follow my mum

'No no don't cut off my feet! I am a good sheep!'

Doug also fitted in some work on the steps needed in the bedroom

Decorating the La Mongie apartment

We have many many many ideas, but they have to get distilled down in to something that will work. We normally don't have this much problem deciding what to do with a room. It is the amount of wood wall we are finding difficult. Initially we thought we would paint it white or remove it, but we have grown to like it.
Now we are trying to come up with a 'Modern 60s chalet chic' concept that incorporates it

We will probably paint the pine panelling between the windows here as it is just too much along with the nicer wood and potentially some wood furniture. The TV will stay here but needs to be lowered. There will be unit under it.

The sofa (clic-clac) will remain, but with a different cover on it. The colour keeps changing in our minds at the moment. Clearly the wall behind needs painting at least. It is textured in a way I think we could maybe get used to but Doug hates (not wall paper or wood chip - it is a plaster finish looks like)

Here we think a taller unit instead of this short one. The snowboard thingy is there until we agree whether to throw it out (me) or use it or sell it or something (Doug)

We have a round table (see lower down) to go here instead of the long one and the unit there will go. We plan on a bigger mirror where the mirror is and a bigger picture where our little picture is at the moment.

This is the new table, bargain of 'leboncoin' (which is like ebay but you have to go and fetch things). I want to paint the legs cream/white but we are not 100% sure that is a good idea yet. It is a 60s imitation of an old french style.

We will paint various other things we are hoping to get on leboncoin at bargain prices but cannot settle on the colour yet - along with the colours for curtains and the sofa.
Current thinking is furniture painted white/cream and a blue/green/teal and some red accents like cushions and the curtains also blue/green/teal and the sofa chocolate (or maybe blue/green/teal) - but we shall see... There are some practicalities to consider as it will be rented out (hopefully a lot!) and the dog has black hair which gets on everything.

We are currently still sleeping on the floor in the bedroom. Beds should arrive soon!

More skiing

Sorry for endless skiing photos - well not very sorry really!
The weather has been variable with a lot of rain. The wettest winter we have had here, lot of wind too. However there have been beautiful skiing days interspersed and it has been great having the apartment in the ski area to help us take full advantage.

Dawn (ie about 8.30) walking the dog

Later in the day

Cloudier the next day

Our apartment is pretty much in the center of this photo

This is a video of Poppy and Doug (doesn't work on all devices)

Dramatic clouds

Taken from just outside the apartment at dawn while walking the dog (dawn being about 8.30!)

All the rest were taken skiing

Many Seville Oranges

I ordered 15kg of seville oranges from these guys and shared them with some friends.
This left me with 6kg to do things with.

They were really lovely juicy oranges, the best sevilles I have ever had. They deliver to the UK and France and various other EU places. They do all sorts of other oranges and I think lemons too - I am thinking of ordering some juicing ones...

I made marmalade, curd, vin d'orange, orange gin and orangecello.

There were two batches of marmalade, one made by slicing the skins fine and the other by mincing them in the kitchen aid. I used a juicer for both to extract the juice and separate the pips before mixing with the peel.

Chopped peel

Minced peel

Orangecello Recipe

It’s like Limoncello but with (seville) oranges d’you see?

1.5 liter jar

Zest peeled from 3 seville oranges
Zest peeled from 1 lemon
1l strong plain spirit, eg vodka (ideally 100% proof)
600g sugar
300ml water

The process is the same as for limoncello http://laviealapetiteferme.blogspot.fr/2012/05/limoncello-recipe.html

Seville Orange Gin

70cl gin
2 seville oranges
70g sugar (or to taste)

Put ingredients in a sealable jar. I use a 1.5l kilner jar.
Leave for a month or more in a cool place out of the sun. Shake occasionaly
Strain and bottle.

Seville Orange Curd Recipe

Grated zest of 1/2 a seville orange or 1 lemon

Juice of 3 seville oranges

200g sugar

100g butter

3 eggs and yolk of 1 more egg

Method is the same as for lemon curd http://laviealapetiteferme.blogspot.fr/2014/02/lemon-curd-recipe.html

Vin d’Orange

3l rosé wine
75ml vodka
500g sugar
8 seville oranges (perhaps 2kg)

Mix everything together and leave for about a month
Strain and bottle
Drink neat or over ice

Poppy on the drag-lift

It was very quiet in the ski area on Saturday due to it being the end of the school holidays and snowing heavily. So we took the opportunity to take Poppy up one of the drag-lifts and down a closed piste a few times. She had super fun and was tired for at least a day afterwards!

Running alongside the drag-lift

Running back down the piste.

She overtook me the first few times round

Fab Christmas present!

I have finally got round to giving this ago. I was super excited about it, but also a bit daunted as reviews on the internet make it sounds awesome but potentially tricky to get the hang of (correct wet/dryness to the mixture mainly but partly flour type etc).
It probably helped that I went on a pasta making course many years ago. It really helps with what the dough looks like when it is right.

It was sooo successful now I am worried I have peaked on my first go and will never achieve such perfection again!

These are giant macaroni...

... and fusilli

There there some other shapes too. A smaller macaroni, a bigger macaroni like thing (but called something else), spaghetti and a thing which is like fat spaghetti with a whole down the middle.

They tasted good too...

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

I am wondering if we might be better building an Ark rather than a house. It will need to float well on mud as well as water.

The rain starts to get quite depressing after a while because everything turns to mud.

The chickens eating in the mud

Owen beside his mud swamp (which is much better than precious years considering the amount of rain. Doug dug it all off with the mini digger before winter).

Hainoa eating hay in the mud

Looking on the bright side (hard to do day after day of MUD and WET and COLD):

• The rain here is snow in the ski area. 
• We don't have to live out in the rain like the animals (and we can escape the mud up to La Mongie which they cannot).
• We worry sometimes whether the spring might dry up if it is dry for too long.
• In the summer we will be complaining it is too hot.
• We had the chimneys taken off so the roof doesn't leak.