Decorating Frenzy

While Doug was doing a lot of work on the kitchen in La Mongie and at various other points I have been busy making curtains and cushions as well as art for the walls in the flat in St.Andrews

Poppy finds sewing very boring and likes to take up residence on the material in protest. These are curtains for St.A

New cushions for La Mongie.

Three of these printed on aluminium above one of the beds in St.A

Cushions for St.A

In the living room at St.A - printed a meter tall

One of these above the other bed in St.A

I wanted to use this somewhere but could not squeeze it in. Maybe on a mug sometime!

Trying to entertain Poppy with a bone so she leaves us alone to get on with our work!

Shoal of wooden fish for the bunk room in St.A, the tartan one was printed and the white ones spray painted, this is not all of them.

Boats and lighthouse I created for the hallway in St.A

Doing the stuff for St.A has been a bit stressful as it is difficult from far away to imagine what things will look like and to get sizes right. It should be available to rent any moment now!

Bees are busy

To steal Doug's line... 'Un-bee-lievable weather!'. It has been so warm recently that the bees have been out and about despite it only being the start of February.

I am sure there is a bee in the picture somewhere...

Bread Baking Lesson

We have a friend who used to be a chef and then teach cooking, he very kindly came round and gave us a bread baking lesson. I learnt lots, it is really good to have someone show you how something should look and feel that isn't possible to get from reading. I learnt to shape rolls and a big loaf much better than before as well as getting a feel for when the dough is risen enough, and getting encouraged to make a leaven before making the dough.

Failed to get photos during the making as was concentrating so hard!

Sad farewell to our EU membership

I try to stay away from politics on the blog, but both of us are feeling upset about the whole brexit mess. We think it is a huge mistake, quite apart from the fact that we live in France and although it doesn't have drastic immediate consequences it is bound to make things more difficult over the years.

We 'celebrated' with some champagne, breaking dry January a few hours early.

Good luck to us all!

Growing things

I have started growing 'micro greens'. We have been growing bean sprouts for a while as a good quick way to have tasty veg for stir fry and salads. Micro greens are an extension of this where you plant the seeds in a very thin layer of compost and eat the leaves what grow. We have had broccoli raab (not actually broccoli) as well as broad beans and chickpeas.

I have also tried planting some strawberries in to horse poo (quite well matured). Possibly it might turn out to be too strong and rich for them, we shall see.

Burn's Night

Nice walk during the day and then Burn's supper in the evening

You can almost see our house from the lunch spot

Great views

Poppy was exhausted after the walk so hardly noticed when we left her for the evening

It was dry January so we avoided the whisky!

I am not sure the green stuff is very authentically scots

These antlers are ones Doug found on our land. Cool to have them used. We are thinking of hanging them somewhere in La Mongie

You can just see us dancing in the background here. It was a bit chaotic because even the caller didn't really know how to scottish country dance... they kept starting the dances right at the beginning of the music rather than waiting for the intro to finish. Then everything after that was not on the right bar. However fun was had, we danced The Gay Gordon, The Military Two Step, Strip the Willow and The Dashing White Sergeant.

Soft White Bread Recipe

I am on a bread making frenzy at the moment. I want to make bread that can go in the sandwich maker (12cm x 12 cm) and it needs to be nice and fluffy and not holey so the filling stays in...
I have tried a number of recipes

640g plain flour (T45 protein 9%)
2tsp yeast (1 sachet)
70 ml warm water
260 ml warm water
25g sugar
1 tsp salt
27g butter

1lb bread tin

Put the yeast in to the smaller amount of warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer and leave for 5 mins
Add the rest of the water and all other ingredients, but only 300g of the flour at this point.
Mix until combined, then add flour slowly until a soft dough is achieved.
Continue to mix for 7 to 10 mins until the dough comes away from the edge of the bowl
Shape in to a ball and place back in the bowl and over it with a tea towel and allow to rise until doubled in size (45 mins to an hour)
Gently shape in to a rectangle about 30 x 25 cm
Roll the rectangle tightly from the short size, tuck the ends under and put in your bread tin
Cover and allow to rise until doubled in size (30 to 45 mins)
Cook in an oven preheated to 200°C

This came out quite well, but felt it could be fluffier. The method was quite a faff so I am unlikely to bother with it, but we shall see, I like to give things a chance. Might try this method with a stronger bread flour to see what happens

Another attempt
400g T65 flour (protein 11%)
240g warm water
15g butter
20g sugar
1 tsp salt
4g yeast

Melt butter in warm water
Mix everything together
Rest for 10 mins
Kneed for 10 mins or until done
Rise for 45 mons or doubled in size
Shape by squishing in to a rectangle and rolling up and folding the ends over
Leave until doubled in size (30mins ish)
Bake at 200 until brown and sounds hollow

This one was a little too sweet and still not quite fluffy enough, but better... I need to try a stronger bread flour I think