Breaking Through, Travelling On

rtandon27

Karmacat wrote: »

...Better get those quince in before it gets dark ...

Yum - love quince! - have you an idea of what you will be making with them?

Once (many moons ago) in uni, I made cotignac of quince out of the larousse gastronomique - It was sooooo amazing - gave most of it away for posh xmas presents that year - only the cost of sugar and electric to cook it down (jars were recycled so free!) It's a bit like guava cheese that seems to constantly be red-stickered in our local wa!tr0$e.

Karmacat

Wow ... I think of quince jelly as Spanish, actually, to go with manchego cheese, and specialty ham (though not for me!).

I think I'll stick with the jelly, ie filter it - having seen the look of the quinces, I don't fancy eating them, even if I had blitzed them - they're not smooth like the pictures, they're ugly brutes, it has to be whispered :rotfl: and I've definitely started to process them too early, should have waited for them to mature.

Hungry now. I never stop but let me know how your studying has gone.

edinburgher

Haha - good to see someone else with a copy of the Larousse Gastronomique

gallygirl

edinburgher wrote: »

Haha - good to see someone else with a copy of the Larousse Gastronomique

Is that like a French version of Jamie Does !!!!!* (which is what my DS calls his frugal cookbook :rotfl:)

*That would be p i k e y

rtandon27

Karmacat wrote: »

...but let me know how your studying has gone...

Awww KC - you are just so sweet to ask :kisses3: - the actual studying made my head hurt - the reality is that cogs turned in ways that I'd forgotten - yesterday's exam went well - finished in 85 minutes (was given 90) - today's exam I've done twice before for other competitions and acheived between 80% & 90% both times - I'm no longer worried that in only takes me 30 minutes out of 75 to complete, just means I'm actually good at something!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

edinburgher wrote: »

Haha - good to see someone else with a copy of the Larousse Gastronomique

gallygirl wrote: »

Is that like a French version of Jamie Does !!!!! (which is what my DS calls his frugal cookbook :rotfl:)

Ed & GG - I love the larousse but sadly don't actually own it - lived with a family of librarians in uni & the tome was actually theirs, but I was the only one in the house who used it as a cookbook instead of a reference book - the pops of the family used to ask me every weekend what treats we were going to have! Cooking out of it is such an amazing way to learn 'classics' and technique.

Karmacat

We've got a RL Julie and Julia thing going on :j wow, RT, am tres impressed

I, on the other hand, have O level cookery - and the cookbook of choice was the Stork Margarine Cookery Book, which each of us had to write to Stork to ask for, free of charge My cookery teacher actually told me that she was really surprised I passed :eek::rotfl:

The quince is slowly draining through the sieve. No muslin lines said sieve - so it won't be jelly after all, it'll be a little bit like the cotignac. Some of the stuff in the sieve is quite mushy, paste-like, and *all* of it is more appealing than the raw fruit. So I think its going to taste really good, eventually. Fascinating process! Got to get to bed now tho, I'm a wee bit tired...

Hope all's well. Will just have a little pootle about the diaries ...


ETA - Jamie Does !!!!! definitely sounds rude

Karmacat

The quince is definitely going to be paste - no clear jellies here :rotfl: I'm also going to take bits of the mush and put it in the stuff thats going to be boiled up again to put sugar in - it looks so nice! Like slurpy golden marzipan :rotfl:

So, I have to do a to-do list, though it should be a ta-da list, but I need to prioritise, some bits are more urgent than others:
- pay my French management company. I rested on my laurels yesterday, so I need to pay attention today. Stupid French bank has only just written to me about the tax bill thing on Friday, which has thankfully been sorted out days ago by my accountant.
- ebay listings. If not, they'll be going into December :eek:
- book flu jab
- book dental appointment. These two things should take a max. of 10 minutes total, and I really need to do them.
- finish off the quince cotignac :beer:

Five items, two of which are very short. I'm going to pretend I'll manage all those by about 2pm, because I need to get my act together to meet my deadline for stencils and book :eek:

Karmacat

For my own sanity, I had to post an update about France ... I've been building up to it for the last hour, tried to console myself by starting to read Tilly's mfw diary from the beginning ... finally got up the nerve to gather all the French information together, and find a cheap way of ringing up, which is what I had to do to set up the direct debit equivalent (and thank you Martin, for the number on the main site, I called France at 0.5p per minute!!!).

So I got through, a bad line on the other end, apparently, but after I started bellowing it was incredibly simple. And thats that: "the next time you log on, it will be there, and you can pay them". Huh ... I've come on here partly to let that change process through their website, partly to say, that was *the* most neutrally-voiced person I've ever spoken to! English, obviously working in France, but really, that guy should have some :EasterBun even if it isn't Easter.

Right. I'm going back in. Hopefully, I'm only going to be gone about three minutes, and I'll add my success to the bottom of this post

Goldiegirl

Ah, the Stork Margarine Cookery Book.

I still have my copy!

I didn't do O level cookery, but I started to get more interested in cookery when I was about 17' so I sent away for the book, and practiced the recipes on my long suffering mum and dad.

I still refer to the book from time to time now, it's a bit battered, but it does the trick.

Keeping my fingers crossed about the result of the French call

Karmacat

Oh wow! I didn't expect that :kisses3: mine fell to bits, but I rescued some pages - the crumble is still a good'un :rotfl:

Victory on the French call! Woman I spoke to at the bank reacted like a human being, and was helpful too, always nice :j She was English too, I feel a bit sorry for the northern French, they seem overrun with us

Payment has left my account (it was due on the 10th, I forgot that, oh dear) ... I emailed the recipient with all sorts of references, and promised them it would be very quick in future, which it will be.

I can't tell you how relieved I am my brain has been whirring, so I'm going to eat a huge amount of protein, and then do the quince