Truffade and Dandelions

Firstly apologies for not blogging for a while. Emily has been here this weekend and we have done lots together so Blogging has been a low priority as I am sure you can understand. I am keen to get straight back into the blog though because I received a fantastic email of encouragement from our friend Martin in WGC after he had read the blog so far. Thanks Martin – I really appreciate it!

I can’t really remember what happened on Thursday. I spent most of the time tidying rooms and getting Suite 1 ready for Emily’s arrival. Mr Faye the electrician put up the lights and of course Mr Laine finished wall papering the room so it now looks amazing. Excuse the brightly coloured duvet. It was the only clean one I could find. We will of course be having white linen and a really luxurious throw.

Em wasn’t sure about the light, thought it might be a bit modern for the room but it is growing on her now. What do you think?

So on Friday morning I set off to pick Emily up from Vichy train station. I was really getting into Autoroute driving and pushing my beloved Land Rover to its limits. The roads are really hilly and the Disco doesn’t like them so it is quite an achievement when we manage to overtake on a hill. Unfortunately, I was a little over zealous and whilst overtaking 3 long vehicles in a row I missed the signpost to Vichy!!

I had to drive 60 kms out of my way to the next junction to turn around and come back. Again, it was Claudie who came to the rescue and picked Emily up from the Train Station and by the time I got to Claudie’s house had just got back too so it wasn’t too bad.

It was really good to see Em and after a quick tour of Vichy’s shops with Claudie and a visit to an Antique dealer we went off to lunch on our own at a nice restaurant in the centre. We had Steak Frites!

On Saturday Em and I made proper plans for the weeks ahead – my to do list! And we had a proper look at what was going to be left over for us that the workmen weren’t doing. We washed the floor in Suite 1, pulled up all the old carpet tape and chipped loads of paint off it too, but we came to the realisation that it was not in good enough condition and was really letting the room down.

We feel a bit depressed about it because we didn’t think we would have to do it but we have now resigned ourselves to the fact that we will have to sand them. :-(

In the afternoon we went back to the Troc in Ussel where we bought all our furniture last year. We were really pleased because they had a lot of new stuff in and so we ended up leaving with another big order. We bought a huge kitchen table which will really suit our country cottage look that we are after; 4 more chairs for the dining room in the same style as our existing 6 chairs; a little chunky shelving unit for the kitchen; and a set of crystal glasses.

As usual we got back late for our dinner date with Claudie, Eddy, Amandine and Caitlin who had come to Savennes for the weekend. Eddy had promised to show me how to make Truffade so I was really looking forward to it. However they had another French surprise for us. When we got there it had been pouring with rain so Em and I were wet but so were Claudie and Eddy. They had been out in their field picking dandelions! Then they told us we were going to eat them for dinner! We couldn’t believe it! But they told us that they had invited Phillipe for dinner too and so we didn’t have enough. So Claudie asked us if we would like to help them pick some more. However it is a bit like picking mushrooms – you need to know which ones to look for. They took us out to an area in the field that had been wrecked by mole hills. However, these annoying creatures do have a culinary use. The dandelions grow through the mole hills and do not get any light until they poke through the top. So you push back the soil on the mole hill to find a really tall dandelion that is almost totally white (like celery). They are very tender this way and you can only do it during spring while they are young. As you can see we had a lot of fun picking the dandelions. “Too much of the Good Life” I can hear someone saying.

We went back inside and started the marathon preparation of the Truffade. Of course everyone knew best how to slice the potatoes and cube the cheese!

Then Eddy set up the Truffade pan and he allowed me to cook it – under his strict guidance of course!

Phillipe arrived in time for the meal – which meant we had to speak more French! :-(

The Truffade was delicious. Phillipe had his own ideas on how we should prepare the dandelions which are called pissanlits in French. He cooked them in the dressing over the fire and they were delicious too – no really they were!!

We had a fantastic evening and went home thoroughly exhausted from all of our hard work.

We had a well deserved lie in on Sunday morning and then showed Claudie and Eddy and co around the chateau so they could see the work in progress. They agreed about sanding the floors.

Em and I cooked a nice Sunday lunch and then had to say our sad goodbyes as Eddy drove her back to Vichy for the train at 2.30. Em had a nightmare journey home because she couldn’t get on an earlier EuroStar as hoped and when she got to Kings X she found that the trains to Stevenage weren’t running because of engineering works. She had to take a replacement bus service and didn’t get home till past 2 in the morning! I don’t think she’ll be using this method of travel again!

This morning I asked Mr Laine to hire me a floor sander so I will be starting this big job tomorrow. Mr Laine has started replacing the ceiling in Suite 2 which is really exciting. They have cleared out their workshop and will be decorating it next week.

I took Joe for a walk in the glorious sunshine.

We went through the woods which are looking beautiful.

I took this picture of the back of the chateau.

When I was feeding Joe I realised that the grass was starting to grow at an alarming rate. I need to start thinking seriously about getting a sit on lawn mower!