We are now open as a Christmas Castle rental. This is one of our favourite recipes for Christmas. I found it at epicurious.com. We use Vouvray as it is our local bubbly and to die for. We also use only 3/4 of the butter in the recipe. Pink peppercorns as opposed to black peppercorns are a nice touch too. We save the champagne for the toasts.
Marinated Shrimp with Champagne Beurre Blanc
Some of our Favourite French Easter Tradtions at the Chateau
France, regarded the sacred cradle of Christianity, celebrates Easter with fanfare and vigor. The entire country revels in the Eastertide festivities and shops are gaily decorated in a festive collection of white and dark chocolate rabbits, chickens, bells and fish. Children wake up on the Easter Sunday morning and look in the nests they have placed in their yards or gardens and find Easter eggs in them.
In a marked deviation from Easter festivities elsewhere, Easter celebrations in France incorporate the Easter symbols of bells and fish instead of the traditional bunny. The French Easter fish are called Poisson d'Avril which means "April Fish". The Poisson d'Avril makes his appearance on April 1st as French children delight in playing a kind of 'April Fool's' trick. They stick a paper fish onto the back of as many adults as possible.
This is one of our favourite French Christmas Castle Recipes.
The French prefer to serve a roast goose rather than a turkey on Christmas. After all it is the nation that we can thank for foie gras. This is our favourite recipe for Roast goose. We now rent the chateau out for a weekly rental over the Christmas and New Year holidays fully-catered. Goose is Gordon Ramsay's favourite Christmas roast. Last year we received lots of compliments on our roast goose.
This year we rented the chateau for Thanksgiving self-catered to a lovely group of young American university students who cooked up a storm for Thanksgiving.
They arrived with tonnes of food, including their turkey. They had collected all of their supplies from the American grocery store in Paris on route from Charles de Gaulle airport.
makes it “a perfect match for Thanksgiving turkey.” We like Vouvray Voltaire 2005.
A leftover recipe to die for is Turkey and thick cut smoked bacon with date and goat-cheese spreads on a french baguete.
Date spread: Chop 8 oz. Medjool dates, 1/2 onion, and 2 garlic cloves. Sauté until soft with 1/2 t. salt and 3/4 c. water.
Goat-cheese spread: Combine 8 oz. goat cheese and 6 oz. cream cheese with 2 T. roasted garlic. Add chopped chives, parsley, and tarragon, plus salt, pepper, and lemon to taste. Yummy!
Valentine's Day is almost here, a day that each year terrifies men. Every year, you promise yourself that next year; you are going to do something different. If you still do not have any creative ideas for a special surprise, do not panic, but you had better start giving it some serious thought. (more…)
Accordingly to research on dating behaviour, the time between the December holidays and Valentine's Day is National Break-up Season when people are more than twice as likely to think about breaking up than at any other time of the year. (more…)
It is not true that Valentine's day is a holiday invented by greedy greeting card companies eager to sell more stock or by candy companies to sell more chocolate, or general retailers to create more business once Christmas is over. It is easy to picture that Valentine's Day was created by them because as soon as the stores (more…)
When you cook for Valentine's Day, love radiates from your heart, seeps into the food and gives it the magical quality that ignites the soul. When you serve your Valentine an elegant meal do it with some beautiful candles, good champagne or wine if you like, and a warm and loving smile. The real aphrodisiac is you! (more…)