And ours are simply the best!
In the dark Autumn evenings there is a tradition of getting together for roasted chestnuts served with cider.
This time it was at "La Jovienne" and time to test the roasting contraption found at a vide grenier. It is like an iron saucepan but with no bottom. Inside there is a cylinder to put the chestnuts (or coffee beans) close the little sliding door and turn it slowly over a hot flame until they are just nicely charred on the outside and hot and floury inside.
The mellow flavours and textures go together incredibly well and just capture the essence of Autumn somehow.
I learned something new from my neighbour Georgette too, to buy the large Marrons and not the chataignes, they are the same family but the marrons are easy to peel; the smaller chestnuts are incredibly fiddly and have a brown inner skin that is really difficult to remove.
Georgette is just wonderful, friendly, kind and irrepressibly funny. She can reduce me to tears of laughter with a sideways glance. She has welcomed me and my family with open arms. She will be eighty in December and I know that the celebrations will last for several weeks. Her husband Benoit was eighty last year and I lost count of the number of parties, surprise and planned as well as smaller get togethers. The cakes were in the shape of huge chocolate covered brooms big enough to serve several hundred people! It is a tradition, something to do with sweeping away the years.
While we were enjoying the chestnuts we tried to find out what her dream birthday present would be. What would make her heart beat faster and put a giant smile on her face? Would it be perfume, expensive handbag, couture clothes, a luxury holiday?.............no, Georgette doesn't need any of those things to be happy. But! she has always wanted a little outside loo, not just any old loo but something along the lines of a Swiss Chalet, so that when she accompanies Benoit to the Garçonnerie (a sort of beautiful rural French man cave) she can spend a few centimes in comfort. Hmmm! Could be quite a challenge.
In the dark Autumn evenings there is a tradition of getting together for roasted chestnuts served with cider.
I learned something new from my neighbour Georgette too, to buy the large Marrons and not the chataignes, they are the same family but the marrons are easy to peel; the smaller chestnuts are incredibly fiddly and have a brown inner skin that is really difficult to remove.
Georgette is just wonderful, friendly, kind and irrepressibly funny. She can reduce me to tears of laughter with a sideways glance. She has welcomed me and my family with open arms. She will be eighty in December and I know that the celebrations will last for several weeks. Her husband Benoit was eighty last year and I lost count of the number of parties, surprise and planned as well as smaller get togethers. The cakes were in the shape of huge chocolate covered brooms big enough to serve several hundred people! It is a tradition, something to do with sweeping away the years.
While we were enjoying the chestnuts we tried to find out what her dream birthday present would be. What would make her heart beat faster and put a giant smile on her face? Would it be perfume, expensive handbag, couture clothes, a luxury holiday?.............no, Georgette doesn't need any of those things to be happy. But! she has always wanted a little outside loo, not just any old loo but something along the lines of a Swiss Chalet, so that when she accompanies Benoit to the Garçonnerie (a sort of beautiful rural French man cave) she can spend a few centimes in comfort. Hmmm! Could be quite a challenge.
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