Cousinade

mousse de courgettes (zucchini) & mousse de betterave rouge (beetroot)

Sangria

Candy feeding frenzy that lasted 10 mins, at most. I had small pairs of eyes glaring at me when I took a tiny alligator gummy.

Little savoury pastries that Aunt Monique made.

A few varieties of rice salads, some charcuterie, pâté en croûte, terrine de courgette, tabouleh, lamb meat etc. 

Who made this flat quiche-like tart? Taste better than it looks.

Doesn't make a french meal with no cheese. Bring out the cheeses! All sorts!

And bread...

Finally, the dessert! The little plastic cups with white stuff in there are mousse de marrons. These little babies are yummy.

Our cousin, Arthur who is a pastry chef in a fancy Lyonnaise restaurant made these meringues- chocolate, lemon-orange and coconuts. I am not a big fan of meringues but Arthur's meringues are gooood.

Somebody's fruit cake. Pass. Desole, no fruit cake for me.

Arthur's cakes.

My selection of dessert

Cousinade or cousin reunion was a get-together of cousins on Papa's maternal side of the family.
All the sisters (including Papa's mother) have all passed away
but the children of these sisters, their children and children's children came together for the weekend.

It was a potluck party so there was quite a spread of food,
especially for dessert.

Because I can't speak french very well yet
and am no big conversationalist,
I spent quite a bit of time walking to and fro the buffet table.

Fete des Fours

Feeding the village oven with firewood. (Side note: I want a black Labrador puppy just like that one there.)

Sugar tart with praline fresh out of the oven.

 

Some snacks while working at the oven.

Kind of pricey.

Bake goods sale tent

Fete des fours or Ovens Festival is when all the villagers come together and do a bake sale.
So, bright and early in the morning,
the village firewood oven is already producing sweet tarts, breads and pizzas.

Papa bought 3 sweet tarts to bring to cousins' party.

Cordon Bleu

Corden Bleu

Coleslaw, Mash potatoes with brown gravy, carrot & potato puree & corn on cob for side dishes.

Supermarket apple tart with apple that were cut like french fries

A teeny slice of apple tart with vanilla ice cream.

For Colin, our friend's birthday,
we made chicken Cordon Bleu, some southern style side dishes
and bought an apple tart from the supermarket.

Cordon Bleu's appearance in our menu was inspired by Stefan Richter
from Top Chef who made cordon bleu when asked to make fried chicken.

Hardware Store Cafe

I met up with my friend, C.T. the other day.
C.T. brought me to a new cafe that is in an industrial area.
It's a cafe converted from a hardware store and maintains the former store front and name.
I don't fancy hanging out in cafes drinking special blend coffees or teas.
I'm more a food person.
It's good to check it out anyway.

Bread Talk

Snake shaped buns to celebrate the year of the snake 2013!

Panda shaped buns to welcome Kaikai & Jiajia, 2 pandas loaned to the Singapore Zoo.

Bread Talk is a popular chain bakery in Singapore.
It often comes up with new flavors of breads and buns.
These are 2 of their new buns.

Christmas Tea or Gouter de Noel

It's Xmas again.
Mon mari made a kugelhopf.
We have homemade Alsacienne cookies, 
some glazed gingerbread fingers & cinnamon stars from Forwenger,
stollen, clementines & hot chocolate for gouter de noel.

Männele, Little Bread Man

We made some männele, little bread people for breakfast in the countryside.

Tarta Blabar

Tarta Blabar, Blueberry tart I figured, looked pretty from the photo on the box,
cost of 4,50 euros, 
looked lame and sad out of the box,
actually taste quite good!
I liked the nutty tart crust.
The blueberry cream cheese on top is not too sweet and slightly tart.

Ikea is really good in drawing people to their stores...

Kugelhopf

From time to time, mon ami will make one of his favorite bake goods, Kugelhopf.
It's one of his comfort food because his mother was from Alsace.
A Kugelhopf is quite similar to an italian Pandoro or Panettone.
The 3 being sweet yeast breads.
It makes a good breakfast on a lazy sunday morning.