Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Splendeurs de Bretagne

Splendeurs de Bretagne

Splendors of Brittany
Back in Brittany again and I do not have much time except to say that this adorable bird is a Puffin. There are only 3 species of Puffin in the world whereas there are 17 species of Penguins! This is an Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica), the other two species live in the Pacific Ocean.

In spring orange plates grow over the bill which are then shed later, after the breeding season. Puffins are monogamous and both incubate the one egg and care for the chick that they hatch out.




Saturday, February 18, 2012

A Delicious Day

France | Gâteau Breton | Brittany Butter Cake

This wonderful postcard above from Stéphanie in France via the France X Other Countries RR was just one of the 18 postcards and 1 folding card that I received in the mail today. What a Red Letter Day for me! Every postcard was beautiful but no less than 4 of these items were a complete and fantastic surprise - but more about that later.

Today I want to concentrate on this lovely cake. I was never much interested in recipe cards until I came across the Austrian recipe cards while surfing on postcrossing. Now one of them is mine and I like it very much so when I saw this in Stéphanie's selection for trade I knew I had to have it!

Brittany, also known as Little Britain, is a region on the west coast of France. To the north is the English Channel and Great Britain and as far as I know the Lesser and the Great were closely allied at one time. Breton, the language spoken in Brittany is a Celtic language similar to Welsh and Cornish.

Perhaps I am incorrect but I have always thought of these three regions; Wales, Cornwall and Brittany as Roman and associated with King Arthur.

Anyway so back to the cake. Here is the recipe as it is on the postcard in French.

Gâteau Breton
Creuser une fontaine dans la farine et le sucre pour y mettre 5 jaunes d' oeufs. Travailler la préparation à la cuillère en bois puis frotter entre les paumes pour la rendre sableuse. Incorporer le beurre en petits morceaux et pétrir. Beurrer un moule pour y étaler la pâte. Badigeonner le gâteau de jaune d'oeuf. Mettre le moule dans le four chaud et laisser cuire environ 90 min. Servir ce gâteau breton accompagné de cidre doux.

350 g de farine
175g de sucre
6 jaunes d'oeufs
190g de beurre


Here it is translated by Google.

Translated?
Digging a fountain into the flour and sugar to put 5 egg yolks. Work preparing for the wooden spoon and rub between your palms to make sand. Stir the butter into small pieces and knead. Butter a mold in order to roll out the dough. Brush the cake with egg yolk. Put the pan in the preheated oven and cook about 90 min. Serve this cake with Breton cider sweet.

350 g flour
175g sugar
6 egg yolks
190g butter


Sand? Okay thank-you very much Google but I think I will try this recipe I found at Bakespace. It is from Nigella Lawson's book 'How to Be a Domestic Goddess'.

Cake Poll
Which of the following is your favourite cake?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
pollcode.com free polls 



On another topic completely, do you know that the Google translator has a nifty feature called the Virtual Keyboard?

Virtual Keyboard

Just choose your language at the top as normal and then use the virtual keyboard to type. Great for Russian!

Russian Keyboard

Friday, October 7, 2011

Mail Received 6 October

PC via sendsomething from Idaho

This beautiful postcard from Karen via sendsomething.net shows the Sawtooth Mountains about 2 hrs drive from her home in Boise, Idaho. This card traveled 16753 kilometers or 10411 miles or 9046 nautical miles in 2 weeks.


PC via walltype from Romania

Another fantastic card from Anca (lilkillah) in Romania this time showing the Putna Monastery. Stephen the Great fired an arrow from a hill and the where it landed was the site chosen by God for the Monastery. The building is amazing but the roof is the best part. I wonder what it is made of?


PC via walltype from France

A third postcard from Anne in France. This one shows the famous white horses of the Camargue region in the south. I was pretty mad about horses in my early teens and the horses of the Camargue were one of my favourite breeds. I love this card.


Letter from Misty

I also got a notecard from Misty in this gorgeous envelope. She also sent me two postcards and about 10 used postage stamps from various places incl. USA, UK and Malaysia. This is my first letter in ages and I will definitely reply ^_~