Amazing patisserie - Julien Plumart

When Mike reaslied that we were going to Brighton, he did google search for the best possible patisserie in Brighton. He found three, and we went to Julien Plumart Boutique. It was the best I have had in England. Light, delicious and beautiful. What else do we want?

It was about lunch time, but we went for Afternoon tea sets.

Mike is a man of chocolate. He went for seriously dark one. Macaroon was lime lemon. His tea was lemon grass. He said chocolate and lemon grass went very well.

I am more of fruity girl. Strawberry tart, lychee raspberry macaroon and pistachio ice cream were on my plate. My tea was English breakfast. 

Afterward we went to the Royal Pavilion. I though it was the Disneyland at that time. Then we went back to Julien Plumart, and bought two cakes to take home. Ah, the joy of being grown-ups!

A lemon tart for Madame, 

   And Miss franboise for Monsieur.

Yes, we did visit the Royal Pavilion.

And a seagull waiting at the backdoor of Sushi restaurant.

Walk in the Blean woods and Mike's peas

Hello everyone. How was your weekend? We had a hot one! Yesterday morning, I popped in the studio with Mike. He moved the second chicken sculpture into a kiln for me. After tweaking the back, I became a bit cautious. After that I had stayed at home, and kept myself cool, but Mike was busy doing errands.

In the afternoon, we took our dogs to Blean woods. I thought it would be cooler. It was in the shade. I was looking for the beach tree. We couldn't find it. Next time, I will re-trail the route we took last November.

a rotten tree

'Not only my ears are long, but my tongue, too!'

Our garden is full of wild birds. Amelanchier has lots of ripe berries. It attracts various birds, such as black birds, green finches and wood pigeons. Fruit trees attract blue tits, a flock of longtail tits and so on. There are of course, regulars, like sparrows, dunnocks and robins. We saw more birds in the garden than in Blean woods yesterday.

Young Black bird

Garden flowers are also in bloom. Silver flowers stand out under the apple trees. 

 Mike's veg are doing very well, too. We have harvested our first peas yesterday.

I popped peas out of the pods. Pearl stayed with me,  just in case I might drop some. Yes, I did! She loves peas. They are very sweet!

Mike's peas

 Mike cooked pasta with peas, spring onion and pancetta. The recipe is from the River cafe book. He only cooks this dish when our peas are in season. This year, we grew spring onions, too. So both are in this dish! Very delicious and quick to cook!  It goes well with Australian white wine.

Mike's pasta with pancetta, peas, and spring onion

Ideal chilled Saturday for grown-ups.

Hello, everyone! We have had a nice day today. We went to town for shopping late morning. Light rains came and went all day. So, we intended to dash out, and come home quickly, but we found artists' stalls on the High street. I love them. It's like Etsy on our High street. Look at what we found!

Organic sourdough French bread

A lady was serving customers. She is based in Faversham, next town to Canterbury. Her husband makes bread and she sells them. He was asleep at that time (about noon) because he started very early. It is Artisan organic sourdough bread. We love them! Mike used to bake sourdough bread, but he couldn't keep yeast alive during cold months. She says it takes 17 hours to make. Ahh, it is so delicious. We had it with Mojito olives, Serrano ham,  Epoisses de Bourgogne cheese and a glass of cabernet sauvignon. Ahhhh, heavenly. What else would we need? We will go back to get more of the bread next time. I think they come every other Saturday. I will take a camera with me so that I could share the beautiful pictures of the different bread with you. It's shame you can't taste it!

After buying bread, we went to Waitrose to get my favourite cheese, Epoisses de Bourgogne. I knew it would go well with the bread. This cheese is always runny, but this particular one decided to melt. A young gentleman at cheese counter struggled to contain it, literally. So he put it in this olive container!

Actually the main reason we went for shopping today was to buy more Olympics mugs. When we bought them earlier in the week (previous post), I was eyeing a set of two bone china mugs by Royal Doulton. It was £4.50! 70% off! They are cheaper than ordinary mugs sold in supermarkets!

Royal Doulton Olympics mugs- bone china

London landmarks

After the lunch, I became very sleepy. It is unusual for me take a nap. Mike said '40 winks wouldn't do any harm.' I said 'I still wear contact lenses, so I can't sleep for long.' When I woke up, 2 hours had passed! Rain had stopped and it was sunny, too. I wanted to enamel fire my ceramics. So I quickly set it up, and fired them.  Here is the picture how they came out of firing. I am very happy with them. I will upload more of pictures later.

Humpty Dumpty rabbit box, a monster and a large chameleon

I did a bit of garden tidy up and watched baking program that Mike found on TV live. I seldom watch TV live unless it is sport matches. So I obviously had a relaxed time today. I would say we had ideal chilled Saturday for grown-ups.

Summer has come, so has Atkin diet!

Last week summer suddenly arrived at Canterbury. but we kept eating our winter food. This resulted in my being a bit fat. So I went on Atkinish diet. It is not strict one. I have two slices of walnut bread in the morning, and a tiny glass of wine at lunch. otherwise, it is quite low in carbohydrate.

We used to eat this. We shaved a good flakes of Parmesan cheese on top.  

Asparagus, Parma ham, boiled egg with Parmesan cheese on top, which is not served yet.

 I eat these now.

Salad of home grown lettuce, tomatoes and cheddar cheese, olives and Lapsung Souchon tea smoked salmon (offer at Waitrose right now!)

Cabbage salad with ginger dressing, Cheddar cheese, olives and Lapsung Souchon tea smoked salmon

Asparagus, Parma ham, olives, sun dried tomatoes and Camembert cheese.

Mike, however, refuses to admit that he needs to do something. He still eats lots of bread and deserts. 

I have already lost what I had gained. I will continue a bit longer to make a slack for ice cream!