Friday, November 23, 2012

Not my holiday table

This is one of the rooms at the Château de Chaumont that was done up in a fall theme. The floor of this room is made of intricately painted ceramic tiles. Click on the top photo to ceramify and see the tiles more clearly.

The room, with fireplaces at each end (I think), is set up as a dining room.

I had a small problem with the camera while visiting Chaumont this day. At some point, I must have touched the lens with my finger without realizing it. I noticed the smudge after taking about twenty pictures and cleaned it off, but most of my photos are marred by the smudge. You can see the effect of the smudge in the picture above; the light coming through the right-hand window is blurred.

A closer view of the table decorations.

Our Thanksgiving day was a good one. The sun came out and the day was bright and (relatively) warm and we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon meal with friends. Before we sat down for the main meal, I served a sparkling Vouvray (chenin blanc) with mini savory cannelés. Cannelés are traditional small custardy cakes from Bordeaux, normally sweet. My recipe was for a savory bite-sized version; I made half with Cantal cheese and bacon and half with Roquefort cheese and walnuts. They all got eaten. Ken's duck pâté was delicious as was the roast leg of lamb. I didn't take any pictures, but Ken took a few, mostly of the duck dish.

15 comments:

  1. it was in the 50s in philly for thanksgiving. spouse and I had indian food for our meal. a GREAT relaxing day!

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  2. Gosh those ceramic tiles are truly beautiful...what craftsmanship in the details.
    Glad you had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with friends. Ken says he'll get you to post the onion dish, but the custardy cakes and your pate brisee recipe would be nice as well.

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    1. virginiac, here's the pâte brisée recipe that I posted in 2006.

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    2. Thanks Walt....I am aspiring to follow in your footsteps in trying some of your mouth-watering dishes.

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  3. I'd also like to have the cannele recipes but if they call for cannele molds I'm in trouble. Could I make them in a mini muffin pan?

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    1. carolyn, I think you could certainly make them in a mini-muffin pan. I'll post the recipe soon.

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  4. We're all clamoring for recipes.
    I'd really like to have the one
    for your confiture...doesn't have
    to be very precise as regards
    measurements.

    Everything served sounded perfect. Wish
    we had your leftovers in the fridge.



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  5. You forgot to mention the very delicious pie you made for dessert. I'll be wanting that recipe, including the secret ingredient.

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  6. Oh, beautiful photos! I've never run across such good ones of Chaumont in my Google searches.

    Your meal sounds like it must have been a fabulous time!

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  7. Très chargé, mais quand même très beau :-).

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  8. More clamoring for cannelle recipes, lol!!!

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  9. I showed Robb the photo of the chateau dining room, but I told him it was yours and Ken's. He was most impressed! (I did finally tell him the truth) I didn't know there was a sparkling Vouvray. I like Vouvray so I'll have to check the local wine and liquor shops. I only saw two of the games yesterday because we went to Robb's niece's house. The second game, the Patriots-Jets, was on late so I saw the second half at home.

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  10. I have heard of Vouvray wine, but have not had any yet. It is rather $$ here in AZ, alas.

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    1. michael, we get our Vouvray from one of the wineries there, about a half-hour drive from the house. The sparkling goes for about €5 a bottle, the still wine is less than that. Quite affordable!

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  11. Thanks for the great comments! I'll be publishing the recipes for the onions and cannelés in upcoming posts.

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