(Today’s recipe: Beef Stew originally by Jamie Oliver)

It’s become a Christmas tradition that we have Beef Stew with the lovely Carola and family when we’re in Germany. This year she was in hospital so no stew – quel dommage! But at least she’s well again and she gave me the recipe for this deelicious meal. She always doubles the recipe, so instead of for 4-6 she makes for 12 and the 6 of us eat it all… The less said here, the better.

We joined Anja and Micha in their camper van the other night for a spectacular dinner. Not only is it spectacular enough to produce a meal for four in a camper van which has (by virtue) not a lot of space, but to make such spectacular food on top of it. Chapeau, mon ami, chapeau.

A linguistics professor was lecturing to his English class one day. "In English," he said, "A double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."
A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."

I scrolled through the lists of jokes our mate Edouard sends me, and managed to find one (story rather than joke...) that isn't offensive – more difficult than you might think! This is a story which is perfectly logical to all males:
A wife asks her husband, "Could you please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk, and if they have eggs, get 6."
A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk.
The wife asks him, "Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk?"
He replied, "They had eggs."
(If you're female, I'm sure you're going back to read it again! Males will get it the first time.)

Here's another one of the lovely Nynke's lovely Thai food. I know To Thai For is a really old joke, but I still really love it! And this really is To... Seeing as I was (trying to) make a joke, I looked up Thai jokes on google and allow me to assure you, I ain't printing any of them. The "best" I could find that was still printable was: How to make a Thai laugh - try speaking their language. Well that person has not heard me speaking French as they would be laughing all their way a la maison!

Today's recipe: Thai Chicken Green Curry

The summer was filled with lots of activity and Nynke’s Terrific Thai meal was one of the highlights. We had Agathe (that’s her on the left in the photo with Nynke), a wonderful French student staying with us, and although the French do not traditionally eat spicy foods, she was really cool and tried everything. I basically had to be tied to my chair not to lick the plates after the meal. Thairrific.

Pierre was one of the lovely French students that stayed with us this summer (he gets a mention the curry extravaganza post too) – that’s him in the photo, cycling the hills around our farm. We met his equally lovely Mother and sisters and they very kindly gave me their secret family recipe for Quiche Lorraine with a twist. Unlike the original, this one contains mushrooms and is also no longer a secret! I have promised my ultra special pizza dough recipe in exchange, so watch this space Pierre as it will soon be posted…

Laura’s luscious lamb also came with some other delightful dishes and these too I must share with you. The Dauphinoise Potatoes were fantastic – I often try to cut down on the fat content of said dish, but alas, it is never quite as good as the original. I have decided to make the real McCoy but then have less and I have been successful in one point and it’s unfortunately not the latter.

Today’s recipe: Herbed Crown Roast of Lamb served with redcurrant and mint sauce and mustard mayonnaise
As we drove up the 1km of beautiful field and tree lined driveway, I wondered what awaited us. We crossed the little bridge over their ponds and entered into the world of perfection. “Well”, I said to my hubby and to the hostess later on, “we can't have them back to our hovel now. It's a chateau!”

Last year we were invited to Catherine's Curry Night of Note. It was also the only occasion in probably the last 20 years that I forgot my camera at home so this spectacular event went undocumented. So? I hear you mumble belligerently (thank goodness for spell check on that one). YOU didn’t see the magnificent spread of food at this mega-dinner. However, the camera-forgetting-trick did work well, as they were forced to invite me back this year to take photos. The worrying thing is, am I now going to be invited back next year??