Chateau Colombier » good life http://www.chateaucolombier.com Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:27:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 What if cooking during a self-catering holiday wasn’t a chore? http://www.chateaucolombier.com/blog/2011/06/what-if-cooking-during-a-self-catering-holiday-wasnt-a-chore/ http://www.chateaucolombier.com/blog/2011/06/what-if-cooking-during-a-self-catering-holiday-wasnt-a-chore/#comments Fri, 03 Jun 2011 07:42:15 +0000 clare http://www.chateaucolombier.com/?p=652 It doesn’t have to be, especially here in Provence. Why not break all the rules and make the self-catering the holiday?

Here we often see the Le Colombier kitchen turned into a Masterchef laboratory. Different members of the house party group take it in turns to create their specialities, or try out new dishes. Hours are spent thumbing through the library of cookery books.

It can be Come Dine with Me every evening (the French version of which is Un Diner Presque Parfait, An Almost Perfect Dinner). Pick a prize in advance. Award the hosts marks out of 10 (a secret video diary would be a great souvenir for the cold winter nights back home). And reveal the  winner at the end of the week.

Set yourselves some new rules for self-catering success and see what happens:

  • supermarkets are banned – you get extra marks if you’ve bought fresh from the market, the farm producer, or have fished the trout yourself
  • no pre-packs, or fast-tracks, or processed food; fresh or nothing (hint – herbs and everlasting onions make great veggie stock!)
  • 7 days = 7 new recipes to try out (or 21 if you include breakfast and lunch as well as dinner)
  • let the kids invite you all to their kids meal – just see how talented junior chefs can be (especially with some compliant sous-chefs who can hold their tongue and do what they are told as kitchen helpers)
  • the tiled floors mop easily, so let the flour fly as you make homemade pastas and pizzas
  • let the kids (and the kids at heart) put on a talent show as the entertainment for the evening
  • make a different ice-cream everyday (blue cheese and walnut icecream is an acquired taste!)
  • have a lavender-themed meal … every dish has to contain lavender in some shape or form
  • have a picnic in the garden
  • create a tapas style wine-tasting menu: lots of mini dishes to complement the wines you want to taste
  • think food miles – only use locally sourced ingredients and recipes
  • try a new food each day
  • pick flowers for the tables and herbs and veggies from the potager
  • how about a themed murder mystery evening? You’ll find a couple of box games in the cupboard in the ground floor corridor – and or let your creativity flow and make up your own murder mystery game. We can provide a title: Passion in Provence, or Vengeance in the Vineyards, or even Killings in Condorcet … (and a couple of characters .. Zut Alors the racing car champion; Don Pico, the goats cheese farmer; Olive de Fougasse — you get the idea)
  • and on the final night – make it all finger food and paper plates so there’s no washing up.

What would your new rules be? And we’ll give a special prize for the best video diary of the season.

]]> http://www.chateaucolombier.com/blog/2011/06/what-if-cooking-during-a-self-catering-holiday-wasnt-a-chore/feed/ 0 Eight (and often nine) go mad in the Drome http://www.chateaucolombier.com/blog/2007/04/eight-and-often-nine-go-mad-in-the-drome/ http://www.chateaucolombier.com/blog/2007/04/eight-and-often-nine-go-mad-in-the-drome/#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2007 10:49:00 +0000 clare http://one.vor/blog/2007/04/eight-and-often-nine-go-mad-in-the-drome/ Chateau Columbier has the three R’s as it’s strapline, but don’t be fooled into thinking that it’s some kind of Dotheboys Hall. The three R’s in question are Relax, Refresh, Renew, and it does what it says on the tin.
This is an environment where you can express yourself and our company certainly felt able to do so in many different ways. The natural thespians amongst us found inspiration in the Chateau’s ambience and slipped with ease through a gamut of characters including mafiosi, sectarian bigots, Cockney wideboys and endless variations on a theme of Inspector Clouseau.

Without doubt this is God’s Acre, and we have seen flora and fauna in abundance: a swallowtail butterfly, vultures, kites, lizards (paying homage to their Lord and Mentor Long Don, the Lizard King) a hoopoe and a scorpion being highlights. A leisurely walk by the nearby River Eygues ended in the hospitable auberge in Les Pilles where a beer or two quenched our barely earned thirst. We have sampled two of the local restaurants and have found both to be of the highest quality. As a digestif we entered the House of Horrors in the travelling fair in Nyons – truly terrifying. A wine tasting trip to Vinsobres was very satisfying – and siesta-inducing.

We have been forced to delay the celebrations of La Fete de la Valise Retrouve as the missing case has still not arrived. The bunting has yet to be hung out and the bacchinalean feasting must wait – Ryan Air plays God with us, and I cannot wear my Martin Chuzzlewit underpants. It’s a hard life to be sure.

Avignon was splendid and atmospheric, enhanced greatly by listening to Radio Nostalgi on the way there and back – how can a wonderful country like France produce so much tacky music?

We have graduated from Chateau Colombier with honours in laughter, madcappery, kir royales, fine wines, haute cuisine, music and much conviviality. We intend to return for postgraduate studies in the same subjects before too long. I strongly recommend that you, dear reader, consider doing the same.

Jimmy Baudelaire (of The Baudelaire Brothers)

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