Weeking Cooking: The Tasting (Le Degustation)

With each international film festival that is on here in Melbourne I am making an effort to see at least one movie. It will be no surprise to you that my favourite festival is the French Film Festival and It has been running for the last month or so. There were a number of films that I had earmarked to see. I had already seen two, but there were two foodie films that I still wanted to see but I was running out of time. Luckily, the festival was extended by a few days and I convinced my somewhat reluctant husband to come and see this movie with me.

I first watched French actress Isabelle Carré in Romantics Anonymous which is still one of my favourite French movies to watch and which I posted about here. I have since watched her in the movie Delicious (review here) and now in this movie. In a way, this movie has some similarites with Romantics Anonymous, particularly in the first half where we meet two characters who have difficulties in establishing and maintaining romantic relationships.

Hortense is a single woman with a big heart. She is a midwife, she volunteers with a group of homeless men, and she looks after her cantankerous mother. She has one great desire, to have a child, but she has been unlucky in love and so it has never happened for her. Her mother constantly reminds her of her failings.

Jacques is a wine merchant who has been told by his doctor that he needs to stop drinking as he has a heart condition. Jacques is in denial about his drinking. His wine business seems to be struggling but he really seems to be emotionally disconnected from his life. His only real friend is Guillerme, the local bookseller.

Jacques is convinced to give an internship to a young man called Steve who lives in a homeless shelter. In return for giving Steve some work he will receive some badly needed funding. At first, he asked Steve to help clean up the basement, but Steve wants to be doing more glamourous customer work

Hortense meets Jacques when she comes to the wine store to buy a bottle of wine. Soon she is returning more often, even buying quite pricey wines to take to serve to the homeless men she cooks meals for. She notices a poster saying that there are wine tasting classes available and so Jacques agrees to run a lesson, even though it will be quite difficult for him given that he can't actually drink the wine. Now, he just needs to find some other people to come to the classes. And so it is that Hortense, Guillerme and Steve attend the tasting class.

The first half of the movie is very much a comedy, but as Jacques and Hortense get to know each other we learn their secrets, and the movie takes a more serious turn. There are reasons why Jacques has closed himself off from the world. And Hortense has her own plans for the future that very much will influence their relationship before it even gets started.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours on a rainy Saturday afternoon, and Robert also laughed out loud and enjoyed the movie. And now I am thinking about watching Romantics Anonymous again.

Here is the trailer for The Tasting.

The two movies that I did see where The Innocent and Two Tickets to Greece. The other movie I wanted to see what Sugar and Stars (French title À LA BELLE ÉTOILE) so I will be trying to find that so that I can watch it. We also saw the trailer for a Gerard Depardieu movie called Umami. Now, I have studied the festival program at length and yet I never noticed this film. Now I need to find this movie to watch too.

The next festival is the German Film Festival, and I am sure I will find something to watch, although I haven't decided on which one yet. Unfortunately it doesn't look like there are any foodie films on this list this year. Maybe there will be some in the Spanish film festival which is the one after.

Weekly meals

Saturday - Steamed fish, veggies and rice

Sunday -  Chicken Cacciatore

Monday - Easter Celebration Cake

Tuesday - Nasi Goreng

Wednesday - Tuscan Chicken Pasta Bake

Thursday - Takeaway

Friday -BBQ

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Top Ten Tuesday: Cheep, cheep!

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Titles with Animals In Them and/or Covers with Animals On Them (submitted by Rachel @ Sunny Side). I've decided to focus on just one type of animal - birds!

The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner - I had forgotten about this book until I consulted my handy-dandy spreadsheet!

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare -  This is something of an American classic but I only read it 10 years or so ago after hearing about it on a historical fiction forum. Remember when they were a thing!

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson - What a lovely book this was!

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson - There was a time when I was an absolute sucker for any books set in Africa and this was a good one.

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear - The second book  in the Maisie Dobbs mystery series. There are now 17 books in the series.

Liar Bird by Lisa Walker - Another book I had forgotten about!

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley - Never miss an opportunity to share a Susanna Kearsley book

The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen - I still love this cover!

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber - This book was so good!

The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea - I remember really enjoying this book when I read it years ago!

I did have a few more books that I could have used for this list as well. Pretty sure I couldn't do that with any other type of animal!

This week....

I'm reading

I have finished a couple of things books this week. Firstly, my husband and I finished listening to Diddly Squat by Jeremy Clarkson together. Now I need to find something else to listen to in the car together. 

I also finished reading The Forgotten Palace by Alexandra Walsh which I enjoyed. My review for this will be up later this week.

I started reading The Girl Who Escaped by Angela Petch. Last time I read Petch, I was inspired to visit Puglia. It is different to the previous book, but I am liking it.

I'm watching

A four day weekend means plenty of time to watch all sorts of thing! We used the opportunity to catch up on some of the series we are watching including The Mandalorian and Picard.

We also started watching the UK version of Ghosts which is so much fun. We will definitely be watching more of this.

We also went to the movies to watch another French Film Festival movie called The Tasting which I enjoyed. It was a combination of comedy and serious drama. 

Then I watched a movie called Walking on Sunshine which was ....not great. Think Italian Mamma Mia with 80s songs. It was fun to see which 80s song would come next but it was a bit over the top.

The last movie I watched this weekend was a English/Spanish move called Language Lesson and it was so good! It's a very simple movie with only two on screen characters, and it was very heartwarming and fun. Highly recommend!

Life

We had a pretty quiet weekend. My sister and her family came around for lunch today which was nice.


I made an Easter Celebration Cake which was delicious! And looked pretty good for one of my cakes. Normally I make delicious tasting cakes that don't look that great!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: A Visit to the Cafe

Blog Tour: The Little Venice Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin

Weekend Cooking: A Tale of Two Cheesecakes

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - March statistics

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge March statistics

 

Last year I started sharing statistics each month for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, and my plan is to continue to do this again this year. I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! This month I have been around and visited most of the reviews and added several books to my TBR list.

In terms of the books, it was another really good month for reviews with 88 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 25 participants. This is 12 more than for the same month last year. There were 85 individual titles reviewed, written by 83 different authors. There were 8 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 7 or just 1.

Let's move onto the books. There were three books that were reviewed twice during March.

 

The first is Goodnight from Paris by Jane Healey which was enthusiastically reviewed by Davida at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review and by Susan at Reading World

The next book to be reviewed twice is Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb which was also reviewed by Davida as well as at Laura's Reviews. This book is the story of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner's tempestuous relationship.

The third book to be reviewed twice was The Book Spy by Alan Hlad. I have requested this one from my library based on the reviews I read at Laura's Reviews and also Becky's Reviews. WWII librarians who are spies sound like my kind of read!

There are two authors who both had two books reviewed being Lauraine Snelling and Trish MacEnulty. Barbara from Stray Thoughts reviewed 2 books which actually comprise 5 novellas, all set in North Dakota in the early 1900s and featuring Norwegian immigrants. The first collection comprised 3 novellas called Dakota Dream, Dakota Dream and Dakota Dusk. The second collection is the final 2 novellas called Dakota December and Dakota Destiny.

Yvonne from A Darn Good Read reviewed two books by Trish MacEnulty which are the first two books in the Delafield and Malloy Investigations historical mystery series. The first book is The Whispering Women and the second is The Burning Bride.

Recently the shortlist for the Sir Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for 2023 was announced, so I thought I would share the books from the longlist which have been reviewed for the challenge so far. I have noted the books which have made the shortlist

The Romantic by Willian Boyd

These Days by Lucy Caldwell (Shorlisted)

My Name is Yip by Paddy Crewe

The Geometer Lobachevsky by Adrian Duncan (Shortlisted)

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris (Shortlisted)

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph

The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry (Shortlisted)

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk

The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane (Shortlisted)

Ancestry by Simon Mower (Shortlisted)

I Am Not Your Eve by Devika Ponnanbalam (Shortlisted)
The Settlement by Jock Serong

Cathy from What Cathy Read Next has read several of the listed books including The Romantic, I am Not Your Eve and The Settlement.

Is anyone else planning to read any of short or longlisted books for the Prize?

It's not too late to join the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. The sign up post is here, and you can find the March linky to add your reviews here.

I am also sharing this post with Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Weekend Cooking: A Tale of Two Cheesecakes

Cheesecake is one of my favourite things to eat and I have shared lots of cheesecakes over the years, but is that going to stop me from talking about two recent cheesecakes I have made? Well, of course not.

But first lets take a look at just some of the cheesecakes I have shared on the blog over the last 14 years! Some of them are straight cheesecake, others incorporate cheesecake elements.



Creamy Ginger Nut Cheesecake (recipe)

Burnt Basque Cheesecake (recipe)

Cheesecake Brownies

Japanese Jiggle Cheesecake

Jelly Slice (recipe) 

Salted Caramel and Vanilla Cheesecake (recipe)

Classic Baked Cheesecake (recipe)

White Chocolate Cheesecake (recipe)

And now I am going to talk about two very different cheesecakes that I have made over the last month or so.

The first was an Amalfi Lemon Cheesecake from Theo Randall's magnificent cookbook, The Italian Pantry. I have previously posted about how much I enjoyed this book and we continue to enjoy cooking from it, especially the meatball recipe.

I was keen to try this cheesecake recipe as it is different from any cheesecake recipe I have ever tried before. Firstly, the base is made from cantuccini biscuits, which are a type of almond biscotti. The second thing that is different is that it uses a combination of ricotta and mascarpone instead of cream cheese. I was also not able to get Amalfi lemons, so I just used normal lemons. Having talked about the differences, I would like to stress how easy this was to make.

I took this to friends house for a very pleasant Sunday afternoon tea, and it was a hit!

Amalfi Lemon Cheesecake

200g (7oz) cantuccini biscuits
75g (2¾oz) unsalted butter
50g (2oz) light brown sugar
500g (1lb 2oz) ricotta, drained
100g (3½oz) mascarpone
zest and juice of 2 Amalfi lemons, plus extra zest to serve
125g (4½oz) icing (confectioner's) sugar, sifted
Method

Tip the cantuccini into a food processor and blitz them to a fine crumb. Alternatively, place them in a Ziplock bag and bash them with a rolling pin or saucepan. Set aside.


Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat, then add the blitzed cantuccini biscuits and the sugar. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, then take the pan off the heat.


Tip the mixture into a 22cm (8½in) non-stick springform cake tin, pressing the buttery crumbled biscuits over the base to create a biscuit base. Transfer the tin to the fridge while you make the ricotta filling.


Using a hand-held electric whisk or a wooden spoon, beat together the ricotta, mascarpone, lemon zest and juice and icing (confectioner’s) sugar in a large mixing bowl for 4 minutes, until the mixture is creamy and light.


Spoon the ricotta mixture into the springform tin and spread it out into an even layer over the base.


Refrigerate to set for a minimum of 3 hours, but preferably overnight, before releasing the cheesecake from the tin. Transfer it to a serving plate and top with extra lemon zest before slicing

The second cheesecake that I tried was a Lemon Cheesecake recipe from Jamie Oliver's cookbook One. The idea of the book is that you only use one pan to cook the meal, or in this case the cheesecake.

The idea of this one is that you cook this in a frying pan, starting from the biscuit base, through to the cheesecake mixture. To be honest, I am really not sure how this saves anything because you would still be using just one cooking implement if you did in the normal cake tin that I used. You would have gotten a better base in the cake tin as well.

Another reason to not use the frying pan. It really, really hurts when you forget to use the oven mitt when you go to put the frying pan back in the fridge. Trust me on this!

One thing I did like about this recipe was the idea of using a food processor to do the biscuit base and then just doing the cream cheese part in the same food processor without worrying about washing the bowl out. Normally I would use the food processor to do the tin and then the stand mixer to do the cream cheese part. I will definitely do that in future.

The title of the recipe is a bit misleading as I do feel as though the raspberries should at least get a shout at.

Lemon Cheesecake 

100 g unsalted butter
250 g Lotus Biscoff or ginger nut biscuits
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
100 g icing sugar , plus extra for dusting
680 g cream cheese
1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Melt the butter in a 28cm ovenproof frying pan over a low heat, while you blitz the biscuits until fine in a food processor. Turn the heat off, tip the biscuit crumbs into the pan and mix well, then spread and pat out in an even layer, going slightly up the sides. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove. Crack the eggs into the processor (there’s no need to clean it), with the vanilla and most of the icing sugar and blitz for 2 minutes, until pale. Blitz in the cream cheese and lemon juice, then pour evenly over the biscuit base. Mash half the raspberries and the remaining icing sugar with a fork, swirl through the top, then bake for 15 minutes.

Pull out the pan and scatter over the rest of the raspberries, dust with a little extra icing sugar, then pop back in for another 10 minutes. At this point, switch from the oven to the grill on full whack, until the top is beautifully golden and just starting to catch. Remove and leave to cool, then chill in the fridge for 2 hours before serving. The texture won’t be completely smooth but boy will it be delicious.

Weekly meals

Saturday - Chilli, rice and broccoli

Sunday -  Leftover chilli

Monday - pork chops, mash and broccolie

Tuesday - steak, mushroom and broccoline

Wednesday - takeaway

Thursday - chicken katsu curry, rice, broccoli

Friday -

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Blog Tour - The Little Venice Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin

 

When Luna's mother dies unexpectedly, it would seem that any opportunity she did have to find out who her father was has died too.

Luna has always been a free spirit, a traveller, just like her mother was, moving from place to place, relying on casual jobs to earn enough to live and then moving on. Her one constant, wherever she was in the world, was her mum, so when she receives the terrible news that her mother has died, she is devastated

.  

After spending time with her mother's hippy friends going through the rituals associated with death and attending her funeral, Luna finds a stack of letters written to her mother amongst her possession. The writer of those letters obviously loved her mother and Luna knows with certainty that her next stop must be Venice. This could, after all, be one step closer to finding that missing part of her life - her father.

Following the clues leads Luna and her best friend Gigi to a lovely, albeit neglected, bookstore set on a canal in Venice. Determined to keep her secrets until she finds out more about the owner, Luna introduces herself as someone who wants to help put the bookstore on the tourist map. Giancarlo is a man who doesn't really seem to care about making a profit. The store is in disorder, there's no kind of catalogue, and there are cats everywhere. He just would love to sit in his chair and read. He loves books, he loves cats but isn't so keen on people.

It is a surprise to Luna to see that there is another new employee at the story, a Spanish writer named Oscar, who has his own ideas about how to bring the store back to life, as long as Luna doesn't get in his way.  Meanwhile, Luna gets closer to the point where she needs to find out the answer to her lifelong question and hopefully find somewhere for her to belong.

Luna is an interesting character, very spiritual. She uses tarot cards to help direct her decisions, so she founds it a bit surprising when the cards aren't giving her the answers she needs to the questions that are occupying her mind. It's a very different way of thinking about life, and not how I live my life,  but it was quite interesting to read. 

I have read a number of Rebecca Raisin's books now. I love the way that she writes about food, about books, about the places she takes us. This book did feel a tiny bit different from the previous books and I am not sure I have exactly the right word for how, but let's go with deeper for now. Or maybe it was slower (which is appropriate as Luna works through the grief that is so fresh) and therefore you get to spend time contemplating what has just happened to the characters. Either way, I liked it.

Thanks to Rachel's Random Resource, Netgalley and the publisher for this book.

Rating 4/5

About the book

The Little Venice Bookshop

A bundle of mysterious letters. A trip to Venice. A journey she’ll never forget.

When Luna loses her beloved mother, she’s bereft: her mother was her only family, and without her Luna feels rootless. Then the chance discovery of a collection of letters in her mother’s belongings sends her on an unexpected journey.

Following a clue in the letters, Luna packs her bags and heads to Venice, to a gorgeous but faded bookshop overlooking the canals, hoping to uncover the truth about her mother’s mysterious past.

Will Luna find the answers she’s looking for – and finally find the place she belongs?

Purchase Links

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3Guv8lH

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3CuJl0A

Amazon Aust: https://amzn.to/3Xeqlv9

About the Author:

Rebecca Raisin writes heartwarming romance from her home in sunny Perth, Australia. Her heroines tend to be on the quirky side and her books are usually set in exotic locations so her readers can armchair travel any day of the week. The only downfall about writing about gorgeous heroes who have brains as well as brawn, is falling in love with them – just as well they’re fictional. Rebecca aims to write characters you can see yourself being friends with. People with big hearts who care about relationships and believe in true, once in a lifetime love. Her bestselling novel Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop has been optioned for film with MRC studios and Frolic Media.

Social Media Links –

https://www.facebook.com/RebeccaRaisinAuthor

www.twitter.com/jaxandwillsmum

https://www.instagram.com/rebeccaraisinwrites2/

https://signup.harpercollins.co.uk/join/signup-hq-rebeccaraisin

Top Ten Tuesday: A visit to the cafe

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is  indie self published books. I feel a bit bad but as usual I am going off script and doing a different theme.

A couple of weeks I posted something and in the comments someone said they would have plenty of cafe books, and i do too. So here are ten books with the work cafe in the title.

The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe by Alexander McCall Smith - This is book number 15 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

The Cafe by the Bridge by Lily Malone - This is the second book in the Chalk Hill series which I really enjoyed. (Review)

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber - Another really enjoyable read (review)

Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - This is the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series.

The Custard Tart Cafe by Isabella May - Just thinking about this title makes me want to eat a custard tart. (review)

The Cafe at Seashell Cafe by Karen Clarke - This cover just looks feel good to me! 

The Little Cafe in Copenhagen by Julie Caplin - I have another Julie Caplin book to read at some point

Wind Chime Cafe by Sophie Moss - This is on my Kindle to read at some point.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe by Fannie Flagg - Couldn't have a list of cafe books without this one.

Cafe La Femme series by Livia Day- Whilst this book is A Trifle Dead, it is part of the Cafe La Femme series, set in Hobart. (review)

Cup of tea anyone?

This Week...

 I'm reading

This week I started reading The Lost Palace by Alexandra Walsh. So far it is really interesting. Lots of ancient mythology mixed with a dual timeline. I need to finish this soon as I have to publish a review next week.

I started and finished listening to Sweet Talk by Cara Bastone this week. There was an element of pressure to that because of have had it in my library for ages, but noticed that Audible had said that they were removing it from their free offerings by 31 March. The odd thing about that is that this is book 2 in a series but book 1 and book 3 are currently still available. It doesn't make a lot of sense! I did enjoy listening to this book and I do intend to go back and read the others at some point.

I then started listening to Diddly Squat by Jeremy Clarkson. This is actually a selection of his newspaper columns that have been collated and published.  I am listening to it in the car with my husband, so even though it is only a couple of hours long it will still take a little while to get through. We've never actually done this before so it's nice.

Because we are listening to Diddly Squat together that meant that I needed to choose another book to listen to when I am in the car. I have a lot of books that I want to listen to, but they are all quite long and I am not sure I can commit to them right now. I ended up choosing to listen to a non fiction book called Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat. I am not sure if it is an actual cookbook. So far, it's more a book that talks about food rather than a cookbook. We will see what happens. 

I'm watching

We watched the first few episodes of season 3 of The Mandalorian over the weekend. We also watched one episode of Last Days of Pompeii which is a really interesting history show which counts down the last couple of days before the volcano destroyed the town of Pompeii. Given that we were in Pompeii not that long ago it is interesting to hear what the experts have to say.

We also watch the first couple of episodes of Bake Off: The Professionals. I think this series originally aired in the UK last year (maybe?). We do enjoy watching this show so we will stick with this for a while. We are also still watching Great Canadian Bake Off. Do you ever get the idea we watch a lot of baking shows? We really do!

I also watched the first episode of The Great Cookbook Challenge. The idea is that the contestants come in and pitch their idea to some judges, including a cookbook publisher and the best idea wins a publishing deal. That's an oversimplification but I liked it enough to keep watching

Life

Last week was a pretty quiet week all round.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: A New Start

Blog Tour: Hopeful Hearts at the Cornish Cove by Kim Nash

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: April links

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked (In My Kitchen) in March

Six Degrees: Born to Run to I Wish I Had a Red Dress

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date