Recipe : Quiche Lorraine

If you have been reading my blog, then you would know that I am from France. However, I've never really mentioned where from. My region is called Lorraine, you may have heard about Alsace-Lorraine before, well that's pretty much it. 

My place is located in East of France, 2h away from the German border. If I can, I will try to show you a few things from my place but for now, I thought I would share a few recipes of traditional and local food. There are so many though and I wasn't sure where to start but I've finally opted for a Quiche Lorraine, which is something you probably know already. 

I thought it would be interesting to show you how easy it is to cook and maybe this will inspire you to try it at home.

QUICHE LORRAINE

Ingredients : 

• Shortcrust pastry
• 200g of bacon
• 50g of grated Cheddar
• 150mL of crème fraiche
• 200mL of single cream
• 3 eggs
• Salt and Pepper

Instructions :

Pre-heat your oven to 190°C

Roll out the shortcrust pastry and place it on a fluted flan tin covered with baking paper.

For your filling, start by cutting the bacon in small pieces and cook it in a frying pan until they are golden and slightly crispy. 

Scatter the bacon and half of the cheese over the bottom of the pastry case.

Mix the creme fraiche and the single cream together with a fork. Beat the eggs and add them to cream mix. Add some salt and pepper, the rest of the cheese and pour in your pastry case.

Cook in the oven for 30 minutes, the top of your quiche has to be slightly golden. 

Let it cool down for a few minutes. 

You can serve it hot or cold, it will be delicious either way! I served mine cold with some salad on the side. 

Blog's 1st Anniversary Giveaway!!!

This month marked something rather important for me, this blog's first anniversary. Now, I know I have been a bit inconsistent with my posts over the year but I've never felt the need to blog so much than I do now, so I am in for a while.
I thought I would organise a little giveaway to celebrate this and I hope you guys will like it. Although I would love it to be international, this giveaway is for UK residents only.

WIN A £20 BOOTS GIFT CARD !!

I'm hosting this giveaway on Rafflecopter so I'm assuming you all know how it works. Good luck to you all and please feel free to have a look at some of my posts while you're here.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

An afternoon on the lake

One of our friends has a speed boat and with the sun who finally decided to come back, we thought it was the perfect excuse to use it for the first time this year. Normally, I always find an excuse not to go, simply because I am very sea-sick but this time, Mr. T and his friend managed to convince me to go with them. They love wake-boarding and kneeboarding so these two always try to go whenever they can and I have to admit I was a bit curious to know what it was like.

I had no idea of what to expect. Was I going to be sick the whole time? Well, you will be glad to know that I was perfectly fine. It took me a few minutes to adjust to that slow rocking motion, but when we were at full speed, I couldn't have been feeling any better.
We rented a lake for 4 hours at Russel Watersports in Eversley, Berkshire and it really is worth it if you own your boat. If you don't, you always have the option to rent one or just opt for jet skies which are so much fun too!

Anyway, I thought I would show a couple of photos instead of writing about it.

Help, all my friends are pregnant and married!

Have you ever had this feeling that everyone around you is either getting married or expecting a baby, all pretty much at the same time? I have! Especially now, it feels like these past 6 months have been a succession of weddings, invites for future weddings and babies announcements.

It never stops, when you least expect it, another one comes up. The latest one having occurred just yesterday… I got back from work and Mr. T came out of the kitchen to casually told me "Oh, have I told you about J and D? They're 13 weeks pregnant." As much as I am happy for them, I also have to admit that there is a tiny hint of jealousy in me. I know I should never compare my life to someone else's but it looks like I can't help it. Everyone is buying their house, they are all engaged and they all are planning or already expecting babies. Which makes me wonder if my turn will finally come. 

Photograph: i love images/Alamy

At the moment, I have to work really hard on being able to trust Mr. T again. He's done something stupid, I can't trust him anymore and I am mad at him for that. So bloody and incredibly mad! I act like everything is better now but they aren't. It was always going to be a matter of days before we would go back to where we were. Sadly, this wasn't a very good place. Definitely not the kind of place where you can plan seriously on getting a house or even talking babies. This is killing me so much on the inside, I feel absolutely empty but I believe, and hope, things will get better. They have to! Because despite everything, I still want the future I imagined for us both. 

But back to the point, I don't know if it's something that comes with age but it's funny how I've just realised the amount of my friends who are pregnant and married. We're all pretty much 25 years old, or slightly more so I suppose this is the time when it all happens but wow, this is quite impressive. My Facebook news feed is slowly getting full of photos of bumps, new borns and white dresses. Seriously, when on earth did that happen? It feels like we were at school just yesterday, writing letters to each other on our notebooks or talking about boy crushes.

Any of you feel the same way? Or have been at some point?

A weekend in Devon #2

As I finally got a weekend off, we decided it would be nice to go away for a couple of days so naturally, we went to Devon in Mr. T's family cottage. The weather was meant to be okay and we definitely could use some family time so off we went on Friday night.

Now, I already blogged about what we're normally up to in Devon, so this time I thought I would make a little video. It's not great as the camera I used is getting a bit old and used, but it did the job. I hope you enjoy watching.

Technology is a passion-killer

Source : Google Images

Last night, I was in bed with the boyfriend (let's call him Mr. T from now on) and once again, I found myself very annoyed by the fact he was on his iPad, ignoring me completely.

Everyday, he comes back from work and goes straight to either his iPad, checking all the updates on social networks and then spend hours on eBay. In all fairness, he does have a bit of an addiction for eBay but jeeeez, I just wished he could get his eyes off of his tablet for 5 minutes and actually have a conversation with me. When we go to bed, his phone normally takes over the iPad for one last visit on Facebook/Snapchat/eBay/instagram before he goes to sleep, leaving me frustrated.

I have tried many things to get his attention. I explained to him how it made me feel, but still no reaction from his part. I have tried to turn it off while he was using it but he would just get annoyed with me. I have even tried to be a cheeky girl and going to bed under-dressed but still, nothing! So many attempts but yet, nothing has changed.

So I'm starting to think that maybe, it's just a normal thing nowadays. Maybe, technology has invaded every couples' relationship, ruining any hope of intimacy and complicity. Mr. T and I used to be so passionate about each other, especially him but then time flies and it seems to fade and be replaced by stuff like that. Well, that's rubbish! I don't like. I liked it a lot more when he used to drop everything just to cuddle for a little while. Sadly now, it's like it doesn't matter anymore.

Having said all that, I do feel grateful for one thing. He's not too bothered about video games and football. THANK GOD FOR THAT! This might be one of the things that I genuinely feel so thankful for because if it were one of his hobbies, then I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have any chance of communicating with him at all.

What about you girls? Do you feel like technology has taken over the passion in your relationship as well? What do you do about it? Any tips will be gladly taken...

You know you work in a hotel when...

Having worked in a hotel for a year, I now have a pretty clear idea of all the pros and cons of a job in hospitality. Sadly, there are more cons than pros…

The biggest being that working in a hotel pretty much entails you to put aside your personal life. You will either have to work very early or very late, as well as weekends. Forget about bank holidays and Christmas, they are the busiest times in the year so you don't stand a chance if you ask them off. 

This job has been a real struggle in my relationship, as I am working most evenings and weekends, meaning I barely see my partner. Just like me, he is exhausted when I come back home, therefore we just eat and go straight to sleep. Weekends are the worst, they are the days where I just want to be home with my boys but can't, because I have to be on shift at 7am or up until 9pm.

Unfortunately, this is the lifestyle that comes with the job and this is very unlikely to change anytime soon. 

However, there are many other things that you should be prepared to deal with, should you wish to work in a hotel one day. Basically, you know you work in hospitality when...

• … you don't have a personal life anymore. Your friends are now people from the staff.
• … you see drunk people, who had a bit too much fun in the bar, starting to dance on tables, in the lifts, etc... Loud and messy, they are pretty bad but not the worst.
• … you have to clean after dirty guests. Now, THEY are the worst. They mess up with your mini-bar, leave rubbish on the floor, blood or other substances on the bed sheets, wine on the walls… Recently, I came across an used sanitary towel left on the floor. Housekeeping can quickly become a nightmare.
• … you slowly become scared of your own phone. When you finally have a day off and your phone rings, this can never be good. Half the time, you're sure that they are calling you to come and cover for someone else.
• … you can't remember the last time you had two days off in a row.
• … waking up at 4am is standard practice. 
• … you check in musicians. These are a very special kind of guests. They normally are a mix of everything that you hate in guests. 
• … everyone in the hotel is starting to date each other because we spent so much time in this place.
• … your partner think he/she is dating a ghost.
• … you have a speech ready for guests who think they know how to do your job better than you.
• … you find a couple at 3am doing their business in the toilets…!
• … you work 150 hours a month and still earn peanuts.
• … you run to the closest shop to buy 20L of orange juice because they ran out in the brasserie for breakfast.
• … you realise what date it is when you day dot your products.
• … you feel you had a very good day when no one actually shouted at your face. 
• … you're meant to finish your shift at 4.30 but you're still there at 5.30 and nowhere to be finished.
• … you walk around the hotel with 5 different card keys in your pocket.
• … you know most people in town by their drink and food preferences rather than their names.