Apologies for not showing up for a few days...
not that I received bags (or even 1) complaint or sympathy message wondering what had happened to me! (lol).
Since I feel you really want to know more.....I travelled to Wales to run 13.1 miles on Sunday morning, along with 8000 other fellow runners in the Cardiff Half Marathon. And yes I completed it, although not as fast as I was hoping but still in a respectable 2h 11.
The good thing about a 2 hours run is that it gives loads to time to think, and you better think of stuff or it gets pretty boring after the first few miles. Guess what I spent more of my time thinking of? Food bien sur....weird i know, running and thinking of cooking at the same time maybe.
Anyway, thinking about my childhood memories, one that stuck was coming back from PE days at school to my grandparents' house. I have already mentioned they used to look after me and my sisters after school and always made great snacks for us..it's all there.
One of my favourite childhood snack
was the mightly chocolate sandwich! Take 4 squares of really dark (Poulain at the time) chocolate and sanwich it in a buttered chunk of baguette, and yes, I mean real butter otherwise you'll just won't get the proper taste of it. Sadly, I don't indulged in that kind of food very often now: My metabolism just wouldn't burn those calories just as fast! But I look forward to making this for the kids one of these days.
We had for a while a "chocolatiere" (a hot chocolate machine). In winter during the week-end me and my little sisters used to climb on one of the kitchen chairs to retrieve it from the top of a high cupboard and enjoy a home made hot chocolate. It's like nothing else really, it's creamy. smooth, very rich and velvety...
and OK as long as you keep this as an occasional treat. You can easily make homemade hot chocolate in a saucepan: just warm 1 pint of milk then add 100g of very dark, high quality chocolate (minimum 70%.
The best I find in Enggland is Cote D'or or Lindt 85% ... 
Cut the chocolate in small bits before adding it to the milk and keep stirring all the time so that your milk doesn't boil and your chocolate doesn't get stuck to the bottom of the pan...it's just like going to heaven for a bit (well that's what I imagine it to be!).
These days, I cheat (nooooooooooo!!) and buy a huge box of Poulain Grand Arome each time we go back to France. Makes a near perfect homemade style hot chocolate...
Then...
there's the whole subject of ice cream and chocolate.
My favourite was "Poire Belle Helene", vanilla ice cream, halved pears (fresh and poached if you are doing this for friends, out of a can of tinned pear for the everyday version!).
Add a VERY generous amont of hot melted dark chocolate that mix in with the ice cream that then starts to melt.
Wait, wait, it's not finished yet...
Top it up with "creme chantilly" (very light whipped cream) . We used to make our own in a bizarre kitchen gadget mum and dad had: a "siphon a Chantilly"- a short of shaker where you pour liquid cream, screw up the top very tight then click in a tiny metallic can of gas of some sort. PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSShhhhhh! Et voila! ....we even used to (should I really tell?) squirt the leftover chantilly straight into our mouth!
These days I get an occasional fix of the dark stuff from Hotel Chocolat. If you have never been to their site, do so at your own risk, they make seriously addictive chocolates. I received one of the best Xmas present the year before last, a 3 months subscription to their Tasting Club...you can imagine! Do whatever it takes, but you MUST get yourself one of those one day!
PS: (June 2008) I have since this post discovered chocolate heaven in Sussex...it's all HERE
will post that soon no doubt
You wrote about publicising your blog - I found you on google search.
You French and your chocolat!