Oh.. such a Tale of deliciousness I have to tell YOU Dear Reader.. where to start.. I suppose the beginning is always a good place.. so let's zoom back in time to the very late 1950's.
I know that not all of YOU were alive but SHE was and so was Constance.. the family lived in the County of Kent between two villages.. Biddenden and High Halden.
If YOU turned left out of the drive, YOU could stay on the main road and meander on a very curly-wurly road all the way to Biddenden or YOU could turn left and then hang a very sharp right and whoosh down a small country lane.. past the Archdales.. wonderful friends of HER parents.
They were Captain 'Humps', Molly his wife, his son Gilbert and Freckles the dog. Humps had served in both WW1 and WW2.. Humps (DSC.. Distinguished Service Cross) had served with the Royal Navy on the Arctic Convoy and Molly had served as a Wren.
Onwards past the farm belonging to the Myles family, then a sharp dog-leg turn brought YOU to the house of more family friends, the Holbrooks. Colonel 'Alec' was the fifth son of a truly very remarkable military family.
Their children were much older than SHE but they were renown for their winter parties, for in front of their house was the steepest hill and when it snowed, which it always did in those days, that hill became impassable which made it jurst the very best place for tobogganing!
So let us zoom down that hill, turn left and screech to a halt.. for WE have reached the breathtakingly beautiful Tudor home of John and Paulette Hotchkiss and she and what she made are the stars of this Tale.
Paulette was adorabubble.. with no children of her own (a great sadness to her and her composer husband) she loved her friends children to visit or to be involved in their lives and so if and when Constance and Hugo had to go somewhere, SHE would spend the night with Paulette.
Paulette was French, she was born in the town of Bergerac which is located in the south west area of France called Aquitaine.. her father was from an old Aquitaine family, her mother was a Savoyard, from Savoie, an area of south eastern France.
And she, like her friend Constance, loved animals,
cooking, family, friends, gardening and history.. not necessarily in the way I have listed them!
And the thing that she loved most was a houseful
of people to cook for.. with her wonderful garden for her guests to spill out into.. but she was equally happy to cook for one small child.. aka HER.
And she knew that this particular child adored it
when she made a Gateau de Pommes de Terre Savoyard, which is a potato cake wrapped with very thinly sliced air dried ham. So there was always one for supper when SHE stayed the night.. cold or hot.. it was equally delicious.
Fast forward many years to the 1980's and SHE, whilst staying with Constance who was now living in Tenterden, went to supper with Paulette.
John was now composing music up in Heaven and Paulette had made the decision to move back to
Bergerac to be near to her family.. so it really was the Last Supper for these two old friends and the grown-up child but what was on the menu?
Yes, YOU guessed right.. it was a heavenly Gateau de Pommes de Terre de Savoyard.. with another to take away!
SHE will give YOU the trick of how to make this very scrummydumptious yumyum in the next Post as norty BlogSpot will not allow long Tales to be told.. so pippip. Slurp-the-durp indeedy..
GeeGee Parrot.
December 14th, 2013.
I know that not all of YOU were alive but SHE was and so was Constance.. the family lived in the County of Kent between two villages.. Biddenden and High Halden.
If YOU turned left out of the drive, YOU could stay on the main road and meander on a very curly-wurly road all the way to Biddenden or YOU could turn left and then hang a very sharp right and whoosh down a small country lane.. past the Archdales.. wonderful friends of HER parents.
They were Captain 'Humps', Molly his wife, his son Gilbert and Freckles the dog. Humps had served in both WW1 and WW2.. Humps (DSC.. Distinguished Service Cross) had served with the Royal Navy on the Arctic Convoy and Molly had served as a Wren.
Onwards past the farm belonging to the Myles family, then a sharp dog-leg turn brought YOU to the house of more family friends, the Holbrooks. Colonel 'Alec' was the fifth son of a truly very remarkable military family.
Their children were much older than SHE but they were renown for their winter parties, for in front of their house was the steepest hill and when it snowed, which it always did in those days, that hill became impassable which made it jurst the very best place for tobogganing!
So let us zoom down that hill, turn left and screech to a halt.. for WE have reached the breathtakingly beautiful Tudor home of John and Paulette Hotchkiss and she and what she made are the stars of this Tale.
Paulette was adorabubble.. with no children of her own (a great sadness to her and her composer husband) she loved her friends children to visit or to be involved in their lives and so if and when Constance and Hugo had to go somewhere, SHE would spend the night with Paulette.
Paulette was French, she was born in the town of Bergerac which is located in the south west area of France called Aquitaine.. her father was from an old Aquitaine family, her mother was a Savoyard, from Savoie, an area of south eastern France.
And she, like her friend Constance, loved animals,
cooking, family, friends, gardening and history.. not necessarily in the way I have listed them!
And the thing that she loved most was a houseful
of people to cook for.. with her wonderful garden for her guests to spill out into.. but she was equally happy to cook for one small child.. aka HER.
And she knew that this particular child adored it
when she made a Gateau de Pommes de Terre Savoyard, which is a potato cake wrapped with very thinly sliced air dried ham. So there was always one for supper when SHE stayed the night.. cold or hot.. it was equally delicious.
Fast forward many years to the 1980's and SHE, whilst staying with Constance who was now living in Tenterden, went to supper with Paulette.
John was now composing music up in Heaven and Paulette had made the decision to move back to
Bergerac to be near to her family.. so it really was the Last Supper for these two old friends and the grown-up child but what was on the menu?
Yes, YOU guessed right.. it was a heavenly Gateau de Pommes de Terre de Savoyard.. with another to take away!
SHE will give YOU the trick of how to make this very scrummydumptious yumyum in the next Post as norty BlogSpot will not allow long Tales to be told.. so pippip. Slurp-the-durp indeedy..
GeeGee Parrot.
December 14th, 2013.
I imagine the English countryside so well from you description! Nothing like that here in North Texas...just the latest ice storm & we are so NOT ready for such awful occurrences. The Frenchie lady sounded like a lot of fun for a kid.
ReplyDeletePaulette WAS a lot of fun for a kid.. she was also fascinating. She had been a very LARGE cog in the wheel of the French Resistance before her marriage to John.
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