I found this on the web and tried it. Very easy and quick (30mins start to finish). Great for dips like humus or soups. Better serve hot and they can be reheated the next day easily; just run them under water from a tap and whack ‘em back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Ingredients

• 250g strong white bread flour
• 1 tsp fast-action dried yeast
• 1 tbsp olive oil , plus extra for drizzling
• 200ml sparkling water
• semolina , for sprinkling (optional)
• finely chopped rosemary and Maldon salt, for sprinkling

Method

1. Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Mix together the flour, yeast and 1/2 tsp salt. Add the oil, then pour in the water gradually, adding enough to make a soft dough. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for about 4-5 mins until the dough feels strong, bouncy and has a silky feel to it.
2. Cut the dough into 8 pieces, then roll out into rough rounds about 16-17cm in diameter. (Don’t pile them on top of each other or they will stick together.)
3. Sprinkle a baking sheet or two with semolina if you have it, otherwise leave plain. Lay the breads on the sheets and let them sit for 5 mins, then scatter with rosemary, salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in batches for 8-10 mins until puffy and golden. Can be made 3-4 hrs ahead.

It was still raining but not too heavily. Always takes a lot longer to pack up than we think.

Solar panels, satellite dish and outdoor furniture all needs to be put inside the barn so that nobody walks off with it. Sky lights and windows needed covering up, outhouse needed cleaning, bags needed packing etc etc etc.

Anyway, we got everything done that we needed to and then had time to cook a good pasta supper with a game of cards too before an early night.

Long day ahead of us tomorrow with 800km to get us back to Chamonix. Staying with Sauze and Patrick for the night and they have Keith and Lyn up for supper too so will be fun.

So Summer/Autumn 2011 in the Pyrenees has come to an end. Lots done, many friends and family to stay, some good explores, plenty of rain in July, non stop sun in the autumn and new plans for next year already starting. We should be back down in this neck of the woods some time in May or June so next progress reports will start again then.

Until then it is UK for 6 weeks then back to Chamonix for Ski Breezy and the winter season, hoping for lots of white fluffy stuff this year.

Blog 2011

Skylights go in http://www.skibreezy.com	Tree chopping http://www.skibreezy.com	Tour de France comes to the Salat valley http://www.skibreezy.com
Breezy on Subaru http://www.skibreezy.com	St Girons market http://www.skibreezy.com	Breezy nailing the floor in http://www.skibreezy.com
Finished floor http://www.skibreezy.com	Fi and Breezy http://www.skibreezy.com	Alun at Port Salau http://www.skibreezy.com
Refuge in the mountains http://www.skibreezy.com	The girls from Chamonix http://www.skibreezy.com	Wine stand for te terrace http://www.skibreezy.com
Rustic stairs http://www.skibreezy.com	Recycled manger makes new bannister http://www.skibreezy.com	Pointing up walls http://www.skibreezy.com
Bathroom steps installed http://www.skibreezy.com	Distant view of the barn in the valley http://www.skibreezy.com	Courgette & Mint soup http://www.skibreezy.com

Woke up this morning to that tinkling sound that water makes when it runs down a zinc downpipe. This could only mean one thing; that there is no need to get out of bed early.

Indeed it had rained through the night, filled the water butts up once again, and is due to rain all day today as well. A lie in. A bit more time on the internet sorting out Chalet stuff for Chamonix and emails. Then off down the valley in the van.

Had a rendezvous in the car park at Carrefour at 11.45 for lunch. Our neighbour Jean Claude and a couple from Salau invited us to join them at the cookery school in St Girons. As part of the youngsters education they open a restaurant at lunch time and a couple of evenings. Set menu of fantastic food, served by people too young to join the police, overseen by a teacher. Very interesting and great to be immersed in French.

Back at the barn in the afternoon Breezy and I discussed plans for next year. What size window to buy? What kitchen layout? What to look for in skips? Then we had a nap before heading back down the valley for dinner with Clive and Giselle.

More food and company. Booked Clive to help us create a hole for a window in June 2012.

Bed.

After the usual morning start with internet bashing for the chalet in Chamonix we had a fruit breakfast with yogurt in order to deplete the fridge.

Then straight on with mixing concrete to use up the cement leftover from laying the floor last year. It is already beyond its best but will do fine for building up the walls of the last little outbuilding. Also leftover was a bit of oak and a big piece of douglas fir so before lunch they went into the wall as lintels for the doorway. We did actually raise the level of the door which is now the only one I can walk through without ducking. Breezy, needless to say, does not suffer from the same issue.

Lunch was again using up leftovers of cheese and pate in sandwiches in the sun.

We began the afternoon sorting out odd jobs ready to shut down the barn before we leave on Sunday. Breezy went down to the van and cleared and swept it out. Checking oil and water levels. I took the wheels off the trailer (it won’t fit through the door of the barn with them on) and then cleared stuff away inside to make space to stash it. Between us we manhandled it into the barn and then sorted out kit in trunks destined to stay, go to Chamonix or the UK.

With the last couple of hours of the afternoon we set about the walls again. By 5.30 we only have 3 sacks of cement left. We have managed to stabilise the walls to a stage where they are no longer going to fall down. Year on year to date they have slowly tumbled and the structure was unstable to say the least. Now however we can start to imagine it with a roof and being a useful space.

Now showered, Breezy is making a banana yogurt cake (to use up leftovers) which we will take to Clive and Giselle’s kid when we go for dinner tomorrow. Smoked duck, boulanger potatoes with leak & courgette for supps tonight; just to use up leftovers.

Now raining. Not seen that for quite a while.

Another glorious day and after Ski Breezy bookings to deal with we set to with finishing off the 3rd wood shed at the back of the barn. We made short work of it and it was all chopped, covered and any small pieces put down in the lower wood shed for use when we get back.

Although the window was in and the shutters were on, we still need to get anti theft devices on so we spent an hour or so sorting out bars and locks and all pretty secure now we hope.

A little bit of a tidy up before a quick lunch in the sun. We could no longer delay the dreaded walls and cement but we were in the sun so it was quite nice work. More alarmingly was the amount of baby adders about hiding under all the stones. So we were being very careful when picking up rocks. Half way through Henri arrived to see progress. All good news from him, he seemed happy and also has given the thumbs up for the 2 windows to go in….hoorah. That will be next year though!! Finished off a bit more cementing and then hot showers and down to Salau.

Olivier came to take the donkeys away so it will seem quiet without them but it also meant we could take down the rope surrounding the barns.

Rubbish to dump, recycling galore and Al needed to see Clive with gutter dimensions and I needed to print off booking forms from the auberge. We had a quick drink there before trundling back to the barn, fire on and a game of scrabble before supps.