Home Improvement, etc.

Life seems to get much more active when the good weather comes and we get closer to summer holidays. There's so much going on right now. The main events were 1) la fête des voisins (neighbors day) and 2) finally getting the outside of our house painted.

La fête des voisins was started in France many years ago and has since caught on pretty much all over Europe. It's held on the last Friday of May and encourages neighbors to get together to share a meal. We had ours last Wednesday with 2 couples who are probably our closest neighbors. I didn't get any pictures while they were here, but they brought us 2 beautiful flower arrangements.

Last year, we contacted several painters to give us an estimate on repainting the wood and shutters on the outside of our house. There's lots of wood and many shutters. Finally, we signed the estimate and the painter came today to leave us a color palette to choose our shutters' color.
They are a sort of a blue-green which is nice. Monsieur Titi wanted to make a radical change but I convinced him to stay with the same general tone. The painter starts on June 6 and should be done with in the week. Hooray, it's been 12 years since this has been done.

Our choice

Lots of possibilities

The last little bit is a recipe for a Lemon Cake that I made for the neighbors' party. I don't have a Bundt pan so I just used a large round cake pan. Enjoy!!!!

Lemon Lovers' Pound Cake

Ingredients:


1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
5 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon lemon extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sour cream (I used Crème Fraîche)

ICING:
1/4 cup sour cream (crème fraîche)
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in lemon juice, peel and extract. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream. Beat just until combined.

2. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

3. For icing, in a small mixing bowl, beat the sour cream and butter until blended. Gradually add confectioners' sugar. Beat in lemon juice and peel. Drizzle over the cake. Store in the refrigerator.