Finally it’s arrived. After all that moaning with having to live with our worse than dire ‘temporary’ cooker (that we bought from the previous owners for 50 quid) we FINALLY have our all singing and all dancing (well it better be) Falcon Dual Fuel Range Cooker! Well it has been two whole years without a decent oven, which is an awful long time for someone who likes to bake.
And it’s temporarily in situ in our temporary kitchen! We were planning on waiting to purchase the cooker once we’d finished the open plan kitchen/dining room/lounge in the barn at the back of the house, but seeing as it’s barely started in nearly two years we decided to go for it now. I should point out it’s not that we’ve been lazy, it’s just that other things have taken priority. Namely bathrooms, bedrooms, floors, walls, plumbing, electrics, insulating, not to mention tending the 18 acres of land we have and the huge potager. And there’s been the dogs, chickens and two very small children to look after, whilst also getting to grips with living in another country and all the various admin and language issues.
And so we’ve decided to make our temporary kitchen a little less temporary; work tops and more cupboards have been bought and one day soon Mr F may just crack into action and we’ll have a more ordinary and fully functioning kitchen. One that I may just be able to show you! And we’ll all start to feel a little less like we’re camping. Who knows we might even get a dishwasher too in 2013!. Just incase you’re interested, this is what I’ve been using for the last two years, now where’s that sledgehammer?!:
Admittedly the gas oven did actually work to an extent and I could bake quite a few things (as you’ll see from the blog), but was incapable of mastering anything delicate or with precision. And almost everything burnt it’s bum. Baking was always a risky and wasteful business.
So you can see why I’m now overjoyed! In the last two years I’ve been compiling a list in my head of all the goodies I’ll bake once I get a new cooker, and here it is, in no particular order as they say:
1) Biscuits and Cookies, and LOTS of them! I’m pleased to say it’s already very successfully tried out Lavender & Lovage’s Melting Moments, a real blast from the past for me as I reckon I must have made thousands of these when I was a wee gal with my Granny and Aunty Marjorie!
2) Madeleines
3) Brownies, first batch baked in the new oven this morning with no burnt bums! Nigella’s Choccie Brownies
4) Big Savoury Pies, I’m thinking Chicken & Leek and Steak & Ale, should make Mr F a very happy man!
5) Fruit & Almond Tarts
6) Meringues, I’m desperate to try out my homemade Chestnut Jam sandwiched with cream in Meringue.
7) Homemade Breads, and definitely Focaccia soon (though in truth we do have a bread oven I could use). Pizza was trialled last night with exceptional results, a fabulous Autumn Pizza from the Garden Deli blog (not the first time I’ve made it!), and my own Roasted Wild Mushroom Pizza, recipe coming shortly!
8) Sunday Roasts, I’ve really missed cooking big joints of meat and was very loathe to buy them for fear of The Oven going into destroy mode. Chickens were just about ok, as was anything pot roasted on the hob. I’m particularly excited about pork & crackling, well who wouldn’t be?
9) Slow Roasted Pulled Pork, I seem to have come across an umpteen of recipes lately and I’m desperate to make my own
10) Yorkshire Puddings, need I say more? Other than Toad in the Hole too.
11) Big Celebration Cakes, a very risky business for the last two years, though Jacques’ Chocolate Birthday Cake remarkably turned out fine this year, as did any cakes with a large vegetable content!. If I get the time this month I’ll definitely be entering Tea Time Treats which so happens to be Celebration Cakes this month, how perfect!
12) Tarte Tatin, I’ve never made one and can’t wait!
13) Scones, by special request from Mr F
14) And last but not least I’d love to finally try my hand at Macaroons
And that’s most definitely not all. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am right now to finally have a cooker! Happy days.
Happy Baking Everyone!
Louisa
Chez Foti 
November 10th, 2012 at 3:02 pm
The new oven looks fab! And it sounds like you’re going to be very busy making the most of it Louisa!
November 12th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
Thanks Sarah. And so looking forward to being busy with it…though it’s been out of action again this weekend while the kitchen gets re-arranged!
November 10th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
I’m very impressed. Where do you buy this awesome cooker?
November 12th, 2012 at 1:12 pm
Actually on the Internet from a French company, and delivered to our door about 2 weeks later. There seemed to be no end of electrical companies selling the same cooker.
November 10th, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Fantastic news! I call our house my 25 year project, and I’m really enjoying the transformation. We bought a very good (temporary) oven which is super for baking, which keeps Mr B very happy x.
November 12th, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Thanks for commenting but I don’t need to hear 25 years! Yikes. I always knew it would be a good few years until the entirety of the house is finished, but things always seem to take so much longer than you think. But at least we’ll end up with a bespoke house we really enjoy…one day!.
November 10th, 2012 at 8:16 pm
Sounds as if you very much deserve this cooker! I had the same one in our last house and would definitely recommend, it took some stick from me and was a really good reliable, no-nonsense cooker. Looks lovely too, doesn’t it. Like your list of things to bake – lots are my faves. Love making focaccia with Ruby. Find childrens’ fingers are the perfect tool for making the indents that the olive oil, salt, rosemary etc sink into! Andrea
November 12th, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Glad to know the cooker’s a good one. To be honest we bought it on the internet and hoped for the best. So far the results are all pretty impressive, but then my standards are pretty low after the awful temporary one! Never thought about baking Focaccia with the kids but they’d love it….and both adore anything bready anyway.
November 11th, 2012 at 3:54 pm
What a FABULOUS cooker and wow, about time too! Thanks so much for making my Melting Moments in it, and I am pleased that they came out fine in the new beast! I am a lucky and proud owner of a Godin Multi-Fuel Range, with gas and electric, as well as a wood-burning Godin in the den, that also has an oven too……Karen 🙂
November 12th, 2012 at 1:30 pm
Oh I bet your oven’s gorgeous, the Godin’s I’ve seen look pretty special. We were really considering a wood burning oven of some kind, but figured that the majority of the year it would be too hot to use so would have to have a secondary summer electric cooker anyway. By the time we finally move into our proper kitchen we might just go for a small one too as they give such a lovely comforting heat out.