Se7en+1 Have a Bastille Day Feast, Thanks to SPAR… And A Voucher GiveAway…

So Sunday was Bastille Day and you know how we love all things French… So we headed to our local Spar in search of all things French…

We wandered through the fruit…

And Vegetables…

And the bakery…

Did I mention the bakery…

And the cheeses…

We found a little France wherever we looked…

Not to mention…

Now I wouldn’t normally show our readers our grocery shopping at all!!! But SPAR sent us a couple of vouchers to try out their Freshline Range… R200.00 for us to spend and a R300.00 Voucher to GiveAway to a local reader…

So we decided to have a French Feast for dinner on Bastille Day and invite you along… This is what we bought – I know that hot chocolate slipped in…very French!!! Surprisingly, R200.00 goes quite far if you shop carefully…

Hang on… Let’s Play Spot the Difference!!!

A Bastille Day Feast thanks to SPAR:

French Onion Soup… Well it was a Sunday and everybody knows that Sundays are soup nights and so we settled on the easiest soup in the world… French Onion Soup:

• dash of olive oil
• 8-10 onions
• chopped garlic
• teaspoon of sugar
• a litre of beef stock
• a glass of white wine
• fresh thyme
• crispy french bread
• goats cheese

Step 1: Peel and thinly slice your onions…

Step 2: Brown your garlic and onions in the olive oil… after a few minutes add a teaspoon of sugar to caramelise the onions.

Step 3: Add your beef stock and wine and leave simmering on the stove for about 40 minutes.

Step 4: Slice your French Bread into chunks, toast it and pop a chunk of goats cheese on top of each piece of toast… pop it back under the grill to melt…

Step 5: Serve your soup in a bowl, topped with the toast and cheese and a sprinkle of thyme.

On the side we served Roast Baby Tomatoes: I don’t think those are very French but we served them with toasted French Loaf and cream cheese and that is very French!!!

• Baby tomatoes
• Skewers
• French Loaf
• Cream Cheese

Step 1: While your soup is simmering, place your baby tomatoes on skewers, drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper and grill them.

Step 2: When you are almost ready to serve everything, toast chunks of French loaf and top with cream cheese…

And Apple Galette: Because Hood #1 is the king of apple galettes and and can whip up a tasty treat like this in a matter of minutes…

• 8-10 apples
• A roll of ready made pastry
• A sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg
• A sprinkle of icing sugar
• A little butter to dab on top

Step 1: Core, peel and thinly slice your apples and keep them bobbing in some water till you are ready to use them (that prevents them from browning).

Step 2: Grease a baking tray and gently roll out your pastry to fit it.

Step 3: Layer your apples in rows on the pastry…

Step 4: Sprinkle the top with cinnamon and nutmeg and a dusting of icing sugar, place in a hot oven (200 degrees celsius/ 400 degrees Fahrenheit) until the top is crispy and browning, between ten and fifteen minutes.

Step 5: Slice it up and serve it… with cream or ice cream… we just love it plain!!!

And finally Hot Chocolate: Frankly it is cold and winter and we needed it… not to mention we served it in our fabulous French Le Creuset dishes…

The SPAR Voucher GiveAway:

For one of our South African readers we have a R300.00 Spar voucher, to spend at any one of their stores nation-wide.

All you have to do is look at the SPOT THE DIFFERENCE PHOTOGRAPHS. Then, leave a comment and tell us what extra little French item did the father person slip into the shopping cart as we were leaving…

This GiveAway works in the usual way, comment before the end of Sunday 21 July 2013, and we will draw and publish the winners after that. We won’t respond to your comments as I do on our other posts because we don’t want to be included in our own giveaway.

Our GiveAways are open to everyone: If you have won a GiveAway before never fear – enter away. Good luck and happy commenting!!!

We wanted to say Thank-you to Spar for inviting us to join in with your Freshline Promotion… we were thrilled to play along!!! And thank-you to the Cape Quarter Spar for a fabulous friendly shopping experience, totally undaunted by eight kids, a shopping cart, a photographing mother person during a busy Sunday lunchtime!!!

Disclosure: We were given a R200.00 voucher to spend at Spar to try out their Freshline Range of Products and we were given a R300.00 voucher as a GiveAway Prize on our blog. We were not paid at all for this review and the opinions were entirely our own, as usual!!!