Finally, finally, FINALLY!!! It has taken 3 long weeks since we moved in, and at last, we have broadband. Need I describe my absolute sense of deprivation at continuing my non-blogging life? And knowing that I had promised a complete description of our Retox Weekend...

So in case you were wondering what a Retox Kit looks like, I'll have you know that ours looked like this:

Is it a wonder our backs hurt after the journey home from Auvergne? What can you see in this true Horn of Plenty?

• A whole AOSTE cured ham
• A St Nectaire cheese
• A piece of Cantal cheese
• Onion jam
• Various saucissons
• 2 foie gras entiers
• Duck gizzards
• Smoked and dried duck breast
• Shallots and garlic from Montchoisy (the chateau where we got married) - a gift from our Aunt and Uncle
• Enough chocolate to open a shop to rival Juliette Binoche's in Chocolat
• Danish marzipan and nougat

What do you mean "Is that it"? That was just for the 2^nd evening!

As announced, the first evening was spent at our friends' E & J. J had put her new sushi-making kit to good use, so while we were all sipping champagne like it was going out of fashion, she was preparing the little parcels of yum-yum. OK, this is where I need to come clean... I wasn't sipping champagne and J was preparing special non-raw maki rolls just for me since at that time I was... 10 weeks pregnant! So it was Elderflower Pressé and canned tuna or cooked prawns maki for me. Oh, the hard life!

The fantastic sushi and tuna sashimi were later followed by J's speciality from her years living in Spain: warm tapas. From the top of my head, I recall gambas in sherry, chorizo in red wine, ensaladilla rusa, mushrooms with pine-kernels... Well, you can see it for yourself. And of course a fantastic cheese platter, where the cheese was pre-cut into thin slices, like you get it in Spain. And to think that this was only the first episode of our weekend...

Knowing what our evenings with E & J are usually like, even without any champagne for me, I had been a bit Bree-ish in the afternoon and set the table for the brunch next day. Our first guests in our new home! It was such a thrill to lay a nice table, with a table-cloth, given that for almost 3 years we had been living with a Japanese-style sunken table. Very stylish and beautiful but limited when it came to number of people (max 5) and decoration. Yes, Mum, I know you are thrilled no longer having to get up and down from that table...

And it was good to have everything ready when we finally woke up the next morning, as I had been a tad ambitious about the brunch menu. Which explains why I COMPLETELY forgot to take pictures of the food!

Fruit Salad - to kick start after the night before

Your favourite fruits, cut into chunks - I used apples, pears, bananas and mangoes

Pomegranate seeds - if you buy the pomegranate whole, roll it hard on a table top before opening it. This frees the seeds from the white 'skin' inside and makes it much less cumbersome to prepare. Careful when you cut it open, as the juice will come sprinkling out!

Roasted whole skinned almonds

Orange blossom water - I used just 2 tsp for a BIG bowl, as it is very fragrant

Yogurt a la Sydney

As the name hints, we had this in Sydney years ago. There were yogurt booths everywhere, gelati booths in Italy. Each yogurt was topped with fresh fruit, and you were given scoops, just like ice cream.

You need 1 glass per person, where you layer:

1/2 banana in small chunks, mixed with juice from 1/4 lime

Natural yogurt, mixed with runny honey and fresh chopped mint

1 passion fruit

Goes down a treat, I can tell you!

Oeufs en Cocotte with salmon and coriander or "Retoxing kicks in again"

Pre-heat oven to 125 C and boil 1 l of water

1 cocotte per person, where you layer:

1 slice of smoked salmon, shredded

some chopped coriander

double or single cream (guess what I used...) to cover

1 egg, carefully broken out so that the yolk remains intact

pepper (the salmon adds enough salt)

Place all the cocottes in a roasting tray, then pour the boiling water around them, not too high so the water doesn't splash into the eggs when it starts boiling again

Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes. The egg whites should be opaque, but the yolk still runny (unless you're pregnant, in which case the yolk should be "hard-boiled")

Scatter some more coriander on top and serve with toasted 'soldiers' (bread slices cut into strips, so they can be dipped in the runny yolk. Bummer, if you're pregnant!)

Slices of Aoste ham, freshly sliced

1 whole Aoste ham

1 lovely husband who will carry the ham (and a holder) from Auvergne to London, then hang it in the new garage where the temperature is apparently perfect for ham, sausages and wine; who will cut off all the top layer of fat the evening before and then cut out enough slices on the day itself to cover a big plate which will just be continuously replenished all day long, to the intense joy of your guests.

Do not under any circumstances attempt this the evening before your wedding, in which case it would result in a groom with a big bandage on his finger, on the hand with the ring...

The board games were half-heartedly brought out, but never used, as we just lounged around for hours, eating ham and saucissons with hazelnuts, drinking buck-fizz/mimosas (champagne and freshly squeezed orange juice) and reading the Sunday papers.

When it was deemed that our bodies needed more retoxing, we did so with slices of peppered whole foie gras with wine jelly (more of that on The Madeleines Project soon) and a salad. Salad??? Doesn't that sound a bit too detox-y? Not this salad...

Retox Salad

Quantities are entirely up to you. We had bought enough for 8, but ended up finishing everything although we were down to 5 retoxifiers by this time.

Frisée or other bitter salad leaves, washed and torn

Dried and or smoked duck breast - the best is from foie gras ducks, in which case it is called magret

Duck gizzards (gesiers), sliced and fried in a pan

Walnut kernels

Dressing: walnut oil (preferably from Auvergne of course!), raspberry vinegar, dijon mustard

Mix the salad leaves and dressing (reserve some dressing for drizzling on the finished dish)

Top the dressed salad leaves, with all the other ingredients, drizzle with the remaining dressing and serve with nice crusty bread. Voilà!

Were we retoxed? I think the fact that we have decided to make it a yearly event says it all!

Oh, and then we had the French cheeses, followed by Escargots de Lanvin (traditional chocolates eaten for New Year in France) and 'sandwiches' of Danish marzipan and nougat.