I love it when the hoomans light the #esse #essebakeheart #esmaythecat #toastycat #tortiecat #tortiecatsofinstagram #petswithesse #cats #catsofinstagram #fluffycat #braidedrugcompany #essecookersandstoves ...

Without doubt one of the hardest workers at the chateau is our Esse wood stove. Not only is it fab to cook on but it keeps the kitchen end of the chateau very toasty.
But behind the scenes it’s a bit of work to keep her happy...she only likes to be fed very dry wood...guess a princess chateau was always going to have a princess stove😂😂
Dish her up nice dry hardwood and she’ll pump out the heat and those ovens will be magic but wet wood and she’ll smoke and sulk and refuse to light.
Once we bought a wood moisture gauge we realized our ‘dry wood’ was not in fact dry to Princess Esse requirements.
We have an abundance of wood in our forest but it’s not a case of just picking up logs in the forest. Trunks have to be chajnsawed (that’s too scary for me) and then the logs split...our new log splitter machine is a beast and it’s amazing....then the split wood is stacked in the shed on pallets in rows so that the air can circulate...and then we wait until it’s dry enough to feed to the princess. The whole process takes a few years and having been somewhat distracted by the garden over the summer we’ve not been so diligent about our wood preparation. We may actually have to buy some kiln dried wood over the summer....that will definitely confuse the frenchies...buying wood when we have all that forest😂😂but the princess standards must be met. Happy Australia Day Weekend 🇦🇺🇫🇷
#ourfrenchcountrychateau #ourfrenchcountryhome #frenchcountry #frenchcountrystyle #countrykitchen #chateaukitchens #essestoves #woodstove #choppingwood #drywood #needmorefirewood #frenchchateau #livingthedream #happyaustraliaday ...

🔥 ❤️ wow I’m in love with tinnahekl #montanapattern 🔥 ❤️
I enjoyed making this rug so much that I can’t wait to do another one of her patterns. This style of crochet is called mosaic and it’s made up of BLO SC and DC. The pattern is very easy to read as it’s a bit like painting by numbers. I used hobbii_yarn rainbow yarn 8/8. Happy crocheting 🧶

#crochet #crochetaddict #crochetofinstagram #crochettherapy #yarn #yarnadict #yarnlove #tinnahekl #tinnaheklpattern #tinnaheklcrochet #tinnahekltutorials #hobbii #hobbiiyarn #esse #esserangecooker #rug #art #hygge #hyggehome #mosaiccrochet #handmade #handmadewithlove #countryliving #countrykitchen #counrtycooking ...

Good morning, sexy.

I have sausages sizzling in my hot Esse wood cookstove, coffee percolating above (by the way, properly percolated coffee is THE best coffee, bar none), and that gorgeous fieldcompany skillet cooking up some buttery eggs graciously delivered fresh to us by our generous hens.

The more I use the Field skillet, the more I love it. I’m buying the jumbo size next because when I cook, I cook. My other cast iron is all vintage and I will forever adore it, but I haven’t stopped being impressed by what a new company has been able to achieve in comparison to the quality of cast iron I have been cooking with for decades. I’ve heard back from so many of you that went out and bought some after my last post and are really enjoying it, too. That makes me so happy. So many people get put off by crappy tools, like the cheap cast iron out there, and go back to poison pans. Don’t do it, there’s a better way! (By the way, that sounds like an ad, but it’s just me sharing good stuff). When I wrote my post on cookware, a few of you had some questions. What do I use for cooking utensils? In the pictures. What do I use for baking sheets and the like? I use enamel sheets, cast iron, and glass/ceramic, also in the pictures.

I also got asked about avoiding parchment paper because of the gross GMO soy (yes, it’s in that stuff they market as a healthy alternative to the bleached stuff) or the petroleum derivative it’s coated in. Just do what was always done previous to the last ten years or so, rub your pan down in fat and use some elbow grease to clean it. Dirty sausage pan included for effect.

For everything else I use cast iron and enamel coated iron/steel so that it’s non-reactive. Enamel is not ceramic, it’s enamel. I avoid stainless steel, aluminum, whatever polyflurocarbon is in the latest kitchen gizmo, and, obviously, anything coated in nonstick poison. The rest of that conversation can be found at #slowdownfarmsteadcookware

Now, back to the task at hand - feeding my man and sitting in front of a fire for a little reading. Today was blocked off as a “slow day” so slow is what it shall be. ...