Category: Writing
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Classic lasagne with three cheeses
Before you immediately click off this recipe because of course you know how to make lasagne, or you may even be apologetically shrugging as if to say ‘so sorry Ally but my mum’s recipe for lasagne is unbeatable’, I’m just going to quickly say – you haven’t tried this lasagne. And I’m also going to […]
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How to make the best charcuterie board
It was during my first visit to see Gaylord in France that I realised how seriously the French take charcuterie. While it took me another year to eat snails, then a whole year after that I finally encountered frogs legs, charcuterie has been a weekly snack since my plane touched down in 2020. As you […]
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Sign up to my newsletter!
We all have full inboxes – once upon a time, I signed up to two separate French-teaching email lists, have I ever read their updates? No. How’s my French going? Terribly. However, what if I could offer you a newsletter that, unlike these emails sitting in my inbox, doesn’t require any hard work on your […]
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Moist carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting
Unlike many bakers, I didn’t grow up baking at my grandmother’s knee. In fact, my most regular activity in my granny’s kitchen was drying the dishes after each meal (can you even qualify that as a skill? – ‘oh her baking is delicious’ ‘you haven’t seen anything, just watch her dry up’). My granny was […]
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The Best BLT
There’s been a change of plan. The essential guide to making your own French charcuterie board – taking us all one step closer to living the joie de vivre no matter where we are in the world – never got off the ground. Instead of cheese and cured meats, there came a vicious cold and […]
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Review: Taste by Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci is a chameleon. Turn on any film from a range of genres and his face is bound to pop up. Regardless of these artistic capabilities though, ask anyone who’s age falls within the millennial generation and Mr Tucci is famous for just one film and one film alone. Gaylord’s memory for names is […]
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Prawn ceviche with avocado
Our evening binge-TV is Modern Family. There are 11 seasons so it looks like we’re covered until next summer (who am I kidding, we’ll be finished in a month). In an episode we watched the other night, a character lamented, ‘Do you remember when summer meant fireflies, cut-off shorts and ice cream trucks?’ Do I […]
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A foodie’s 24 hours in Toulouse
It goes without saying, but I’ll write it anyway – France is famous for it’s food. So, what is on the agenda for a foodie with 24 hours in Toulouse? Out of France’s five major cities – which also include Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseilles – Toulouse is often the most overlooked. For years, my […]
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Burrata salad with courgette, basil and pistachios
At the beginning of the summer, the thought that one day I might be sick of salads was a laughable concept. Fresh, cold and crunchy, salads was everything the weather was not as here, the south of France has been balancing on the cusp of 40C for more days than I care to remember, and […]
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Focaccia (and a heat wave)
The heat wave came without warning. I can’t really say the same for the focaccia though. That came from an all-consuming craving and addiction for salt-crusted cushion-soft bread, and no matter how many heat waves we suffer, there will always be a focaccia in this house. I have not experienced many heat waves in my […]