Category: Autumn
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Apple, Pear and Plum Crumble with Hazelnuts
If I was banished to a desert island but could request one food to sustain me until the end of my days, it would be apple crumble. This might be why I wrote ‘dessert island’ just now and had to correct it – sadly, this is not an edible island floating in a sea of…
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The 4 Best Healthy School Breakfast Ideas
In the western world, I think it’s fair to say we have not one but two shots at starting off a new year on the right foot. The first falls on January the 1st, when many of us, with mascara down to our chins, are found chomping down a Big Mac. The other is in…
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The Perfect Bangers, Mash and Onion Gravy
Smoothies are all well and good, but I can’t escape the fact it is January. I didn’t expect the south of France to be sunshine and rainbows 12 months a year, but honestly, the other day it was warmer in Edinburgh than in Toulouse. And so, understandably, I’m in hibernation. The shutters are down, metaphorically…
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Easy Stovetop Maple Pecan Granola
It’s often at this time of day – around 4pm – that my stomach alarm clock tinkles gently. It’s not the alarming buzz of the one which always inconveniently rings whenever there’s a moment of silence whilst in company; my physio is very polite and hasn’t mentioned it yet. But at 4pm I am alerted…
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Toffee Apple Pie with Easy Homemade Pastry
The beginning of November is marked by a sudden chill in the air, cold hands and feet for people with poor circulation (including yours truly), conkers and shiny toffee apples. Or at least, the toffee apples make an appearance in the UK, the same can’t be said for here in France. So, to recreate that…
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Spiced butternut squash muffins
This post was originally published while I was living in Manchester, on 29th October 2018, and I think these little spiced butternut squash muffins deserve so much more from me than being buried in my archives! Here they are with some updated photos. The spooky glamour of Halloween ended quite abruptly for me a couple…
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How to Make Easy Crumpets
I haven’t inherited much in terms of features from my dad, but using all the kitchen equipment for one meal seems to be genetic trait. Gaylord will be the first to tell you that I am a messy cook. According to him, when he’s faced with the washing up which I always insist ‘really isn’t…
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Apple and Custard Cinnamon Rolls
Unlike babka, whose introduction started with ‘the babka incident’, cinnamon rolls have always had a ubiquitous presence in my life. Soft, chewy and warming, that sticky glaze covering your hands, they are a comfortable duvet in edible form. But with a little makeover, these apple and custard cinnamon rolls might as well be a cocoon,…
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French recipe: Creamy Leek and Potato Soup
To quote Elizabeth Gilbert, since living in France, “I’ve been doing rude things to my body.” However, it seems unlikely that this leek and potato soup will help. While Liz made sweet love to pizza and pasta and gelato in Rome over the course of four months in her book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, I have…
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Classic Lasagne with Three Cheeses
Before you immediately click away from this recipe because of course you know how to make lasagne, or you may 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…