Category: Spring

  • Bircher Muesli with Peach and Peanut Butter

    Bircher Muesli with Peach and Peanut Butter

    Sometimes – sometimes – I like a healthy start to the day. I’m not going to sit here and pretend to you that I eat oats, avocado or cottage cheese for breakfast every day, no one is that perfect, and also those devilish pain au chocolat, you know, exist. But, really what could be easier…

  • Blueberry, Lemon and White Chocolate Cookies

    Blueberry, Lemon and White Chocolate Cookies

    I write this as I eat cookies. Cookies for breakfast are fine yes? Maybe they’re more suited to the weekend – if pancakes are too ambitious on Saturday morning, then opening a packet of Marylands isn’t too offensive – but Monday? I haven’t even found the wagon, let alone fallen off it. But what can…

  • French Recipe: Goat’s Cheese and Onion Tart

    French Recipe: Goat’s Cheese and Onion Tart

    It may just be residual stress from cookery school, but making a tart – sweet or savoury – is up there in the top five reasons to bring me out in a cold sweat. Various forms of confrontation are another. As is speaking French. But back to tarts; over the last 6 and a half…

  • Burnt Basque Cheesecake with Poached Rhubarb

    Burnt Basque Cheesecake with Poached Rhubarb

    I’m not what one would describe as a perfectionist. Gaylord and my mum commiserate about my appalling washing up and Gaylord has a mini panic attack whenever he sees how I hang laundry. There are occasional times though when I’m seemingly possessed by perfectionism; it kind of sneaks up on me and has me bound…

  • How to Make Hot Cross Buns

    How to Make Hot Cross Buns

    If you’re ever uncertain about what time of year it is – who knows why, maybe you have a nice bunker – I’d advise you to go to the supermarket. They will set you on the right path straight away because as soon as one holiday is shunted out the door, the next is sequinned…

  • Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder with Ras El Hanout

    Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder with Ras El Hanout

    I was thinking about this the other day – does everyone have a signature dish? Is there a food you are known for? If you went to a pot luck or, if you’re a generous guest and you don’t like to turn up somewhere empty handed, what would be your dish of choice? For me,…

  • Easy Oven-Baked Risotto with Leek and Sage

    Easy Oven-Baked Risotto with Leek and Sage

    This week’s oven-baked risotto came about because of the snow. I woke up this morning at 7:15 all of a fluster as I do every time my alarm rings. It’s a soothing alarm tone, one with bells and bird song, it’s very meditative rather an a literal alarm which rings like a screaming siren, but…

  • Pear, Chocolate and Hazelnut Scones

    Pear, Chocolate and Hazelnut Scones

    There’s been a week’s intermission from blogging and from France, but I can offer you some pear, chocolate and hazelnut scones as compensation, dear reader. I don’t look like a French native. My cheeks are almost ruddishly pink – something even my dad pointed out recently in a fairly critical manner (‘why are your cheeks…

  • Hummingbird Cupcakes with Coconut and Passion Fruit

    Hummingbird Cupcakes with Coconut and Passion Fruit

    Hummingbird cupcakes have been my answer to a long cold winter. When I moved to the south of France, I expected skies in the exact shade of blue of a Swedish hunk’s eyes, sun-drenched river banks, warm terracotta soaking up the sun, and me, lounging in my garden leisurely sipping a cocktail. Now, a year…

  • Spaghetti with Prawns, Whisky and Mushrooms

    Spaghetti with Prawns, Whisky and Mushrooms

    In my opinion, it’s not a habit to serve spaghetti with prawns and whisky. Correct me if I’m wrong. To me, whisky is that unfathomable drink, ferociously harsh and unapologetically alcoholic, that lawyers manage to knock back without even a grimace in courtroom dramas. But this unusual combination of spaghetti with prawns and whisky sauce…