Category: Summer

  • 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…

  • Cheat’s Prawn Ceviche with Avocado

    Cheat’s 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 within 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…

  • Burrata Salad with Courgette, Basil and Pistachios

    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 in the south of France, the temperature has been balancing on the cusp of 40C for more days than I care…

  • Easy Spaghetti Vongole

    Easy Spaghetti Vongole

    Many great spaghetti dishes come together in under 15 minutes. Aside from a slow-cooked ragu or a Bolognese, a spaghetti dinner gives you little time to prepare yourself, whether that’s finishing an email, video game or conversation before it’s on the table, steaming its way into a gluey tangle. Carbonara, spaghetti aglio e olio (the…

  • French recipe: Spiced Apricot Tarte Tatin

    French recipe: Spiced Apricot Tarte Tatin

    I’ve never kept it a secret that I’m a winter girl at heart. My favourite foods usually involve pastry or suet, I mean, I love lard for goodness’ sake. However, I will admit defeat in favour of summer fruits. This season can claim proud responsibility for the best fruits of the year. One of those…

  • Easy No-Churn Cherry Ripple Ice Cream

    Easy No-Churn Cherry Ripple Ice Cream

    For the last week, I have been living and breathing cream. My cream-focused projects have ranged from either end of the heat spectrum, from baking a dish of it for 12 hours, to plopping it whipped and cloudy into a loaf tin before freezing. And as this blog post is titled ‘no-churn cherry ripple ice…

  • 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…

  • Nectarine Hand Pies with Creamy Cheesecake Filling

    Nectarine Hand Pies with Creamy Cheesecake Filling

    To do lists are all well and good, but they’re only satisfying if you can actually cross something off them. For once, I am proud to say that two tasks on my to do list can have a line drawn firmly through them, and this is particularly satisfying as these two tasks were hanging over…

  • Juicy Carne Asada Steak with Loaded Nachos

    Juicy Carne Asada Steak with Loaded Nachos

    Carne asada nachos isn’t the recipe I was expecting to post at this time of year, but here we are. Veganuary, which you may know or have heard of, has no doubt settled under my skin. My sub-conscious urges me to eat salad after a month of gorging myself (see last month’s confessions of a…