Category: Writing

  • Harry Potter Pumpkin Pasties with Caramelised Onions

    Harry Potter Pumpkin Pasties with Caramelised Onions

    We have crept over the monthly border into November, but my cosy affection for pumpkins and witches still lingers. Now that the threat of horror and gore has passed, I feel quite warm-hearted about Halloween and it’s been on my mind for the last few days. That may have been because of the horror movie…

  • Naan au Fromage

    Naan au Fromage

    Upon my touchdown in Toulouse two years ago, within hours Gaylord was planning to make us naan au fromage. To give you some perspective, two years ago was a slightly tumultuous time, there was this little pandemic on, and lockdowns were declaring it was illegal to drive as far as your nearest airport. So, Gaylord…

  • The 5 Best Budget Restaurants in Toulouse

    The 5 Best Budget Restaurants in Toulouse

    When I eat out, my first port of call is to google ‘budget restaurants in Toulouse’. I assume most of us do this, inserting our own home cities at the end. Eating is quite possibly one of the most enjoyable activities and food, well, it’s not free. So, the best option is to find restaurants,…

  • The 4 Best Affordable To-Go Lunches in Toulouse

    The 4 Best Affordable To-Go Lunches in Toulouse

    In the summer, a picnic is always a good idea. For those of us from famously wet countries, a picnic in the rain is part of our national identity, and not even a storm can keep us away from our scotch eggs and plastic-wrapped sandwiches. Toulouse in the summer, while a little wayward like a…

  • Your Guide for 5 Days by the Lisbon Beaches

    Your Guide for 5 Days by the Lisbon Beaches

    Gaylord and I took a break from the flat’s darkness and fresh paint smell and spent five days on the south bay of Lisbon. We had hoped, pointlessly it turns out, that the painters would collapse their staggering stories of scaffolding in our absence – we would be gone a full five days after all,…

  • The Best Hidden Beer Gardens for Summer in Toulouse

    The Best Hidden Beer Gardens for Summer in Toulouse

    Every year when summer rolls around, I find myself nursing some very specific cravings: 1. Pimm’s – ideally with a medley of fruits, cucumber and mint floating on the surface. 2. Olives. Big, meaty ones, the brinier the better! 3. And last but not least, a beer garden or terrace with outdoor seating, ideally shaded…

  • The Best Tea and Cake in Toulouse

    The Best Tea and Cake in Toulouse

    For some reason, it is drilled into us from nursey age that there are three meals a day. I would like to propose that there should be a fourth meal and that one is clearly the tea and cake course. Not that I need to tell you, dear reader, I’m sure you’re like me and…

  • The 5 Best Affordable Restaurants in Toulouse

    The 5 Best Affordable Restaurants in Toulouse

    I’d always wanted to live abroad and finally in 2019, I boarded that plane, carrying my life on my back. Incidentally, that flight took me to New Zealand, and through a series of exciting, surprising (and then there was a little pandemic) circumstances, I’m now living in France! In Toulouse in fact. Do you know…

  • Healthy Banana Oat Pancakes with Pink Peppercorn Plums

    Healthy Banana Oat Pancakes with Pink Peppercorn Plums

    Banana oat pancakes were my fanfare for 2023. I lined up all the ingredients on my parents’ glittery red countertop (it’s not the only part of the new house that will be evicted but it will potentially be the most satisfying) and methodically measured everything into a jug then whizzed it all into a gloopy…

  • How to Make Gingerbread Marshmallows

    How to Make Gingerbread Marshmallows

    I appear to have travelled through time into the future. I blinked and somehow it’s advent. Time travel is clearly the only logical answer – although the time machine would have to be invisible and must be parked in one of the few unused parking spaces outside. And all users would have had their memories…