Felt like a sarnie (not litteraly...) but it's now the week-end!

This week has been tough tough tough...first week back at work after two weeks off in the South of France...it takes some time reajusting to "normal" life...Work is frantic and I have to thank God for having such a lovely husband who prepares such lovely meals every nights (being his own boss and a house husband means that he can come home before me...and treats me to the most amazing food). This week I only worked half day (until 3 pm) at the office and I could work from home during the afternoon. On Tuesday I would have killed for a saussage sandwich for some unknown reason (it happens around once a year...). But fortunately, I didn't have to kill anybody...John cooked me a little beauty exactly as I imagined it on my way back from work. Grilled tomatoes, melted cheese, fresh sliced bread...my deam of the day on a plate...And yesterday I enjoyed a Fresh baguette with simple ham, lettuce and cheese filling...sometimes, the simplest things are the nicest...

Went food shopping today, and the thing I love from our local supermarket, is that we can find almost anything we want, from German coffee, beans from South America, local hams (of course, a Spanish supermarket would not be labeled as such without hams hanging in there!) , or proper British sweets...But today, I have found one of the weirdest recipe I could have though of in the shop...I have discovered italian fresh pasta...chocolate flavoured! I promised myself to try some, some day...but first I will need to figure out what it could go well with...and maybe surprise some guests!!

Tonight I'm going to bake some traditionnal British pasties (but not Cornish as they do not have potatoes, or cabbage and spices...). I make them out of bacon, cheese and onion (everybody's favorite ingredients!) and a nice fresh salad...It's just too hot here (today 44°C) to do anything else...baking in this heat is a sport in itself...ditch the workout, just come and bake at home!

Another day at the office

Before I start, I promised to share John's sweet and sour chicken...It was so yummy, exactly the confort food I needed fr my first day back at work.

This morning it was pretty difficult to get up...the return from the holidays, the excitement, are wearing off to let the exhauction invading evey single part of me! Had to go food shopping for the rest of the week because the frigde reached crisis state. I was not exactly inspired by the little Spanish supermarket we went to but, thankfully, my husband got everything under control!

Tonight he decided to treat me to a homemade burger, with fresh onion and tomato slices...we brought back French Dijon Mustard which will go very well with this.

I am now planning for the recipes I'm going to tackle this week-end and I getting my inspirations from the new cookbooks I got for my B-day. A few recipes are tempting but I have yet to make my mind up!

Well and truly back

In my previous (and first) post, I left sayin that I was gonna make some doughnuts...or donuts depending on where you're coming from.

These delicacies turned out to be a complete disaster!! I had a great recipe from my bible "The cook's book" (Edited by Jill Norman, with the collaboration of the famous Pierre Hermé, Ken Hom and Atul Kochhar, just to name a few) and I had all the nice bits and pieces to decorate the sweet treats... But I soon realised that I did not have enough flour and decide to replace it with Corn flour (Maizena) as it normally can be done in small amounts...

I mixed the dought as per the recipe but the result was not as described. Not to be a defetist (or being plain stupid...the line separating both concepts can be quite thin at times), I carried on regardless and finally ended up with an acceptable dough, which I left rest 20 minutes, once again as per the instructions and the cut into nice rings. I tried to fry them...but it just turned into mush...I then decided to bake them...I thought "lost for lost, I might as well try to cook this dought any possible way". And then, Ô miracle! It worked! The biscuits were nice, soft, not too sweet, and not greasy (for all the dought I only used 25g butter and two table spoons of sugar)...nice result with a homemade strawberry jam...

After this tiny victory (I am easily pleased maybe...) I tackled my addiction by making cupcakes to take to my BF Virginie's the following day. She and her boyfriend just bought a lovely lovenest in the centre of Aix en Provence which is in need of updating and renovation and my husband John and I, along with ten other frineds, volunteered to help getting the place cosy and ready to move in. I made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosty top...and even though it was for "builders" I had to add girly decorations...pink and white hearts, coloured pearls...and it went down really well (even if I say so myself!); I used the new "tools" I had for my birthday...silicone cupcake molds, dish, and I did also look for more cupcake recipes from a cookbook I received, also for my quarter of a century celebration.

We are now back home, in Spain, and we are going back into the work routine, which means that, during the week, it is my lovely husband John who cooks for us...I can only satisfy my passion cravings at the week end, when I have enough time to shop for the perfect ingredients, search frantickly for new cook books, utensils or whatever is related to the cooking (and cupcaking...) world!

Tonight is chicken sweet and sour stir fry, one of his signature dish (and one of my favorite...) I owe to share it with you tomorrow!

The first of a long list...

I have always wanted my own blog, but work and family commitments have always meant I did not have the time of day!I just turned 25 this month, am French, working as a jurist in a Law Firm in Spain, married to a Londonner...all these origins, nationalities and placed have helped me develop what now makes me, and my family, feels this happy feeling in our stomach (litteraly!)...food!
When I was studying in Southern France, I was quite frankly a helpless cook, prefering restaurants and readymade meals over a homemade dish with a smell to make you want more and more...
I have since then discovered the joy of cooking, of discovering new tastes, smells, colours, textures...my favorite of all times being sweet things (especially cupcakes)!
We have been in Southern France for the past two weeks, for our summer holidays and I can confess that I have cooked almost non stop! What a bliss!
Last week end one of my two best friends, Cloé, who along with my other BF Virginie will be mentionned quite a lot in theblog I guess, came to visit to celebrate my B-day. We prepared the finger food for the party and our thirty something guests in a bit less than two days. Cloé and I become one in the kitchen, sharing the same passion and tastes. We unfortunately did not take many pictures of the progress not the finished work, but I owe t post the ones we have.

Today is the day before the end of the holidays, and for the first time in the ast fifteen days, the sky is grey and the weather sad...to cheer myself up I have decided to make homemade donuts (a wink to my half canadian mother) and maybe a choolate cake which i will take to my BF Virginie's tomorrow...