Forever trying to figure out the demon on my shoulder.
6 weeks ago, I sat on on my terrace and shared this photo: It was Sunday morning, and what should have been a morning filled with the expectation of me heading to work in the evening turned out to be a day filled with sweet Sunday bliss. A mild wine hangover to deal with- cured … More The CovidTimes
Another recipe quickie. This has been put on my meal plan every other week since we have been home. It’s quite adaptable if you know what you like to eat and can mix it up depending on the contents of your fridge. Last year I discovered quinoa after spending quite a few shopping hours with … More Recipe: Quinoa Salad
Nostalgia. I got hit with it this morning, and it’s been good to bring me out of a little funk. Here’s a story for you. “Where are you going?” I jumped at the sound of her childish voice as she (rather stealthily) crept up behind me while I was raiding the great box of apples … More The Spider Gang
Good morning friends! I’m going to cut to the chase this morning, and try to keep this one short and simple. I made fishcakes this week- a first for me. Well, a first for a very very long time. We don’t eat much fish here at home. If I can get my hands on some … More Recipe: Fishcakes
I feel like I have written this blog post up already over the nearly 7years I’ve been here. Going through my archives, I see that I haven’t, but I do know for certain that I have posted photos on Facebook every single Easter that we have been here, sharing my homemade Hot Cross Buns. I’m … More Recipe: Hot Cross Buns
Day 16, and the fairies in my head are beginning to lose the plot. Despite the last weeks worth of evening walks in the most golden of gin hours, they (the fairies) have chosen to bemoan the dry papery wind that is howling over the wheat pastures from the beckoning Rhine. I’ve run out of … More Recipe: Grilled Vegetable Salad.
My Mom used to make a soup for dinner, way back in the days when we were kids. It was tomato and barley with bacon chopped into it, and I absolutely loved it. But she made it so seldom that I never had a chance to ask her about it. Barley wasn’t prevalent in our … More Recipe: Beef, Bacon and Barley Casserole
I saw a post on Facebook early last week that made me scratch my head in disbelief. At first I couldn’t decide if it was a tongue in cheek article, or if it was genuine display of solidarity. It was a local Strasbourg blog where the authors shared their admiration for the continuation of work … More Recipe: 4 Bean Salad
If you remember, I spent 12 years eating food at boarding schools. 1980′ and 1990’s government boarding schools mind you; not private boarding schools with a veritable buffet selection, but a ‘eat what we put in front of you‘ selection. At HHS (Howick High School) where the food was literally 100 times better than RPS … More Recipes for Lockdown: Chicken Curry
2020 dawned, with people full of positivity and wishes for a good start to the new decade. But just as soon as we had got over our hangovers, and Christmas food belly’s, we started seeing news from China of this flu pandemic, the corona virus. To cut out all the rhetoric you already have read, … More Télétravail, Homeschooling and all that pertains to Covid-19
If you’ve ever been a guest at the Netherby table surrounded by the youthful members of Die Vrot Kol, you may shake your head in wonder that I ever became a chef and have as much of a love for food as I do. With tales originating out of Richmond boarding school, tales of cold … More Memories of the Culinary Kind
Dear friends and family, My mom used to be a prolific writer, something she managed to instill in me and my siblings as children. I guess 12 years of boarding school enforced in me a need to write, and back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, once we had made our treasured friendships, (only to be … More Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, the 2019 newsletter
I turn into the wind, adjust my scarf and lift my coat collar to block the cutting chill that seemed to race down between the buildings on either side of the train lines. Beneath my feet, battered and bruised autumn leaves lie, and above my head is a ceiling of grey cloud. They’re too high … More And so the autumn leaves gather at our feet.
[I would recommend you print this and read it with a pot of tea] (Sometime early June) Well hello, will you look at that? I have 15 minutes to drop in and say hello! It’s a Wednesday, and today the girls finish school at 11:30 and can come straight home- no more ice-skating classes for … More June 2019. Nope. Let’s just call it Summer 2019
Whoop-whoop, I’ve found a reason to enjoy February!! This is pretty exciting news because normally I hate February, with it’s deep end-of-winter cold, the complete absence of any colour whatsoever and mostly because nothing ever happens in this very mediocre of months. The trees are grey, it looks as if their skinny new branches are … More March 2019, the end of another winter.
Looking back as one does at this time of the year to reflect on the one that just tipped down over the horizon under the disguise of omnipresent grey clouds, we are able to sigh deeply with content and say “it’s been a good one!” And for that, we are blah blah fish paste and … More Bonne Année And All That Jazz.
Thursdays are currently my Sunday, my one day off work where I don’t do anything unless its for me: go for a run; have a coffee date; sit on my terrace and write; binge watch tv; sew or even mundane stuff like the washing and cleaning. Between 8:30 and 15:00, my time is- for the … More Heritage Day
I pick up my wine glass and take a long draw of the ice cold summer rose that I poured out minutes before. In the background my iPod is beating out something loud and somewhat inappropriate, but I shrugged it off- my music taste was never ever going to be as tame as my … More High Summer. A short story.
July 12th, here it is. 5 years ago we were having lunch at a little pizzeria in Eckblosheim, France, with Anton’s new boss and HR lady. His boss isn’t the same person, the HR lady has moved on. Just as much as life is known to do I guess. In trying to find a focus … More Looking back at 5 years in France.
As you are pretty much aware, I love myself a whole lot of Facebook (and Instagram). I spend an inordinate amount of time scrolling through my social media feeds: while waiting for the bus; while having my cup of coffee; while watching tv; while waiting for my baking timer to buzz; while reading boring books. … More 5 Years
