Can anyone believe it's March already? G is now 9 weeks old and he's taken to having his naps in the sling while I do other things like housework or study (I know it's insane to try and study...) It's pretty hard to cook with a newborn strapped to one's front - does anyone have any tips on how to manage housework better with a newborn?
Let's take a look at my kitchen from the last month...
Something spectacular happened on Chinese New Year - G had a massive nap while we all made dumplings together. I was pretty sceptical that we would be able to manage with a newborn but we did it! My dad made the filling (pork and celery) and I prepared the dough, then I rolled the skins while my dad and S filled the dumplings! They were excellent dumplings, some of the best I've ever made!
The day after Chinese New Year was my dad's 71st birthday and he was so happy to spend it with us in Paris. We followed my family tradition of eating long life noodles topped with pea & prawn.
My dear friend sent me 10 boxes of my favourite tea, which has been discontinued for a long time in Australia. She managed to buy them on Amazon and shipped them to France!I actually cried when I opened the box. I've marked them with the months (I'm planning to drink one box per month) which will get us through the first year of G's life.
Celebration of Valentine's day with a special treat from Cyril Lignac, the fancy patisserie near us.
It was spectacular as we always expect from Mr Lignac! It featured a bourbon vanilla cream around a heart of caramel and crisp Speculoos praline
Our other Valentine's tradition is this heart shaped bread I started making - in 2022 we were in different countries due to COVID lockdown, in 2023 we were in Toronto, Canada and in 2024 we were celebrating with our son.
Cinnamon star cookies our friend brought from Germany when she came to visit.
My dad came over from Sydney to help us out for over 2 months and he was the most incredible help, doing all the shopping and cooking for us while I was recovering. Here was our last dinner together before he headed home, with an amazing wild bass that S got from our local fish man.
Another difficult day with a newborn, another treat that S picked up when he went out to the post office.
We started visiting Picard, France's favourite supermarket. It's an incredible frozen supermarket full of vegetables and pre-prepared meals. We had an idea to have Friday night Picard dinners, but unfortunately we may have to put a pause on it since something about the frozen dinners is irritating G through my breastmilk. Shame since this salmon & spinach lasagne was so delicious, and the one we had the following week (couscous royal) was also very tasty!
S' sister and her fiancé came to visit us in Paris for a weekend and they brought us these goodies - some lovely chocolate, parma ham filled tortellini, fresh fruit (not pictured) and an excellent baguette.
We live next to a pizza shop and we have somehow never been there. But I recently got a craving for pizza so on the way home from G's 2 month appointment we picked up a traditional Italian pizza for lunch (olives, capers, anchovies). It was really good and I will definitely be visiting again!
And the sourdough continues. I'm back to baking our weekly bread, and we get the occasional baguette if we feel like it. Barney is alive and thriving!
This month's curveball: some little flowers from our window planter. We got the bulbs when I came out of the hospital and we watched the jacinthes grow and eventually flower. A splash of colour in the middle of doomy & gloomy Paris winter.
A little reminder that Life is wonderful.
I'm sharing this with Sherry from Sherry's Pickings, who hosts the monthly IMK event. Thanks for visiting and have a great March everyone!
