Friday 2 August 2024

In My Kitchen: August 2024

Someone once told me that once you have a baby, time just flies - I confirm this is true!!

In France...

We started July in Paris where we were madly eating the remnants of our fridge before our big trip...

A maple shaped pancake with maple syrup to celebrate Canada day 

Lunch with the mums - burrata with tomatoes, couscous, tabouli and roast chicken (still in the kitchen at time of photo), olive bread, a giant potato and edamame salad from my fridge and banana cake. My mums group knows how to eat... 


A super delicious quick meal from our favourite frozen supermarket Picard - simply defrosted this makes a super more-ish salad with wild rice and quinoa, red lentils, smoked salmon, broad beans, cucumber and soft cheese. I know it sounds weird to defrost a salad but it's delicious!


A beer left over from before I was pregnant.. I didn't even know there was much French beer!


A giant pot of Korean style rice cake with tofu and veggies 
 

In Australia...

There's a bit of a gap in my photos for July where we were flying from Paris to Sydney (29 hours door to door... of which G was sleeping for a grand total of 3 hours) and then battling jetlag & hysterical baby. It was a quick stopover in Sydney and we came up to Darwin. We all got some pretty bad respiratory infection on the plane. Oh it was not fun. It was only after 3 days on the Australian continent that the hysterics started to calm... the tropical balmy weather helped too. 



Our first Saturday in Darwin we headed down to Parap markets for my weekly ritual of getting a laksa. I've forever been debating between Yati's and Mary's - this one was from Yati's... 


And the following week had this one from Mary's - can confirm Mary's is still the winner for me! Broth so much more flavoursome and more generous with the toppings as well. 


Also been stuffing in all the Asian food possible - here, kaya toast with eggs from the excellent Kopi Stop in town 


My regular papaya salad lady from Rapid Creek markets on Sundays is still thriving, when I told her she looked exactly the same as in 2018 she said I looked the same too! 



I made the Cyril Lignac invisible apple cake for my birthday, and decorated the outside with purple dragonfruit from the market. 



S went to Vietnam for 10 days and stopped by Singapore on the way back, bringing me these special Singaporean treats. I haven't opened it yet but maybe I will take it back to France!


I'm back at work and on a particularly depressing day I raided the cupboard for emergency chocolates..

The curveballs...

I have to have two curveballs this month because I just can't decide. We are in Australia for the European summer - I decided to come back to work so I can keep my Australian medical registration for now.. who knows it might come in handy if we decide to move back one day! Anyhow I love Darwin - it's my recurrent go-to place, also how this blog started in 2011. The top picture is from Berry Springs - what a lush tropical paradise, a warm 29 degree crystal clear spring to swim in.  And the bottom is little G, now 7 months old, having his first taste of sand on Lee Point beach at sunset. 

I'm sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings who hosts the monthly IMK series. Thanks for hosting Sherry and have a great month everyone! 

6 comments:

  1. Time going by when you have a baby is something I definitely remember. I felt as if there were two time frames at once, the adult frame when not much about you changes and baby's time frame where change is lightening fast and goes from day to day. Now I'm old and time is molasses.

    Thanks for sharing BOTH photos! And enjoy Australia.
    best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  2. How lovely to be spending time in Darwin. The weather there must be so different to Paris as well as the cultural offerings. Your wonderful photos make me yearn to go to Darwin. How I loved those markets when I used to visit Darwin for work! The frozen salad is hilarious and the maple leaf pancake is cute. Hope G (gorgeous photo) is enjoying the beaches and Aussie foods and Asian foods. I love that age when they are so curious as they taste new foods and start to move around more. You will miss your mothers club feasts! And good luck working in the Australian health care sector again - would be interested to hear how you feel it has changed.

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  3. I like the frozen salad. How handy. And love the photo of little G. Thanks so much for sharing. Wow must be warm in Darwin; a bit of a change from Paris :) Oh yes that mug with the caramello - so cute! Have a fun august.
    cheers
    sherry

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  4. Gosh he's growing fast! Is he living his best beach life?! I bet Darwin is a bit of a change from Paris but oh, how jealous I am of all that Asian food! It's the thing I miss most about Australia. I love the idea of a defrostable salad - it's a genius idea. Hope you're all feeling better and enjoy the rest of the trip!

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  5. That plane trip would have been the end of me, even without a baby! And awful that you got ill. Hope the return trip is not as stressful. Hope your work brings you joy, and enjoy all the beach moments :)

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  6. You are one busy lady! I love the maple pancake for Canada Day and I must admit, while I do not think I would eat it, the frozen salad really caught my attention!

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