In My Kitchen: February 2026

 Starting with the non-kitchen related curveball today..

Somebody built this snowman on the helipad during our recent period of unusual snow in Paris - it was just beautiful, the whole world turned white, walking to work in a snow storm (all the buses stopped and the transport was chaos...) 

In Italy... 

We started January in Italy at the tail end of our holidays... 

Visit to our favourite pizzeria in Padova (Idon Pizzeria), and this was just about the most delicious pizza I've ever had with pumpkin cream, mozzarella, bacon and rosemary. If I could only share with you how fragrant this was... 

There were daily trips to Galateia, my favourite gelateria. It was Fior di Latte for baby G and a different flavour each day for me..

And since we are in Italy, why not some fresh pasta for breakfast? These were filled with beetroot and ricotta

S and I went away to Verona overnight and one of the unusual desserts we had there was this sbrisolona, a giant thick crumbly biscuit, served with a shot of grappa to either dunk the biscuit in or pour over the biscuit. I found it fascinating that the dessert was so alcoholic!

While in Verona we tried the locally famous risotto amarone, cooked in amarone wine till it turns this rich gorgeous burgundy, mixed with a ton of parmesan. so sumptuous. 

We also enjoyed this traditional Christmas cake called Nadalin, it's a star shaped pandoro, here cut in layers and filled with cream and chocolate chips, dusted with icing sugar. 

Back in France... 

January is galette season and this was a savoury galette I made with a lentil sweet potato filling for a dinner. 

We've been visiting our local fromagerie (Quatre hommes) on the weekends and getting some beautiful cheeses.. it's about twice the price of the supermarket (often more.. sometimes eyewateringly so) but it's a great way to celebrate all the gastronomy that France to often. It's also hilarious to hear G trying to name the cheeses and say over and over Fromage! Fromage! Fromage!  

S started a new tradition called Pasta Wednesdays. He bought a book on regional pastas and has been working through them - this one was a real hit, fettucini with olive tapenade, prawns, with a cannellini bean paste. 

I made this spanakopita one evening when S' uncle came over

These veg lasagnas were for a friend who just had a baby

We celebrated finding kale in our local bio shop by having this kale salad, so rare and precious in France

I made these mini lamingtons last week for Australia day. I drew the beaver in the background because my boss is crazy and apparently beavers keep you less stressed!

Still been going out to the forest sometimes for lunch. It's winter and the trees are bare, but the birds and ducks by the pond always bring peace 

Finally, the food related curveball...

I made a sweet galette too with the traditional filling (frangipane). The weird thing is, nobody found the fève! I guess someone might have swallowed it without realising, a frightening proposition. Baby G is turning into toddler G, hey?  

Sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings. Thanks for hosting and have a great February everyone!  

In My Kitchen: January 2026

Welcome to 2026! December has all been about Christmas - funny I never got into it, having grown up in Communist China, but now with a toddler and an Italian family (who are very much into it) I'm getting into it more year by year! 

I'm really into this oolong tea with white peach pieces that we brought back from China - it's so floral and fruity

For our Christmas lunch at the cafeteria we had venison stew, stewed greens and the most incredible potato gems, as well as pate en croute

Homemade stuff this month... 

I've been on an orange theme this month - here is Claudia Roden's orange cake, I had a bit of batter leftover so made a mini one too for our afternoon tea - it really is the best "easy" cake to make! 

Home candied orange peels that I dipped into chocolate and gifted friends, these are called orangettes in French - what a cute name!

Some of the peels I kept natural, and used these later

Such as in this sourdough stollen, my first attempt at making a stollen. This was more stodgy than I had imagined but people gobbled it up anyway (probably because of the yummy marzipan core)

The orange theme continues with mulled wine - also super easy to make as I found out. I think this might become a new Christmas tradition! 

I continued my Christmas baking with gingerbread men, I've never actually made them before, and had a lot of fun drawing their expressions. I think next year I'll do a murder scene with red icing... 

This matcha-misu was actually a reconversion from my failed bûche de noël. I tried to roll the matcha sponge and it cracked, so I decided to make it into a matcha-misu instead, with the cream spiked with candied orange peel and dark chocolate bark on top. It was a hit!

Christmas baking continued with chocolate and almond biscotti.. 

And ricciarelli - Italian gluten free biscuits with almond and cranberries 

And finally this sourdough Christmas star with apricot jam and salted coconut... such a great combo!

More Christmas stuff... 

Christmas is bûche de noël season in France - how cute are these creations? 

We had one from Cyril Lignac our usual go-to fancy patisserie, flavours of clementine and almond, absolutely incredible!

We had another one from Eric Kayser our daily boulangerie where we go to buy bread often, this one was "tropical" with coconut and mango flavours. Also incredible!

I rarely buy things for myself but we were in la grande épicerie one day and I was drawn to this blue tea - who knew there was blue tea? I also misread the price label and almost had a stroke at the checkout, but hey this is my Christmas present! I haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to drinking the most expensive tea of my life... 

I worked on Christmas eve and the nurses put together this dinner spread - it was amazing! incredibly fleshy smoked salmon, foie gras, home made bricks (Algerian pastries), lots of charcuterie, crackers and dips, crudites, and McChicken nuggets!

And it couldn't be a party in France without a cheese platter! Kept cool by the 0 degree temps of Xmas eve... 

The curveballs

Here is our little Christmas corner at home. The advent calendar was a present from S' sister a few years ago and this year we filled the pockets with our favourite memories of the year. The Christmas tree was made by the childcare, and the rest of our decorations by us (first time decorating ever!) 

And here the Christmas windows are hugely popular. We live quite close to le bon marché and despite their excellent range, G decided that all he liked was the carrot window. We must have listened to that song 1000 times in December, as he just refused to leave every time we went to le lapin magique. We heard the song so much that I started playing it on the piano at home and G would dance. It's a sweet memory! 

That's all folks, wishing you all a great beginning of 2026 and thanks to Sherry for hosting.