In My Kitchen : October 2026

Trying out the diary method this month with intermittent photos!

1

G's first day at school.  His menu for his first school lunch: 

Entrée : tomatoes with mozzarella 

Main : fish filet (colin d'Alaska) with lemon soufflé rice 

Accompaniment: roasted potatoes with skins on 

Dairy : strawberry ice cream 

(impressive no? for a 2.5yo school lunch) 

2

G's second day of "adaptation" at school, a couple of hours only. Went to my dad's place for lunch and he cooked Chinese "teriyaki" style salmon.

3

Tuna-egg-Boursin-corn sandwiches for us today, picnic outside the Philharmonie de Paris where we heard the Beethoven 5th piano concerto, how a 2.5 year old stayed still and (mostly) silent for all of the first movement and half of the second is incredible to me - it has entered the legends of our family history 

4

a "macaron rose" from the boulangerie near G's school, little treat to celebrate the end of the week..  

 

5 

Chinese lunch at the "wrong" restaurant (not the one I intended to book!), the food was quite tasty but the restaurant was empty - does an empty restaurant affect how we feel about food? 

We made wontons and I made Cyril Lignac's invisible cake for my dad's last dinner in Paris before he headed back to Sydney  

7 

Overnight oats, the last of the bircher muesli from Germany 

Out for dinner with the girls at the local brasserie Oui Mon General!, a huge side of pork with a sauce of pleurotes (a kind of mushroom) and roasted potatoes. so good! 

9 

fresh pesto pasta today! we love cutting the basil from our window planter and making our own pesto. it was combined with the super fancy shell pasta that costs 10x the normal pasta, it was very good though. 

11

we were supposed to go to Italy for the weekend but the flight was cancelled at the very last minute. we went to the park then to Necker to visit the rabbits, with vanilla yoghurt for our goûter, G's special treat. he got his finger stuck in the cage of the rabbit and had a kind of awful degloving injury when he pulled it out. not so much fun! 

12

we went to La Manifattura for dinner today, the pizza was excellent, napolitana style with soft fluffy crusts and great toppings 

13

went to the community garden to do some gardening and we had a good old debate about whether to harvest this pumpkin. finally democracy wons - 5 for, 2 against and 2 abstention. very French! 

we made our chunk into a pumpkin purée with chilli crisp and crispy onions, yum! 

14 

we made our own pasta! G has been listening to Giga Pasta, an audio book about pasta, so he asks me everyday if we can make pasta

15

G helped me to plate out the dinner tonight, and we had some more "healthy cookies" after dinner. also couldn't go past a bottle of cider brut to celebrate the last super hot day (32 deg!) of summer 

16 

which nurse brought in these grapes? amazing 

17 

a long day at work, followed by some gnocchi with sausage chickpea tomato sauce, yum yum 

18 

planted some more things in the balcony garden project! 

19 

everyone comes down with gastro, we have worry for lunch while we go through to almost the last pair of G's undies with diarrhoea... 

22 

I realise that G knows how to describe his meal now, when he describes his dinner in detail to S who is away in Germany : 

I'm like rice! (He says I'm instead of I) 

Edamama no eating when cold, mama cook first, no good cold 

Carrots ! I'm like carrots !

Eggs, lots of eggs 

Tomatoes 

Yum yum rice! 

23 

Random catch up with Tandy of Lavender and Lime, the first IMKer I have met in real life! We went for a long walk and ate sandwiches on a bench overlooking the Seine. Strange how you feel like you "know" the IMKers from following their blogs every month.. 

24

I'm saving some tomato seeds for next year, I got 57 seeds from one single cherry tomato! 

26 

Moon festival time ! I have never seen these black lava truffle mooncakes before, they were a special present from S' colleague from HK 

27 

We have a picnic in the park with my friend from Australia 

as we say Mastercard ad style - 

baguettes : 3 euros  

vegan picnic lunch : 30 euros (dips, olives, muscat grapes, coconut yoghurt) 

having an old friend visit : priceless 

29  

Impromptu lunch at home with S, unfortunately forgot to take a photo ! I've become a huge fan of De Cecci pasta, and the fusilli is just the perfect size / bouncy chew. I had pesto pasta with avocado, rocket and mozzarella, with a generous sprinkle of parmesan and sunflower seeds

30

I end the month at a fashionable rooftop bar with a couple of newfound friends from work.. I don't go to these places anymore now that we are so nuclear in the early toddler years, it was really a blast from the past having a giggly catch up with the girls but this time in French 

Curveball of the month... still food related 

 Here's my little monster with our windowsill basil, I'm so proud of how beautiful they are (both the basil and the monster). 

Sending this to Sherry who hosts the IMK series. Have a great month everyone!

In My Kitchen : September 2026

Well well, how did we get to September already? The French love their concept of the rentrée, a return to school and regularity of life after the summer holidays. Let's have a look at my kitchen for the month of August.. 

Ever seen a honey vending machine? I saw it at the Westfield La Defense where I went to escape the heat. Only in France I would say... 

The heatwaves continued in August, often unbearably. One day we found a patient room measuring 41°! I invented my own new favourite drink, iced earl grey tea with a shot of sports drink and lots of ice cubes.  

August was tough for work. I had two "disaster" weeks in August where I worked 100 hours in one week and 187 hours total over two weeks.. There was a huge surge of deaths, 7 in one week is a lot even for ICU. Not related to the heatwave directly but one says it goes with the phases of the moon...

I even stayed in the hospital accommodation for the 100hr week to reduce the commute time. Here's one of the meals I had, ravioli, canned lentils with frozen veg made into a "stirfry" and fresh zucchini, all washed down with a cold soft drink

The flavour of this roast mushroom and ricotta ravioli is incredible - it's earthy, warm and rich 

In August, I tried super hard to go to the forest as much as possible to recuperate. Here with the hospital canteen lunch of the day - rice, fish, spinach and lentil curry. 

Another hospital lunch, couscous royale, potato salad and watermelon 

I also took a lot of joy in visiting my tomato plants that I planted next to the cemetery at work, they finally gave me some fruit in August!

One of the nurses made this amazing tiramisu, it was for everyone to share but he gave me a portion to take home 

the boys went to Italy while I was doing my disaster week and S came back with supermarket edible presents, my favourite kind of presents - peperoncino (incredibly spicy), dark chocolate spread and sundried tomato pesto 

Back at home the Sunday crêpes tradition continues, there's something about crêpes with fromage blanc and mango, so smooth and sweet. They remind me of the mango pancakes at yum cha...  

Bear with me - this was hideous but absolutely delicious, an apricot upside down cake from the influencer Ainsley Durose who kind of infuriates me with her amazing hair, beautiful dresses and seemingly effortless baking. She's always baking something gorgeous in beautiful serving ware, and I'm fascinated by her. Here we enjoyed it with our new music friends over the Haydn Op 20 No 5 and Rosamunde string quartets. Fingers crossed that we are on our way to make a real string quartet again... (I had to dust off the viola because I haven't played for so long) 

I just had the urge to braid bread one day and so we made this sourdough challah, my little monster finally has the coordination to help brush the dough with eggwash!

Here he is - isn't he a beauty? 

Two curveballs this month... 

The solar eclipse happened during my semaine de cata, and everywhere was sold out of the special glasses but I googled online and it was true that you can see the eclipse through anything with holes on it! This was the drainage part of a coffee machine, showing the croissant shaped solar eclipse. It was pretty cool. 

And we went to the aquarium which G just adored. Here he is singing and conducting as he walks alongside the fish. It's bizarre to me that he prefers Beethoven to Peppa Pig or other cartoons. He is obsessed with the 5th piano concerto and has been demanding me to play it on the piano all the time. Is it usual that a 2.5 year old can sing extracts of Beethoven works that he likes and demands that we sing or play what he likes? I tried asking ChatGPT and ChatGPT was not impressed, I am though!! 

Sending this to Sherry who hosts the monthly IMK series. Have a great month everyone!  

In My Kitchen : August 2026

Welcome to summer! The heatwaves continue and we have two mini getaways to the beach. It seems like everyone is away and everything is shut, I actually don't mind this season at all. I'm even thinking we can visit Bouillon Chartier Montparnasse this month (there is always a crazy line outside every other month of the year..) will keep you all posted! 

Getaway #1 to Sable d'Olonne...

We were supposed to go to the island of Elba with the entire extended family of S, but he accepted an invitation to give a talk in China for that week so we didn't go. I went instead with my dad and G to Sable d'Olonne. This destination was picked by ChatGPT when I asked it "find a place within 3hrs direct train of Gare Montparnasse where the beach is within 15min walk of the train station" and voilà! It was an excellent choice. 

Amazing fresh mussels... 

Goodies we brought back from SdO - those cookies were from the most amazing smelling boulangerie !

Back in Paris...

Goodies from Kunming : S went to China for a week and brought back these exotic dried mushrooms, rose pastries (we gave these to the crèche) and some Yunnan coffee. 

I planted some tomatoes in this little forgotten corner next to the cemetery at work.. apparently there was a massive epidemic of tuberculosis a century ago and many patients were buried in the small cemetery just to the side of the hospital, overgrown and very atmospheric plce 

It's probably the soil or something, not the most productive tomatoes but they are good for admiring and visiting each day. It brought a lot of pleasure to my colleagues to go and water them in my absence. They even joke that ça fait partie de la garde maintenant.. (it's part of the on-call duty)

Do you like my ChatGPT sign? (it says - goodbye to cigarette butts, green space is coming!) I decided to clean up the balcony of the on call room, which is this disgusting desiccated cesspit of cigarette butts. I'm going to do a little garden project in August... 

There's been a lot of mulberry eating from the two giant trees in the carpark. 

I celebrated my birthday with the family traditional noodles (pea & prawn) that my dad made - the first time in my life that my dad, husband and son were all in the same place for my birthday!

Beautiful bouquet of flowers from S, from this cute little flower shop nearby elflore

Getaway #2 to Elba... 

We headed to Elba with the grandparents (my dad and S' mother) in tow. What a journey! We counted 11 hours and 6 stops on the way back, and S' mother has started looking for a nearby place for next year. It was marvellous though, a pebbly beach on the Mediterranean sea, incredibly clear waters, lots of fish visible just metres from the beach. 

We visited this cute shop selling all kinds of fancy food items. I love these giant pasta shapes!

Specialty kind of cake in Elba schiaccia briaca - infused with the local aleatico wine

Our routine was simple, morning = beach, afternoon = gelato / coffee, evening = dinner together on the terrasse and walk to the beach afterwards. The closest gelateria Gelateria da Massimo was amazing. Here the flavours are forest berries, strawberries and dark chocolate 

Simple vegetarian dinner on the terrace - I finally made the vegetable tian from Recipetineats - it was super soothing arranging all the slices! here also with cannellini beans and orzo with tomatoes. 

I saw this in the supermarket and I had to try it - a mix of pickled vegetables "for rice" 

Here it is, delicious! also with mash of peas, fresh green beans, tomatoes with mozzarella 

Nothing like a bit of local beer and chips... 

Our favourite café was next to the gelateria, the man was incredibly friendly. Here was a giant biscuit with almond chocolate filling to go with our (excellent) coffee 

Here's the sign on the wall from this café, it reads something like:  Offer of the day - coffee, glass of water, sugar without limit, toilets, little spoons, newspaper of the day, chat with psychological support, jokes, weather info, info about the closure of the bus, and added on people wrote - niceness, family ambiance, favourite radio, stories, I added on AC! 

Curveball time... 

I was doing the garde one day when this massive truck arrived with a refridgerated cabinet - did someone order a billion prawns? Actually it was a portable morgue to deal with the excess of heatwave associated deaths that no longer fitted in APHP's existing mortuaries. Nurses told me that this was the way to go during COVID, but I've never seen anything like it! It's still parked outside the basketball court a month later... 

I could have ended with any of the thousand photos I have of my monster this month, but I particularly loved this one, he's just chilling at the beach side bar, in his lobster shirt... 

Sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings who hosts the monthly IMK get together. Have a great month everyone!