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!