The almost grumpy, very sniffy, but lucky gourmande

After crying my eyes out for the last couple of weeks due to a newly declared hayfever (pfff… it seems that all they say it’s true: decline really starts after 30), I have caught my yearly spring cold, the one I catch every year after trying out the newest items of my summer garderobe on the first sunny days… Well, timing was far from ideal: with the swine flu spreading around the world and the newsreports , my colleagues started taking their distances, looking at me with a slightly suspicious look while innocently inquiring if I had by any chance been to Mexico lately…

Luckily, I’ve not! I won’t say that I didn’t kind of freaked out considering my red runny nose and feverish headache while watching the news… But well considering what hundreds of people are enduring around the world, I swallowed my grumpiness and spoiled kid complaints… I’m just a lucky bastard: It’s just my yearly spring cold, I’ve got a great new dress, and there’s plenty of spring greens full of vitamins around to pep me up. So, all feverish that I was, I got up from under the blankets and cooked myself a revigorating brunch: one “oeuf cocotte” with fresh herbs from my garden, my favourite eggs, and a silky peppery cress soup just like my mom used to do, with the leaves of the beautiful bunch of radish I got from the greengrocer. I feel better already!

Perfect monday…

Off early, coffee and a chat with a good girlfriend on the sunny terasse in the garden… followed with a couple of glasses of my favourite white cote du Rhone (a Mont Redon), a couple of calls and off we are for an impromptu dinner. A short trip to my local shopping street for a bunch of the best asperges around, a kilo of tiny new potatoes, a large cote de boeuf as tender as butter and the first strawberries of the season… More friends, a little bit of peeling, fresh herbs from the garden, a bit of salt and pepper, a drop of olive oil and a pinch of vanilla. No fuss, laughters and wine, satisfied smiles and full stomachs.

Today, I love mondays….

 

Bittersweet

I had plans to post my favourite egg dish for you to enjoy during the easter weekend but something got in the way and I didn’t find the 8 minutes to prepare them nor the many more minutes for the photo session… But anyway, there will be plenty more occasions for brunches and I’ve got something at least as appealing and slightly magical under my sleeve for this weekend brunch.

Peasto

The lazy gourmande has once again been hibernating for a while (and so has her kitchen diaries). But winter is over and it’s getting hungry again.

I hope you guys haven’t lost faith in seeing me again around the kitchen? I’ll try to make it up to you. To start with, something green, fresh, velvety and fragrant. Something like spring to cheer up your aperitif or a dish of fresh pasta with friends.

Un bol de soupe pour Sophie!

There’s nothing like a fuming cup of Erwtensoep (dutch pea soup) to warm you up from head to toe during the cold dutch winter days…

My friend Sophie would definitely agree with me… Although, she might not be the most objective on that one: she likes it so much she would also ask for it when visiting me in april! She’s been begging for the recipe for years now… With the great tips provided by my butcher and the icy weather from the last couple of weeks I really didn’t have anymore excuses to keep her waiting any longer, so here it is…