Spaghetti with Marmite

I found this recipe from the book call "Risotto with Nettles A Memoir with food by Anna Del Conte". What she said in the book is "This is hardly a recipe, but I want to include it because I haven't as yet found a child who doesn't like it."

It sounds very interesting. I wanted to try this recipe a long time ago but I keep forgetting. Today I read this book again so I decided to try this recipe. I cooked for G and Z after they arrived home from school. 
  "What is Marmite, mom?" G asked
  "Marmite is made from yeast extract very salty and savoury. It's like a sandwich spread. You can spread them on a bread to make a sandwich. Are you ready for Spaghetti with Marmite?" I asked
  "Yes, sure mom" G replied
I sprinkle some wasabi sprouts on top of the spaghetti. He ate it happily after with his spaghetti.
  "It's delicious mom, Are there anymore?" he asked

 The kids loved it.  Surprising but it's actually really delicious. It's so easy to make. It took me less than 15 minutes to make this spaghetti.

Raspberry buttermilk pancakes

Another easy Sunday breakfast for kids. G loves to have pancakes with honey but the rest of us love to have with maple syrup. The original recipe asked for fresh blueberries but I just happened to have raspberry, so I used raspberries instead. Please feel free to use any berries that are available in your kitchen. These are the softest and fluffiest pancakes ever! I make these pancakes over and over. Yummy.

Cookies and cream gelato

Here is the cookies and cream gelato that I promised a few weeks ago. Of course there is no more left now as it was cleaned up quite quickly by the boys. But I wanted to share this recipe with you. Have fun making homemade gelato!

Apricot tarts

G had no school today. So G and I went for grocery together. He loves doing grocery with me or sometimes with his dad over the weekend. He likes to explore about food and fresh ingredients. He saw fresh apricots on the shelf.

“ What fruit is this, Mom?” G asked me.

“It’s apricot. When you were young I liked to put dried apricot in your snacks box to school.” I replied.

“Oh I see. Can you buy them, please? I want to try fresh apricot.” He asked.

“Sure! Those stone fruits are nice when there’re cooked. I’ll let you try fresh apricot and bake some apricot tarts later” I replied.

When we arrived home, he tried it right away and he said “Yummy,mom!”.

I told him. “it will be nicer if we bake or cook them because the sugar in a fruit gets caramelized and they become sweeter and more fragrant.” After finished baking we had two tarts each.

Raspberry financiers

I was craving for financiers with cold milk. I have some fresh raspberries leftover from making raspberry ripple ice-cream. Raspberry and almond financiers are a perfect combination. This is another way to use up my egg white.  I had a ton of egg whites in my freezer that I try to use up to clear some space in my freezer. I gladly baked this.

I had some freshly baked financiers with cold milk. Delicious! G and Z finished the rest after they came back from school.

Strawberry and lychee sorbet

The weather is so hot lately, so I decided to make fruit sorbet for the kids. G is a great fan of fruit sorbets. Any kind of fruit sorbet that I can think of, he loves them all. This is a really good sorbet recipe. It’s so delicious and refreshing, please try it. I made this strawberry and lychee sorbet yesterday. When the ice-cream maker stopped churning, I spooned the sorbet into little jars. These are little recycled yogurt jars. It’s very easy for the kids to help themselves to the sorbet from the freezer.

Tomato tart with goat cheese

Z loves to eat tomato tarts. He's been asking me to bake for him the past few weeks. I agreed to make it for Sunday lunch. I made the pastry dough last night and refrigerated it overnight.

I didn't do any food photography at all for two weeks. It seems like a long time ago. I missed my camera, it's been laying still in the dry cabinet.

Right after CP took the kids out for sport lesson. I took out the pastry dough from the refrigerator and set up my camera. I was ready to go, rolling the pastry dough happily. This was my personal time.

By the way, the Pink Himalayan sea salt in these photos was a generous gift from my friend, N. She has just come back from Italy. And she also gave me a bottle of Black sea salt. Maybe I should make Black sea salt macarons. Hmmm ... we'll see.

Z had tomato tart for lunch and cookies n cream gelato for dessert after. I'll share the  recipe with you soon.

Baby Lilian and Beauty Mirabelle

Recently, I got a chance to take some baby photos. My friend had just given birth to baby Lilian. I wanted to take her baby's photos and put into a nice photo frame to give to her as a gift. Baby Lilian was 3 weeks old when I took these photos. It was such a fun experience. For me, it was much more difficult than taking food photographs. Way more difficult, I find. Anyway these are what I've taken. Enjoy, LOL. 

And I also took some photos of Mirabelle. She is another of my friend's daughter. She is super cute and super pretty. I enjoyed taking photographs of her. Taking kids' photographs isn't easy at all, I've learned from my experience. But lots of fun though.

Prosciutto salad

I like prosciutto. I alway have it as a stand-by in my fridge. Prosciutto is Umami. I find prosciutto versatile. It tastes great with rock melons. My kids have it with bread when they're hungry after their play. Great sandwich in lunch box. I sometimes have it with omelet for breakfast in the morning, etc...


Today I made prosciutto salad. I have some figs that I bought the day before for fig tart left in my fridge.  So I just put some fresh figs together with mixed green salad, and topped with a slice or two of prosciutto. I drizzled the salad with some good extra virgin olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar, freshly ground black pepper and some sea salt. Then I shaved some parmesan cheese on top of it and dug in.

Strawberries en Papillote with yogurt

We eat a lot of yogurt at home. I make my own yogurt. Store bought yogurt is way too sour for me. Making them on my own, I can control the sourness I want.  

I bought a lot of Korean strawberries today. This must be the Korean strawberry season. Fruits in season taste so wonderful. I decided to bake some of them, en Papillote, with vanilla bean, lemon thyme and muscovado sugar to have with my homemade yogurt. After baking, the smell is incredibly wonderful when you open the parchment bag. Such a refreshing and flora aroma. Try it if you want to know what it smells like. 

The combination of red from the strawberries against the cloudy white of the yogurt reminds me so much of the holiday season.  Here's wishing you all Merry X'mas and Happy New Year. Happy holidays!