no-churn fig swirl ice cream

September 26, 2016 in curds & creams, fall, fruit

My knees trembled as I walked them to the door. I hadn't slept in days, had hardly eaten and had probably not spoken a word during the entire time that they were there. My heart was weeping, but my eyes had no more tears to spare. I felt numb. Drained. Angry. [...]

plum almond spelt cake

September 12, 2016 in cake, fruit, summer

I wake up in darkness. The cold September air enters through cracks and open windows, emptying the house of the smells and worries of the night before. I wrap myself in a blanket and cling to my coffee cup just a little more than usual, trying to absorb its warmth by way of touch, smell and taste. The windows are black; reflective canvases impossible to penetrate. There really is no sense in staring outside, but I do it anyway.

brown butter & honey madeleines

August 29, 2016 in all-year, cookies & small bites, family recipes

Finally! After months of thinking and tinkering, I am so happy to introduce you to the new blog design. It's clean and minimal and I am absolutely in love with it.

For such a long time, I felt unhappy with the way les filles de madeleine looked. When I decided to truly invest in this blog at the beginning of the year and make it my own again, I knew I needed to make some big changes. [...]

grilled peaches w/ mascarpone whipped cream, sweet dukkah & chamomile honey

August 16, 2016 in fruit, summer, simple plates

I don’t know if it was the three weeks we spent in a country where people live with relatively little means, options are always limited and contact with the outside world is scarce, or the shock of coming back home and immediately being bombarded with information, images, opinions and, perhaps most of all, choices, but it suddenly feels like my life is just a little too crowded.

ambrosia

August 02, 2016 in musings

Back in June, on a relatively good and almost sunny day, interspersed with a few short showers, Thomas and I, along with a bunch of young families, rode our bikes to the farm. Barely 12 km from our home, 't Ambrozijn (Ambrosia) is where most of our fruit and vegetables are grown. It's not a giant farm - not even a large one - but it's a bountiful one, with numerous kinds of produce planted alongside each other. All of these crops work together. To grow, to not exhaust the soil, to feed families.

apricot saffron clafoutis

July 19, 2016 in cobblers & crumbles, fruit, summer

The start of summer is a special kind of time. No matter what the weather is like, when the month of June comes to a close, a certain atmosphere starts to permeate our minds, our bodies, our houses, our streets, our cities. Everyone is elated. Everything seems possible.