Independency & self cooking

The table is , the table the epi-center in our house , the table in the kitchen and the table in the dining room. The table is where we share our stories and cook and bake . Dealing with deadly fatal allergies mean that we have been inventive, creative , autonomous the way we prepare our food . Intuition and genuine cooking are ingredients and both inseparable while being deadly allergic .

Not being afraid and yet aware of the limitations and taking precautions and avoiding certain ingredients eternally from the kitchen !

I am proud and happy when I see my allergy baby , and the way she cooks herself . The pleasure and the determination to make her own food as a student . Being independent is a necessity while being deadly allergic . Your body is a constant source of your own safe feeling and safe being .

Michael Pollen is right with his latest book! Self cooking is al about being independent . I know how important food is for my daughter and her well being . Because there is always a treat . And at home things are safe ! The love of making and preparing your food and study traditions of food and ways you can take cate of your health while you need to be careful with so many products make you aware of the richness of genuine food and cooking . On the end it feels that the limitations are easily to overcome if you make the choice to invest in cooking and baking .

Fair food and home made with love and endless exchange is stories . I have seen my girls growing up and spending time with me . Standing at stools and curious about all the excitement in the kitchen. For my allergy baby the easiness and eagerness in the kitchen make her life and her waking with allergies so rich and exciting . 

These little breads with salmon , pressed lemon , avocado and Parmesan are ready to go for packed school lunch .

Départ

Quand mon homme se déplace ce soir pour un séjour lointain on se sent loin d'un coup , un peu perdu peu être , émerveillée par un sentiment de grand amour et éveillé d'un nouveau séjour attendu avec patience .

Ce soir on a besoin un peu de se retrouver , d'installer un nouveau équilibre aussi après un temps de cocooning depuis le début d'octobre .

Confiance et patience de l'aventure inconnu. 

Medications and allergies

We are struggling with allergy medication again . It seems that the medication is not strong enough and yet there doesn't seem to be another good alternative . Ever since we arrived in the UK we didn't find the right medication.

The hay fever medication she gets is just not right. Where the package tells one can take one pill a day she take soften four in a row .

Who can come up with an explanation and a good plan. To tackle the almost daily reactions. What is the best medication . Why is there a difference in prescription between all the countries . Why did we experience these variations in prescription between France, Switserland and Morocco and
now the UK? What is knowledge ? 

Some pills make one sleepy and other simply not bring the sufficient relief .

Our latest appointment with an allergist wasn't helpful and it even seems like there is lack of true insight in the allergy issue as a whole . My concern is: she needs the right medication to be safe. There is no need, as described in her file, for further consult as her conditions won't change . Her severe and life threatening allergies will stay. Innovations and new medications in the future might hopefully bring insights in her afflictions .

Pour les filles: repas du mardi soir

Pour les filles: repas du mardi soir. Une superbe tarte: pâte brisée fait à la maison, beurre - farine - l'eau froide et un peu du sel . 

Une grande cuillère de moutarde pour imbiber la pâte une fois dans un moule.

Puis rangez les tomates coupées en rondelles, thym, poivre. Une boule de mozzarelle coupée en petits dés et puis deux petits boîtes de sardines .

Enfournez pendant 35 à 40 minutes au four. Manger chaud ou tiède.

Petite salade verte avec une mélange aux framboises et myrtilles et vinaigrette a choix. 

Life around the world: The lake of Geneva

It has been more than five years and here I am back in Lausanne.
The city, the name echoes emotions, the pace incredible unchanged after

all these years .

Pleasant, insane happy is the feeling of being back in a city where lays a grid of memories.
Flashes of colors, mixed prints from pictures albums pop up in my head, each breath I take, every turn I make bring back another hidden, unconscious and delicate silly thought. A movement, a sense of love, sparkling tiny drops of sunshine, tickling sensation in my hands.

Momentum
Summer 2008
My tree little angles. One of their last strolls in the vineyards in Cully area. Staying with friends, Americans from the Minnesota region.
We lived for three years in Lausanne, Switzerland and were at the time this picture was taken almost on our way to Rabat, Morocco. A new destination for another few years.

The Apron

This morning I discovered a beautiful architectural icon in the city of Westminster.  I walked there with S. My back is in really bad shape, even with daily walks in the park; I definitely need to get back into swimming. There is no excuse, at the beginning of this brand new year. I need to start immediately, a blank page and accompanied with fresh enthusiasm .

We walked* and passed the BBC buildings and head into Regent Street. Content and somehow lost in her morning glory. What a wonderful start of the weekend; together with my sweet S, my freshman at medicine, S did what she wanted to do, she came and saw and conquered and I am a proudly mother. The magnificent architecture of Regent Street, the beautiful buildings, the white plastered 

facades. 

We take the corner with the art and craft building of Liberty. Which wooden structures recall another era. The neighbourhood is still sleepy and seems unconscious of the crowd that will soon gather in the streets around for another day of winter-sale shopping.  I love the desolate and peaceful.

While we leave Regent Street behind onto our way towards the sports-center we stroll through Carnaby Street.

I was only a small child myself when my father brought me an apron from London. An apron decorated with the Union Jack and the name Carnaby Street,b printed in dark blue capital letters. A plastic apron which I treasured and wore in the kitchen alongside my grandfather when he was baking. So funny that I came to live in London many years later and I decided to follow my intuition, my dreams and to attend the Cordon Bleu. I wore another apron this time now, with the epic Cordon Bleu initials. My love for baking was partly nurtured by my grandfather, he worked as a young teenager in a patisserie in Amsterdam. My very early memories from baking are all related to this man.

The pool is thirty meters lengths. The high ceilings in the pool area and the architectural curbed steel  structure are precious examples of the wonders and skills of a flamboyant mastering of the architecture in the early thirties of the last century. The light blue paint, the snow frozen white ornaments give the interior it's majestic allure. A bronze sculpture depicting a baby with a fish tail, placed in a small marble bath tub, seems to overlook the athletes in the pool. The pool has been renovated and reopened in 2010. I feel so good after this first swim in the new year. I didn't do any practice since my last swim in the end of August in Cassis. I find it again and again so difficult to adapt to indoor activities. Today I feel totally satisfied and thanks to S who took me and convinced me to start swimming again. The energy level of the youth is to me the best I can relay on.  Such a great gift to be around them. 

When I watch the girls, I see how they pick many good things, stick to a discipline, implement a  natural rhythm and a few daily routines. 

Discipline becomes a natural tool where one enjoys the day in a more relaxed way. I become jealous of all those friends running and training, and I know it is unfair. I laugh those feelings away and know my friends were right from the start: stay to you discipline and make it work. 

When we catch up in the hall after S's row training and my swim we walk home and see how Christmas decorations are taken down.Christmas season is definitely coming to an end. The branches, in the back of a pick-truck, still smell strong and we're secretly happy to keep our tree up until the 6th of January. The Epiphany the celebration of The Three Kings! Not before tasting the sweet flavour of Le gâteau du Roi shall we finish our celebrations.

*We have been walking since the summer of 2012. After a considerable foot print in Rabat, Morocco we are happy that we use public transport instead of driving cars. And honestly most of the time we walk! It is interesting how I was totally shocked in the beginning being transformed in the role of pedestrian... literately after so many years, decennia of cars and being a driver myself in the crazy traffic of Beijing, the rural driving in Cassis, the ultimate polite Swiss driving-behaviour and the audacious and aggressive Rabat circulation.... it was hard to change roles adapt to the role of a vulnerable pedestrian ... crossing over and not knowing where the cars came from in the beginning of our London adventure, I felt most of the time terrified and panicked. When weeks went by , came back my natural feeling to walk and now in our fourth year in the city I can only say that it is the greatest thing: no cars, no parking issues, no car-keys to loose and happy to give a little bit back.

Long life and curiosity !

This is a lovely way how we had a plate of appetizers over the winter break .

While having my parents in London in the second week of December I wanted to make every day a little treat for them. And this is what we had after another long walk and visiting the Imperial War Museum. I served water and tea and a plate of Mediterranean appetites. The figs were waiting to be eaten and instead of my normal choice, a fine combination of fig and goat cheese, I combined the fresh fruit with an old Parmesan. Having figs as an appetite is a family thing and I like to keep up with good tradition, it always works for me. I love to stick with my recipes and only vary with one ingredient. It is the same way how I manage, invent and re-invent my home decoration and my life! I will stay loyal to pieces of furniture which I brought along from Amsterdam to Beijng to Cassis and after Lausanne and Rabat and they stayed with me here in London. Good recipes never bore.

The humus and black olives tapenade spread on triangles of soft olive bread. The odd thing is Mediterranean foods just always give that sense of hospitality and that is exactly what I received while living in those countries along the Mediterranean sea.  

The flat parsley is vivid and fresh and a few drops of pressed lemon add a smooth touch to the palette.

I recall now these moments of food and friendship with my parents because I need to make note of it . 

Long life and curiosity ! Is all I wish for you and myself for the new year 2016

Intelligence and fair seriousness

Happy new year from London to all of you! I wish you wisdom and strengths, love and peace,  spirit and perseverance,  health and succeed. Be good to each other. Love and no war! Let us just fall in love every day again and be in love with our family and friends .

I am dedicated again to my wishes to make a wonderful and happy new year.  There are so many things to look forward to. I have my three girls who I wish to be healthy and be surrounded by love and good friendships. I can't believe I have another 12 grader. Wish all your dreams come true. 

We will see where we will travel, move, settle, live, wander and re-invent ourselves again as we're in between jobs. We might ravel and move again .... That would be a lovely possibility to embark again and envisage a new journey. Come time come wisdom.

I will study and continue to research allergies and food and ways to live sincere. Genuine food in a world where too many are struggling . I will be patient, vulnerable and following my intuition. Writing a note or a few words every day. Tell the stories.

And we will find time to continue our search and dream in the making of our stories about what we think is: a way of living with our allergies. As a medicine student she studies now in depth her allergies, the reactions, the shocks. We found together a way to share, what we experienced as a long-life condition, and focus from different angles; the mother and the daughter/the patient, the parent/educator and the medicine student / the professional.

It is a modus to make life easier while accepting one's afflictions.

We really like the way how things have worked well for us and we like to exchange this with you.

Our habitude is an old recipe. We never really changed the rules of the game, since 1997... when the little girl opened her eyes..

Comes health come thoughts about how to eat. What we eat is who we are, who we want to be, how we feel good. No fairy tale, no wonders, intuition has been since always my deeper guidance. Intelligence and fair seriousness are without any doubt beacons in a life threaten by deadly allergies. Happiness, love, understanding and knowledge from the community of the patient are life savers.

 La Mer, Cassis