Monthly Musings: February 2021
Oh friends, hello! Welcome to our Monthly Musings February post! How are you? I have been living the pastry dream recently, and I’m on cloud nine about it. No really, the actual pastry dream. Hand laminated pastries.. at home, without any fancy machinery. It is a small labour of love, but I! am! obsessed! For the past two and a half weeks, I turned our kitchen into a very small scale production patisserie. There have been croissants, kouign amann, pain au chocolate, and pain aux raisins coming out of my oven like it’s nobody’s business. I’ve almost fooled myself into thinking that I know what I’m doing – it’s wonderful!
Did you have a nice January? I thought the month felt very long, and yet I can’t believe it’s February already! That said, the weather is certainly staying true to form – it’s as dreary and miserable as February always is.
Our Monthly Musings are below. I hope you find something to take away with you, be it a stupid movie, a recipe, or a new drink. I’ll be here, proofing another tray of pain au chocolate before baking.
Enjoy!
Monthly Musings: February 2021
Covid-19 update: nothing new to report here, really. We’re still in Level 5 lockdown, with a new projected end date of March 5th. Nothing has really changed for us – we still avoid shopping at busy times, stay away from crowded areas, and we haven’t seen anyone outside our bubble since Christmas. Other than that, we’ve started double-masking in shops etc., we’re still video-calling friends, the greys have a secure stronghold on my head, and it’s been months since I’ve worn real pants. It’s extremely comfortable and truly thrilling, really.
*
One of my blog goals this year is to refurbish any old posts that I think are particularly offensive. Offensive to the eyes, or to the word ‘interesting’. I’ll be sharing the updated posts to the front page of the blog, and I’ll be sending them out by email to my subscribers on Sundays. If you’d like to subscribe to receive these posts directly into your inbox, click here. The first two recipes to receive a makeover: Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cup Cookies and Julia Child’s Tarte Normande aux Pommes.
*
In case you missed it, last week I shared Our Favourite Cookbooks to Travel Through! It’s a list of six cookbooks that we use to feel like we’re escaping the confines of our house. It isn’t quite the same as eating at a beautiful restaurant in Italy, but it helps. I miss Italy. Sigh.
*
Related: after posting my cookbook travel post, I fell down a rabbit hole of reading food memories from my old travel posts. One of my all time favourite meals, ever, was in 4Leoni in Florence: a pear, asparagus, and taleggio pasta. I still dream of it sometimes, it is literally divine. Google informs me this recipe is very similar and I’m hoping to make it soon!
*
Boyfriend & I have decided to do a dry February – please pray for us. I’ve been googling mocktail recipes to keep us going and this Non-Alcoholic Old Fashioned looks promising! I’m also skeptically eyeing up this Virgin Margarita and maybe this Shirley Temple. Do you know of any good mocktail recipes? I’d love any recommendations!
*
A very excellent article I read recently: A Kitchen Resolution Worth Making: Follow the Recipe Exactly. This is such a pet peeve of mine! It always gets my blood boiling when I read the comments on a recipe complaining about how it didn’t work out – but they substituted x y & z. Rage!
*
Riding the scone train from last month: these ones by Zoe Bakes look rather promising. In my last job, I used to nibble away on scones literally every one to two days – I took them so for granted!
*
Unemployment has been wonderful for my TV-watching and book-reading! I’m finally watching The Crown, which I love, and before that there was You Season 2, which was strangely watchable. Our movie watching has been quite light of late – frivolous ’90s movies like Urban Legend or romcoms like Sweet Home Alabama – and I’m rather enjoying it. Book-wise, I just finished reading Girl, Woman, Other, but I didn’t really love it. I’m currently reading Five Little Pigs, my first ever Agatha Christie novel, and enjoying it thus far. Are you reading/watching anything interesting?
*
In case you’re steadily running out of dinner ideas, too: Five Foil Packet Chicken Dinners. I’m eyeing up the fajita foil packet. I’m also loving the idea of this Buffalo Chicken Pizza! We’ll be trying it this Pizza Friday and I can barely wait – I’m hungry just thinking about it.
*
An oldie but a goodie, citrus style: Blood Orange Bundt Cake. It’s officially the best season of the year – blood orange season! I already have a new recipe in the works and I can’t wait to share it with you!
There we have it, our Monthly Musings February 2021 post. Let’s catch-up again next month, okay?
My love to you,
Vicki xo