For the last week here in Amsterdam, our canal has had a layer of glorious snow over the top of its frozen, icey surface. It has been reflecting a beautiful blue-white light into the boat that I have never seen before. Every morning I have been eagerly pulling up the blinds to let in as much of the light as possible, and I have been so inspired to use this new white light – imagining up all sorts of new still life tabletop scenes and interior settings. This morning I was a little sad to see that all the snow had melted on the canal.

But I didn’t come here to give you a weather report. Instead, I want to let you know that food stylist Yvette van Boven is here in da (blog)house again! After I saw the latest post on her blog called Dutch Fare, I asked if she could translate one of the recipes and being the wonderful friend that she is, she said yes. She shouldn’t be indulging us though, because she too is very busy working on a huge book and she needs no distractions. Meanwhile, she has runaway to Paris to try to get some work done on her book without being distracted by the likes of well… me. I understand.

So, go take a look in the (blog)house kitchen (click here) to see which recipe Yvette kindly translated and wrote about for us. It’s the perfect winter treat. Enjoy!

xx

one ripe banana
soy milk (sometimes I’m a soy gal)
scoop of plain yoghurt
a pinch of cinnamon
a dollop of honey

blend it. drink it. enjoy it.

xx

PS I nearly forgot to tell you that Yvette has something utterly scrumptious cooking in the (blog)house kitchen! In fact, it would go perfectly with the above banana smoothie. miam.

xx

As if this week wasn’t exciting enough!

Admittedly I was asked a month or so ago if I’d like to be ‘in the kitchen with’, it just took me this long to actually get the recipe and photos together! It’s been a busy month, and as its turned out, the post is lovely timing with the book release. The best thing is that while I was cooking this recipe two beautiful water creatures came to visit me so I grabbed my camera, grabbed the dish and snapped away…

Check out the full post and recipe for my pea, mint and feta risotto right here.

And if you do make this recipe please let me know what you think of it – I tend to add ingredients as I go, tasting along the way (I’m an artist and not a recipe writer! unlike my own (blog)house kitchen guest) so if you feel there is not enough of one thing or it needs more of something else, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Merci Grace and Kristina!

xx

PS I STILL can’t believe I actually got a photograph of the risotto with the swans in the background. wowsers.

photograph by jeroen van der spek, food by yvette van boven, styling by me

…click here to do so!

(I’ll have all photographs + news about the shoot up by the end of the week, including behind the scenes!)

If French Boy hadn’t promised to sneak me out for a mid-week dinner date ce soir, I would stay home and bake this:

The one above is prepared by Aran of course, you can get the full recipe here. And don’t forget, some of my favourite recipes of Aran’s are in le (blog)house kitchen at this very moment, click here to check’em out.