Apparently last Monday was the saddest day of the year and we survived it. Yippee! A celebration was in order requiring lots of delicious and colourful food to keep our health good and our mood high. We were feeling particularly lucky as we had both just recovered from the dreaded Aussie flu and had been feeling incredibly poorly and completely knocked out for a good few days. Since then, every dark gloomy morning as the wind tries to steal the roof away and the rain batters at the house from every angle, I have been greeting Matt with a warm turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, lemon, ginger and cider vinegar cocktail – that’ll teach him! It’s not so bad and it supposedly cures every ill known to man, so that’s good news.

Unfortunately, although we made it through Blue Monday, our car was not so fortunate. After jumping in, ready to whizz down to the village to fetch Sienna home for lunch, the car would not go faster than five mph. Great! You are absolutely scuppered without a car if you live here in the undiscovered depths of the Vendee. Luckily, a new garage has opened five minutes away so at 2.00 pm when normal life resumes after the essential two-hour lunch break, Matt spluttered along there with a friend following in another car to check he got there and to pick him up when he dropped the car off. It looked like a presidential motorcade, with two big black four-by-fours driving ridiculously slowly despite there being a total lack of any traffic – the only difference between the two being that ours was slightly older and slightly more broken. (Reassuring, by the way to be informed that Donald Trump’s mental health has been confirmed as, like, totally good.) A teacher from school asked if maybe the car was depressed as a result of Blue Monday and wondered if I would be better off seeing a psychologist instead; it might even be cheaper than a mechanic. Ah well, I’m afraid our depressed Discovery is taking a month’s sabbatical.

So, to mark our continued sanity, I went for a dinner that would brighten our kitchen and kick start us into health. A little surprisingly, all our children adore Thai salad. It’s one of my favourite dishes as it combines so many things that I love. This particular salad was a bit of a variation on the theme, more of an oriental-inspired salad. It was made up of peppers, cucumber, onion, red cabbage, carrots, mango, pomegranate, coriander and peanuts, all finely chopped or grated to make a wonderful and delicious dinner. Making nut butter has been a recent revelation for me. I had no idea it was so easy. Rosie and Sienna put a few handfuls of peanuts in the food processor and watched the magic unfold. We used this with soy sauce, oyster sauce, lime juice, fresh ginger and chilli (and a little olive oil to loosen it) to accompany the colourful salad and make a zingy, tangfastic, fresh and spicy match made in heaven. We do try to make the most of all our local seasonal produce as much as possible. When we arrived in France 12 years ago, there was very little variety in the supermarkets. Now, there is a lot more choice, resulting in the addition of a section marked exotique. I treated myself to mango, pomegranates and even a coconut. I marinated some chicken pieces in curry spices and wine and then cooked them gently in the oven. To fill everyone up on this miserable January evening, some rice went alongside the enticing rainbow salad, topped with the spicy chicken. Clean plates, happy family. And, to top it all, Sienna has this week recognised the beauty of stacking plates – bonus!

On Wednesday night, inspired by The Curry Guy, aka Dan Toombs, Matt wanted to try out his recipe for Sri Lankan pork curry. We had some organic pork steaks from the local farmer that would be perfect for this. Rich in flavour and packed with spices, the pork was tender and delicious after being marinated for a few hours. The marinade was super simple – consisting of things we would generally have to hand: oil, garlic, onion, chilli, ketchup, tamarind, cumin, coriander, pepper and vinegar. This dish went down a treat served with plain rice, garlic naan bread and cucumber raita. We learnt some fantastic curry recipes last year when Dan kicked off our cookery courses in France. He’s an absolute legend in this field and we are looking forward to his next course.

Rosie’s treat once a week is to bake. We have to try and restrict it slightly as she cooks such wonderful desserts and cakes, it’s difficult to resist. At this time of year a traditional French cake can be found at school and in both the boulangerie and the supermarket. The Galette des Rois dates back to the fourteenth century and is traditionally eaten on January 6th to celebrate the arrival of the three kings. Today, a porcelain or plastic figurine is hidden in the cake. Known as the fève (literally, a broad bean), this represents the king. Whoever finds the fève is crowned king or queen for the day. The children love this idea, even if it is a little precarious. Rosie decided to tackle the task of creating this cake fit for kings. It has a fairly simple recipe. After lining the cake tin with puff pastry, Rosie made a scrummy frangipane, a creamy sweet almond paste for the filling, finished off with a lid of puff pastry that she decorated with a delicate pattern. After baking and cooling, the cake was dusted with icing sugar and served with vanilla ice cream. This was gobbled up after the curry and put a smile on everyone’s face.

To end with a bit of a curve ball, I have downloaded a dictionary/thesaurus app that sends me an alert every day with a word and its definition. It sparks conversation and is good for the children to keep learning vocabulary. This week, my favourite word is dénouement, meaning the outcome or resolution of a difficult business or the drawing together of all the different strands in the plot. So, on that note, Big in France wishes you all a big weekend!