My friend is French, his wife Portuguese, they live in England with their two children. When all together, they all speak English with each other. When the kids are with one parent, the speak that language. In the park with father, French. Baking with mother, Portuguese. Bedtime stories are in the language of the parent reading. Kids switch between languages easily and understand what to speak with whom. Effortless trilingual.

Another friend moved country with her husband and had three kids. Home language was always mother tongue, both my friends had fairly bad English. Everything outside parents is in English for the kids - media, school, anyone outside the household. Again, the switch for the kids is really easy, they are fluent and have no accent in both languages.

The temperatures are intuitive for me because Celsius is all I’ve known. The car going 60km/h or 100km/ h I know the difference and how it feels sitting in the car. The speed of wind in the forecast needs to be m/s to make any sense. Over 20 m/s I better tape the windows so that the storm won’t break them

Why limit yourself to only tacos? Spoon a dollop of sour cream on your chilli or any hearty soup or stew, Mix it into gratin or mac’n’cheese before baking, make a salad with fresh cucumber and tomatoes, dill and/or spring onions… The world is your pot of sour cream

14 years ago when I was still relatively young and liked clubbing, a song popped up and swept all the playlists in my country. Clubs, radio stations, you name it. Catchy French song. It came and went so fast that I didn’t manage to memorise it. That was long before I even dreamed of having a smartphone. When I moved to UK a year later, nobody had any idea what song I’m trying to describe, like they never heard it.

Probably around 8 years ago I was roaming the streets of Porto with my ex, and a shop we passed had the song blasting from the speakers. Praise the smartphones, I used ‘what’s the song’ app and et voila: Stromae - alors on danse

On the first photo Silas is probably standing in front of a blooming bush but I want to think he’s wearing a birthday wreath

No siree

I’m a trained chef working the trade for 30 years. 2 years in vocational school, a year for cooking and a year for bakery/patisserie. I’m a really confident cook - the concept of different cuisines, the basic ingredients and seasonings, no probs. Baking is still a rocket science for me. My current head chef said baking is fun if you know what you are doing but I’m still after 30 years not fully confident about the consistency.

I kept going back in confusion. There’s the microwave and sink - no stove or flat-top or anything. There’s the shower. What’s behind the door nº 2? The depth of that space is maybe 70 cm, the standard depth of the kitchen furniture is 60 cm and the shower is a bit deeper, it seems. The width seems about the same. If that’s a toilet, you wouldn’t be able to close the door after yourself. There’s no wardrobe in that room, only that small dresser. If there’s a cupboard, what’s the pooping situation? Waffle stomp day and night? Is that a toilet with a rod for coat hangers above?

Washing machine available? What does that mean? The choice between mini fridge or washing machine? Preserve food or wear clean clothes, make your choice!

D’oh!

Why is this the first time I’m hearing about white bolognese? As someone with the aversion for tomatoes, that sounds really appealing. What creates the saucy element here?

A bed of nails can work wonders with sciatica

https://amzn.eu/d/dc7LNY9 I apologise for Amazon link but it works for a quick visual.

Most people butter the bread and turn it inside, against the filling. The trick for the crispiest toastie is to turn the buttered side on the outside.

I work in multinational company and I can say ‘thank you’ in 6-7 languages. I say abrigado to a Polish guy and spasibo to the Italian just for fun

That absolutely applies to harder cheeses. Cheddar, provolone, parmesan all freeze and defrost with no issues. Cream cheese changes the texture and will not be that good anymore. Brie and camembert get a bit funny too.

That’s the thing tho, you can’t use the scales for yorkies, it works by volume. Two eggs worth maybe not so much but a pint of flour weighs a lot less than pint of milk making the batter too thick and stodgy.

I wouldn’t bother to make some just for nibbles but if you have a full roast in the afternoon and feel a tad peckish in the evening, then all you need is a dipping bowl of hot gravy and a few leftover Yorkshire puddings to scratch the itch.

You guys make dutch babies in US, don’t you? Similar thing, only Yorkshire pudding batter doesn’t have sugar in it.

Originally Yorkshire pudding was cooked in one big tray under the spit roast to catch all the drippings and served before the main meal so you’d fill up with bread and eat less meat. Nowadays it’s usually individual puddings, cooked on a special tray with wide shallow holes or on a regular muffin tray. You want the tray piping hot before pouring in the batter so get the oiled tray in the oven warming up at least 15 minutes before. Use caution, don’t burn yourself. You can use oil or animal fat of your choice. 350-390°F, if I converted right. (180-200°C). When you fill the divets, the batter should sizzle and when returned to the oven, should start rising high from the edges. Try not to open the oven at least 15 min in the beginning as it can sink the yorkies. Check after 25 min or so, the yorkies should look like golden cups, the hole Iin the middle set and yellow, the edges and the bottom browned. Depending on the temperature and the oven, it can take up to 45 min.

As for the batter, ignore all the recipes and follow a simple formula: even amounts of egg, milk and flour, pinch of salt. Roughly half an egg per nase so mix with 2 eggs should serve 4. Measure with a small cup or a measuring cup and tip it all in the bowl. Two schools about it: mix just lumps out or beat the hell out of it. I go to town with a stick blender until the mix is frothy.

Serve it with something with a lot of gravy. Roasted joint (beef, ham, chicken) and veggies is the most common way. Also good for snacking, rip pieces and dip in gravy, delish!

Sorry, got a bit carried away but I’ve cooked yorkies for living for over a decade now so…

Just the good news please!

I have nights where I sleep like a shish kebab

It was the soundtrack of my divorce almost 20 years ago so yeah