My new functional mushroom page

I am very enthusiastic about mushrooms at the moment, which explains this méli-mélo mushroom pie, and also my new page on functional mushrooms. Please take a look!

Luc has fixed ideas about how a shopping caddy should be filled, emptied onto the conveyor belt, and transferred into bags. And also about how the surrounding people in the shop should behave while he is performing these actions. My charitable self thinks this is very useful as I have no brain space whatsoever dedicated to these matters; my uncharitable self thinks he’s a bit of a pain in the arse about it.

During our last shopping trip, the cashier watched him scold the lady behind us in the queue for ‘conveyor belt harassment’, only to be scolded herself a few seconds later for disrespect towards his orderly packing. I just stood by, watching, enjoying my bubbling-up internal hysterics. As we were leaving, the cashier said to me: ‘I’m willing to bet you don’t ever get bored!’

Gentle insanity

On the subject of gentle insanity, it struck me the other day that visiting neighbours, at least our neighbours, is not something for the faint-hearted. One neighbour greeted me recently with an enormous hammer in her hand. When I pointed out that the hammer was unnerving, she said: ‘you’ll be fine as long as you don’t annoy me!’ I held a long conversation with another neighbour who was wielding an idling chainsaw, and yet another neighbour swung for Luc (who ducked successfully) and ended up on his knees.

I morphed into an annoying mechanical wind-up toy

I am only able to walk in very straight lines for the time-being. After a three-year hiatus, I went skiing last week with Léo, in our favourite Pyrenees resort. My ski boots were too loose for optimum control (according to the ski-hire man, my calves are unusually dainty compared with my big feet), which was fine until it wasn’t. On a steep icy run, I ended up going head over ski, and poor Léo had to extricate my limbs and skis from improbably chaotic positions. (Funnily enough, I opened The Times this morning to an article entitled ‘Skiing: Should you give it up at 50?‘).

When I eventually managed to stand up and put my skis back on, I realised that I could only ski in straight lines (I later found out I had injured the cross ligaments in my knee). As we were as far from the hotel as we could possibly be, this made for a long, straight, torturous trek back. Now, with my leg in a splint, I can only walk in straight lines, like one of those noisy mechanical wind-up children’s toys that you have to physically pick up to turn in another direction, or a city-dwelling pigeon. Why do pigeons in towns always walk, really fast, in unnaturally straight lines? My current ambition is to be able to navigate corners within a month or so. The bar is low.

Recipe for méli-mélo mushroom pie (serves 6)

• 400g puff pastry (here is my recipe)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 30g butter
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 700 grams mixed fresh mushrooms (I used shiitake, porcini, pleurote and button mushrooms in equal parts), roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 teaspoons fresh sage, thyme and parsley, chopped
• Freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 100 ml dry white wine
• 150mg crème fraîche

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a 25cm non-stick tart tin with the pastry, setting aside enough pastry to make a top.

Heat the olive oil and butter in a large frying pan and add the shallots and mushrooms. Cover and leave to cook for about 15 minutes, or until the mushrooms have softened, then add the garlic and seasoning and set aside. Add the white wine to deglaze and then the crème fraîche, mixing well.

Distribute the mushroom mixture on the pastry in the lined tart tin, cover the tart with the pastry top and brush with egg yolk. Cook for 25 minutes. Delicious served hot or cold!

I would like to wish everyone a happy 2025 filled with peace and happiness, health and vitality, abundance and joy!

Léo and I went to London for Christmas, leaving Luc in charge of the animals. If it weren’t for my mother in London, I wouldn’t choose to travel at Christmas because it always ends up being some version of overcrowded, sneezing, snorting, drunken, vomiting, foggy, stormy bedlam. Last Christmas both our outbound and inbound flights were delayed by named storms. This year, our return flight was delayed for five hours due to fog. When we finally arrived home at 3am, I felt as if I’d been run over by herd of rhinos, and hadn’t seen natural light for days.

Something that always strikes me is how early it gets dark in London in the winter; it’s not surprising there’s more SAD/depression in the northern latitudes. I recently read an enlightening book, ‘Change your Diet, Change your Mind’, by Dr Georgia Ede, a psychiatrist specialising in nutritional and metabolic psychiatry.

Metabolic psychiatry sees mental health challenges as problems rooted in brain metabolism. This perspective is gradually changing how doctors address mental health conditions and offers powerful, practical, and safe nutrition-based solutions, accessible to everyone. The approach also often ends up reducing or eliminating the need for psychiatric drugs.

In her book, Dr Ede says that for so many years, mental health issues were viewed as ‘chemical imbalances’ to be treated with medication (often SSRIs, tested on mice. How can you tell if a mouse is depressed?). While these drugs have helped many, their efficacy is often limited in both scope and time, and come with side effects like fatigue, weight gain, and sexual dysfunction.

A pasta-loving mouse

Talking of mice, there is a mouse that visits our cupboard to snack on raw tagliatelle (the tagliatelle is in a very noisy plastic bag, which now has lots of mouse-size holes). He always visits when I’m on the phone, and this morning I was on a very complicated call with the bank. The mouse was making so much noise burrowing amongst the tagliatelle in the noisy plastic bag that I had to repeatedly kick the cupboard door, really loudly, as I didn’t fancy a face-to-face confrontation. The bank employee ended up asking what the loud banging noise was, and I was forced to explain the rodent situation. The good news is that the bank conversation was delayed until I was ‘less preoccupied’; the bad news is that the mouse has become immune to my kicking.

I was woken up very early this morning — it was barely light — to the horses galloping back and forth like savages on crack cocaine. They’re usually fairly calm at night, so I knew something was up. I looked out of the window to see what was causing the commotion, to discover this little minx, no bigger than a large dog, staring into the bedroom window:

He was not easy to catch, despite the halter and trailing lead rope, but I eventually managed with a bucket of oats and my fluent pony chat. After a couple of early morning phone calls, I managed to track down the owner who said that he must have broken out of his field overnight, and that it would have been quite an adventure for him, as he’d never seen ‘big horses’ before!

Barn owls and turtle doves

The baby barn owls are enormous and flying around the attic of our grange as if they owned the place, which I suppose they do now. The parents seem to have done a runner, or flyer, because they appear to be being fed by our four pigeons. Unfortunately they’re not easy to photograph because they get agitated and buzz the camera.

There are also two baby turtle doves nesting in the wisteria on our terrace. Ten years ago, Léo found an abandoned turtle dove under one of our oak trees. He took great care of her until she grew strong enough to fly away. When she left, I was so sad that I imagined her coming back to see us every year. Maybe this is her? Maybe she has happy memories of eating couscous, and drinking almond milk on our terrace, under the wisteria, which is why she decided to entrust us with her babies? I’m sure that’s it.

I drink a big glass of electrolytes every morning before eating to set me up for the day. This morning, after all the running around and pony coercion, I took a double measure.

Essential electrolytes

Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electric charge when dissolved in liquid. The main electrolytes, found in blood, lymph, urine and sweat, are: potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, phosphate, chloride and bicarbonates.

The electric charge electrolytes provide is vital for proper functions in the body. These include nerve and muscle function, cardiac rate and rhythm, moving nutrients and waste as well as regulating blood pressure. Electrolytes also maintain optimal fluid balance in the body and proper pH levels in the tissues and bodily fluids. Our bodies are about 60% water, so this is of utmost importance.

Symptoms of an electrolyte imbalance include fatigue, headache, nausea, muscle cramps or spasms, heart arrythmia, changing blood pressure, numbness or tingling in the fingers or toes, irritability and confusion.

There are many variations of this ‘cocktail’. For example you could use fresh orange juice instead of lemon juice and maybe add some magnesium powder. It is great taken first thing in the morning, but also as a pick-me-up in the late afternoon.

Recipe for adrenal cocktail (serves 1)

• 1/2 lemon, freshly squeezed
• Glass of Coconut water
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or Himalyan salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartare

Combine the ingredients and drink!

May is Ehlers Danlos Syndrome awareness month. Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a group of disorders of the connective tissues. Connective tissue is found throughout the body, so the whole body can be affected due to defects in the structure and biosynthesis of collagen. There are 13 subtypes of EDS, but the most common is Hypermobile EDS (or hEDS), which is the type I have. Dysautonomia and MCAS (mast cell activation syndrome) are common comorbidities; I have both, having hit the trifecta jackpot!

Symptoms

The main symptoms of hEDS are pain, fatigue, allergies, gastric issues, joint laxity, muscular pain, stretchy skin, dizziness, brain fog, problems with proprioception, migraines, ADHD… In my case, this translates as: Countless fractures, sprains and dislocations; constantly walking into door frames; being able to spot someone wearing perfume from 500 meters, and a brain so distracted that thirty tabs are open, lights are flashing, and the music is on full blast at any one time. I also faint if I have to stand still for any length of time, which makes for great fun at border control! (I’m really selling myself here ;-))

I was diagnosed in with hEDS in late 2021, after The Vaccine exacerbated my symptoms to a point where I could no longer ignore them. Good nutrition is absolutely paramount to managing Ehlers Danlos, as so many of the complications are of a gastrointestinal and allergic nature. Bearing in mind that the aim is to reduce immune reactions, normalise gut bacteria and support digestion, absorption and metabolism, it’s best to limit sugar and refined carbohydrates, keep processed foods to an absolute minimum and consider cutting out gluten.

Exercise is also key, and luckily for me, riding is especially beneficial. Things like yoga, walking, cycling and swimming are also very helpful, although I have to be careful with yoga as I’m very prone to subluxations of the hips and shoulders.