Monthly Musings: February 2025
love month is upon us!
Hello, sweet friends! Happy weekend and happy not-January! Welcome to our Monthly Musings: February 2025 post! How are you doing? I hope this post finds you happy, healthy, and well-rested. Was it just me or did January feel like it was 51 days long?! Don’t get me wrong, ours was delightful — but long. We had one of our most gentle Januarys yet, filled with many a joyous evening with family and friends, and plenty of downtime soaking in the cozy loveliness of the new year - it was perfect! We’re slowly but surely coming out of hibernation mode and it’s so nice seeing the tiny stretch in the evenings again!
Bearing in mind the fact that we didn’t really get up to much over the last month, our musings below might seem slightly lighter than usual — but there’s definitely some goodies in there! You read on ahead, and I’ll be here sipping an earl grey tea and munching on a nice rice krispie square!
monthly musings: february 2025
Well, it’s official, all of my Vietnam travel guides are finally up and live on the blog! The very last one - A Complete Guide to Hội An, Vietnam - hit the site last month and I’m so happy they’re all finally up here! I’m also glad that I finished off with the Hội An guide because it is probably the biggest one; there is so much information in that bad boy that it feels like a bumper packed magazine! If you’re interested, all of my Vietnam travel guides can be found right here. Not to fear, London recap and two Swedish guides coming soon!
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It’s Valentine’s month! Do you have any loved-up plans with your someone special? Husband and I currently have no plans - that I know of 😉 *cough*Rob*cough* - but I have plans to make Joy’s Chocolate Stout Cake with Raspberries & Cream over the weekend! In all likelihood, our Valentine’s weekend will probably also include a lovely walk by the water, a cheesy rom-com, and something delicious for dinner. What are you getting up to?
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Have you made any especially delicious dinners of late? Two standouts from our kitchen of late include 1. Diana Henry’s Salsiccia con Patate e Pomodori al Forno, which was honestly mindbogglingly good! We splurged and got fancy Tuscan sausages from Fallon & Byrne and I swear they made all the difference! And 2., Molly Yeh’s Broccolini, Sausage, Lemon & Ricotta pizza topping on our favourite KAF deep-dish dough of dreams! It’s so good! It sounds like there’s maybe too much going on, but you’ll just have to trust Molly on this; the recipe is stellar!
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Speaking of KAF, their 2025 recipe of the year is this Big & Bubbly Focaccia and I am very intrigued! I already have a bomb diggity focaccia recipe up my sleeve — but it takes 3-days to make and sometimes I just can’t plan that far ahead! I’ll definitely give it a whirl and report back next week! Anyone wanna join me?
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I have definitely shared this link before, but I just made another batch of Avoca’s Rice Krispie Squares recently and sweet lord they are so! good! They somehow taste even better than just buying some from Avoca? We ate half the tray by ourselves within a day or two, and then froze the rest for impromptu chocolate krispie cravings — which tends to be a lot when you know these are in the freezer! Thankfully, they defrost perfectly in a short 40-ish minutes or so 😉
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Oof, how are you doing on your Oscar watching? We are woefully behind with some of the big hitters as we’re waiting for them to come to streaming platforms. However! We did head into the IFI last month to catch A Complete Unknown on the big screen and both loved it! Timothée Chalamet & Monica Barbaro were fantastic, but I was also totally wowed by Edward Norton? I wouldn’t normally be a huge fan of his but he definitely deserves that nomination! Other than ACU, Wicked is the only other best-picture nominee we’ve seen, and neither of us loved it. Cynthia Erivo was the standout for me, but other than that I generally just thought it was too long?
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Book-wise, I devoured Jo Nesbo’s newest novel, Blood Ties, last month. Even though it wasn’t a Harry Hole book - my favourite character of his! - it was still pretty great. A classic Nesbo thriller with all the usuals: murder, small towns, suspense, etc. — you get the picture. After that, I dove straight into Michael Connelly’s The Waiting, which I, regrettably, raced through in less than a week. It’s more of a Ballard book than a Bosch one, but I enjoy her hard-ass mindset, so I obvz loved it. I’m basically an addict for anything by Nesbo or Connelly, so this has been a wonderful start to my reading for the year! What are you reading at the moment?
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An oldie but a goodie from the blog recipe archives: Homemade Dunes Blanche, An Ode to Bordeaux. Inspired by the ridiculously addictive little choux buns we couldn’t get enough of in Bordeaux, these cuties would be such a wonderful addition to your Valentine’s weekend! Alternative Valentine’s Day baking ideas include: Lemon & Blueberry Heart Pies, and Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bar Hearts. You are welcome.
And there we have it, our Monthly Musings: February 2025 post! I hope you found something to take away with you, be it a movie recommendation, a hankering to book a flight (which, same, tbh), or a new favourite recipe. Until next month!
Hugs,
Vicki xo
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