Packing It In

We’re doing everything we can to avoid regret.  Am I going to miss these pans over the summer?  Certainly not.  Are we going to miss Zazou?  Unquestionably, and Beppo even more so.  We’re in non-stop decision mode, which requires touching each and every thing that belongs to us in this life, right down to the [...]

A Victory For Vegetables

It’s sad but true that vegetables are kind of second class citizens in France.  Salads are big, but when it comes to cooked vegetables you all too often see just a few beans or a little pile of something vaguely green on your plate.  So when we were invited by our friend Jacqueline to participate [...]

Wisteria Hysteria

Like the glycine in the garden this year, our life here is lush, richly colored, fragrant and delicious and brimming with growth.

How quickly we’ve grown roots, how our lives have become entwined with this place.  How profoundly we flourish and flower here.  How hard it is to leave.
Far more than just  a place to call home, it [...]

Bon Anniversaire A Toi

A French birthday party on a stormy springtime Sunday.  Chased indoors by thunder and hail after a welcoming glass of Champagne and little sausage bites on the patio, we settled in for a festive afternoon.  I tried to explain that we have a similarly pastry-wrapped sausage nibble, but somehow cochons en couette, although I think it’s a [...]

Plant A Radish Get A Radish

Remember that great song from the Fantasticks?
“Plant a radish.
Get a radish.
Never any doubt.
That’s why I love vegetables;
You know what you’re about!”
Although I love adventure as much as the next person, and in the kitchen I probably love adventure more than most people, sometimes I just want to serve a meal that is guaranteed to be 100% [...]

What They Do For Love

In France, everyone can sing.  Everyone can write, everyone can be an artist.  Everyone can do what they love to do, because fundamentally the French believe that when it comes to art ”we all have it in us.”   You can see it on their faces, Nathalie, Françoise, and Georges have it in them.
Americans tend to think of [...]

A French Easter Feast

If you’re going to celebrate Easter, it’s especially fun to do it as we were able to yesterday, with friends who really care about the day, want to do it all right, exactly according to tradition.  Witness Jacqueline’s gorgeous asparagus in a mustardy mousseline sauce.  The essence of Spring and the promise of new life, it tasted as ethereal as [...]

In Search Of American Food

If I invited you over for dinner, is this what you’d expect me to make for dessert?  Maybe, because of its resemblance to a classic American strawberry shortcake, it wouldn’t be totally unexpected.  Until I cut it open, that is, and revealed its heart of arborio rice simmered in milk and folded with ricotta.  It’s a lovely Italian Easter cake, [...]

A Waste Of Good Orangina

We love Orangina, it’s that simple.  Now that we live in France there’s always some in the house, but I’ve been drinking it off and on for as long as I can remember.  Way back when I had my first glass I felt incredibly sophisticated drinking it, a French soda that contains actual juice.  That moment of self-satisfaction lasted [...]

Cooking A Kid

It’s a primal thing, my aversion to eating baby animals, and hard to overcome.   But in the supermarket the other day we happened upon a mysterious package of meat marked as “demi chevreau” or half a kid.  Although I’ve eaten and enjoyed goat, I’d never even dreamed of cooking a kid, let alone one so tiny.  [...]