Believe it or not, there’s much more to France than Paris. Or so they say. I obviously don’t get out much, but last year when I went to Camp Cassoulet, also in attendance was Jennifer of Chez LouLou. Although all who were invited I knew previously, she was the only one I didn’t. Brave girl! LouLou lives in the Southwest of France, which I think…
A dining companion said to me— “Let’s eat inside. It’s too smoky out there.”
I began my cooking career at a vegetarian restaurant in Ithaca, New York. Although you’ve probably heard of the other vegetarian restaurant in town, I worked up the hill at the Cabbagetown Café. While we weren’t as famous, the food was really good. Farmers would come in lugging crates of dirty root vegetables, crispy radishes, and slender green pea pods, and we’d make what we…
I finally got a chance to track down that butter I found worthy of rapture from Le Jules Verne. Oddly, when I searched the name, I found out that I actually commented on way back in 2006. How I forgot about it, I’ll never, ever know. It’s from Pascal Beillevaire, a chain of cheese shops in France. While their cheeses are very good, I have…
Living in Paris, it isn’t always very interesting watching television, which I sometimes like to do during dinner. Sure there’s some great French channels, but I’m kinda lazy when I’m eating and prefer the English-language ones, which usually means CNN International. So I often find myself flipping through cookbooks while I dine, glazing over the text and scanning the glossy photos. But when I came…
This is the salad I made myself for lunch today: And I decided that I would use it to finish one of the previously unfinished posts. Note that there’s no canned corn. No rice. And yes, real potatoes, garlic, and fresh green beans. Except for steaming the green beans, it took me all of about 2 minutes to put together. The potatoes were leftovers and…
My desktop is a mess, cluttered with posts that I started, but never got around to finishing. Like the one about Jamie Oliver, who personally doesn’t make me sick, but the camera work on his show definitely makes me quesy. A lot of times a thought will hit me when I’m out and about, then I’ll race home and start writing, only never to go…
Many visitors to Paris wish to rent their own apartments for a variety of reasons, from wanting to save money, to “living like a local.” In the last few years, Air BnB (started in 2008) and similar rentals have popped up, making a big splash in the Paris rental market. If you’re looking to rent an apartment there are now scores of websites and companies that rent…
My search for the perfect, most luscious and intense chocolate mousse brought me right back from France, to America, to Julia Child’s recipe. Although I have a few other chocolate mousse recipes in my repertoire, her recipe is a classic and has that perfect slightly sticky texture, that sticks to your tastebuds, then hits you with a wallop of pure dark chocolate flavor. This recipe requires a bit of whipping….
Join me on my Spring 2026 book tour for my latest book, The Great Book of Chocolate
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