A Bad Omen?
I opened my jar of molasses to start my Thanksgiving baking… I hope this isn’t a bad omen. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! (And wish me luck…)
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The Not-So-Sweet Smell of Excess
Something around here stinks. And it’s not just my neighbor. When I moved to Paris, I remember my first load of laundry that I proudly pulled out of my little machine tucked in the corner. After I figured out the seven different dials and nine different buttons on the machine (actually, I’ve still only managed to figure out what about a third of them do),…
Espresso Granita Affogato Recipe
In terms of desserts, it doesn’t get much easier than this. Affogato means ‘drowned’ in Italian, and any frozen dessert can meet this fate by tippling a little liquor or coffee over it. Classically, espresso is poured over Vanilla Ice Cream, but you’d have to be pretty hard-core to pour espresso over Espresso Granita. If I did that, I’d be ricocheting off the walls around…
Marshmallows in Paris: Pain de Sucre
Maybe more than Americans, French people do like marshmallows. A lot. You see them in bakeries and pastry shops, often in long strands, on display either in lengths, or tied into knots, often stored in apothecary jars. It’s a tradition that goes back, before the advent of gelatin, when marshmallows were made with mallow extract which was (and still may be) considered good for your…
Salmon Spread Recipe: Salmon Rillettes
A story on CNN talked about how former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, was not bourgeois, noting that he didn’t grow up in a rarified family and as the (American) commentator exclaimed…“He didn’t grow up eating pâté!” I thought that was pretty funny since meaty pâtés and rillettes aren’t upscale delicacies in France, but are considered everyday fare. And some of the best pâtés I’ve had…
Chocolate FAQs
My chocolate has gray streaks. It is okay to use? That’s called bloom and it happens when the chocolate melts or gets warm, and then cools again without being tempered. When you buy chocolate, it is already tempered. However if it’s exposed to heat or melted, it can fall out of temper and lose its suspension. (You can read my instructions for how to temper…
Paris Cooking Classes
I’ve received a number of questions about cooking classes in Paris recently. If you’re coming to Paris and would like information about cooking classes, whether you’re looking for professional or classes geared towards the home cook, you’ll find a comprehensive list that I put together at: Paris Cooking Classes You can use the links provided to find out which are taught in English and/or French,…
Camp Cassoulet
Most people when they think of France, they think of only two places: Paris and Provence. While I’ll admit both are lovely spots for a visit (or in the case of Paris, to live in), there’s a lot more to this country than those two destinations. I suppose the romance of lavender in everything and hoards of tourists does have its appeal, but to me,…
I Hereby Declare…
…that people get over the fact that The Food Network isn’t all about food and it isn’t the place to learn how to cook. It’s probably never going to be and is simply entertainment. It’s what it is. Criticizing them for the lack of serious cooking on their programs is like complaining that there’s not enough hard-news in Jay Leno’s monologue. If you want to…
