Persimmon Bread
It’s persimmon season in California, as I found to my delight while there to teach a cooking class. There they were in profusion – at the farmers’ market in Studio City, rolling out of the fruit bowl at my dear friend’s home where I was staying and, one day, in a huge bag at the […]
Flavors of Brittany
On the GR 34As an inveterate hiker, I think any season is a good one for taking to the trails, particularly as a break from intense work, when the mind needs a flush of fresh air, the body a period of intense activity. Which is probably all of the time for most of us… […]
Techniques and Vikings – Just another Week at On Rue Tatin
Bonjour from the warmest French October since 1878, so say the meteorologists. it’s lovely waking up to blue skies every day, watching as the leaves turn slowly from green to all colors, to ride a bicycle wearing shirt sleeves. It’s also ominous, like Ground Hog Day, simply because it’s abnormal. At the market a grower lamented […]
Tarte Tatin
Every time I make Tarte Tatin I think about my time as an apprentice in the kitchens at La Varenne. There, Chef Albert Jorant taught us pastry. I worked with Chef Jorant on a book, too, putting my hands in the photographs of his pastries. It was here that I learned the fine points of […]
Sweet Potatoes and Eggs – French Grill
I got to thinking about eggs the other day. My thoughts were stimulated by my friend Betty who gave me, as a hostess gift, a dozen eggs from her husband’s chickens. I specify the “her husband’s” part. Louis – the husband – takes care of chickens the way he takes care of everything, with enormous […]
French Grill Fandango
Dateline:Hot Springs, Virginia. Eileen and Betsy are back… with their LABOR DAY FRENCH GRILL FANDANGO “No one really cares that OUR objective is to cook our way through French Grill,” Eileen said. “Every day we got the question “Are we having the Camembert burger today?’ More about that later. We grilled ourselves to…well I don’t […]
Last Minute Labor Day Menu
EEEK! I almost forgot Labor Day! It’s my calendar’s fault; it is supposed to keep me informed of all holidays everywhere, but the “settings gremlin” flipped a switch and here I am, blissfully sipping coffee and nibbling a croissant and it’s almost Labor Day and I’ve been in the dark. I love blaming something like […]
Grilling Their Way Through FRENCH GRILL
The other day I received an email from Betsy Regnell, whom I met when she and her friend Eileen Doherty came to a class at On Rue Tatin, some many years ago. Here is what it said: “Susan, Eileen and I are working through FRENCH GRILL. We did the grilled bread with smashed tomatoes, the […]
Confit of Peppers
Every year I make a batch of pepper confit (confit means to cook very slowly usually in oil or fat) with Doux des Landes (capsicum annum) grown in the fields of Criqueboeuf sur Seine, hardly considered pepper country. Criqueboeuf-sur-Seine is just a few kilometers from my house in Normandy, the land of lettuce and leeks, […]
A Thousand Years of Apricots (Put them on the Grill)
I plucked a small, red-freckled apricot off the tree, looking furtively around as I did so.. I’d been gazing at these apricots for days, watching them turn gradually from greenish orange to orangish red. We’d been debating, my friends and I, whether they were ready and the answer was non, non, non. But when no […]
