A Trio of Soups
My college-aged children arrive home for the holidays like most people’s: mere shadows of themselves, survivors of the semester, starving for mom’s cooking. I am all too ready to comply as I’ve been in the seasonal spirit for weeks. The French build up to the holidays with lovely dinners beginning in early December, […]
Beets – the Least Loved Vegetable
I can’t count the number of times I’ve presented a menu to a cooking class with a beet recipe in it, and gotten looks like I was proposing a final walk to the gallows. I proceed with a lightness of being, however, because I know what will ensue, which involves almost heavenly transformation. That’s because […]
Squash Soup – Soupe au Potimarron
Autumn has arrived! It’s taken its time, but now there’s a chill in the air, the leaves are drifting down, and at the market all the root vegetables have made their winter appearance, along with squash of every hue. Being a squash fan, my first instinct is to make squash soup. I use either red […]
Leek and Potato Soup
As comfy as a pair of worn jeans, leek and potato soup is just as delicious. Particularly today, as the extreme freezing temperatures demand making and eating soup! The typical leek and potato soup most Americans know is Vichyssoise, that cold and creamy version created – as legend has it – at the Ritz Carlton in […]
Coupure de Gaz
I arrived at the studio where I give classes in Paris to find a small poster taped to the door of the building with the anouncement “Coupure de Gaz” (cutting off the gas) in livid black letters. I looked closely to see when. Oh no! “le 11 May de 8 h jusqu’au 18h” was written; right in […]
Pesto for Winter
I just harvested my mini crop of basil from the front garden. Until now we have had unseasonable warm temperatures so I left it in the ground,wanting the leaves to eke out every possible gram of flavor from the soil. But today the temperature is dipping and if the plants stay in the ground much longer, the risk is […]
