Late Season Makes for Happy Meals
Everyone here – everyone being most of the growers I buy from – says we’re three weeks behind the normal season. This means that instead of jumping feet-first into the strawberries, those gorgeous harbingers of spring are trickling in. And in Normandy, where the soil is still cold, they are a pleasure yet to come. […]
Highlights from a Spring Class
As I anticipated last week’s class, my heart fell. Here I’d advertised a spring class and we were still in the throes of winter with the season being at least three weeks behind a normal year. Temperatures hovered around freezing and the most exciting thing at the market was baby endive (finally growing well after […]
Asparagus is Back!
Asparagus is back, asparagus is back!!! The Loire Valley has done its magic, and bunches of white and green, fat, juicy asparagus stalks beckon. I could wait to indulge until Baptiste’s asparagus pokes through the soil of his nearby fields in Criqueboeuf sur Seine. But it’s been a long winter and I cannot. So I expand […]
Braised Asparagus
Asparagus is fleeting, this year more than ever. I’m talking about the Best Asparagus in the Universe, that grown by Baptiste Bourdon a few kilometers from Louviers. Weather has been inclement, with such low temperatures that the asparagus has refused to grow in abundance. That which has pierced the soil and formed beautiful stalks, however, […]
Winter/Spring
I steamed and sautéed baby turnips last night for dinner, then served them atop a bed of bay-scented quinoa. It wasn’t a festival of colors, though the minced chives helped, but oh was it delicious! You may wonder what inspired such a meal. Part of it is my newly vegetarian daughter. The other part is […]
End of Winter Salad
It really does seem to be the end of winter. I can tell this by the sun in the bright blue sky, the temperature hitting 55F by noon, a certain “roundness” in the air even when it’s chilly in the morning. I can also tell by the way I’m suddenly thinking about winter ingredients as […]
Simple Spring Dish
Rain pounds down outside; flowers and herbs are growing, but haltingly; it’s the most tumultuous May I can remember in all my time in France. Farmer’s tear out their hair at the cold night temperatures which stunt growth, yet they’re thankful for the rain after near-drought in early spring. So what about the produce? Well, […]
