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, […]
A Thanksgiving Cadeau
Each year as Thanksgiving approaches, I’m thinking about what exciting little dish I can insert into the holiday weekend, un “petit cadeau” to get people’s attention. I entertain a mixture of French and American guests, and I love planning menus and activities (which often revolve around the menus). As I cooked my way through an […]
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 […]
Grilled Maple Musqué de Provence Squash
So what do you do with a huge Musqué de Provence squash that kept Louis XIV happy, but is now sitting on the kitchen counter, begging to be cooked? Louis XIV? Yes, the BBC recently filmed a segment about Louis XIV and his gastronomic predilections at On Rue Tatin, and the Musqué de Provence squash […]
GMO’S And a Recipe
Two days ago, in the New York Times Business Day section, writer Danny Hakim wrote something about genetically modified crops that people might actually read and believe. Mr. Hakim reports that despite focus on gmo crops in Canada and the U.S. crop yields have been disappointing, rivalling yields in Europe where gmo’s are prohibited. Not only […]
Soup as Antidote
Warm, comforting soup is the French antidote to everything – winter’s chill, low spirits, oncoming cold or fever, taxes, strikes, you name it. My household is no exception. And yesterday, with the wind whipping over the ears of the gargoyles on the church across the street, the specter of taxis blocking roads, air traffic controllers […]
Tomatoes and Apples
I love shoulder seasons like this moment of autumn. Tomatoes are still hanging on the vine and full of sweet flavor; apples are literally dropping from the tree, and pears are ripe, aromatic, lush. We’ve got new autumn turnips, their skin so fine it almost peels off, and potimarron (kuri squash), those harbingers of short […]
Thanksgiving Appetizer Dilemma
I panicked. I had twenty guests coming for Thanksgiving dinner (we celebrate as close to the real date as possible – this year, it was last Saturday) and my appetizer mind was blank. I emailed a cooking friend in the U.S. I emailed my older sister. I trolled the internet. Here is what I discovered. […]
Thanksgiving in France
Thanksgiving for our family is celebrated whenever we can. Sometimes that means mid-December, but this year we were almost right on the mark. The stars aligned so that we could celebrate last Saturday, a bit early but still in line with the Thanksgiving moment. I love Thanksgiving, even more than when I lived in the […]
Thanksgiving Jitters
Judging from the notes I’m receiving, the general panic about how to organize Thanksgiving dinner has settled in. I’m here to offer some basic tips which I hope will help make the meal – and the day – one that affords you, the cook, time to enjoy. Who knows, you may even be able to […]
