June 22, 2006
A Roadtrip and a Get-Together
Maxence and I are leaving for a vacation: we are flying from Paris to Miami, where we will rent a car, drive all the way across the US, and fly back home from San Francisco. Roadtrips are by far our favorite mode of travel, we've been wanting to take that one for years, and now is finally the time!
No itinerary has been defined, it will all be day-to-day decisions relying on the direction of the wind, recommendations gleaned along the way, our...
"A Roadtrip and a Get-Together" continues »
June 14, 2006
Courgette au Coquelicot en Carpaccio
[Zucchini Poppy Carpaccio]
As promised, here is the recipe for the first course in the flower menu I created for the French edition of ELLE (issue #3154, June 12, 2006). My thanks to Catherine Roig for allowing me to reproduce the recipes here. The picture above is a shot of the magazine page: the food styling is by Valérie Lhomme, the photography by Edouard Sicot.
Where does one find poppy vinegar? In Paris, it can be purchased at Izrael (30...
"Courgette au Coquelicot en Carpaccio" continues »
Magret en Croûte de Lavande
[Lavender-crusted Duck Magret]
As promised, here is the recipe for the main course in the flower menu I created for the French edition of ELLE (issue #3154, June 12, 2006). My thanks to Catherine Roig for allowing me to reproduce the recipes here. The picture above is a shot of the magazine page: the food styling is by Valérie Lhomme, the photography by Edouard Sicot.
Where does one find lavender flowers? The important thing is to use unspray...
"Magret en Croûte de Lavande" continues »
Framboises et Violettes en Tartelette
[Raspberry and Violet Tartlets]
As promised, here is the recipe for the dessert in the flower menu I created for the French edition of ELLE (issue #3154, June 12, 2006). My thanks to Catherine Roig for allowing me to reproduce the recipes here. The picture above is a shot of the magazine page: the food styling is by Valérie Lhomme, the photography by Edouard Sicot.
Where does one find violet syrup and candied violets? In France, they can be p...
"Framboises et Violettes en Tartelette" continues »
June 12, 2006
Flower Menu in ELLE
I heart the French edition of ELLE. It is my weekly Monday morning joy, my favorite reading material for solo lunches and bubbly baths, and I hate it when Mondays are a holiday, because it means no mail and hence no ELLE. I even found a way to subscribe when I lived in the US: each issue cost me the price of a small piece of jewelry and the delivery was more than sketchy -- I would go without for weeks at a time and then four issues would arriv...
"Flower Menu in ELLE" continues »
June 8, 2006
Pesto Fraise Basilic
[Strawberry Basil Pesto]
What do you do when your deepest desire is a little homemade pesto in your sandwich, but you discover with a sinking heart that you have but a handful of basil? Sure, you could go out and buy more, certainly, yes, that would be the sensible thing to do. But what if you can't go out for some reason, say, because you've just painted your toenails, or because you're expecting a delivery, or perhaps both? Well, you open th...
"Pesto Fraise Basilic" continues »
June 5, 2006
Petits Beurres
I have told you before about the cookbooks my grandmother has given me, old, tattered, and much-loved volumes that used to belong to my great-grandmother before her. One of them is called Mes Recettes pour votre dessert, and it contains 710 recipes for sweet things, arranged in alphabetical order from Amandés de Liège to Visitandines. And on page 222, this precious book offers a recipe for petits beurres.
Le Petit Beurre (literally "little bu...
June 2, 2006
Book Update, Part V: Done!
I am very pleased to announce that as of yesterday, 9:07 pm, the manuscript of my book has officially left my hands, landing just a few seconds later on my editor's desk, 3,635 miles away. The moment I hit "send", my heart thumping audibly, I drew a deep breath, climbed down from the bar stool on which I was sitting, and walked to the fridge to retrieve the bottle of pink champagne that had been chilled for the occasion. A pop, a toast, a sip, ...
"Book Update, Part V: Done!" continues »