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My Favorite Cookbooks of 2009

I have a stack (actually, about four stacks) of cookbooks that arrived this year, many of them riddled with bookmarks for recipes. Some of them I managed to get to, presenting recipes on the blog or baking for friends and neighbors, and a few I didn’t get around to yet. In this year’s round up, I did sneak in a few recipes from favorite classics…

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Fruitcake Bar Recipe

I’ve been making these Fruitcake Bars more and more as the holidays approach. Not only are they incredibly simple to put together, unlike other fruitcakes, these really do taste great. They can be made up to a week in advance, which will undoubtedly help alleviate holiday stress. It’s from my archives but thought it worth sharing again since folks enjoyed them so much at a…

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West Country Girl

[UPDATE: As of early summer 2017, West Country Girl has closed.] There’s a new girl (and guy) in town. And she owns a small crêperie which is one of my favorite little addresses in Paris and worth a visit, in spite what some might feel is a relatively obscure address. To me, though, it’s not all that obscure because I’ve forged a pretty clear path…

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Paris Book Event This Weekend

This Sunday, December 6th from 3-5pm, I’ll be doing a booksigning with Heather Stimmler-Hall of Secrets of Paris, author of The Naughty Paris Guide, and Keith Spicer, author of Paris Passions. We’ll be hosted by Context Travel in Paris and Oliver Magny of O-Château, who will be providing libations (ie: wine). Since it’s the holidays, if you’re good, I might even bring some Friendship Bars…depending…

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Menu for Hope 6: Call for Prizes!

This year I’ve been tapped to be the European host for Menu for Hope 6, an annual event to raise money for the UN World Food Programme’s Purchase for Progess campaign. The auction will go live on December 14th, with participants from all over the globe, ending on December 25th. Prizes will included signed books by the authors, culinary tours and cooking classes, wine tastings,…

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Apple Spice Cake

Recently I ate at one of those small neighborhood restaurants whose fame spreads beyond the quartier and people come from other neighborhoods, as well as from other countries, to eat at because it is très reputé. Le Repaire de Cartouche (99 rue Amelot) is one of those restaurants in Paris. It’s known for very good food and an especially compelling wine list. The prices aren’t…

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Thanksgiving in Paris…and above & beyond

When folks ask me what the French do for Thanksgiving, I don’t think the word they’re expecting to hear are “Um, nothing.” And why should they? It’s not as though America shuts down for le 14 juillet. Still, a few places around here do get into the spirit and you’ll see a few bags of cranberries at the market, a few more sweet potatoes piled…

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How to Make French Vinaigrette

One assumption that I’m going to make about the French is that they’re not afraid to make things au pif, or “by the nose”. I don’t know if a precise recipe for sauce vinaigrette actually exists. But if there is, I bet few people follow it very closely. And Romain is no different from his compatriots when it comes to recipes, and rules. They are…

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French Sugar

Bakers who tackle French recipes get stumped by the sugars, which don’t necessarily correspond to the sugars available elsewhere. All supermarkets in France carry white granulated sugar and there’s often unrefined sugars, such as cassonade, which grocers stock and are widely-available. In America and elsewhere, bakers often have to do a bit of hunting around to find the corresponding sugar. French brown sugars are quite…

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