Quiche got a peculiar rap back in the 1980s when eating it was described as something that was not masculine. I’m not sure where that came from, but in France, everybody eats quiche. As the French debate how to address gender pronouns, in a language where crème, baguette, and salade are feminine and pâté, vin, and quinoa are masculine (although quinoa is a plante céréalière, which…
One French dish I’ve not made is Tartiflette. It’s one of those things that you tuck into after a day of skiing down alps, which I did once with a family of expert skiers, realizing too late that my intermediate-level of skiing was no match for my friends, who pointed their skis straight down the top of the alps and took off. I tried my…
It amuses me when people talk about snooty people sitting around, leisurely eating pâté, because pâté is rustic, country fare, not considered fancy in France. While pâté can have a pastry-type crust (pâté en croûte) and some are a little fancier than others, the cousins of pâté, terrines, are truly down-to-earth. They can be baked in a special mold (you can come across them at…
Being a baker, braising wasn’t something I did a lot of. I also didn’t cook a lot of meat or poultry. Actually, I didn’t cook much at home as I ate most of my meals on the fly when working in restaurants. (I was also going to say that when I lived in California, I tended to grill as much as I could on my…
Here are a few corrections for metric conversions that appear in the first-edition printing of Drinking French. They’ve all been corrected in subsequent printings: For the dry ingredients in the Cornmeal Madeleines (page 259), the metric amounts should be (in bold): 1/2 cup (70g) all-purpose or corn flour 1/2 cup (95g) stone-ground cornmeal —– For the recipes in the book with fresh mint, the conversions…
When the virus hit, I’m pretty sure the first thing people didn’t think about stocking up on was cabbage. I only saw the empty shelves of pasta, rice, and toilet paper from photos posted online, taken in the U.S., but I didn’t see any pictures of the empty cabbage bins. I’ve loved cabbage for a long time, and even my mother shredded red cabbage to…
I’m excited to announce that Drinking French: The iconic cocktails, apéritifs, and café traditions in France, with 160 recipes is out! My latest book features recipes for the iconic beverages of France, from café specialties hot chocolate, tisanes and infusions, and chilled chocolate frappés, to classic French apéritifs, recipes to make liqueurs, crèmes, wines, punches and cordials at home, as well as French-themed cocktails from…
One thing that’s great about the European Union is that it helps me explain the United States to Europeans. America is so big that France could fit inside Texas, and explaining the difference between California and Tennessee could be compared to the wide expanse between two diverse cultures, and like Denmark and Greece. I didn’t grow up eating food from the American south; in New…
When I wrote The Perfect Scoop, I was excited for the opportunity to be able to write a book on ice cream that included the basics of making ice cream at home, but made sure it had a special emphasis on all the mix-ins and sauces and toppings that go inside, outside, and on top of everyone’s favorite dessert. (Including mine.) I had the time…
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