Divine Three 08/15/2010
The ultimate flavor combination, and quite a successful dessert, if I may say so myself. 1. Dark chocolate cake with a center of freshly picked blackberries and melted chocolate. 2. Toasted sunflower and almond ice cream 3. Candied almonds: golden and crispy   Add Comment Oh, Granola. Bake it yourself. 08/06/2010
I have been converted to the religion of granola, fruit, and yogurt for breakfast. Not superbly French, but this is what we serve the guests for breakfast. I decided to make some myself, with honey, ginger, oats, almonds, fresh mango and apple slices (which dehydrated in the baking process), and sesame seeds.  Enough said, delicious!   Crème Glacée et Escalivada 07/29/2010
I went bicycling up to Missegre, and found the first blackberries of the season, which gave me inspiration for a dessert for our Tuesday feast. Fabienne and I put together this fantastic feast: Escalivada, a Catalonian vegetable roast with eggplant, onions, fennel, garlic, and red pepper. Fingerling potatoes. Stuffed market sardines with chives, thyme, mint, bread crumbs, garlic, and egg. DESSERT: Two types of ice cream, served as ice cream sandwiches in dark chocolate cookies. Blackberry mint (with garden mint), and roasted almond- wild plum. Success!     Lemon Curd, a Godly Substance 07/25/2010
I made lemon curd for the first time: a sort of lemon-butter-egg custard for spreading on toasts, placing in tarts, or eating by little spoonfuls while nobody is looking.  Wednesday is my only day off during the week, so I wanted to put together a grand adventure. I packed up my bicycle and wound up and down and through a million petite villages to the CITY OF BOOKS, located on la Montagne Noire. Despite its small size, the town hosts fifteen bookstores. Each bookstore is narrow, but three stories high, with movable ladders and floor to ceiling shelves loaded down with old cookbooks, scientific encyclopedias, comics, psychological novels, plays, and art pamphlets. There is also an old book factory, mostly abandoned, save for one little corner where there is space for a glass-blower and a paper-maker. There is also a museum of typewriters and letterpresses, but they were closed for lunch, so I will have to return with a sketchbook at a later date. .It is really a shame that I did not bring a backpack, for I could only fit one book into my pocket. I sought french translations of Tennessee Williams plays, because Fabienne and I are going to see "Tokyo Bar" in a few weeks. I found "The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone." I came to a nice little bed and breakfast that served lunch, and I fell in love with their giant window-seats painted light blue, with long, billowing white curtains, and a shelf of teas and caramels. I biked home after lunch, for a total of 86 kilometers, phew! Pictured below is the jawbone of a wild boar that I found on a hike above the town. Who lives in this belle ville? Patrick Suskiind, author of my favorite book: Parfum.    Tartelettes 07/19/2010
I went across the river to pick a variety of figs after the Tour. I used some salted rum caramel and chocolate ganache from a birthday cake for Einat to make these tarts: Chocolate fig caramel tarts (with a paté sucre crust)    Tour de France in Esperaza 07/19/2010
We went to a little town filled with "Baba-cools," or hippies, to see the Tour de France. Luckily, we hit the town on market day. I tried a spoonful of sweet pollen, cherry tomatoes, gauffres d'or (or stroopwafels, caramel waffle cookies), and chorizo.   .  Salad Season 07/19/2010
Cooking with Fabienne is always a pleasure. I arrange the salads, like this one with heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, arugala, basalmic reduction, spanish olive oil and basil. I suggested that she cook her pork with mustard seeds, and then serve it with a plum and basalmic compote. She was very pleased with the results, and we celebrated in the kitchen by eating all of the leftovers.  The First Day of Figs 07/16/2010
I realized today that I have not taken one bicycle ride without filling my pockets and water bottles up with fruit or flowers. Pockets bulging with roses, sunflowers, cherries, plums, and now FIGS. I also discovered a strange fruit growing in Digne-D'Aval, called Loquat. I made miniature Pavlovas (not Russian whores, but a sort of meringue cake) with frozen Chantilly cream and fresh fruit. The berries that you see are groseilles, like gooseberries. The large cake is just the same meringue-like, heavenly textured cake.     |
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