Life is sometimes sad and often dull, but there are currants in the cake, and here is one of them. – Nancy Mitford I sit next to Jane comfortably and convivially at the white plastic picnic table in the shade of the overhang, a tangle of branches heaped upon the table. We each have a plastic ...
And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer. - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby My husband has been bringing me treasures from the garden, fresh mint heady ...
“Oh, I adore to cook. It makes me feel so mindless in a worthwhile way." - Truman Capote, Summer Crossing, 1943 High season. It’s been hectic, to say the least, to put it mildly, and I don’t know where I find the energy. Commitment to the project, to the team, to my own sense of self. Thirty, thirty-five, forty ...
Spring flew swiftly by, and summer came; and if the village had been beautiful at first, it was now in the full glow and luxuriance of its richness. – Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist I really did not think that I would be making strawberry jam this early in the season. Strawberries had just begun making their ...
Wild Goose Chase Moricette. I don’t call her Moricette, I call her Mme. Lainel, but my husband refers to her as Moricette, her first name, when he speaks of her, fondly. Because it is such an old-fashioned, musical name. And she is such an old-fashioned, delightful woman. Mme. and M. Lainel were the first owners of ...
Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought. – Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Complete Poems This is an odd time of the year for me. Passover – and I imagine Easter for those who celebrate it – is a time of celebration, redemption and rebirth. But it is also a time of memory, both the good and ...
Whosoever says truffle, utters a grand word, which awakens erotic and gastronomic ideas.... - Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste Of course Brillat-Savarin was writing about the tuber, the earthy truffle snuffled up by pigs, priced like gold, and then eaten in savory dishes finely shaved. But cannot I say the same of these astonishing, rich ...
Mieux vaut déceler une faiblesse que se laisser soupçonner d'un vice. (Better to reveal a weakness than be suspected of a vice.) - Denis Diderot, Jacques le fataliste et son maître, 1765 – 1784 Macarons, that elegant cross between a confection and a pastry, that tiny, sweet specialty of France. Lovely, they are, yet fussy and temperamental ...
The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today. - Lewis Carroll Who says life doesn’t start at fifty? A couple of years ago, I transformed myself and began a career as a professional writer. Two or three years later, just a week ago, I became a hôtelière, a hotel owner, a ...
Soul meets soul on lovers' lips.- Percy Bysshe Shelley Valentine’s Day approaches and we are in no short supply of sweets, of the perfect, most decadent, richest, sexiest dessert with which to woo and to wow our lover. But something must come before the dessert, a savory dish to ignite the senses, to titillate both the ...
I'm Jamie; welcome to the new Life's a Feast!
I run a hotel in Chinon, France, and write about life, culture, modern day living and food.
My passion is to create vibrant and unique experiences.
