Did you ever sleep in a field of orange-trees in bloom? The air which one inhales deliciously is a quintessence of perfumes. This powerful and sweet smell, as savoury as a sweetmeat, seems to penetrate one, to impregnate, to intoxicate, to induce languor, to bring about a dreamy and somnolent torpor. It is like opium ...
Fouace Nantaise for Bread Baking Babes and a Little Taste of Nantes
Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real. - Jules Verne He placed his index finger on the map spread out on the table in front of me and traced a careful line from the northern coast just below where land meets Channel south to La Rochelle. He wanted to be closer to the ...
Vanilla-Rum & Chocolate-Chestnut Saint-Honoré
O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind? - Percy Bysshe Shelley Winter rolls in on a wave of misty white, the fog hanging heavy and cruel over the city. The icy chill penetrates every pore of one’s body and no matter what one does, no matter how many blankets or pairs of socks, ...
The Anatomy of a Cookbook I & Orange Cointreau Chiffon Cake
An orange on the table, your dress on the rug, and you in my bed, sweet present of the present, cool of night, warmth of my life. – Jacques Prévert As summer winds down and fades into autumn, as the stone fruits and berries turn mealy and flavorless and then disappear into memory, I begin to crave oranges. It is ...
Cocoa Molasses Chew Cookies
Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils. - Cyril Connolly I simply need some comfort today. We all do. This election has left me drained, emotionally and physically. I’m shaken to my very core, chilled to my bones, and every cliché and platitude in between. Battered and bruised. I mourn for ...
French Apple Cake
Let them eat cake. – Marie Antoinette While my own parents were making pies with frozen shells and canned filling or cakes from boxed mixes, my future mother-in-law was feeding her family on homemade treats. Apricot or plum halves pressed into sugary, crumbly pâte sablée or rich quatres-quart made with butter, milk, sugar and flour. Simple ...
Greengage (Reine Claude plum) Galette
The end of a novel, like the end of a children's dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugarplums. - Anthony Trollope I’ve had an unexpected windfall of greengage plums. It rained hard for most of the summer, summer not arriving in the Loire Valley until mid-July. It rained hard and long and the chill ...
Chocolate Espresso Pecan Torte for Passover (Gluten-Free Version)
It is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters. - Roger L'Estrange, Aesop's Fables, 1692 I recently had a discussion with a young man whose family produces truffles, who spoke to me passionately about his métier, his work, and his passion for the black diamond of Chinon. ...
Chocolate Palets Bretons – Chocolate Butter Cookies from Brittany
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. - Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard's Egg Spring has finally arrived in Chinon. Wild winds, grey skies, spattering rain are interspersed with flashes of bright sunlight filtering through hazy skies and lighting up the courtyard, brushing against the windows and warming the breakfast room. ...
Individual Berry Mascarpone Cheesecakes for Passover (Gluten-free)
Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly. - M.F.K. Fisher Celebrating any religious holiday in a mixed-religion home is often a delicate matter depending on how devout and observant each partner is or the decisions made on which religion the children shall be raised in. Notwithstanding ...