Blog Page 3 - French-Secrets

DO YOU WANT TO TEST RECIPES FOR MY BOOK?

October 24, 2019

If you’d like to test recipes for the book I am writing Le Kitchen Cookbook. Here are links to some of the recipes.

Please don’t let the length of the recipes intimidate you. They may seem long, but that is only to ensure that everything is explained. . .

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ON TURNING 100 YEARS OLD

October 23, 2019 9 Comments

It isn’t every day that you have the chance to celebrate a parent’s hundredth birthday but that is what just happened: my mother turned one hundred on October 21. We realize how lucky we are to have this amount of time with her—it is a blessing. Our dad passed away just after his seventy-fourth birthday and that was way

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IT IS AMAZING WHAT A LITTLE MOTIVATION WILL DO

October 17, 2019

I’m learning so much! You have been wonderful testing the recipes and explaining what isn’t clear and how I can make the directions more understandable. I don’t know about you but we are eating really well here. A little motivation will do wonders to get us out of our weekly food rut. It’s not that we don’t have a ...

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YOU WERE SO HELPFUL!

October 10, 2019 3 Comments

Asking for recipe testers has been wonderful! Last week it turned out there were so many details I’d forgotten to spell out: what type of broth were you using—chicken, beef, or vegetable? Chicken is always my go-to broth, but how would you have known that? Was it red wine vinegar or . . .

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WANT TO HELP?

October 06, 2019 1 Comment

I’m at the point in my book where I need help testing recipes. Want to help? It’s not hard. Just follow a recipe and tell me if: It was understandable Easy to follow Did the dish turn out? Is there anything you’d change? Did you like it? Would you make it again? Any additional comments...

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WHAT A WONDERFUL WAY TO LIVE

September 26, 2019

Since I’ve been focusing on writing Le Kitchen Cookbook I’ve been thinking a lot about food and our attitudes toward what we eat.

I read a…paper about our Attitudes to Food…They noticed that Americans worry about what they put into their mouths…The French, on the contrary, associate food with…

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5 KITCHEN MUST-HAVES

September 19, 2019 4 Comments

On vacation, I’d decided to make an apricot pie, my contribution to the evening’s dinner, so I was searching the kitchen of our rental house for a basic tool. Jenny, our friend’s daughter, walked by and asked what I was looking for. “A rolling pin,” I answered. “Oh,” she replied, “I remember you told me . . .

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THE CLEAN UP WAS WORTH THE LAUGH

September 12, 2019 2 Comments

My husband is far more organized than I am. I call it anal, but let’s just say Mark is organized. He is the one to say it’s time—time to go through the books and clear out the excess; time to get it done. I’m inclined to put it off, but all the nooks and normally clear spots were so stuffed that I’d started making piles on the floor. They were nice piles—really colorful decorative stacks. In hopes of convincing Mark of my genius, I…

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WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR SUMMER VACATION?

September 05, 2019

Usually, when I come home from vacation I’m excited and looking forward to getting back to work. Not this time. I’m exhausted! I keep asking myself: how could that be? I had a wonderful time, walked, went to the beach, ate really well, (probably a little to well, but it was vacation), slept well, and had fun with...

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AT WHAT POINT DOES VACATION OFFICIALLY START?

August 28, 2019 3 Comments

This week Mark and I are on Martha’s Vineyard and for me vacation usually starts when we board the ferry. I feel like I’m severing ties and finally making my getaway. But these days, that deep breath that exhales all the tension takes a bit longer to come. For dinner...we go to the Red Cat Kitchen in Oak Bluffs MA...

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EVER WONDER WHAT HAPPENS BEFORE YOU GET TO THE PARTY?

August 22, 2019 4 Comments

It is Saturday and Mark and I are getting ready for the paella party we’re hosting tonight. Normally having twelve people for dinner isn’t a problem but we’ve both had busy weeks…everyone is due to join us at five p.m., per Mark’s invitation. I bark that five p.m. was a crazy time to invite people. “Who does that? I continued. “Six…

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TOMATOES AT THEIR BEST—IT MUST BE AUGUST

August 13, 2019 3 Comments

This is the season when tomatoes are at their best. If you are lucky enough to have a garden to grow your own then you know the pleasure of picking a ripe tomato off the vine and biting into it to find it is warm from the sun’s rays—bliss. It needs nothing more to make it perfect. I grow cherry tomatoes on . . .

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