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Dancing Tomatoes

Aperitif / Appetizers

In our video tutorial, we’ll show you step-by-step how to make these bites, including tips for getting the perfect texture and flavor. With just a few simple ingredients and some basic kitchen tools, you can create a plate of delicious bites that will disappear in no time.

DIABOLO MENTHE, MINT, 7-UP, FRENCH CAFE, PARIS, CAFE, PARIS CAFE

No More Panic When It Comes to Ordering a Drink in a Parisian Café It’s Easy and Here is a key! Jump to video and recipe Call it Apéritif, Call it a Drink After reading our post about Parisian/French cafés, you’ve got the coffee ordering down in the. But what comes next? Ordering apéritif or …

Drinks to Order in French Cafe Read More »

eggplant, herbs, olive oil, garlic

We focused on eggplant for this first video of the week because they are still so beautiful AND I made a discovery.  Find the long, snaky purple eggplant often referred to as Chinese or Japanese or Asian eggplant (Solanum melangena) and follow the video to make this amazing appetizer.  You’ll be amazed. Go to Recipe …

French Holidays and Weird Season Read More »

Go to Recipe Go to Video Unhealthy? In Italian, the eggplant is called “melanzana,” which was incorrectly translated in France on its arrival from the Middle East as early as the 8th century to “mal saine” which means, literally, “unhealthy”.  This evoked suspicion in the French cook and eater, which wasn’t helped by the eggplant’s …

Eggplant Caviar Read More »

apéritif

The apéritif hour is one of the best, the transition from whatever the day has entailed to whatever the evening will bring.  Glasses are raised, snacks are nibbled, cares are washed away, and a fine meal begins. To Open This wasn’t always the case. Apéritif, which comes from the Latin “aperitivus,” to open, referred to …

The Apéritif Hour Read More »

Pink Martini

Go to Recipe Go to Video Because I live under a lucky star, I’ve been to more Pink Martini concerts than I can count. I’ve loved them all, though one that sticks with me was in Portland, Oregon (the bands’ home town) in an outdoor park, with bald eagles flying low over the crowd. Anticipation …

Pink Martini in our paris kitchen Read More »

smoked salmon, eggs, flat leaf parsley, Gruyere, flour

Go to Recipe Go to Video The notion of  “cake” (pronounced “kek”) in France is a many splendored thing.  It can as easily refer to a savory bread like the one here, or a sweet confection studded with candied fruits, drowned in sugar syrup, injected with rum.  The word itself simply refers to whatever is …

French Cake, A Surprise! Read More »

avocado, cilantro, sesame, oil, garlic

Go to Recipe Go to Video The avocado.  Is there another fruit so versatile it shines as a spread on a newly toasted slice of bread, smashed up with big, bold flavors like cayenne, lime juice, cilantro and garlic, puréed with sugar and vanilla and turned into ice cream or, even better, pie filling?  As …

Methadone for the avocado addict Read More »

pastry, piment d'Espelette, butter, flour, water

Go to Recipe Go to Video I love appetizers, …because I love the moment of the day they fit into.  For me, that is evening before dinner, long after the sun has set in the winter; as shadows lengthen in the summer. The workday is done, I’ve been preparing a meal and all the while …

The Best Appetizer You Can Make, with Piment d’Espelette Read More »

Susan Herrmann Loomis in a kitchen with pots and pans

Go to Recipe Go to Video Eggnog, that beloved holiday beverage that signifies parties and fetes, warm gatherings and fragrant moments, may seem innocent but it can pack a powerful wallop, as evidenced in the Egg Nog Riot of 1826 among cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  Supposedly barred from drinking …

The Best Eggnog Ever Read More »

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