We bought something recently that had all of the following and many more warnings: Don’t use this if you have a pacemaker, wear hearing aids, have reduced physical, sensory, or mental capabilities, lack experience and knowledge, are under age 8, live in a farmhouse, on and on. With all of this cautionary advice I’m surprised that we were even allowed to make a purchase. Welcome to induction cooking. Continue reading “Induction into induction”
One of the many reasons that Bill and I moved to southwest France was the cost of living. For the quality of life we were seeking we were unable to find it affordably in the US, if it even exists there. Walking to the open air market two or three times a week to pick up fresh produce from near by farms is something we really appreciate. Next to the this square is Les Halles, the huge covered market built in 1768, where some of those same farmers also sell their meat and fishermen display their catch from the Mediterranean Sea that’s about 30 minutes away. That’s probably where we’ll be buying everything that we eat from now on, and here’s why…. Continue reading “Accidental vegetarians”
Carcassonne has no lack of farms surrounding the city nor markets to showcase their produce. Three days a week there’s an open air market on the main town square with Saturday attracting at least 50 vendors and thousands of customers who, like us, come on foot while lots of others drive in from the suburbs. Just in the last week or so you might have read the posts about rubbing elbows with the Mayor at an evening local producers market or last Saturday’s wine fair at the local agricultural high school. This week we were up deep inside the castle’s double walls for yet another festival highlighting locally made food and drink. Continue reading “Local for the locals”
Marie Antoinette is credited, perhaps erroneously, with suggesting that if the starving peasants had no bread they should eat cake instead. Since we’re trying to use up all of the remaining food in our house these days there’s neither bread nor cake left but there’s still plenty of meat. You can have steaks of many varieties and thicknesses, chops, a roast, ham slices, salmon fillets, chicken breasts, and even an 18-pound turkey. No carbs, just all protein ready for a quick weight loss diet. Bring on the bacon! Continue reading “Let them eat meat”
At this holiday time of the year, food is a natural topic of discussion both in-person and online. Bill and I look at a few different blogs written by Americans living in France and this week everyone was talking about the differences between the big Christmas meal in our two countries. Traditionally the French tend to have a large family meal either just before or right after midnight on Christmas Eve. It often starts with caviar and champagne followed by a variety of seafoods, escargot, foie gras, a selection of fowl, and a chocolate yule log, all accompanied by red and white wines finishing with more bubbly champagne. Continue reading “Enter the entrée”
One of our blog posts that solicited a lot of response dealt with “shopping from the pantry” where the idea was to use up what we already had in stock rather than buying more from the grocery store. You may recall that it involved gelatin and tapioca, but not at the same time. Many of you will be relieved to know that since then we have cleared the shelves of anything that resembles a box of pudding or its relatives. It’s now time to move on to the freezer…or at least one of them. Continue reading “Fruit cake—European style”
Normally, if I’m going to take a photo of dinner, it’s after the meal is ready and sitting on the plate in front of me. In keeping with the “locally grown” campaign that is prominent in grocery stores across Maine, here you see the before and after photos of the delicious lobster dinner that our friends Anne and Paul prepared for us. Because it was a Sunday afternoon, there were few fishing boats in operation but Paul knew exactly which dock to go to for fresh lobster. As you can tell, this boat has just arrived and the crew members are sorting their catch. The guy in the yellow slicker is slingling that blue crate with our six lobsters inside over to the scale to weigh them. Continue reading “From surf to turf”
Let's Live In France 