The Tomato Knife

First, I’d like to say it’s cold in Paris right now. Very cold. This weekend we went to have a look at the green booksellers’ stands along the Seine. “Bouquinistes” have been selling old books, magazines, posters, etc. along the riverbanks for centuries and since 1991 the “boxes” have been classed as a UNESCO World [...]

Most baked goods (like cookies) taste best right out of the oven. Carrot cake, however, always seems to get better over a few days. I wanted to try my hands at making a healthy cake (or is it more of a bread?) that I could eat either for breakfast or as a mid-day energy snack. [...]

Before I get to the chocolate cake part, let me talk about the BEST MACARONS IN PARIS. Promise you they’re linked… Last year for my sister’s 25th birthday, my mom and I trekked all over the city collecting macarons. The first part of our goal was to surprise the birthday girl with 25 (yes, an [...]

Lemon bars are one of my very favorite desserts – they always have been. When I was a teenager, my mom, sister, brother, and I would trek down to Albuquerque for violin lessons – that’s an hour from Santa Fe (where we lived) and thus shows pure dedication. Now that I’m thinking about it, though, [...]

We haven’t broken into the “gâteau des rois” yet, but I’m feeling lucky today and think I just might be the one to get the piece with the “fève” hidden in it. It’s a French tradition to celebrate Epiphany (today) with a special cake that has a surprise tucked inside (usually a miniature porcelain figurine). [...]

A quatre-quart is a simple cake traditionally made with four different ingredients (eggs, sugar, flour and butter) in equal parts. Thus the name, “four-quarters”. One thing I’ve learned about French cooking is that you have to have a scale. Unlike American recipes, European ones give ingredients in weight (i.e. grams for butter or kilos for [...]