Bienvenue!

The story behind the love story:

Once upon a time, there was a young girl living in the United States.  She grew up in Ohio, far from Michelin stars and Alain Ducasse, and once watched a neighbor eat an entire 20-piece bucket of fried chicken.  She later moved to North Carolina, where she encountered things like cheese grits and people who ate saltine crackers topped with butter.  The girl imagined herself a health nut, eating half-cooked vegetables and brown rice at least twice a week.  (She also ate a lot of cheese grits and had a longstanding addiction to Diet Dr. Pepper.)  'Lunch' was a five-minute pause between classes, eaten standing up or walking; 'dinner' was in front of the television.

But in 2007, the girl moved to France.  She met a boy (as girls do), and suddenly, a new culinary world opened before her.  He took her to dinner, a complicated three-hour affair that involved four courses, a recommendation of which appetizer would best suit her choice of main dish, and two different bottles of wine.  He cooked for her - vegetables that melted in her mouth instead of crunching, tiny green beans in a bundle tied with a strip of bacon, meat and fish served with delicate sauces - and she realized that her signature tofu stir-fry was not as exceptional as she had once thought.

Here in France, meals - and food in general - fill a different place in society than they do in the United States.  A 'lunch break' is often two hours long, and restaurants are always packed at noon.  Dessert is standard.  Margarine is rare. Wine is omnipresent.  Servings are small but rich, meant to be eaten slowly and savored.  The bread is always fresh, to be eaten with your food or used to soak up sauces at the end - but never to snack on beforehand!  Every region of France has its specialty food, and every French person is intensely proud of the country's culinary heritage.  On the whole, meals are a real moment of relaxation and a break with the rest of the day.  The French put aside everything else they are working on in order to come together around the table.  And for the chef, the pressure is on to provide a meal that merits such attention.

And so, since my arrival here in France (surprise! that was me in the story), I've learned to embrace the French way of looking at food.  I'm far from a master chef, but I've accumulated a collection of recipes that satisfy my rather exigent husband (the boy mentioned above) and let me feel like a legitimate French chef.  The dishes range from fast and easy week-night fixes to more complicated weekend projects - I'll try and distinguish between the two - and I hope they reinvigorate your cooking and give you some new ideas.