Islands in the sky, food & travel

(Version française plus bas) Don’t soft pretzels bring back memories of open air markets or fairs or malls or beaches or amusement parks...? Their particular taste, one of a kind flavor and chewy goodness is nothing short of comfort food in times of lockdown. The thing about making them at home is that you can have as many as you like ! And add the toppings you love most. Here I topped  some with cheddar, herbes de Provence, sea salt, toasted sesame, or of course, leave plain. You can accompany with a dip like warm creamy pimento cheddar. Or maybe something sweet like chocolate or dulce de leche. They are so good the next day for breakfast too.  And for open-faced sandwiches, like cream cheese and salmon, or mashed avocado with soft egg on top! But I digress. The possibilities are endless. Here’s the recipe : Soaking bath, bring to a boil 1/2 cup baking soda 10 cups of water Dough 1-1-2 cup slightly warm water 1 packet of dry yeast (8g) 1 tablespoon of sugar 1 ...

I have a special connection to Honfleur, France, about 2 hours north of Paris on the coast, which goes beyond the fact that one of my best friends lives there. Several years ago, I would scout places all over France, and beyond, for possible artist tour locations. Places that had a particular charm, quality, light, architecture, attraction, nice choice of B&B, hotels, restaurants, museums or galleries, and oh yeah, poppies was an artist's special request. You see what I mean? Pretty easy task, hmm? The perfect place for artists to congregate for a week, draw, paint, sit in cafés and discuss, and have accommodations where we could store (dump) all the equipment, hopefully with hotel owners who understood the artist's temperament.  I must have first visited in the early 90's, found it to be still artist's dream location and would eventually set up a tour here.  So I got to know some B&B owners, gallery shopkeepers, police commissioners (we won't get ...

Now that it is (how did this happen?) already July, I’m attempting to avoid baking with the onset of summer temperatures. Not gonna complain about the heat, though ! Most homes where we come from don’t have air conditioning so baking in summer is considered totally off your rocker, stark raving mad, lala land, asylum bound, bonkers, cray cray, what's that?! You still don’t get it? Anyway, you shall see a series of (ok, two or three) oven-free recipes coming soon, because I for one, although quite mad hatter at times, crave chilled desserts. Here’s an easy one to make, panna cottas, with a couple of ingredients from our summer garden (as opposed to the winter garden, which is, um, barren). I am talking about cherries, passion fruit flowers and campanules or bellflowers, of course, which are red and a bit of blue, because this was for the 4th of July. Panna cotta cream : 20 cl of liquid whipping cream (3/4 cup) 200 ml milk (3/4 cup) Half a vanilla bean 1/2 cup sugar 3-1/...

Hey, folks! Some experimentation going on here, not gonna lie.  First time in a while baking with rice flour for a change.  I usually use rice flour for Asian desserts, like flan-like cakes or chewy dumplings in coconut milk or steam buns. So this was a first when it comes to fruits and it was a learning experience.  It took longer than I'm used to baking this type of cake, maybe 20 minutes more, but it is so fluffy and aromatic !  Just the right combination of tangy rhubarb and mirabelle plums we hand-picked right here in our village, and tender slightly sweet sponge cake.  Kinda happily surprised. Gage your cooking time though, I think that was the tricky part for me, so I first baked in the convection oven setting, then changed to regular oven setting to get the nice color. So here's what you'll need for this cake : 3 eggs, separated 80 g butter (1/2 cup) 100 g sugar (3/4 cup) 120 g rice flour, not glutinous kind, (1 cup) 2 heaping tabl...