Citrus Season. Every year I can’t wait for it to arrive and every year I dread the day it ends. The arrival of spring usually signals the last days for these glorious winter fruits. Its time to celebrate them. In Liguria, for the first time, we picked fresh oranges and lemons straight from the tree. We…
Over 20 years ago and not long after we got married, Michael and I rented a small apartment overlooking the ancient fishing port in Santa Margherita Ligure. It was our introduction to Italian living and we fell in love not just with “Santa”, as it is known by the locals, but with the entire Ligurian region….
I’ve written about this region before and probably will again because it’s one of my favourites. From our small village on Lac Leman, where the occasional palm tree grows, we rarely see snow but we can get a serious hit of winter in just over an hour in the nearby Jura. This geographic area is shared by…
As usual, one thing leads to another in the kitchen. As I mentioned in my last post I was not entirely comfortable publishing that recipe because I live a sugar-free life and those delicious pastries contain a fair bit of the white stuff. I even tried laminating the dough with honey to see if it might make…
On a trip to Canada this November I was surprised to learn Kouign Amann was having a moment. It’s one of my two favourite French pastries (brioche feuilletée is the other) but this was the first time I had ever seen it in North America. Even in France, this delicious and deadly treat (just look at one…
Anyone who has ever worked with me in the kitchen knows I can’t bear to waste food. One of my pet peeves has always been citrus fruit that get tossed after having been squeezed for juice when the rest of that fruit is perfectly good and can be used in so many ways! Here’s a short…
This past weekend thousands of Swiss cows participated in La Poya, the annual ascent to their high summer pastures in the Alps and once again mountain alpage meadows are, to quote that famous song, alive with the sound of music. The music of cowbells and mooing. In the Swiss-Romande, or French-speaking part of Swtizerland, this age-old transhumance procession is cause for celebration after a long winter…
One of the exciting things about my new home in the Swiss Chablais is the mind-boggling array of world-famous cheese produced all around me. This is where raclette, Switzerland’s most iconic melting cheese comes from and I have recently discovered a beautiful mountain farm I can hike to that produces an excellent version of it. The regions of Emmental, Gruyere, Abondance,…
For the first time in 15 years I don’t have a vegetable garden to tend. Instead I have two small planters filled with some fresh herbs I can’t live without (lovage, parsley, chives, basil and coriander). While I miss Petraia’s amazing orto, to be honest I don’t miss all the work that went with it. The organic produce I can…
As promised in my last post, here is an adapted version of the easy and delicious bread gratin recipe I brought back from my recent trip to Switzerland’s beautiful Emmental Valley.