Each and every year, as we inch towards that most passionate of holidays, Valentine's Day, we begin the search for the most special gift or treat to offer our dearly beloved; we begin shifting through recipe after recipe looking for the most extravagant, drop-dead gorgeous, romantic meal -- okay, who...

France is the most popular tourist destination in the world -- attracting a whopping 78.95 million foreign visitors in 2010 alone even in the middle of a world economic crisis. Her gorgeous countryside, her museums and châteaux, a rich cultural heritage and history; from Aix-en-Provence to the wild, rugged coast...

The decorations have all been taken down, wrapped carefully up and returned to their hiding places, the evergreen has been dragged out to the compost and every scrap of crumpled wrapping paper and discarded ribbon has been gathered up and thrown away. The last of the holiday leftovers have been...

As the holidays approach, I, as is the custom, have begun making my list for Santa -- or whomsoever is behind the windfall of gifts (well, windfall is rather an exaggeration) that come my way each Hanukkah and Christmas season. Although...

Call me a skeptic. Maybe it is because I have what some refer to as an iron gut. I can eat anything. Anything. Never sick. Or maybe it is because I've had the runaround one too many times, a doctor trying to convince me that one son or the other...

Who can deny the power and persuasion of...

La pause déjeuner has always been a veritable sacré moment in every Frenchman and Frenchwoman's day. I was introduced to and initiated into this ritual before I married into a French family; every day at noon, my future husband's parents would see out their last client, lock up the shop...

Everyone, it seems, is jumping on the food blogging bandwagon: famous chefs and tv personalities, professional food writers, stylists and photographers. But most food bloggers are just plain, ordinary folk simply passionate about cooking, baking and eating. It begins small, posting the special, homey recipes passed down from generation to...

August 15 is holiday in France. A religious holiday celebrating the Assumption of Mary, it is now a day on which families and friends gather for festivities with a somewhat less than religious bent. We awoke bright and early to the joyous ringing...

It has been raining relentlessly across Europe and the summer has been no summer at all. We step outside, jackets thrown over our sweaters, umbrella unfurled, and walk into centreville, head bowed against the chill wind. We watch in dismay as the few...

My husband and I just returned from our great adventure: one fabulous week biking along the Canal Nantes à Brest. What was once inhospitable territory had become navigable, a route from Nantes through Brittany's interior and reaching out towards Brest, a swathe cut...

If given the choice, my husband and sons would have me bake exactly the same sweet treats every single time: our youngest, the persnickety one, would be happy with the most basic of brownies or a simple chocolate chip coffee cake over and...

I miss him. It's as simple as that. No long, rambling stories recounted, no wisps of nostalgia or idle memories rekindled. I simply miss my brother. As ALS Awareness Month comes to an end in the United States and begins in both Canada...

And a Recipe for Traditional Far Breton

Each month as I sift, measure, fold and pipe out perfect little domes of batter and whip up deep, dark chocolate ganache for my French macarons, my husband, French himself, storms through the kitchen, ranting...

How many days into Passover do you get tired of the same old same old? Matzoh smeared with jelly, canned coconut macaroons and packaged sponge cake? These are the holiday foods of my youth and I wonder if, over all of these years,...

Celebrating any religious holiday in a mixed-religion home is often a delicate matter depending on how devout and observant each partner is or the decisions made on which religion the children shall be raised in. Notwithstanding the discussions over Thanksgiving, Halloween, 4th of...

Mention France to anyone outside of the country and Paris will immediately jump to mind: the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, her panoply of restaurants, the Mona Lisa and Romance with a capital R. Or Provence with her fields of fragrant lavender, her...

Anyone who reads these food pages knows about Mardi Gras and Lent, Carnival and all of her traditions, so I won't give you yet another history lesson. What I will talk about are beignets. Holidays come with folklore and rituals, customs unique to...

I've made it pink and girlie, all dressed up in berries and frivolity, drenched in exotic red fruit nectar and ready for summer fun. I've made it rich and movie star chic, adorned in sweet, tangy cherries, tender, perfumed chocolate ladyfingers nestled deeply...

The month of February, cold and harsh, a blanket of white if we are so lucky, a breath of spring occasionally whispering in our ear, stuck unforgivingly somewhere between the rousing, glittery, festive end-of-the-year holiday season and the warming, welcoming arms of...