Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below.

The biggest dilemma for an American expat living immersed in a foreign culture and lifestyle is knowing how to hold onto one's Americanness. And when raising...

Heartbreak Recovery Kitchen is a lighthearted look at life's woes with drool-worthy recipes that make people happy. - author Jeanne Ambrose

The misery of a love affair gone sour or the excruciating pain of divorce; the niggling discomfort of a blind date gone wrong or not getting a call back...

Disclaimer: I received a review copy of Mini Treats & Hand-Held Sweets from Taunton Press publishers. I am also a personal friend of Abby Dodge. But the choice to write this review as well as my honest opinions given here are all my own. The decision to bake as much...

I recently had a tussle on a comment thread of a Huffington Post article. First Lady Michelle Obama, as part of her "Let's Move" campaign, the article explained, had hosted a State Dinner for Kids at the White House. Mrs. Obama and her team,...

I was given a set of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in 1986 just after I had moved to France, which was, when I come to think of it, a bit like bringing coals to Newcastle or, as I did, bringing a pasta machine to Italy. Although...

In 1988, I brought my French husband home to the U.S.; as well travelled as he was for 30 years old, this would be his first trip to the States.

Shortly after our arrival, we made our first visit to the local supermarket, one of several national chains in...

A great cookbook is like a good friend: it is ever-present, reliable and trustworthy, offering unequivocal pleasures, comfort when comfort is needed, joy in the everyday.

There's a show on French television that I love: Rendez-vous en Terre Inconnue, Rendezvous in an Unknown Land. The host of this astonishing program takes a French celebrity, a singer, actor, director or comedian, to an unknown destination (unveiled while they are sitting in the airplane) to spend two weeks...

I recently wrote a piece published on Huffington Post bewailing the deluge of junk food posing as the home baked and home cooked on so many American food blogs, the glamorization of gaudy sweet treats concocted from industrial, packaged, processed foodstuffs for a large reading public. I wondered...

Information spreads, food cultures merge, and awareness grows. America has embraced the green, the local and the seasonal, organic is all the rage and farmer's markets are the latest trend. Culinary discoveries surround us, new cuisines and exotic ingredients now a simple shopping trip or internet connection away. There has...

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...