Cooking with the Famous!

Yesterday was the day. Karin and I set out bright and early for Rotterdam where we would be attending a workshop with celebrity chef Andy McDonald. We arrived fashionably late after getting lost (never ask for directions in Rotterdam) but fortunately no one had yet started.
Winners were accompanied by someone of their choice, so it was a rather large bunch. Andy gave us explanations about what we would be doing and after that we broke up into groups to prepare a delicious vegetarian meal. Each group was told to grab a work station where a recipe would be waiting and because most of the ingredients were within reach, we could immediately get to work. Karin and I were in charge of making individual-sized tortillas, but unfortunately we did manage to forget the parsley and in turn tried to convince Andy that we thought it would be nicer thrown in at the end as a garnish.
There were a lot of laughs, plenty of good food and enough wine to keep us cheerful. Not only did we learn the much coveted "correct" chopping technique from Andy himself, but we also got to take home a goodie bag. Andy, Marjolein and all the assistants at Kookpunt Rotterdam who helped us yesterday, THANKS!!! We had a fantastic time!

Our feast included:
Appetizer
-Shot glasses with Gazpacho

Tapas
-Delicias de Queso (Manchego and goat cheese fritters with thyme)
-Patatas bravas
-Bread with tomato, garlic and sea salt
-Tortillas
-Aubergines with olives and rosemary
-Empanadillas with spinach, pine nuts and goat cheese
-Courgette fritters
-Chickpeas with egg and caper dressing

Dessert
-Crema Catalana


For more pictures, click here: Andy McDonald Workshop

The Week of Taste

Starting tomorrow, The Netherlands will be celebrating De week van de smaak, or The Week of Taste- a whole week devoted to good organic, seasonal food grown right here in The Netherlands. To kick of this delicious week, I visited the food fair held at Groeneveld Castle today. Groeneveld Castle is actually an estate that dates back to the beginning of the 18th century. We often go there on Sundays to walk through the magnificent, Baroque- style parks, but today it was all about the food!
There is a huge misconception about the Dutch not knowing cuisine. Well let me assure you that The Netherlands does indeed have a rich food tradition! The Dutch have a history of enjoying good food and drink. A a matter of fact, I dare say that food porn originated in The Netherlands! Just think of the lavish arrangements of Dutch food displayed in 17th century banquets! Products such as aged cheeses, crusty breads and delectable fruit make us want to grab into these paintings and take a bite. In fact, all food painting thereafter was greatly influenced by the Dutch tradition of the 17th century. But I digress.
This afternoon I got a chance to taste some of the treasures The Netherlands has to offer. Farmers (wooden shoes and all) from all over the country gathered at the Groeneveld estate to present their quality products. I've tasted an array of fantastic cheeses, sharp and sweet mustards, juices made with the prettiest of apples, pears and currants, raisin breads, crunchy cinnamon rusks, honey and even wine! I had no idea that The Netherlands has been working on establishing a wine tradition, but today I tasted a deep red Regent Barrique and a dry, citrusy Johanniter (which I am sipping on as I write). I came home with a few jars of mustard, Dutch spice cookies in various shapes and sizes, Betuwse wine, a piece of nettled goat cheese and a load of folders about pure, honest Dutch food. Among them a few invitations to visit the Dutch vineyards next weekend. I don't think I can resist.
Here's to the Dutch and their awesome food!

For an impression, click here and have a piece of Gouda while you watch!
Kasteel Groeneveldfestival

A Day in The Life

Every Friday evening, I sit down with a pile of cookbooks and a shopping list to plan our weekly menus. I do this, mainly because I love to try out new recipes and get inspiration from others. A simple photograph or mention of an ingredient and I'm dreaming up something new and delicious. Today though, I'll be giving a cooking lesson so I decided to do my menu planning over lunch instead.
I sat down with my four current books of choice (can you guess which ones?) and leafed through them over a steamy bowl of lentil soup and a glass of red. I should point out that this is one of my best soup recipes. I make my own spice rub in the pestle and mortar which I first saute with onions before adding in the lentils. Usually I serve the soup with some fat, black olives and homemade bread, but since this was yesterday's leftovers, I had no olives and wasn't really in the mood for bread. I did drizzle the soup with one of the most exquisite oils ever- huile d' olive anisette. A wonderful product from my new favorite goodie shop, Accent d' Oc. This amazing oil is green as absinthe (Van Gogh would love it) and is made with green anise and fennel seeds. The comparison with absinthe doesn't just apply to its color. This is powerful stuff! A few drops is more than enough. It has a flavor that you'll feel in your whole mouth, even in your nose. This is all positive commentary though so if you ever come across this oil- buy it!
Just as I was typing this entry, the postman rang with a package. A copy of the Dutch cookbook "Lekker Hollands" (Deliciously Dutch). I received news yesterday that I had won yet another recipe contest and that this gorgeous little book was on its way. Off to leaf through that one with my dessert- a nice espresso!

PS: There's a reason why I can't give you the recipe for the soup now, but bear with me. I'll share it soon enough!

Wednesday Market Clafoutis

In my last post I mentioned a clafoutis with the gorgeous, electric blue plums I had purchased at the market. What I didn't tell you (don't you just love surprises) is that I had also purchased two kilos of pêche plat. These flat, saucer-shaped peaches are also known as UFO, Saturn or Donut peaches- understandable considering their appearance. They are much sweeter than normal peaches and they have a tiny little pit. Because they contain more sugar, they spoil quicker. Indeed, I've been eating a lot of peaches!

As promised, here's the clafoutis recipe...with plums, and peaches! You'll love it!

Wednesday Market Clafoutis

*100ml double cream
*200ml milk
*1 tsp vanilla extract
* 3 eggs
*100g flour
*60g caster sugar
*1 tbsp rum
*250g Anna Späth plums, or another type of plum such as Victoria plums, stoned and quartered
*200g pêche plat, or use white peaches since they are sweeter than normal peaches, roughly chopped


Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly butter a 25cm quiche pan. Line pan with fruit. Gently heat cream for two minutes. Take it off heat and add the vanilla and milk. Beat the eggs with the flour, sugar and rum. Slowly add milk and cream mixture to egg mixture while beating (I used an electric hand-held whisk). Pour batter over fruit and bake 40-45 minutes. Serve warm with a dollop of crème fraîche and a dusting of powdered sugar.

Market Day Autumn Salad

Wednesdays are fun around here. Since Hans has the day off, he takes Kirstie to school in the morning and meanwhile, I set the table so that when he comes back we can enjoy a quiet breakfast together. After our croissants this morning we headed to the market for some midweek produce shopping. We walked to our favorite stall and were pleasantly surprised to see some gorgeous, violet-blue, Anna Späth plums. This is one of the reasons why I love, love, love my local market. They always manage to surprise us with a new, and very irresistible fruit or vegetable. I purchased two kilos along with some pears and gushed all the way back to the car, commenting about all the beautiful things they had today and going on about a possible clafoutis with the plums.
Another thing I love about the market is the inspiration it gives me. I've created many a dish simply by looking around and seeing what's available. Sometimes the whole feel to the market on that particular day will be enough to inspire me. Today though, it was the crisp Autumn air and the wonderfully sunny skies. I didn't have to think long about what I wanted for lunch- a salad with the pears I had just bought and perhaps some Roquefort and some walnuts.

Here's the recipe:

Market Day Autumn Salad

*1 pear, halved and sliced
*5-6 handfuls of lettuce (I used Lollo Rosso)
*50g walnuts, roughly chopped
*50g Roquefort cheese, crumbled

For the dressing:
*2 tbsp good quality olive oil
*1 tbsp white wine vinegar
*pinch of sea salt
*2 tsps honey
*1 tsp Dijon mustard

Wash and spin your lettuce leaves. Cut the pear, chop the walnuts and crumble the cheese. Toss the lettuce leaves with some of the dressing but leave a little to drizzle over the salad at the end. Put the lettuce in a bowl and top with the pears, cheese and walnuts. Drizzle with the rest of the dressing and serve. Delicious with a glass of red Languedoc.

Serves two.

PS: More about that clafoutis to come!

Caramel Apple Muffins

I recently published a recipe for Caramel Apple muffins on my Dutch blog and have since gotten a few requests to translate the recipe. Your wishes are my command! Plus, it would be plain mean of me to not give you guys this awesome recipe!
I was having major sweet cravings a few days ago when I remembered a jar of Confiture de Lait I had purchased in Bourgogne. Before having the chance to dream up a recipe, I had to check this out for myself, which basically meant I had to open that jar and dig into it with a spoon, first. For those of you who don't know, Confiture de Lait is a sort of Dulce de Leche, but in my opinion, just a bit thinner and slightly less sweet. I hear French children sometimes get it after school on a bit of bread as a treat. It also makes a great pancake topping. Perhaps it was the weather, but after my initial taste, I started having visions of one of my favorite Halloween treats- caramel apples! With that idea in mind, I came up with these utterly moist, sweet, but not too sweet Fall treats. Hope you like them!

Caramel Apple Muffins

*250g flour
*150g blond cane sugar
*2 tsps cinnamon
*1 tbsp baking powder
*1/2 tsp soda
*pinch of salt
*3 small apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
*2 eggs
*1 tsp vanilla extract
*150ml milk
*65ml corn oil
*12 tsps Confiture de Lait, or Dulce de Leche, plus extra to ice the muffins

Preheat oven to 200C and prepare your muffin pan. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. Add in the apples and stir to coat them with the mixture. In a jug beat milk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix gently. Use about 1 tbsp of the batter for each muffin. Then top with a tsp confiture de lait and another tbsp batter. Bake the muffins 20-25 minutes. Ice them with some confiture while they are still warm so that it sort of seeps into them.

Makes 12 muffins.

NOTE: The confiture de lait doesn't work the same way jam would when used as a muffin filling. The gooey syrup rather disappears into the sponge giving it a bit of extra sweetness around the center!

Almost a Decade

Today the skies reminded me of one of my favorite Ruisdael paintings, The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede. The work is a true classic. As a matter of fact, when there is talk about "Dutch art", Ruisdael is the first master that comes to mind. Even before Rembrandt. His flat landscape with thick, often threatening clouds dotted with spots of sunlight, the windmills or bleaching fields, the turbulent seas- all of these are powerful symbols of The Netherlands*. I have sometimes heard people complain that the country lacks majestic landscapes. "It's just too flat here!" Well, funny enough, in the middle ages, flatlands were considered to be as close to paradise as you could possibly get! Every country has different elements of beauty and to me, The Netherlands is a stunning little corner of the world. I love gazing at the long stretches of lush, green land and how it almost seem to melt into skies. I've never seen clouds more beautiful than I have here.

This afternoon I decided to really take my time to admire the Dutch landscape. During my lunchtime walk, I often stopped, just to observe. I looked at people racing by me on their bikes and wondered if this modern symbol of Dutch transportation would have made its way into Ruisdael's paintings had it existed in the 17th century. In a few weeks I will be celebrating a decade in this country. Sure the first few years here were hard, but I feel it would've been ignorant of me to not have made the most out of this wonderful opportunity. I have grown to love this country even more through the study of its language and culture. I am glad I've been able to call The Netherlands "home" for the past ten years.

*People often incorrectly refer to The Netherlands as "Holland", but the name "Holland" actually refers to two provinces in the country: Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland.

Apple and Plum Crumble

It was still dark when I set out to walk the dog this morning. The sky was clear and the cool air seemed to forecast wonderfully brisk autumn-like weather. Officially, there are still a few weeks to go before summer comes to an end, but I knew today would be one of those days begging for warm, cozy food. As daylight began to break and I made my way home, my heart was already set on what to make for dessert that evening. Crumble!

Here's to chillier days!

Apple and Plum Crumble

*400g ripe Victoria plums
*550g Jonagold apples
*50g whole wheat flour
*50g oatmeal
*2 tbsps unrefined cane sugar
*60g ground almonds
*70g cold butter cut into small cubes
*1 tbsp rum
*1 tsp ground cinnamon
*pinch of grated nutmeg
*vanilla ice cream to serve

Preheat oven to 180C. Clean fruit and cut into thick chunks. Lightly grease an 11 X 7 1/2 inch oval pan. Arrange fruit in pan, drizzle with the rum and sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg. In a food processor, combine the flour, oatmeal, sugar and butter. Pulse a few times until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Spread over the fruit and bake 50 minutes. Serve the crumble hot with a good scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Foodies in Amsterdam

This afternoon a friend and I checked out the New Food Fair in Amsterdam. The Haarlemerstraat and the Haarlemerdijk are bursting with specialty shops where you can pretty much find anything your heart would desire, and today most of the stores took their wares outdoors for all to sample. We wandered in and out of gorgeous little shops, chatting about goat's cheese, tasting wine and every so often examining jars of jam for the right consistency. We oggled crusty breads, tasted fig 'sausage', admired barrels of oil and fancy vinegars and eventually sat down at a table in a quaint little bookshop specializing in cookbooks to discuss famous food writers and talk about our favorite kitchens. I picked up a copy of Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes after having drooled my way through his latest series.

Before hitting the fair though, we met at Cafe Winkel on the corner of Noordermarkt and Westerstraat for a slice of one of the most decadent apple pies ever, served still slightly warm, with a huge dollop of whipped cream. I particularly loved how the chunks of apple still had a bite to them. Blisfully sated, we walked through the organic market where I came across a French woman selling just a few, well selected treats. After tasting her exquisite green anise seed infused olive oil, I vowed to become one of her regular customers.

To me, there's no such thing as too much food talk! It's days like these that make me realize how lucky I am to have made food one of my biggest passions.

PS: Notice my foot shaped cookie cutter! Funny how you search everywhere for something only to find it when you least expect it.

Warm Salad of Seasoned Grilled Halloumi and Victoria Plums

Whenever I try to explain the texture of halloumi to someone who's never tasted it before, more often than not, I get a puzzled look. Squeaky cheese? I must admit that when I first heard about halloumi, I also wasn't that enthusiastic about trying it- but like a true gourmet, I didn't hesitate to buy some when it first became available here. Now it's become one of my favorite cheeses! There are so many ways to serve it and so many flavors you can pair it with. Plus...what's better than a slice of grilled cheese?

A visit to the produce stall at the market last Wednesday inspired me to make a gorgeous, warm salad using victoria plums and halloumi. The halloumi was first drenched in a dressing before being grilled. The dressing consisted of good olive oil, lemon juice and one of my favorite spice mixes- Bed of Roses, which includes saffron, ginger, cumin, roasted garlic and rose petals. Both the halloumi and the plums are grilled in this salad. Just before serving, the dish is sprinkled with tiny mint leaves and finished off with a light drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of fleur de sel. For maximun enjoyment, each forkful should contain a little cheese, a bit of the warm fruit and perhaps a little mint leaf.

Here's the recipe:

Warm Salad of Seasoned Grilled Halloumi and Victoria Plums

*3 victoria plums
*3 slices halloumi of about 40g each
*1 tbsp good-quality olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
*2 tsps lemon juice
*1 tsp Bed of Roses
*mint leaves and fleur de sel to serve

Whisk oil, lemon juice and spice mix and transfer to a shallow bowl. Dip the halloumi slices in the dressing and let stand for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile cut the plums in half and remove the stones. Heat up your grill pan and grill the halloumi slices 2-3 minutes per side. When you flip them over, also add the plums to the pan, cut side down. Serve the grilled cheese and fruit on warmed plates with a scattering of mint leaves, a little oil and some fleur de sel.

Serves 2-3 as an appetizer.

Dainty Chocolate and Lavender Cookies

In a previous post, I mentioned venturing into the world of dried flowers. I was always rather wary of any sort of flowery addition to my food, fearing I'd end up with something tasting like perfume. On the way back from Amsterdam one afternoon, I came across some dried flowers and decided to finally leave my whimpiness behind me by purchasing some rose petals and some lavender. I'm glad I did because breakfast these days would be a boring affair if it wasn't for my very elegant home-made, rose enhanced jam. The key with adding dried flowers to cooking is to use a light hand. That way they end up enhancing the flavor of food and not masking it with their strong aroma.

A few nights ago, Hans and I cozied up on the couch to watch a movie, complete with a fine bottle of Nuits Saint-Georges and a fruit and cheese platter. Perhaps it was our snack of choice or the fact that the movie was about France, but all of a sudden the idea hit me to make some chocolate and lavender cookies. I guess it's because lavender is one of those flowers which I associate with France. Anyhow, I finally got a chance to get a little creative today and again, I was pretty amazed with the results. One tablespoon of dried lavender was all that was needed to transform a simple chocolate cookie into something you would serve at a dainty tea party! These thin, crispy beauties are now sitting in my prettiest of cookie tins. But in all honesty, I'm afraid they won't be sitting there that long!

Here's the recipe:

Dainty Chocolate and Lavender Cookies

*220g self-raising flour
*200g caster sugar
*225g butter, softened
*1 tbsp dried lavender flowers
*2 tbsps good- quality cocoa powder
*1 egg, lightly beaten
*pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180C and line a cookie sheet with baking paper. Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. I used my Kitchen Aid for this. Add the egg and continue beating. Beat in the flour, chocolate, salt and lavender, making sure that the lavender is evenly distributed. Take small teaspoonfuls of the dough and form into fat, little discs of about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Place on prepared cookie sheet about 2 1/2 inches apart and bake for 15-18 minutes. Carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool. Cookies will be soft when they come out of the oven but will crispen up while cooling. Makes about 40 cookies.

Good Things!

I'm thrilled to be able to share my passion for food with others more and more these days. A few months ago, I started giving cooking lessons here in my home and I can't tell you how much it has enriched my life. Sharing knowledge about something that has your heart is truly a wonderful thing. I have seen my first student, Judith, develop an interest in food and knowing that I had something to do with that is doing my soul a lot of good. After all, I've always believed we have the power to inspire others, just by doing the things we love. Last week I also attended the first get-together of my own cooking group. I met up with some wonderful people for an entire afternoon of food talk, cooking, eating and drinking. We are all really looking forward to a cooking workshop with Victor Russo next month. Victor is an Italian chef and sommelier who was featured in Delicious magazine a few months ago. Along with him, I should also mention another brilliant Italian foodie who has recently caught my attention, Nicoletta Tavella, who was also featured in the same issue of Delicious as Victor. Just like Victor, Nicoletta gives cooking lessons here in the Netherlands, organizes cooking trips to Italy and has even published a book, Antipasti . I was thrilled to bits when I saw that Nicoletta had added my Dutch blog to her list of favorites, by the way!

It seems as though the list of interesting people and things is growing more and more exciting every day because yesterday I returned home to some very happy news! My recipe had won first prize in the McDonald's Kitchen contest! And before you have a heart attack, not that McDonald's! Andy McDonald is the Netherland's coolest new chef, an Englishman who has his own cooking show here which airs every Tuesday night, The McDonald's Kitchen. His approach to food is very similar to mine: healthy, fresh and seasonal. Well, thanks to my winning recipe, I'm off for a cooking workshop with Andy on the 29th of September!

All very exciting news to share with you today...and no recipe to go with that! But the week is drawing to an end and I feel a celebratory baking session coming on, so stay tuned!

La Vie en Rose Nectarine and Mango Jam

Rewards are a good thing, however small they may be, and yesterday was one of those days in which I needed to reward myself. At this point in my study career, I can't make up my mind about what's more challenging- choosing MA courses or actually taking them. Due to a lack of interesting 17th century art history courses at my university, I decided to enroll at The University of Amsterdam and explore my options there. Of course, things are never that easy, so yesterday I travelled between two universities to take care of formalities and plan the upcoming semester. After all was said and done and I was on my way home, I started to see the positive side of things. As of next semester, I was going to be spending more time in Amsterdam, studying art, but also taking advantage of my time there to see what the city has to offer foodwise! I live in a suburb just twenty minutes from the city and although I've been there many times, my trips have never really been about food since it's usually the museums I'm after.

To celebrate the upcoming possibilities (expect more Amsterdam food stories in the future!), I walked into an herb shop (not that type of herb) and decided to finally venture into the world of edible flowers. For some reason, the idea of eating flowers never appealed to me. I've seen lots of recipes using rose petals or lavender blooms for example, but however pretty they may look, I just couldn't see the point. If you remember my post about the rosewater chocolate cake, you might be wondering what on Earth I thought rosewater was made from. You see though, it's the flower itself I couldn't imagine eating, not something infused with it...however strange that may sound. I walked into the shop, picked up a bag of dried rose petals and gave it a good sniff. It smelled lovely of course but I kept wondering if this wouldn't be nicer for potpourri. After doing the same with a bag of lavender blooms, I pushed myself in the cashier's direction and payed, quick, before I would be able to change my mind. Now the only question was what to make.

When I was in France a few weeks ago, I purchased some blond cane sugar suitable for making jams. This morning the urge hit me to use the sugar, and my rose petals. The fruit of choice was a few ripe nectarines and an even riper mango. Whenever I embark on making a new recipe, there's always that little element of surprise. Will this work...or in this case...will this taste like perfume? I'm very pleased to inform you that it did work, didn't taste like perfume, and that a simple slice of bread for lunch was turned into a sweet celebration...for my future as a student and foodie in Amsterdam, and for daring to eat a jam made with flowers!

Here's the recipe:

La Vie en Rose Nectarine and Mango Jam
*1 ripe mango (about 600g whole and about 300-350g peeled and chopped)
* 6-7 ripe nectarines (about 900g whole and about 600-650g peeled and chopped) *500g blond cane sugar, suitable for making jam
*2 tbsps rosewater
*2 tbsps dried rose petals (it is essential that you get petals suitable for consumption and NOT sprayed with chemicals)

First sterilize your jars: wash them out well with hot water and then let them dry in a 140C oven. Leave them in the oven until you are ready to use them. Peel and cut your fruit. To peel the nectarines, simply immerse them in boiling water for 2-3 minutes and then plunge them into cold water. With the point of a knife, make an X on the underside of the fruit and remove the skin. Chop your fruit according to the consitency you want your jam to be. I chopped mine pretty roughly. Put all the ingredients in a large pot, stir well and let cook on medium heat for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let stand for 10 minutes before ladling into two 1/2 liter jars.

Rosemary Chocolate Mousse with Fleur de Sel

A few months ago, I told you about one of my favorite chocolate cakes, Gennaro Contaldo's Torta al Cioccolato e Vino Rosso. The thing that makes this cake different from other chocolate cakes is its grown-up taste. It demands to be enjoyed with a good glass of red wine, preferably the same that went into the cake. As far as I'm concerned though, the magic ingredient is not so much the wine as that humble, little sprig of rosemary which goes on top of the cake. The slight bitterness of this aromatic herb seeps past the frosting and delicately infuses the chocolate sponge. Both flavors mirror each other and instead of entering into a competition in your mouth, they become more intense.

With that same idea in mind, I decided to make a chocolate mousse today. This time though, I wanted the taste of the rosemary to be more pronounced, and to make that all even more exciting, I added some fleur de sel, a beautiful ingredient not just meant for savory dishes. While I was making the mousse, I could just imagine how all of these flavors would come together. Waiting until after dinner to sample my newest creation was not an option, so after pouring the velvety smooth mousse into my slightly oversized cappuccino cups, I let one greedy finger glide into the mixing bowl, collecting as much as it could possibly hold before disappearing into my mouth. If I tell you that this was nothing short of a culinary masterpiece, it would sound as though I was boasting, but perhaps at times like these, a little boasting is in order. Here's the recipe:

Rosemary Chocolate Mousse with Fleur de Sel

*150ml milk
*1 medium sized sprig of rosemary, needles plucked plus a few extra bits, left whole, to serve
*200g good quality, pure chocolate, broken in small bits
*250ml double cream
*80g caster sugar
*fat pinch fleur de sel and some extra to serve


Remove the needles from the sprig of rosemary. Bring milk to the boil with the rosemary and then turn heat down to a very gentle simmer. Allow milk to simmer for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile melt chocolate au bain marie. Fill the sink with a bit of cold water. Sift the needles from the milk and add the chocolate, beating very well with a whisk. Plunge the pan into the cold water and let mixture cool for about 10 minutes, whisking occasionally. In a bowl, whip the cream, sugar and salt until the cream is almost stiff. Add the cooled chocolate mixture in three batches to the cream, stirring well with a wooden spoon after each addition. Pour the mousse into 4 small ramequins, or in my case, into three cappuccino cups. Add a tiny sprig of rosemary to each cup and refrigerate for at least an hour. Before serving, sprinkle each portion with another pinch of fleur de sel.

Beautiful Bourgogne

The food, the country, the people...It was a wonderful vacation. One filled with sweet memories about how life should really be.