Cowgirlchef —

Beet, Roasted Pumpkin and Avocado Salad

December 12, 2011

Other than knowing that tacos and beer await on the other side of the Atlantic, here isn’t much about an 11-hour flight that I look forward to.
I am not one of those people who can easily fall asleep on airplanes; rather, I’m the one sitting in the dark, reading my book underneath a single beam [...]

Share and Enjoy:

Read the full article →

Lime-Chipotle Carrots

December 9, 2011

Poor carrots. Sold in plastic bags with cartoon bunnies in the U.S., and in France, tossed willy-nilly in awkward heaps next to the bins of celery and zucchini. Talk about no respect.
And more often than not, carrots are part of something else…a soup, a stock, a braise…rarely are they the star.
Although I’ve never understood the [...]

Share and Enjoy:

Read the full article →

Pain d’Epices (Spice Bread)

December 6, 2011

Every country has its own way of celebrating the holidays with food. In the States, we have our gingerbread, and in France, they have pain d’epices, or spice bread.
Just one more small difference. In the U.S., we eat gingerbread with a big spoonful of whipped cream, and for dessert. Here, pain d’epices is usually trotted [...]

Share and Enjoy:

Read the full article →

Carrot Cake Cookies

December 3, 2011

I must warn you, these cookies have magic powers.
They do crazy things to people…they quickly become addicted to their carrot cakey goodness, and excitedly declare these the best cookies in the world, that they’ve ever — ever! — tasted. They do the happy dance. They selfishly hide them from family members, stashing them in secret [...]

Share and Enjoy:

Read the full article →

Eggplant-Mozzarella Tartines

November 30, 2011

Forget about everything you know about eggplant. It is not hard to cook. You don’t have to do that whole salt-first, then wipe-it- off-before-you-do-anything-with-it thing. It is not bitter.
After many trials and mostly errors (too salty, too soggy, too messy), despite my love for this big nerdy nightshade, I gave up on making eggplant at [...]

Share and Enjoy:

Read the full article →

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Sauce

November 28, 2011

Dinner was over. I’d just polished off two avocado/fleur de sel/pistachio oil tartines, and felt that I needed something more.
I had a brand new carton of vanilla ice cream in the fridge, so I immediately pulled out the jar of peanut butter (because who doesn’t love peanut butter and vanilla ice cream?)…but then I thought, [...]

Share and Enjoy:

Read the full article →

Pumpkin Chutney

November 21, 2011

The other day, I had lunch with a friend who I’ve not seen in years – three, to be exact – even though we live just 10 minutes away from each other. We’d both been through a lot since our last rendez-vous, but we spent our time talking less about our struggles than what we [...]

Share and Enjoy:

Read the full article →

Spinach and Beet Tart

November 7, 2011

It’s been such a crazy couple of months. Between getting the book finished, edited, and photos shot, I’ve been having a hard time getting back into a cooking groove. Or any groove at all. I’ve now postponed my trip home to Texas three times. I twisted my right ankle, then the left…in one week. This [...]

Share and Enjoy:

Read the full article →

Pumpkin Lasagna with Sage

October 27, 2011

I love this lasagna so much I’ve already made it twice this month.
Inspired by a pizza that I had at Al Taglio, the Roman-style pizzeria in the 11th arrondisement that serves up pizza by the slice, I could hardly wait for fall and the pumpkins that come along with it. Who knew pumpkin and tomato [...]

Share and Enjoy:

Read the full article →

Tomato and Homemade Ricotta Tart

October 17, 2011

I had these beautiful, heirloom tomatoes in all sizes and colors leftover from the photo shoot – probably the last ones that I’ll see from Joel Thiebault’s summer crop — and couldn’t wait to do something with them. Problem was, though, the water heater in the kitchen broke, and without hot water, you can’t do [...]

Share and Enjoy: