Cucina Testa Rossa

National Indie Excellence 2007 Book Awards Finalist!!!

I was stunned to see an email in my inbox that read: "You are an Indie Excellence Book Award Finalist!" Spam most likely was my first thought. Then....yikes! Moi? My humble little livre (book), My Keyboard for a Cutting Board ~ Adventures in a French Kitchen v1.0, made it to the finals! Oooh la la! Never mind I lost out to the Junior Leaguers....to quote Susan Lucci, "I'm just happy to be nominated."

UPDATE: My little livre is out of print. I printed a set amount and once it sold out, that was it.  I saw one listed on Amazon for $70 a while back (omg!) and I'm considering posting it as a pdf but tbd. Until then, you are welcome to follow my culinary trials and tribulations on facebook or instagram. Until then, bon appetit! 

Dorie Greenspan ~ Live and Online in Paris

Some of my most treasured memories in Paris are of time spent over a chocolate chaud or a vin chaud or an impromptu walk around the 6th with Dorie Greenspan. She knows everyone. Really. Everyone. It's amazing. And very fun. I try to stay in her wake, hoping some of her magical fairy dust will float back onto me. She tells me stories after stories after stories of the richest, most delightful experiences, experiences with some of the industry luminaries. Over a delicious lunch at Le Comptoir this week, Dorie shared more of her fascinating life with me. I can't begin to convey them with the humor and joy that she did but I hope they at least bring a smile to your face and a warmth to your heart as they did to mine. Click here to read the whole story...

La Fete des Amoureux ~ Valentine's Day

Love is nothing short of a national sport here in France and the French claim to celebrate it every day of the year, not just on February 14th. It is more beloved than soccer or philosophical debate, though love plays heavily into both. All store fronts are bedecked with Valentine's decorations but regardless of the time of year, people are always kissing.

Sometimes it's charming, like a couple I spotted smooching after a long lunch at the Palais Royal; other times you want to hurl, like when the couple in line in front of you at the post office are slobbering on each other so much so you feel like you are in the front row of the dolphin show at Marine World. Anyways, back to Valentine's Day... This year I got a tad carried away with the heart-red-love theme. Click here for more on this celebration of love...

La Vue de Ma Fenêtre ~ Par La Fenêtre de Michel Cluizel

I met a friend today for lunch at a small sushi place off Rue St. Honore called Foujita (7 rue de 29 juillet, 75001, 01 49 26 07 70). The sushi was fabulous, the place was packed, and the service was about as rude as it gets. So rude it became funny. And on the way back to the metro I walked past Michel Cluizel's chocolaterie. It took every ounce not to run in and roll around in this a la Alfred Molina in Chocolat. Enjoy....!

La Vue de Ma Fenêtre ~ Sunrise in the Loire Valley

Sunrise in the Loire Valley at Moulin Brégeon, Linièrs-Bouton ~ January 2007

Bonne Année 2007 de Paris!

pork loin stuffed with dried apricots and cranberries in Sauterne and tied (not very well) with dental floss...

No culinary disasters to speak of occurred this holiday however it was not without its hair-raising, stress-inducing, blood-vessel-bursting, screaming-for-wine moments. Bare with me here....

Freak-out #1: 4:30pm Start cooking for 11 people who are arriving at 8:00pm. Yes, start. Luckily, we had already shopped...well sort of. Two more people joined the festivities at the last minute so that morning I ran to the market for more veggies, to Pascal the baker for the baguettes and brioche, and to my blue-eyed butcher Serge for another pork loin. We were all tres jetlagged so an afternoon nap was a must to get through the night. I re-woke up around 4:15pm, and began chopping and blanching and peeling and melting and whisking and grating like a mad woman.

Pierre arrived back around 6pm and I immediately started barking orders. "Toast the brioche, juice and zest the lemon, mix the blue cheese, assemble the endive, help me tie up the pork, turn off the carrots, make the potatoes, oh and by the way we are out of olive oil, butter and Roquefort and it’s Sunday night and no stores are open. AAAAAK!" Click here to read how we ate our way into the in the new year....

Epiphany & Gallettes des Rois

Epiphany is tomorrow but tomorrow is my day to post at KQED's Bay Area Bites so I thought I'd post this a day early. It is actually a repeat from two years ago. Sorry, I'm still jetlagged :) Click here to have a delicious epiphany...

Joyeux Noel! Buon Natale! A Christmas Menu...

No dinner party of mine is complete without at least one culinary disaster. I was still reeling from my 36 hour flight back to Paris peppered with 4 stops, rain delays, circling over Wisconsin, a refueling stop in Rockford Illinois, 2 missed connections, lost luggage, stolen items, no water and cranky flight attendants and still recovering from my Diner des Femmes Phenomenales the weekend before but I was leaving for the US for the holidays so it was this weekend or never so I broke out the whisks and got cooking. Click here to commiserate in my culinary disasters...

La Vue de Ma Fenêtre ~ Palais Royal en Hiver

Jardin de Palais Royal in Winter ~ December 2006

Diner des Femme Phénoménale!

"Pretty women wonder where my secret lies
I'm not cute or built to suit a model's fashion size..."
~ by Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Woman

The minute I saw it, I knew I had to have it and I knew what I had to do. A shoe this captivating, this spectacular, this dramatic and dazzling required a very special occasion and a very special audience.

The minute I saw it, I envisioned it as a magnificent centerpiece set on a bed of flowers perched regally, commanding the attentions of whoever was near.

The minute I saw it, I knew I had to host a girls dinner, a Phenomenal Woman dinner, in homage to this fabulous shoe. Click here to read about this phenomenal chocolate footware...