Cookbook – FoodWatcher

Skinnytaste Simple – Cookbook Cover Reveal

Exciting news! My newest cookbook Skinnytaste Simple: Easy, Healthy Recipes with 7 Ingredients or Fewer is out for pre-order! Skinnytaste Simple I am so excited about this cookbook! The Skinnytaste Simple cookbook hits book stores and ships out Septemb…

Flan Parisien

When people inquire about recipes from the pastries on offer in Paris pastry shops, I look at the recipes we used when I went to pastry school at Ecole Lênotre and it’s hard to imagine cutting down a recipe that makes a hundred canelés into a recipe that makes six or eight for a home cook, who likely doesn’t want to go out and buy a hundred copper canelé molds at 35 dollars (or even €10-15) a pop. Professional bakeries don’t make a single gâteau Opéra or eight éclairs; it’s might be a dozen cakes, five or six dozen éclairs, and hundreds of caramels. So paring down a recipe that won’t overwhelm the oven, kitchen…or budget…of a home baker can be a challenge

Professional bakeries also make components separately as part of their schedule, and in large quantities, and will start the puff pastry or make the pastry cream for a cake or tart in advance, then assemble them over the course of several days. Often recipes depend on techniques learned over a period of time, such as macaronage, the proper stirring and folding of macaron batter, and aren’t just a list of ingredients. So as wonderful and generous as bakers tend to be, not all professionals can share (or in some cases, are willing to part with) the secrets of their success.

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Caramel Almond Pie

After my summer break, I came back to the blog and found out that it still thought it was on vacation…and wasn’t accepting any photos at this time. I was proud of myself for finally tackling a recipe that I’ve had on my radar for a while and spent a day baking it, taking pictures, and writing up the post. The recipe was quite a doozy, but with a name like Smoky Caramel Almond Pie, how could I not make it? It was a bit of a project but I persevered (in the name of smoky caramel and almonds…) but when I came to upload the photos, my blog wasn’t having any of it and said non.

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Skinnytaste Air Fryer Dinners – Cookbook Cover Reveal

I have big news! You all know how much I love my air fryer, my new cookbook Skinnytaste Air Fryer Dinners: 75 Healthy Recipes for Easy Weeknight Meals is out for pre-order! Skinnytaste Air Fryer Dinners I am so excited about this cookbook! The Skinnytaste Air Fryer Dinners cookbook hits book stores and ships out […]

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I have big news! You all know how much I love my air fryer, my new cookbook Skinnytaste Air Fryer Dinners: 75 Healthy Recipes for Easy Weeknight Meals is out for pre-order!

Skinnytaste Air Fryer Dinners

I am so excited about this cookbook! The Skinnytaste Air Fryer Dinners cookbook hits book stores and ships out December 14th! But you can pre-order now and be one of the first to get your copy. Filled with 75 dinner recipes to make weeknight meals in the air fryer easier and healthier. Stay tuned for sneak peek recipes and more, but you can preorder now!

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Seedy Furikake Crackers

I’ve been out and about, here and there, but one thing that seems to follow me around is furikake. “What? A Japanese seaweed-based condiment?” you might say. While I do tend to tote French salted butter, fleur de sel, and Dijon mustard along with me on my travels, I’ve always loved furikake as well, and find myself craving it more and more these days. In…

I’ve been out and about, here and there, but one thing that seems to follow me around is furikake. “What? A Japanese seaweed-based condiment?” you might say. While I do tend to tote French salted butter, fleur de sel, and Dijon mustard along with me on my travels, I’ve always loved furikake as well, and find myself craving it more and more these days. In all honestly, I get a little antsy when I don’t have some around, which happened last time I tried to restock in Paris and couldn’t find any.

There are different types of furikake. Some contain bonito (fish flakes) or dried shrimp, and others have bits of desiccated egg. Some are relatively mellow and others have a pleasant funk to them. In the last few years, “funky” has been a dicey word to describe certain foods, but to me, at the risk of cancellation, funky isn’t a bad thing. Some of my favorite foods, like fish sauce, kimchi, and Camembert could be described as “funky” (just as songs like Funky Nassau, Uptown Funk, and Play That Funky Music use “funky” to complement, and compliment, their respective subjects) so I’m fine with having a funky-friendly blog.

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Brined, Roast Pork

I’m often asked what my favorite cookbooks are and invariably I pull out a copy of The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. It’s one of those rare books where you learn something from every sentence on every page, and in every recipe that you make from it. Judy was an amazing cook and whatever she made was unusually good, in spite of its (seemingly)…

I’m often asked what my favorite cookbooks are and invariably I pull out a copy of The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. It’s one of those rare books where you learn something from every sentence on every page, and in every recipe that you make from it. Judy was an amazing cook and whatever she made was unusually good, in spite of its (seemingly) relative simplicity, ranging from the lightest ricotta gnocchi you’ll ever have to the legendary Zuni roast chicken, which was worth the one-hour wait after you ordered it at the restaurant. It gave you plenty of time to have a margarita, a pile of shoestring fries, and a classic Caesar Salad. (Fun fact: I worked at Zuni Cafe when I first moved to San Francisco and made a lot of Caesar Salads, which, if I may be so bold, were excellent and the recipe is in the book.)

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie Bars

Welcome to 2021. We had sort of, um…an abrupt beginning to the New Year. After a punishing 2020 where the pandemic pretty much upended everything in our lives, a lot of us were looking forward to some stability, seasoned with some optimism about the virus, but things took a decidedly different turn in a direction not many of us could imagine. I stepped away from…

The lockdowns (plural) and the pause for the holidays allowed me to sort through stuff in my kitchen drawers and clear a path to sanity in my office to face-down that pesky end-of-the-year paperwork. I organized the desktop on my computer (a task I highly recommend tackling), changed my newsletter service, deleted some passive-aggressive messages (still not sure I understand the point of those…) that were taking up valuable space in my head, retreated from the online world, bereaved the passing of a family member, took a step toward overcoming yet another leak as the plumber assured me the plumbing store would have toilets back in stock by the end of January (I hope he was talking about 2021), and emotionally regrouped to begin what I’m sure will be a fabulous a new year.

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Chocolate Marshmallows

Marshmallows are one (or some) of my favorite things. We don’t often use ‘marshmallow’ in the singular and we certainly don’t make them one at a time. When we talk about marshmallows, it’s generally in the plural since it’s hard to imagine just one, lone, solitary marshmallow. That would be triste, as you’d say in French, or sad. Except, of course, when it’s floating on top of a warm cup of hot chocolate. That makes me happy. And what makes me even happier is when the marshmallow is made of chocolate. In that case, I’m absolutely delighted.

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Black Fruitcake

Over the last several years, people suggested that I write a book of fruit desserts. I point out, helpfully, that I already have, but every year a few books of fruit desserts come out, mostly relating to pies or crisps and cobblers. So it was interesting to see one devoted solely to cakes, called (appropriately) Fruit Cake: Recipes for the Curious Baker. But no need…

But no need to worry that it’s a book of Christmas cakes with sticky green cherries in them. It’s by Jason Schreiber, a food stylist and recipe developer, who dreamed up with seventy-five cakes that feature fruit, everything from Key Lime Meringue Cake to a tropical fruit Panettone. There are also Pineapple Breakfast Cakes, his riff on the classic Sachertorte with chocolate and apricots, and a Jamaican Black Cake, that caught my eye for a number of reasons.

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December Events: Live and Online

Even though travel is interrupted, for the time being, I’ve planned several online events this month, and one in-person event in Paris: December 11: I’ll be signing copies of Drinking French at Café Méricourt in Paris from 3 to 4 pm. Copies of Drinking French will be available to purchase from the café for signing. (If you’d like a copy of L’Appart or The Perfect…

Even though travel is interrupted, for the time being, I’ve planned several online events this month, and one in-person event in Paris:

December 11: I’ll be signing copies of Drinking French at Café Méricourt in Paris from 3 to 4 pm. Copies of Drinking French will be available to purchase from the café for signing. (If you’d like a copy of L’Appart or The Perfect Scoop, click here to pre-purchase a copy for pick-up at the event.)

December 12: Join me for an interview and chat with pastry chef Melissa Weller, author of A Good Bake with Now Serving in Los Angeles. I’ll post the exact time and sign-up info on this page and on my Schedule page when they get it up on their site. Hang tight!

December 13: I’ll be offering a seminar on French Apéritifs: History, Cocktails, and Culture as a live online presentation with Context Conversations. I’ll cover the history and culture of the iconic apéritifs of France and demonstrate various drinks you can make with them, along with the recipes. Register here. (Note: Through Dec 6th you can use the promo code THANKFUL15 for a 15% discount on all Context seminars, including mine.)

December 20: ‘Tis the season for drinks and desserts! Join me baker Edd Kimber for this special holiday get-together live online with La Cuisine Paris. We’ll be doing some baking, making holiday drinks, and answering your questions. More info and register here.

Also, I’ve got several terrific guests this month scheduled on my Instagram Live Apéro Hour videos, including Michelle Polzine, Joanne Weir, Brad Thomas Parsons, Lesley Chesterman, Jean-Louis Charbonnier from Comté cheese, and Aurélie Panhelleux. Follow me on Instagram to get notifications when they’ll be happening!