Valentine’s Day! – Loving France

I love France. I always have. I took French in high school – 3 years – and my husband and boys ALWAYS make fun of me when I try to speak the language. But then our French interns say I have a great accent! So, for this Midwest girl with really, really, bad A’s, are they telling me the truth or just trying to butter me up?

No matter. I carry on. I love the food. I love the country. I love the cheese. The butter. The salt. The champagne.

We took the kids there when they were young. I forget why. I think we had just won a big new account and wanted to celebrate. The youngest was seven. For a two-week trip, after 3 days, he wanted to go home – to his room and his stuffed animals. He missed them.

Can you believe it??!!! I was incredulous. And we promised DisneyLand Paris and that was still 4 days away!

I remember, getting out of that Metro Station, climbing the steps and turning around and seeing the Eiffel Tower and literally screeching with joy at the sight – in true tourist fashion. No wonder my sons can’t stand me.

We carried on – he got over it – of course he doesn’t really remember a whole lot of the trip now – but we all had a great time (along with some other interesting stories for another time).

But just recently Rendez-vous des Arts Culinaires contacted me to do an interview for Valentine’s Day. Was I delighted? You bet! They found me and I am always happy to talk about LOVE and cooking. The interview is here. In fact, taking the boys to France at the ages of 11 and 7, I believe, formed the foundation of their love of wonderful food and wonderful ingredients. They knew the difference, even then, in the taste of the butter, the bread, the jambon, the crepes.

(Oh I raised monsters.)

Anywho, I’m delighted that Rendez-vous des Arts Culinaires featured us on our day – Valentine’s Day! They wanted to publish this recipe of ours: Silky Chocolate Cake.

And I have some other great recipes for your dinner tonight or this weekend in our newsletter – super easy Veal Chops with Sage and an awesome Chocolate Souffle that you shouldn’t be afraid of, because it will work, following these simple instructions. If you didn’t get the newsletter and would like it, let me know either through a comment or signing up in the upper right hand corner and I will personally make sure you get it before dinnertime tonight.

Love to all!!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

And a big thank you to the great folks at Rendez-vous des Arts Culinaires!