Light bites and little nibbles, easy spreads and elegant hors d’oeuvres…serve them before the main dish and you have a multi-course dinner (v. elegant), serve several together and they can be an aperitif dinatoire, the French term for serving a selection of hors d’oeuvres as a meal.
Rhubarb Tart with Fresh Goat Cheese
I have found the secret to the universe, and it is 8 oz. (200 g.) of fresh goat cheese and 2 eggs. Yes, that is an exaggeration, but when an easy-to-remember ingredient combi [...]
Preserved Lemon Yogurt (or Labneh) Dip
When I made a big batch of preserved lemons last spring, I wondered how I’d ever use them all up. Now that I have discovered this preserved lemon labneh/yogurt dip, I worry I [...]
Goat Cheese and Olive Spread
This is one of those recipes to be filed under the ‘Why-didn’t-I-think-of-this-before?’ category. I have loved cream cheese and olive spread ever since I first tasted it in s [...]
Catalan Tomato Bread
Pan con tomate/pa amb tomaquet, literally bread with tomato, is a rustic tomato toast from Catalonia (in northern Spain...Barcelona is the capital) that popped up on my radar [...]
Caprese Polenta Stacks
Caprese salad – that super-simple, utterly addictive Italian combination of tomatoes, mozzarella and basil is such a big part of the French summer food experience that it’s p [...]
Spiced Puff Pastry Twists
Since Cancale is the hometown of chef and master spice blender Olivier Roellinger, I end up with quite a few of his spice mixes blends in my cupboard at any given time. Some [...]
Zucchini Ribbon Salad
For the past four summers, I’ve been doing cooking demonstrations at a local farmers’ market. The conditions are lovely—extraordinarily good produce, cheese, meats, and cider [...]
“Gin Martini” Green Olive Tapenade
Southern France, meet the American South, or at least the South I know where summer evenings smell of heat, humidity, freshly-mown grass…and gin. When I was little, the gin s [...]
Sardine Tarte Flambée!
On the last Friday of each month, my neighbors here on the Cancale harbor and I get together for our pot de l’amitié –a casual potluck cocktail party where everyone brings so [...]
Wild Garlic Spanish Tortilla
How can so few people in Brittany (or at least my part of Brittany) know about three-cornered leeks? Until my recent (as in, 2 minutes ago) internet search I’ve been calling [...]
Bruschetta Toasts
I have something of a reputation for accepting—nay, wanting—food items my neighbors would otherwise throw away or not know what to do with. Bruised apples, overripe plums, be [...]
Artichoke Tapenade
1 13.75 oz. can artichoke bottoms or frozen artichoke bottoms prepared according to package directions 1 10-oz. jar artichoke hearts preserved in oil, drained, oil reserved 2 [...]