Cocoa Molasses Chew Cookies

Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils. - Cyril Connolly I simply need some comfort today. We all do. This election has left me drained, emotionally and physically. I’m shaken to my very core, chilled to my bones, and every cliché and platitude in between. Battered and bruised. I mourn for ...

French Apple Cake

Wednesday, September 28, 2016 11 , , , , Permalink 6

Let them eat cake. – Marie Antoinette While my own parents were making pies with frozen shells and canned filling or cakes from boxed mixes, my future mother-in-law was feeding her family on homemade treats. Apricot or plum halves pressed into sugary, crumbly pâte sablée or rich quatres-quart made with butter, milk, sugar and flour. Simple ...

Bye Bye Birdie

Tuesday, July 19, 2016 12 , Permalink 0

Bye, Bye, Birdie I'm gonna miss you so; Bye Bye Birdie, Why'd ya have to go? No more sunshine, It's followed you away; I'll cry Birdie, Till you're home to stay. – Lee Adams There was the story of the stolen bicycle, the story of the underwear found hanging on the chandelier, the story of the famous film producer, odd, quirky, adorable, the ...

Coffee Panna Cotta with with Bittersweet Mocha Sauce

Morning without you is a dwindled dawn. - Emily Dickinson Up at 5:30, downstairs by 6:30, that is my everyday. Fueled by coffee. Or it should be. Downstairs at 6:30, first clients begin filtering into the breakfast room at 7:15, sometimes earlier, and we jump into action as if someone has flicked on a switch. Sometimes the ...

Life at the Hotel and Lessons Learned

Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood.     -- Ralph Waldo Emerson After a week of chilly, dreary days, heavy granite skies, the wind whipping in circles around the courtyard, flicking leaves across the stones and spattering rain against the windows, battering down onto the cement of the terrace, the sun has arrived ...

Chocolate Espresso Pecan Torte for Passover (Gluten-Free Version)

It is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters.  - Roger L'Estrange, Aesop's Fables, 1692 I recently had a discussion with a young man whose family produces truffles, who spoke to me passionately about his métier, his work, and his passion for the black diamond of Chinon. ...

Chocolate Palets Bretons – Chocolate Butter Cookies from Brittany

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. - Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard's Egg Spring has finally arrived in Chinon. Wild winds, grey skies, spattering rain are interspersed with flashes of bright sunlight filtering through hazy skies and lighting up the courtyard, brushing against the windows and warming the breakfast room. ...