David Lebovitz's Blog, page 11

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I’m taking a little pause after an especially hectic December and the holidays…and 2020 in general. One task I took on before the end of the year was moving my newsletter to Substack.

 

If you’d like to subscribe to my new newsletter, you can do so using the signup form above. Once you sign up, you’ll get an email asking you to confirm your subscription, which you’ll need to respond to. If you don’t get the opt-in email, check your spam folder. (If you change your mind at a later date and wish to unsubscribe, there’s an option to do so at the end of every newsletter.)

The newsletter comes out monthly and will continue to be free, however there’s now also a premium (paid) option that will offer additional content to subscribers, including recipes, subscriber-only discussion forums, Q+As, and maybe even videos, in the future. If you sign up in January, you’ll get 20% off the annual subscription price. When you enter your email address in the form above, you can choose from one of the three options: Free, paid (monthly), and paid annually, which you can choose there.

If you’re already a subscriber to my newsletter, you are already on the list and should still be getting the newsletter regularly. (And thanks for subscribing!) If you signed up to get the newsletter over the past month or so and didn’t get it, you may have signed up during the transition so you can enter your email address above. If you’re already signed up, it’ll let you know that you’re in!

 

 

Tartiflette

One French dish I’ve not made is Tartiflette. It’s one of those things that you tuck into after a day of skiing down alps, which I did once with a family of expert skiers, realizing too late that my intermediate-level of skiing was no match for my friends, who pointed their skis straight down the top of the alps and took off. I tried my best to keep up, but in spite of the spectacular scenery (and dizzying heights), I realized my talents were better in the kitchen than on slopes, especially compared to a French family of élite-level skiers.

Continue Reading Tartiflette...

Slow Cooker Chili

I decided this year I was going to make peace with my slow cooker. I was surprised by how much I didn’t take to it, which I’ve documented here and there. Like bread machines, Instant Pots, Thermomix, and cast irons skillets, someone wrote about the latter on my Facebook page, “It’s just a PAN…” (in all-caps), they certainly have their fans. I do like my cast iron skillet very much, but my life doesn’t change radically when I reach for mine. Although wouldn’t it be great if that was all it took?

A socially distanced Christmas in France

Hello, Emily here – ready to celebrate the holidays! We were supposed to be spending this Christmas on the beach in Australia (where I am originally from) but with travel not possible, we’ll be spending it at home in Paris. Holiday traditions in France are so different from Australia (the weather for a start – it was 39ºC/102ºF in Brisbane the last time we spent the holidays there) and I’ve had a wonderful time discovering French holiday customs over the past few years. The food, the wine, the decorations, the language. Oh, and did I mention the food?!

This year we’re in semi-lockdown and with most of the activities on my Things to do in Paris at Christmas list off-limits it’s the perfect time to finally try all those creative projects that I never get around to. The Christmas carols are on repeat, we are staying home en famille (with our family), counting our blessings, and beginning to get festive.

Last weekend I simmered some spiced vin-chaud (mulled wine) while we decorated our Sapin de Noël (Christmas tree). The smell of cardamom, cloves and oranges wafted through the apartment as we unpacked our decorations, each one holding sentimental memories. I added some new ones to represent our 2020; a paintbrush and wrench, to remind us that we did a full renovation, during a pandemic, while I was heavily pregnant, and a personalized ornament for our baby girl who we welcomed in July (mid-renovation – it was a lot!). My daughter and I picked the biggest tree we could find and now it sits, quietly dropping its needles on the floor, by our window so the neighbors can enjoy it as well. We are taking bets on who will attack it first – the toddler or Noisette, our dog.

We’ve cracked open the chocolate advent calendars and light an advent candle in the evenings. Each year I also print out a selection of photos of especially funny and memorable moments from the year, my daughter decorates some envelopes they go into and at breakfast my husband opens them day-by-day. They hang along a strand of tinsel until at least the end of January and then we bundle them all up and they go into a memory box, along with the ones from previous years. 

Continue Reading A socially distanced Christmas in France...

Holiday Gift Idea! Drinking French Bar Boxes from Slope Cellars and K & L Wine Merchants

What better way to send off 2020, and kick off a brand new year (…which, fortunately, is just around the corner…) with a gift for yourself, or for someone special, of a Drinking French Bar Box! I’ve teamed up with two of my favorite spirit shops to offer specially-curated bar boxes with a selection of French spirits and apéritifs. And to sweeten the pot, for a limited time, each bar box includes a bookplate signed copy of Drinking French.

Slope Cellars wine and spirits shop in New York includes a bottle of Old Forester Bottled-in-Bond Rye, Forthave Red Apéritif Bitters (a small-batch red bitter apéritif, made in Brooklyn), a bottle of Citadelle gin, the first gin made in France, and a demi-bottle of Dolin sweet vermouth from the French alps, as well as a copy of Drinking French. With those bottles, you’ll be able to make several drinks in the book, including my favorite cocktails, the Boulevardier and the Americano, a low ABV apéritif that’s perfect for easy-going holiday sipping.

Continue Reading Holiday Gift Idea! Drinking French Bar Boxes from Slope Cellars and K & L Wine Merchants...

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.

Continue Reading Chocolate Marshmallows...

Paris Booksigning This Friday

I’ll be doing a book signing for Drinking French at Café Méricourt in Paris this Friday, December 11, from 3 to 4 pm (map). Many have asked me about getting personalized copies and this is your chance to get one signed for yourself or for gift-giving!

Copies of Drinking French will be available to purchase from the café. (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.) If you would like to bring a book that you already have for signing, you are welcome to.

As a special treat, the café will be offering in-house gift bags of holiday confections, including chocolate mendiants and bittersweet chocolate truffles, as well as tahini granola, chocolate-praline spread, and gift certificates, too.

[Note that health guidelines will be strictly respected. The book signing will be held at the take-out window, not indoors, with masks. You’re welcome to bring your own bag for your book purchase.]

If you live elsewhere and you’d like a signed copy of Drinking French, Book Larder in Seattle has a limited number of copies available. Please indicate when you order online or by telephone if you’d like a bookplate signed copy. In addition, the Drinking French Bar Box at Slope Cellars also now includes a bookplate signed book, along with a special selection of spirits to make some of my favorite drinks in the book, just in time for the holidays for gift-giving or yourself.

Dark Chocolate-Cherry Fruitcake

‘Tis the season for holiday baking and I’ll admit to being on a little bit of a fruitcake bender, recently giving a Black Fruitcake a go and revisiting one of my all-time favorite recipes, Fruitcake Bars which won accolades from several French friends. (They were also surprised at how easy there were to make, too.)

A while back, I gave the much-maligned fruitcake a makeover, dressing this one up with plumped-up sour cherries, chocolate chips, a dark chocolate batter, and a boozy bath of liquor added at the end.

Continue Reading Dark Chocolate-Cherry Fruitcake...

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 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.

Continue Reading Black Fruitcake...

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 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!