I have been so busy with my current photography project that I am afraid that I am neglecting you, and my blog too.
But eh, it will not last, will it? So I promise to come back soon with an easy dessert, one that talks a lot to me, at any time of the day.

Especially these days.

A bientôt, promis !

Oh, I know that you might look at this and scratch your head, thinking: “What is she thinking?” Not very seasonal, non? But wait! This is really a subjective topic, isn’t it? Comfort food should never be seasonal. Beside, even when it is hot and summery outside, I do not necessarily crave cold foods.

I am like this.

And not alone. Take countries like India or China: you soon realize that the idea ingrained in public belief that cold food helps to cool down is only a myth. Cold food in your stomach is never going to be as nicely digested as warm food. The Chinese believe in this, and I like this theory too — of course, you do not have to agree. It however works well for me even if, like everyone else, I can crave and eat cold foods too — I am still salivating at the thought of the cold leek parsnip vichyssoise eaten recently at lunch with P.

But when I need comfort, then warm food are the buzz words!

With leftovers of ground veal used to prepare stuffed zucchinis, I imagined making meatballs flavored with carrot — another good reason to get that juicer I told you about. I wanted to pair the sweetness of a carrot-flavored sauce and the softness in taste of veal. Did it work? Probably so when I acknowledge to you that during the course of the last two weeks, I prepared the recipe a few times.

Not that I am lacking cooking imagination, or anything of the kind — there is always desire and inspiration to make good food — but simply because my schedule has been recently busy with a fun project. I cannot yet tell you everything about it but if you are curious — like my friend N. — I can tell you that I am currently doing the food styling and food photography of a baker’s cookbook. And I am blessed since her recipes work as a charm.

So when I spend my days baking, styling and photographing, the thought of a comforting dish bringing a nice relaxing end to my days is quite welcomed. In fact, I thought that you too might like to have a recipe like this handy, when life gets too busy on your side of the fence. It is great on the first day, and the next.

And even the one after the next.

Leftovers at their best.

“I can’t stay in bed,” I told P. “Don’t insist!”

“Why not? Isn’t it nice and toasty in here?”

Well it surely was but the problem was that I was hungry. As is always the case when I wake up. I am one of these people waking up with a stomach making noises and calling for food. Aren’t you too?

I discovered granola and its wonders about fifteen years ago, when I lived in the United States for the first time, during the days when I was teaching French in a university lost in the middle of corn fields. Yes, corn fields there were indeed in that part of the world! Many!

This was also the time when I met P. and to tell the truth, he is really the one who initiated me to granola. How could I have lived for so long not knowing about this delicious food, I wondered then? What was wrong with us the French for not welcoming more cereals like granola on the breakfast table? No argument, I would have granola any day instead of a croissant. Vraiment !

After the first bite of granola, I was hooked: I immediately fell in love with its nuttiness and crunchiness. A few years later, when I visited P. again — and we then shared a bit of life living together in a tiny apartment on campus — we also enjoyed cycling every weekend or so to the small organic store nearby, to fill up with more granola when we ran out. We liked ours not too sweet and often ate it quite simply, with fresh berries or perhaps slices of fresh apple and plain French-style yogurt. It might sound silly but I loved that P. and I shared a liking for the same types of food. I knew that a good connection was on the right track: with the man, and the food.

Will you then be surprised when I tell you that I have been making all types of granola since then?

Making granola is pretty easy and straightforward, and can be customized as you like. Choose the nuts you like — pecans, walnuts, and more — and add any type of dried fruit you prefer. I particularly like dried cherries or slices of dried apples, because apples and me in the morning are best friends. This is also one of the reason why I like to add apple juice too when I prepare granola, and add maple syrup and honey for extra flavor. Sometimes I can also add orange oil instead of canola oil but then, that gives me another recipe altogether.

Then sit down at the table, make yourself comfortable and be happy to start your day on the right foot.

With the right food.

Nothing beats a healthy breakfast like this one.

But can I tell you a secret?

I love to pack some in a zip-lock bag and snack on it when I am out, at any time of the day.

Simplement délicieux !

I secretly did not want to believe it, hoping that they would have made a mistake. They sometimes do, those weather people. I opened my laptop quickly and pulled open a browser. Google-searched “weather Boston MA.” The result came back invariably the same: “heat wave watch for four days.”

Four days!

We did not except it to come so fast and truth being said, it hit us by surprise. The scorching sun and its overwhelming heat. One day it was jeans and jackets, and the following day we were wearing shorts and bikinis, and that was even too much to feel comfortable. How did it happen? I simply don’t know. How long it will last? I hope as short as possible. The heat and I, we are not best friends. In fact, we can get pretty upset at each other. Moi, especially.

So like everywhere when this happens, you hear people talk about this unfriendly heat, you hear stories about grilling, barbecuing, ice creams, salads and all sorts of foods to cool you off. Writer Kim O’Donnel at the Washington Post even wrote an article about it, with delightful ideas to feel inspired by — I contributed with my chilled avocado, orange and lime soup.

Oddly enough, from the list of possibilities, salads do not always necessarily do it for me. But a dessert made with fruit and a light vanilla-flavored cream might. But it is mainly the gourmande in me who is speaking then.

Sabayon might have a complicated name, somewhat enigmatic, but it is in fact a dish extremely easy to make. It is Italian in origin, and although it somewhat resembles a crème anglaise in its looks, it however does not require any addition of dairy, like milk — which is the case of a crème anglaise. Instead, it is typically made with wine like a Sauternes, or Champagne even, and is cooked with eggs and sugar beaten together until light.

Except that I decided to prepare a fruit version, and instead of using wine, I used apple juice.

Because if there is one kitchen appliance that I would truly find hard to let go of, if I had to, it is my juicer. I am a real sucker for fresh fruit or vegetable juices of all sorts. When you have a taste of what a freshly squeezed apple juice is compared to even la crème de la crème of any store-bought one, there is no possible way to go back.

Really!

I use my juicer for vegetable and fruit juice on nearly a daily basis. It comes particularly handy when I want to make recipes that involve fresh vegetable juices, like carrot or beet.

For this recipe, the sabayon technique stays the same. Beat the eggs with sugar, and once light, add the warm juice. Reheat gently to thicken the cream. Ni plus, ni moins.

The dessert is light, just sweet as one needs to be, colorful and refreshing. It does not require fancy techniques or ingredients — ok, perhaps just a juicer, if I have to insist — and can be made over and over, without anyone tiring of it. Well, it is really true when you have to deal with hot days like the ones we currently endure everywhere, it seems, on the East coast.

I still have to wonder who ever thought, up there, that anyone of us, down there, could enjoy hot and humid together. They just don’t go well together.

Unlike fruit and cream.

Yes indeed!

The need for a simple dessert, and refreshing.

I am not complaining — well, I am actually a little — but it is so hot outside! Where did this come from suddenly? We are only early June, after all!

Promise, I will let you know about the dessert very soon — this one is a fruit sabayon with berries — when I am able to gather my thoughts! Probably after a swim or something to cool us down.

And since I talked with you about my love for spring vegetable stews, jardinière de légumes verts, why not check one of the latest recipes I wrote for the Boston Globe. It was published in yesterday’s paper.
I like to make many variants of the same dish. And of course, to get the best of it, make sure to choose super fresh vegetables, as seasonal as possible! You will feel as if you had spring in your plate!

I have a long history of cleaning peas. When I was a kid, my summers were filled with afternoons spent cleaning peas with my mum. I am not sure why, but my brother always seemed to be exempt of the task.

We liked to clean the peas under the canopy on the terrace at the back of the house. I had a preferred way to perform the task: a sieve stuck between my legs to collect the pods and one placed on the small table next to me to collect the peas — when I was not gulping them down, which was quite hard since I loved them this way. Each pea dropped in my mouth was pure joy when it released its sweet juice on my tongue. I think this could still be my favorite way to eat peas, in fact.

But I don’t recall that we kept the pods for anything though.

What a waste now that I think about it!

Do you recycle your pea pods too to flavor a vegetable broth?

What about pea shoots?

I like to eat them in a salad, or sautée them in a little oil in my wok, with shallot and sprinkled parsley to finish.

Or add them to a jardinière de légumes verts.

Or I use them to flavor a broth too, especially if I decide to make pea soup afterwards.

I used mine in a pea, cucumber and avocado soup.

Quite seasonal, isn’t it?

The breeze felt soft and refreshing on my arms, and the generous afternoon sun warmed my face as I lay comfortably settled in one of the long chairs strategically arranged under the blossoming cherry trees in my parents’ garden; they will give a lot of fruit this year, if the starlings and robins do not get to them before the fruit is ripe.

Having a nap after lunch quickly became my routine during my vacation week in France, and I wondered what I would do without them after I returned to the States.

“Tu veux de la rhubarbe pour faire une tarte ?” (do you want rhubarb to bake a tart?) Madame P., one of my parents’ neighbors, asked as she walked by the house on the way back from one of her regular walks to the village. She is one of my parents’ oldest neighbors; people do not move often in the village. They are there to stay.

I woke up and felt almost bad to have fallen asleep so quickly.

“Ah mais oui, avec plaisir !” (I would love to) I told her without a second of hesitation.

“J’en ai plein, et même de la toute jeune,” (I have a lot of it, even very young sticks) she continued on.

I was thrilled. I loved when neighbors stopped by to give produce from their garden, something quite common in my home village.

The rhubarb she gave me was young and tender, and I managed to make a few tartlets, the dessert in fact that we shared to celebrate my birthday en famille.

Since then, I have not baked much, besides a few loaves of bread, and I have not made many desserts either. No wonder then that when I walked into the kitchen a few days ago, I was well decided to prepare a dessert, something to inspire me a little more than the fruit we’d had for dessert over the past week. Oh do not get me wrong, we really enjoyed that too, especially the cherries. I even bought a few white peaches that turned out quite tasty, to my surprise.

It was time, however, for something a little more elaborate, yet not overly so. In fact, even if I like to prepare more elegant-looking desserts, it is really the rustic ones that I crave more often. The very ones that I was used to eating as a child, because they were the ones that my mum cooked regularly. Amongst those, the summery winning ones were always rhubarb tart, because we had so much rhubarb that we literally did not know what to do with it, and cherry clafoutis because of all the cherry trees my parents have in their garden.

P. did not dare tell me but I know he missed my desserts. So when I walked into the living room after dinner and told him I had a nice dessert for us, he looked up at me, his eyes expressing high hope for something quite special.

“Quoi ?” he asked.

“One of your favorites.”

“Clafoutis !” he exclaimed.

I wanted the clafoutis to be a bit more tangy and vibrant than a traditional cherry clafoutis. I wanted it also juicier, so I needed a fruit suited for that matter.

Rhubarb!

And I thought about adding raspberries for a contrast in taste and color. I imagined that a rhubarb clafoutis might be a bit boring looking, even if always tasty. Adding a little red would not hurt. It proved a really great association of flavors, pleasing to the taste and the eyes.

I bought thin sticks of rhubarb, a sign that the fruit was young and tender, and barely needed to be peeled — the way I always prefer to buy it. Beside leaving the rhubarb sprinkled with sugar to rest for an hour to release some juice, this dessert recipe suited me well: quick, hardly any work involved, for an inviting delicious dessert to indulge in without restraint.

We sat down after dinner and did not feel bad for a second for having finished the dish between only the two of us.

That’s how we like our desserts, don’t we? Fruit, milk, a little sugar and flour: only good things to please the senses and make us enjoy spring and the summer-that-is-to-come.

Before we notice it, there will be Apricots. Frankly, I cannot wait. Can you?

Where have I been, I wonder myself, and where did time fly by this week? I just don’t know.
Sometimes life takes its course, not asking whether you agree with it or not. And with this being said, it was really much harder for me to get back into the swing of things.

Into a normal pace of life.

In fact, I found out that it is even more real now that the weather is gorgeous outside, and the thought of spending time inside, to write or do anything that keeps me between four walls, sounds less appealing. I am really an outdoors girl, and like a dog traveling in a car and sniffing the air through the window, I cannot help but want to go to play outside. I know you would feel the same way, wouldn’t you? We agree that we have to enjoy spring, and summer, as long as they offer us wonderful days.

But I also knew that I could not let another day go by without coming here to chat with you. I have missed it too. So even if I perhaps do not have anything amazingly interesting to say, I still have a few images and one favorite recipe to share. Easy to make, easy to eat, easy to pack with you.

I had promised to talk more about my love for tartlets and this recipe is a good way to start: I make it quite often, with many variations on the crust and the topping.

Since it is a long holiday in the US this weekend, and it is so nice — and warm — outside, P. and I decided to go out for a picnic. I decided to pack a few things: most likely a carrot salad, Moroccan style; these lovely grated vegetable tartlets, an egg salad — P.’s favorite; perhaps vegetable and goat cheese sandwiches if we are still hungry; juicy dark cherries or peaches, and a few chocolate cookies. I know we will have a good time.

The mystery of these tartlets resides in a few things: first there is the crust, which is a combination of brown rice flour, quinoa and tapioca flours with olive oil and poppyseeds; grated celeriac stewed with leek and red onion; and the delightful scent of poivre long — Long pepper — to flavor the dish.

You do not need to use much long pepper, and perhaps if you are new to this subtle spice, you will want to try just a tiny touch. Me? I love its smell: a little sweet, delicious in sweet and savory preparations. Try it with lamb, osso bucco, in soups, with goat cheese and even in a crème brûlée.

Variations on these tartlets abound, of course. For the topping, I don’t like to add a lot of egg/milk batter because I prefer to taste the vegetables more. I like to vary the vegetables too: I sometimes use grated carrots and parsnip, zucchinis and sometimes beets too. A slice of prosciutto added on top will enhance the tartlet, and a green salad — arugula, frisée or mâche — will always accompany the meal Ca, c’est obligé ! Note that because the crust is using brown rice flour – making the recipe gluten free — the consistency of the crust is much crumblier, hence a little more delicate to work with. But as you can assess, not impossible since at each time, the tartlets are a success. Of course, you can always substitute regular flour for the ones I suggest: a matter of choice and preference.

So off we go before the day is over and the sun is down. I want to feel the breeze on my face, feel the sun warm my skin and walk bare feet in the grass. The birds will keep us company. They have much to say these days too.

And in any case, be inspired by your mood to create a tartlet of your own choice. They can never disappoint.

The reality is that I took the pictures you see above three weeks ago, the day we left for our trip to Europe — and I am glad I did. I came back Thursday night, tired and jet-lagged, to find back a gray sky with lots of rain. What a change from the summery weather we had in Italy and France! A few days ago, Paris felt like the middle of summer, I swear, and the Lorraine countryside at my parents’ felt like a slice of paradise where to rest: I even noticed that I came back tanned, probably from too many hours spent napping in the long chair under the cherry trees!

So perhaps these pictures will help getting over the fact that our weekend here will be wet and much colder.
Now I need to get back on my feet and find the way to the kitchen again. For some natural reason, I am craving green spring vegetables!

And don’t ask me why, sushi too!