Lulu looked at me, then she opened her mouth, keen to take the spoonful of gazpacho I was holding in front of her. I was watching her carefully, curious to find out what would happen next. Her face stretched into a grin and a funny-sounding laughter escaped through her lips, one that seemed to tell me “Tu plaisantes maman?” (Are you joking mummy?)

“Oh oh, de la gaspacho, ma Lulu!” I exclaimed. “Essaie !” (Try)! “Tu n’aimes pas?” (Don’t you like it?)

She was eating the soup for the first time, so I didn’t worry if she didn’t seem to like it. I knew that one day, when feeling ready, she’d come back to it. And enjoy the flavors of the soup that rhyme so magically well with summer. Suffice to look at all this eye-catching red!

She pointed at the bowl of radishes on the table instead.

“Tu préfères un radis ?” (Do you prefer a radish?) I asked, holding a pink radish to her. She took it from my hand without hesitation, murmuring a Thank you in her own words, and then she bit into the radish. Happy now, it was obvious.

I grabbed one too and we both sat at the dining room table by the back garden, busy eating our radishes with contentment, appreciating the crunchiness and peppery taste that the food released on our tongues.

Lightly seared salmon and a pot of warm brown rice cooked with marjoram, cumin, cream, peas and watercress were following–foods she never says no to either.

Just like the fresh raspberry and custard tart I had baked in the morning.

As to P. and I, we were thankful for the pot of gazpacho I had prepared. A large pot with colorful toppings to give more body to the soup.

“Miam, c’est super bon,” P. said after a taste. (Yum, it’s delicious!) I had found beautiful organic tomatoes that had the name gazpacho written all over them. So gazpacho there was. Plenty of it, in fact, in the week that followed.

The first time I prepared the soup, I used leftovers of brioche previously soaked in water. The next time–this recipe–I decided to skip the brioche, and served the soup with toppings that included fresh corn and diced avocado. We had enough for two days, which is always a bonus with a food like gazpacho as flavors will have had the time to develop.

I am still not sure which recipe I preferred. They were different but similar at the same time–I am sure you have your own variant too, non? Both were a refreshing way to start our meal. Ideal for the warm temperatures of the day. Summer.

Of course, the best tomatoes make the best gazpacho. Which means that gazpacho is really at ist best when prepared during summer. En été.

I remember that when I was still living with my parents, my mother never bought out of season produce. I remember that she always made a point about it even more at times when I’d beg for strawberries during winter. In the French countryside where I grew up, it was hard to find them anyway. So we ate seasonal food. In summer, vegetables that grew in the garden, like peas, salad, haricots verts, carrots, beets, zucchini, radish.

And tomatoes. Des tomates.

Oh homegrown tomatoes!

They simply stand out, don’t they?

Make a large pot and serve it as an appetizer or a main course for a light meal. Or serve the soup in shot glasses, as an amuse-bouche to start a meal. I’ve done this many times, and it’s always something our friends enjoy.

We all do.

“Betty ?” I heard a deep male voice over the phone. It sounded like my father. Who else, outside my family and people from my home village in France, would call me Betty? I remained quiet for a few seconds until realizing that in fact, it was indeed my father.

“Vous êtes déjà arrivés ?” (Did you already arrive?) I asked, surprised.

I looked at my watch, and then at Lulu who was staring at my hand holding the phone. Then she looked at me, waiting for a push to get the swing moving. We had walked to the park, thinking we’d have time before my parents arrived. “P. est en route pour l’aéroport,” (P. is on his way to the airport) I went on. “Désolée, on ne savait pas que votre avion était en avance.” (Sorry, we didn’t know your plane was early.)

Perhaps my parents’ plane landed early because they felt impatient. It showed right away as they walked into the house to hug and kiss Lulu. Once. Twice. I quickly stopped counting. And instead I watched, and smiled, feeling so happy and thankful for that sweet moment between Lulu and her grandparents. The last time they had seen her was when we visited during the summer. Five months ago. I knew she would look like a different baby. And that she’d be a lucky one to have two fully dedicated playmates with her for two weeks. My parents are so good at it that it has me wonder whether they’ve taken a special class…just teasing. It’s a delight.

So this is what’s been happening in our home. The visit of my parents, as a start, which I’d very much been looking forward to. And me? Working long hours to revise the manuscript of my cookbook. Yes, it’s still going on and I have a new deadline! So add this to that, and this explains why there have not been many recipes and stories in this favorite space of mine. I cannot keep up at the moment.

I’m cooking a ton, mind you. So many foods, in fact. Having my mother in the kitchen by my side is precious. She likes to joke that she is my prep chef. I wish she were here all the time. She’s helping a ton, cooking homey foods for us–dishes I know so well. And miss.

On the night when they arrived, because they were tired from a long journey, I had prepared a light dinner. I made a soup. One that will be for the cookbook.

“Vous n’allez manger que des plats qui seront dans mon livre,” (You”ll only eat dishes that will be in my cookbook) I added, laughing, as I ladled steaming red lentil soup in our plates.
“Tant mieux!” (Good!) my mother answered.

I could see she was enjoying these simple foods. We had baguette, a wide selection of cheese–cannot have my father over without them–roasted beets and a green salad on the table too.

“Et ça aussi ca ira dans le livre ?” (Will this go in the cookbook too?) my father asked when, after we were finished, I brought dessert. I was holding a dish filled with warm pears baked with ginger, lemongrass and vanilla in one hand, and a bowl with plain yogurt in the other.

“Ah non, pas ça. Ça, c’est juste pour nous. C’est tout simple!” (Not this. This is just for us. Very simple.)

Within minutes, we cleaned the dish to the last bite.

I had forgotten how nice it actually is to have them over. We really love food in my family.

And it shows.

Thank you for your patience!

Quinoa is, by far, one of my favorite grains*. I remember when we traveled to Peru a few years ago and we ate quinoa at almost every meal, in soups, salads, warm savory dishes and desserts. Quinoa was to Peruvians what rice is to Asians and pasta to Italians. I was already familiar with the grain before we arrived but our Peruvian trip inspired me to use the grain even more frequently than I did. I simply never grow tired of it. Quite on the contrary.

* Quinoa is, in fact, the seed of the Chenopodium (or Goosefoot) plant. It’s technically not really a grain, but considered like one as it’s cooked like many grains.

So we eat quinoa quite regularly, perhaps twice a week, and I also love to use the flour made from the grain in many of my baked goods and tarts (simply check the cake section).

I was excited, in fact, the first day I also decided to prepare quinoa for Lulu. *So* happy because I knew I was sharing with her one of my favorite foods, giving her a food full of nutrients and flavor. And delighted to watch her eat and enjoy it, as much as her maman — and papa.

To start, quinoa is extremely nutritious. It is full of protein, offers niacin, iron, phosphorus and potassium. Since it contains all eight essential amino acids, it is also considered a complete protein, very easy to digest. Quinoa is high in unsaturated fats and lower in carbohydrates than most grains.

Most of you know that white quinoa is the most common variety. But red and black are also available despite that they are somewhat more challenging to find. But, if you are like me, you’ll easily go out of your way to put your hand on a box.

Until recently, I had only cooked with the white and red varieties. Black quinoa was something new but really exciting. I loved its deep rich color, especially after the grain was cooked, and I was curious to find out whether I would notice any difference in taste.

I truly loved it. It was full of flavor, nutty and light. It paired wonderfully with seasonal ingredients I had purchased, lovely colorful baby beets and cherry and green zebra tomatoes. In fact, I liked it so much that I was inspired to try different types of salads.

I wanted salads boosted with vitamins. I wanted contrast of flavors, with sweet ingredients balancing savory ones. I wanted to taste the smoothness of an avocado next to something zesty and juicy like grapefruit and grapes. In one salad, I used pieces of crumbled French feta cheese and in the other, ricotta salata. I added fragrant herbs and made a vinaigrette with body, using honey-flavored French mustard, garlic and flavorful oils and vinegars. It was really fun to try different variants on the same idea. One salad had thin blanched haricots verts and sweet juicy cherry and zebra tomatoes, and in the other, I preferred to add baby beets and smoked salmon.

I learned that combinations are endless and experimenting with the grain always inspiring.

So you’ll see why it’s not difficult to make quinoa a favorite, especially when you’ll hear that it cooks extremely quickly (between 12 to 15 minutes, covered in boiling water, depending on the variety + allow 5 minutes to rest).

Use it in its most natural state to accompany roasted vegetables, fish or meat, or serve it with a simmered sauce. Saute it as you would rice, and add fresh herbs and spices (my next thing in line!) Or, just like here, prepare fun colorful salads to keep you happy and healthy, whether you eat in, at work or out on a picnic (lucky you!) at the beach. You’ll understand that quinoa is a great grain to keep handy for any type of dinner or lunch occasions.

Are you as hungry as I am?

“Vous avez dû attendre pendant longtemps ?” (Did you have to wait for long?) my parents asked. We were standing at one end of terminal E in Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, hugging and kissing. My parents were as eager to see us as we were to see them. But I knew that, in fact, they were even happier to greet and hold their little grand daughter. Lulu was snuggled cozily against my stomach in her ergo. We could only see the top of her head and hair and eyes which she had wide open. She was smiling and flapping her bare legs against mine, turning her head to the right, then to the left, not to miss anything that was happening around us. We were all tired but so happy to be home in France.

The thought of traveling back home had filled me with feelings of excitement even if I had worried about our journey to Europe. It was Lulu’s first transatlantic flight. How would she handle it? Would she be fine with the many plane rides, between Boston, Paris, Dublin and Paris again? How would she do with the jet lag? But our little Lulu didn’t mind at all any of it. In fact, she adjusted extremely quickly, much faster than P. and I did.

Summer in rural eastern France, where my parents and brother live, has left me wonderful memories. I realized that it had been years since I had traveled there during summer.

It’s the soft morning light cast on the countryside early in the morning, the colorful wild flowers illuminating the fields, the rich smell of freshly cut grass, the butterflies dancing from flower to flower and the clacking sound of the crickets late at night that I love. It’s the time of year when, I remember, as a young girl, we used to harvest hay at my grandparents’. Sometimes, I was allowed to drive the tractor back from the fields, and proudly did so. Later in the afternoon, my brother and cousins would sneak in the barn to play, jumping on bales of hay neatly stacked high.

Days in the countryside are spent at a slower pace even if summer means it’s a busy time for many who live there. In my family, we like to pick all sorts of fruit to make jams and preserves and bake tarts; we preserve French beans and beets, and make ratatouille. We walk in the grass bare foot and nap under the cherry trees, if we feel like it. We did that very well, I must say, the day after we arrived, then the next, and the day after the next too — and we never seemed to find the activity boring. Would you?

Lulu, too, made the place her own. She and I loved the daily routine we established. There were the usual morning and afternoon naps, the walks to the village to buy baguettes for lunch, and the many hours spent playing on a large blanket spread under the trees, in my parents’ garden. It was delightful to see her enjoy herself so much. She was fascinated by trees and loved to watch the wind move their leaves. She played with the flickering shadows created by the rays of sun filtering through the branches.

I told her about where our food comes from. When I took her to the village, I showed her the cows and sheep and chicken and rooster and rabbits. I pointed at eggs nested at one corner of the hen house. I made her smell red currants and apples and strawberries and plums that my parents grow.

She ate the vegetables — carrots, beans, zucchini, beets and tomatoes — we prepared from my mother’s and brother’s gardens. Every day, it seemed that she was learning something new — her new discovery is to clap her hands (she does that so joyfully, really, it’s cute!) while blowing raspberries at the same time. It’s amazing, actually, how quickly she has changed over the course of these last three weeks away.

Our life is so much richer with her at the center of it.

“Tu veux que je la prenne ? “(Do you want me to take her?) my mum asked me one morning after I had just finished to nurse Lulu. She was wide awake, laughing, talking and kicking her legs above her head. It was also 6 am, the time of day when my mother gets up — it’s brave! I didn’t need to answer. She knew. I felt relieved. Si tu veux! (Sure!)

While falling asleep, I could hear them *converse* with each other in the kitchen at the breakfast table — Lulu sitting in her high chair while my mother was eating her bowl of muesli and yogurt.

It didn’t matter that we did not travel long distances or do much. We did what we had been craving for weeks: we rested.

The food was gorgeous, and I ate a ton. I even wonder where I put it all! Between the fresh vegetables and fruit from the garden, I also indulged in dairy products hungrily, eating yogurts, petits-suisses and fromage blanc as if I was discovering them for the first time again. I devoured cheese greedily, at all times of the day. Oh yes! Everything felt more tasteful and flavorful. My mother cooked — isn’t this the nicest? — and I helped, baking and making fruit tarts.

Every day, Lulu came with me to the garden where I picked more berries and seasonal fruit, carrots, salad and tomatoes for lunch. The mirabelles, prunes de cochon and quetsches were so ripe that we stewed them and made tarts.

One day, my mum and I took Lulu to the local market.

In my brother’s garden, I collected fresh herbs, different types of basil, sage, thyme, chervil, livèche (lovage) — my sister-in-law’s favorite — and mint to make a herb risotto. I’ll have to tell you about it. We enjoyed it so much that I cooked it twice.

We had family lunches and dinners at home that we ate outside and a few times, we drove the scenic winding road, just a few kilometers away, to l’Ecluse 16 — a lovely restaurant nested in the Bonne Fontaine forest, by the canal de la Sarre — where we ate scrumptious modern food.

I thought I wouldn’t find red currants, as suggested by my dad, but I was excited to discover that the bush in my parents’ back garden was still heavy with bright red berries, fully ripe. Every day, my mum used them in fruit salads while I baked them in muffins.

I also made a red currant and almond tart.

Red currants are a delicacy in the US, which always surprises me when they are so abundant and easily found where I am from in France. In the city of Bar-le-Duc near by, locals use the fruit to make a special jam. The tradition consists in removing the seeds with a goose feather and dates back to 1344. The jam is extremely delicate.

If you’ve eaten the berries before, you know that the fruit is rather acidic, and has small seeds inside. The berries are delicious in tarts when they are prepared with a sugary almond batter, which balances the tartness of the fruit.

“I told you it would be worth it,” I told my dad, with a victorious look on my face, when we all sat down at the table again to have dessert. He had jokingly asked that I stopped stealing the last red currants on the tree. It was hard to! One of his favorite thing is to pick and snack on the fruit while working outside.

“Oui, elle est très bonne ta tarte,” (Your tart is really good) he said, helping himself to a second slice.

What I didn’t tell him is that, a few days later, I grabbed another handful of the red berries to bake muffins. I just couldn’t resist.

Everyone commented on how delicious the muffins were.

And the missing red currants went unnoticed.

It’s wonderful how that works.

Carrots.

It’s funny, really, to get excited about carrots. I have friends who think that I am crazy to find carrots sexy, but I secretly know that they’ve probably not been as lucky as me, to have grown up near the best carrots one can imagine. I swear it’s true.

I was that lucky young French girl who, each summer, was waiting for the premières carottes de la saison (the first carrots of the season). They were always planted in rows of three in my mum’s garden, between the French beans and beets, with the young ones as the best in taste, those not yet fully grown that I liked to “steal” and eat as a midday snack. Of course, they were never straight in shape, and were always full of dirt. I know well that they would never have won aesthetics awards, but as to their goût (taste), it was simply incomparable.

The best.

The other day, I had a craving for carrot mash. Again.

It happens quite often.

It’s not even because spring is finally here — or I should say summer, in view of the thermometer today! The air outside reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit. 32 degrés celsius ! Crazy, non ? I keep thinking that no later than last Sunday, when we went for a walk to the park, we were still wearing hats and gloves. I am actually already missing my hat and gloves. And it’s not even because my sister-in-law gave me the best hat that I’ve ever owned.

But the trees exploding into colorful blooming flower buds everywhere I looked made me feel quite cheery. Despite the heat I dislike.

Oh yes, the carrots.

So, I had this craving for carrots. A dish of carrot mash, more precisely. Now that Lulu is four months old — last Saturday, in fact — I think more and more about simple dishes like mashed vegetables. I am excited at the prospect that she will soon experience the taste of food for the first time, beside le lait de sa maman (ie my milk). How fascinating to witness her going through this wonderful phase of life! It’s all magical, really.

She already likes to hang out with us at the dining table, and sits proudly — she really has this look on her face — in her green high chair. She likes to be part of the family table, smiling as she looks at us to her right and left, before she starts it all over again. I love that she is happy there.

“Avec toi, j’ai commencé avec des purées de légumes, comme les carottes, (I started with mashed vegetables like carrots)” my mum tells me when I curiously ask about the foods she introduced to us first — I have to learn too. She has pride in adding that my brother B. and I never ate a petit pot de bébé acheté (store-bought baby food); she always cooked what we ate.

Maybe this is the reason why I love carrots so much.

It must be it.

This carrot mash version is, of course, for times when Lulu will be a little older. I made it thinking about the new season, and the flavors P. and I were in the mood for. It’s very simple and surprising.

It uses fresh coriander, the smell of which diffusing in the kitchen inspires me about spring produce; coconut milk for an exotic touch, and cracked red peppercorns for enhanced flavor and color. It’s always prepared with a food mill, because I am convinced that the best mashed vegetables are made this way. No exception.

It’s a wonderful side dish that you can prepare to accompany grilled fish or meat, or eat just as it is in the bowl. And, if you have leftovers, you can also feel creative with other recipes.

But I will have to tell you about that next, when I have a moment again for myself.

In the meantime, let’s enjoy this simple food.

And the feeling of the new season.

Spring.

Note: the textiles used in the top picture and above come from Harmony Art, a talented designer I was lucky to come across. Oh the surprises of the web and the wonderful things we can find while browsing here and there. A big thank you to Harmony. I cannot wait to get more of her organic patterns to cheer up my pictures. They work so naturally.

You must have noticed my attachment to beets, non ? And, anything sliced paper-thin: any reason to take out my mandoline is always a good one.

For my latest contribution to the Boston Globe’s Food Section, I created a beet carpaccio recipe, a nice change, I thought, from the traditional beef carpaccio more commonly known. This recipe makes for a wonderful vegetarian variant, pleasing to the eyes, and refreshing to the taste.

Well, I loved it.

Guess what we are having for dinner tonight, amongst other things.

Did you remember too? It’s officially fall. And oh oh, how excited I am! I mean, I could feel sorry that we say good bye to the longest sunny days of the year; there will no longer be any seasonal strawberries or red currants; I will have to wait until next year to find my favorite round zucchinis to stuff and rhubarb to stew. But no.

I do not feel sorry because I love seasons, with the passage of one to another. I love the fall!

The fall and its wonderful fresh produce. There is something magical about it, don’t you think?

With the fall, I want to think about winter squash — like potimarron (Hokkaido squash), by far one of my favorites — root vegetables like céleri rave (celeriac) and beets, a walk in the forest to hear colorful fallen leaves rustle under my footsteps, starting the day with a veil of fog in the countryside or by the seaside, buying tasty mushrooms to boost my cooking creativity, baking when it feels somewhat a little chilly outside, sipping a cup of steaming hot chocolate by the fireplace, generous gratins to share with loved ones — and soups. Oh lovely comforting soups to warm us up. These are all things to love, really.

So I made a soup.

My mum is the one who taught me that shellfish (les fruits de la mer, literally the fruit of the sea), like mussels or oysters, should be eaten during les mois en “r” (the months in “r”). September, October, November, December would be the best months indeed. She reminded me of this when I saw her last week, and since I had a craving for mussels, I decided to make a soup that is a favorite amongst us for its simple generous taste.

This mussel soup uses white wine like in the preparation of moules marinières, coconut milk for smoothness, saffron and turmeric for taste and color. It’s easy to prepare and flexible: if you are short of time, it can be made a few hours ahead, and reheated at the last minute. A nice thing to keep in mind. In fact, the only piece of work is perhaps cleaning the mussels, but that again is no rocket science either.

And the rest, of course, follows naturally. It does not require any recipe.

P. and I ate one large bowl each last night, with roasted potatoes and a lovely loaf of rustic bread.

We were pleased to be where we were, at this time of year. Because Indian summers in New England are quite special.

The best transition to the fall.

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.

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 car pulled in front of the house five minutes earlier.

Mince, déjà ? (Already?)

In my rush to leave the house to get to my chiropractic appointment on time, I forgot one of the strawberry chocolate tartlets I had made earlier in the day, that I meant to bring to my friend H., my chiropractor. P. being stuck at work, I had to call a taxi at the last minute.

My taxi driver was Armenian and chatty. And extremely polite too.

“I don’t know,” he said after a few minutes. “I keep telling my boss that America is nothing without immigrants,” I forget why, but we engaged in a conversation about living in the US while not being from here. He seemed to have a lot to say. “Immigrants are what makes America. Every American’s heritage is from elsewhere, not America.”

The United States a land of immigrants? Of course, we all know that.

I listened and asked “When did you move here?”

“In 2000. But I still feel a stranger here, you know?” he responded. His accent was stronger than mine.

It takes many years before this feeling, being a stranger, disappears ; sometimes even a lifetime. And sometimes it simply never disappears. There is not one single experience. When I stepped out of the car, I wondered whether he would continue the conversation with the next customer.

I was really glad to see H. : my foot needed it, and I also needed him to encourage me, to tell me that I would be fine next week when walking the streets of Florence, Siena, Cinque Terre and Rome. I’d never sprained anything before, so I had no idea about how long it would take to heal.

As expected, H. helped a lot. H. is incredible that way. He has magical hands, as I like to joke.

“I forgot a dessert for you at home,” I told him while he was massaging and moving my foot around. I grimaced in pain.

He paused and looked at me. “You didn’t! You couldn’t.”

“Yes I did. Sorry!” I said with a smile. I was feeling sorry too, but I laughed at the same time. It was quite amusing to tease H. and see him somewhat upset. H. is quite a gourmand and I know that he loves chocolate.

“I guess I will have to eat it and think about you!”

“Right, rub it in!” he answered, with a smile.

He was the one who once came over for dinner and ate three chocolate pots de crème made for dessert. I think that if there had been more, he would gladly have eaten it.

“Are you able to come and pick me up?” I asked P. when I called once outside H’s office. These are the days when we regret not having an automatic car. Driving a stick shift with a left sprained ankle is not working too well!

“Sorry, I can’t.”

My second taxi driver was Haitian this time, and just as chatty as the first one. He spoke about the weather, and how happy he was that spring was finally here.

“I don’t know, I think winter was real long this year,” he said. “Dunno why.” At that point, I think I must have already switched off. I was thinking about dinner, even if I knew that there was a big chance that I would dine alone.

“I bought really nice mackerels,” I told P. when he called five minutes after I arrived home. “It’s a real bummer, I will have to save the second one for tomorrow.”

He was disappointed. We both love fresh mackerels.

I set the table to eat dinner: a fingerling potato salad and oven roasted carrots, beets and leeks with thyme and ginger accompanied my fish, and in view of the situation, I would have plenty left for the next day.

I put the food away and walked into the living-room.

Le dessert!

How could I possibly forget about the tartelette au chocolat et aux fraises I had teased H. about!

Even if dining alone, I would surely not skip this important part of dinner.

There is nothing complicated in the making of this dessert. You need a sweet chocolate crust (plan ahead and make it the day before), chocolate custard and fruit. My sweet chocolate crust used white rice flour, cornstarch, confectioner’s sugar and cocoa; I made the chocolate custard using unsweetened soy milk — I use the brand Silk — because I was curious to see whether I would get a custard as nice as if using cow’s milk. Well for anyone skeptical, you should really give it a try as it is really just as lovely. I did not miss anything in the taste. Actually I preferred it even, finding it somewhat lighter.

I sat down in front of TV5 and savored my treat with a cup of white tea.

Tant pis pour eux ! (Too bad for them!)

I actually enjoyed eating my tartlet solo.

For a change.