Living the life in Saint-Aignan

The first step in making a poulet braisé au vin rouge (coq au vin style) is to cut up the chicken. It dawns on me that you could buy chicken parts — you need two boneless breasts, two drumsticks, two thighs (boneless or on the bone), and two wings. You...

Well, it's not these exact birds (which I photographed in 2005), but we are going to have chicken. Coq au vin, or Poulet au vin rouge if you prefer. This morning I'm preparing the ingredients for a marinade and cutting up the chicken, which I bought...

I suppose plants like the ones above, which seem to be two different kinds of cyclamens, need weather like what you see below. Right now, it rains nearly every day — not hard rain, but never-ending rain, or fog, or mist, or drizzle. Today's forecast...

Pouding means "pudding" and pain means "bread." So "bread pudding", which is also called pain perdu. I made some yesterday and flavored it with diced apple, whole pecans, yellow raisins, apple brandy, vanilla extract, sugar (cassonade which I remember...