Hang gliding is a favorite sport among the residents of Chambery and the Savoie region, for obvious reasons. With high mountains surrounding us, the conditions are perfect. One of our favorite things to do on the motorbike is to go up and watch them jump off the mountains on their hangliders. It is majestic and thrilling. This trip was up to the top of a mountain near Revard about one hour outside of Chambery.

My Frenchman and I took a motorcycle ride in the French Alps on the first snowy day of winter. It was our last chance before the winter hits us full force. It was cold but the gain was worth the pain. The scenery was gorgeous!

 When I first moved to Savoie I spent time on internet search engines and at online book stores trying to find cookbooks and recipes about Savoie cuisine. I found no cookbooks and only the same 3 recipes over and over again online. I finally gave up and started buying Savoie cookbooks in French and began translating them into English with the help of my Frenchman and his daughter. I will share these recipes and videos on my blog as I cook them and experiment a little with the recipes. After all, I didn’t take all those cooking classes in Los Angeles for nothing! This is the first of the series.

Some of Savoie’s favorite regional foods utilize their exceptional cheeses, including a wide variety of ‘Tommes,’ which range from soft to hard, but they are all fabulous. Photo includes a Tomme (upper)

This recipe of Tartiflette will use Reblochon Cheese, another Savoie favorite which is similar to the Tomme cheeses in taste. Reblochon is made from a cow’s second milking and aged in cellars or caves in the mountains. The cheesemaker turns the cheese every few days and washes it with whey to speed the aging process. Reblochon has a creamy texture and a nutty after taste. If it gets over-ripe, it becomes hard and unsavory.

Ingredients:

2.5 lbs of potatoes (1.2 kg)          1 1/2 cups of diced smoked bacon/ham (200 g)      

1 onion                                         1/2 cup of creme fraiche (or heavy cream)

1 reblochon cheese wheel the size of a brie wheel (or subsitute with a mild semi-soft white cow’s milk cheese) - about 1/2 lb

1 cup of dry white wine (Apremont wine in Savoie is preferred)   (or 250ml)

Peel the potatoes and boil them until a knife cuts easily into the flesh. When finished, drain and leave to cool. Mince the onion and the bacon and saute in oil a couple of minutes. Butter a gratin dish. Cut the potatoes in thick slices and cover the bottom of the dish with the slices. Add the onion and bacon. Pour the cream on top. Cut the cheese in half and place on top of the potatoes. We cut some of the rind off but it’s a matter of personal choice. Add a cup of dry white wine. Bake in 450 degree oven until the cheese melts and browns on the surface (about 20 minutes). Enjoy warm!

A rainy trip to the Beaujolais region of France during the November release of the new wines, ie nouveau beaujolais. We stayed at a gite where they grew the grapes and made the wines on-site so we had the opportunity to do wine tastings with the owner’s son, Florent.

Travel tip: If you are in the Beaujolais region and want to spend the night and enjoy on-site wine tastings, the Durand gite (or Bed & Breakfast for Americans) is a great find. We paid 35 Euro for the night (some seasons 45 Euro), which included a nice French breakfast.  The wine tasting was free and the bottles we purchased were very inexpensive for the quality. The room was comfortable and had a view and private, modern bathroom. Florent was very kind and helpful and recommended a great restaurant, Le Morgon. Their website is:  www.beaujolaisdurand.com

The video is an introduction to Chambery, a city in the Savoie (Savoy) region of Southeast France, and my current home town. It also shows examples of Trompe L’Oiel, a 3-dimensional art technique used for 400 years in European cities.

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 Ah, bread, for me it’s something I occasionally splurge and eat during a nice meal at a restaurant, smeared with a slab of butter. It’s definitely not something I eat daily and I never considered myself deprived if it was missing at dinner. But now I’m in France. It’s not just part of EVERY meal here. It’s a table ritual, a topic of passionate conversation, a gift from the Gods. Everyday, every French family sends someone out into the streets to their local Boulangerie to find that perfect ‘flute’, that gorgeous ‘baguette,’ that warm sensual ‘soft inside, hard outside’ phallic symbol of France. It is more than a ritual, more than a tradition, it is a Sacrament. As an American, I’ve had some trouble adjusting to this tradition. Not intentionally, mind you, just purely because the ‘bread culture’ is not ingrained in my brain yet.  To this day, I still occasionally forget to take the bread out of its special cabinet (yes, a bread cabinet specifically designed for bread cuddling), cut it and place it in its basket on the table. The unforgivable sin.

Once I made the mistake of trying to ‘improve on bread.’ I cut it open, lovingly drizzled sauteed garlic, butter, olive oil, Parmesan and parsley on it, and baked it to a crispy brown. I placed it on the table and received looks of horror from everyone. I had ruined their precious bread! How could I do such a thing! So day by day, I’m getting a better grasp on the bread culture. I must admit the oppositional side of my personality occasionally wants to freeze some bread, defrost it, serve it and see if anyone can tell the difference. But my more cautious side says that’s too great a risk to take. What if I’m caught?  So off I go to the Boulangerie to find that sacred staple of life.

Hallelujah. Amen.

Obama won. What sweet words those are. I can’t begin to explain how much that means to me as an American living abroad. Obama has almost Rock Star status in France. Bush is something close to Lucifer. I can completely understand those feelings – they resinate with me as well.  Obama is the first truly global President, with an African ancestry and having spent some of his childhood in Indonesia. Finally, someone who is self-made coming from humble roots and with an international understanding. And bringing a minority perspective – someone who knows the experience of racism (or sexism or any ‘ism’). He knows what it is like not to walk among the privileged, the aristocratic, the good ole boys (white) club. He cares what the rest of the world thinks of America – he understands the heavy burden it is to carry the responsibility we have as Americans as a ‘SuperPower.’ I celebrate this moment with pride as an American, and as a global citizen.