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Chambery App
If you have an IPhone or IPod and are planning a visit to Chambery, buy my ITunes App. It will walk you through the city of Chambery to each historic landmark with walking directions, history, a map, and narrative. It's just $2.99. Click on the above photo of the elephant fountain for the link to the app.
Travel Resources
Planning a trip to France ? Stay in a Paris apartment during your trip to the city of lights.
Get my Chambery, France Guide Book free with the purchase of my Cookbook: 'French Comfort Food: Recipes of Savoie and the French Alps.' Get both for only $7.99. Click the photo to get more information or to purchase your books now.
French Tutorial
A basic grammar and vocabulary review of the French language, as well as some informal & slang vocabulary and a special section on vocabulary for English-speaking expatriates living in France. Also included is an appendix on French pronunciation for English speakers as well as IPA transcriptions for most of the vocabulary lists and all of the verb conjugations.
Visit the Store to buy the e-book for $9.95 or paperback book for $24.95.
Join us on a small group tour of the French Alps June 9 - 16, 2012. I designed this tour to include the best of the region. Wander the Medieval town of Annecy, nicknamed the Venice of the French Alps, and take a boat ride on its crystal blue lake. Do you like pampering yourself on your vacations, then why not spend an afternoon at the Aix les Bains thermal baths inside your lakeside hotel? Are you the adventurous type? Then take a horseback ride in the Alps or fly through the trees at the High Ropes Adventure. Are you a foodie? Taste local chocolates, cheeses, wines and hazelnut oils. Are you a history buff? Then satisfy your curiosity at Lyon's Old Town or Vienne's Roman Temple and Forum. Or just enjoy watching the hang gliders and sunset while enjoying an outdoor aperitif on the top of a mountain overlooking Annecy's lake. See you in the French Alps! www.french-alps-tours.com
Alps Cookbook
Get my ECookbook: 'French Comfort Food: Recipes of Savoie and the French Alps.'
51 recipes of the region, collected from friends and local cookbooks. This is the only English language Savoie and French Alps cookbook in print. Only $7.99 and includes a bonus book: The Chambery Guide Book.
Click the photo to buy yours now or go to the Cookbook Page on the Navigation Bar!
French Comfort Food
Visit my French Comfort Food website for articles, recipes, videos, tips and products about French Food and Wine. Click on the photo or go to www.frenchcomfortfood.com
Videos, photos and posts can be used or posted noncommerically (this means you can't sell my films, photos or put them in or on anything you sell!), but everything must be linked back to this blog and must list me as the creator.
Last year I attended a Cooking Class in Lyon and we made three recipes, one of which was Tiramisu. It was very different from other recipes I’ve seen of this dessert so I thought I’d share it with you. You can still ‘traditionalize’ it if you like by replacing a couple of the ingredients. I was happy to find the cooking class even if I only made it once. She was a lovely lady and did the class in both English and French so that I wouldn’t miss anything. Since it’s a 2 hour commute to Lyon it’s difficult to attend, but I do have hopes that I’ll be back for another class one day, that is if she is still there. Her website is not working and she did mention that they may be moving to Paris so perhaps she’s no longer offering the classes in Lyon.
Here are the recipe and video of the cooking class experience:
Ingredients for 4 people:
1 cup of mascarpone cheese
1 cup of sugar (superfine, preferred)
3 eggs
8 ladyfingers (called patissier in French)
1/4 cup of strong coffee, preferably espresso
Cocoa powder without sugar for sprinkling liberally on the top of the tiramisu when finished
She used 6 little strong licorice candies (very tiny but very strong – they are like mints and were in a can; in French they’re called rouleaux de reglisse); I don’t like licorice so I would recommend a couple splashes of kahlua or amaretto instead
Preparation:
Separate your egg whites from the yellows. Mix the yellows with the sugar, preferably with a hand mixer. Then add your mascarpone and mix well again. In another bowl, using a hand mixer, beat your egg whites until stiff.
Fold the beaten egg whites into the egg yellows mixture, taking care to keep the egg whites as stiff as possible.
Put the coffee and liquor or melted licorice candies, if you’re using them, in a shallow dish. Dip the ladyfingers in the mixture on both sides until they are covered entirely. Place them in four small dishes or one large dish (depending on if you want to serve as a ‘scoop out’ dish or if you want to serve them individually to your guests).
Pour the egg, sugar mixture over the ladyfingers, evenly. Generously sprinkle the cocoa over the mixture. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, preferably longer. Serve cold.
Join my family for a dinner of a true Savoyard/French Alps meal: Raclette. There are only three ingredients: raclette cheese (or any tasty, soft cheese that will melt); boiled, peeled potatoes; and a variety of smoked or cured hams. The key though is to have the ‘raclette machine’ – no one in my family seemed to know what it was called. It’s basically an electric machine that heats on the top to keep your potatoes warm, and the shelf underneath melts the cheese in the little round ‘skillets.’ It’s a clever little thing and was fun to use. More than likely, you can find them in the U.S. or U.K. these days. This is NOT diet food, but then again, most mountain food isn’t.
Everyone has their favorite recipe for crepes. Here’s mine which I got from my Frenchman’s daughter. I included the recipe and a video of her making the crepes. She can sure flip them better than me! Check out more recipes from my ECookbook: French Comfort Food: Recipes of Savoie and the French Alps
Crepes for 6-8:
2 cups all-purpose flour
5 eggs
1 cup of milk
1 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons of butter, melted
In a large bowl, whisk the flour and eggs together. Gradually the milk and water, stirring until combined well. Add the salt and butter and beat until smooth.
Heat a buttered or oiled griddle, crepe pan or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour one ladle (approximately ¼ cup for each crepe) of batter onto the pan. Immediately tilt the pan in circular motions to coat the entire bottom of the pan with the batter.
Cook for about 2 minutes until slightly brown. Loosen with a spatula and turn it over (or flip it) to cook the other side for about 1 minute. Serve hot with your favorite toppings.
You can find this recipe, along with many others, in my French Alps Cookbook.
This is a classic French recipe which I ‘Savoyardized’ with local products. But if you can’t find the Savoie ingredients where you are, I gave you alternatives.
Ingredients for 4 – 6 persons:
- 1 pastry shell, homemade or store bought, or made from a pie sheet from your grocery’s refrigeration or freezer sections
- 1 cup of Savoie lardons (as seen in the video) or 10 slices of cooked, crumbled bacon
- 1/3 cup minced onion
- 5 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups of light cream (or half n half)
- 1 cup of shredded Beaufort or Gruyere cheese
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon of smoked paprika or cayenne pepper
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
If you’re using bacon, cook it in a frying pan until fully cooked. Pat the grease off with paper towels, and once cooled, crumble it. If you’re using lardons, you will also need to fry it until cooked and drain off the grease.
In a mixing bowl, stir or whisk together the eggs, bacon, cheese, onion, cream, salt, sugar and paprika or pepper (all ingredients). Pour the mixture into the pastry shell.
Bake 30 to 40 minutes in the oven, until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes, slice and serve.
When I arrived in the French Alps two years ago I started looking for recipes and cookbooks from this region but I could not find a single cookbook about Savoyard or French Alps food in English. I found one out-of-print book about Savoie in English that had a few Savoyard recipes in it, but that’s where my luck ran out. So after months of searching, I decided I would just have to write one myself. I asked my French friends for recipes, searched the internet and went to the Savoie bookstores, and bought several cookbooks of Savoyard and French Alps recipes. Of course, they were all in French and used the metric measuring system so I had to start translating them into English, and changed them just enough to make them easier to cook or to find the ingredients. I cooked quite a few along the way and even took a few videos which are posted on this blog under the category: Recipes.
A year later I’m finished and I am offering the e-book on this blog and my new website: www.frenchcomfortfood.com, as an E-Cookbook download for $12.99. The E-Cookbook, entitled ‘French Comfort Food – Recipes of Savoie and the French Alps,’ includes 51 recipes from Savoie (Savoy) and the surrounding French Alps region. I chose the name ‘French Comfort Food’ because the cuisine of this region is exactly that: the main ingredients include potatoes, butter, cheeses, creams, hams and other wonderfully decadent things that Americans would consider in the category of comfort food.
As a bonus, you will also receive my E-Guidebook about Chambery, France. Chambery is the capital of Savoie and my home town. If you look in France guide books, you will rarely find more than a paragraph or two about the city. It is however a lovely Alpine city with a magical Old Town and an interesting history. Did you know that the Shroud of Turin was housed here for almost 100 years? If you plan to visit the region, this is a must-read guide book. If you just like to learn new things about France, you will find the history of Chambery fascinating. It’s yours free with the purchase of the French Alps E-Cookbook.Click here to buy the ECookbook and receive your free Chambery Guide Book.
Straight from my new ECookbook, French Comfort Food: Recipes of Savoie and the French Alps, is my Pumpkin Sage Polenta recipe. Get more great recipes from my book, which you can purchase on my websites: www.american-in-france.com and www.frenchcomfortfood.com this week. This is my personal (and favorite) version of a very Savoie dish: polenta. Polenta is traditionally an Italian dish but, given the Italian influence in the area, it is also a staple of the French Alpine region. This version is not particularly common to Savoie but it is by far the most delicious polenta I’ve ever eaten. You cannot buy canned pumpkin in France so I bring a couple of cans back with me every time I go to the U.S. I just don’t have the time to make the pumpkin puree from real pumpkin but if you have the time, give it a try.
Ingredients for 8 persons:
2 ½ cups of milk (lowfat or whole)
¾ cup of canned pumpkin
2 cups of water
1 cup of grated fresh Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons of crème fraiche
1 ¼ cups boxed polenta
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh sage (I keep a pot of this growing on my window sill year round. It survives even through the French Alps’ winters.)
Salt and pepper
Bring the milk and water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the pumpkin and salt. Stir rapidly. Reduce the heat to low and whisk in the polenta. Cook for a minute or two until it thickens, constantly stirring. Remove from the heat and add ¾ cup of Parmesan cheese, the crème fraiche, salt, pepper, and sage. Stir until the cheese and crème fraiche melt, placing over low heat, if needed. Just before serving, top with the last of the parmesan cheese.
Here’s another recipe out of my French Alps Cookbook (coming this summer). There are so many variations of this recipe in books and on the internet but the French like things simple with limited ingredients, so here’s one of the French versions. This is perfect for summertime when the cherries are fresh. You can also do it with flash frozen cherries if they are out of season.
This is one of 50 recipes you’ll find in my new ECookbook being released this week: ‘French Comfort Food: Recipes of Savoie and the French Alps.’
Ingredients for one pie:
2 cups of pitted fresh cherries, washed, and cut in half
1/2 cup sugar
1 packet of Sucre Vanilline (if you can’t find it, you can just add 2 teaspoons of vanilla mixed with 2 tablespoons of sugar; or you can make your own Sucre Vanilline by putting a vanilla bean in a jar of sugar for a few days)
4 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons of melted butter
1/4 cup of flour
1 1/4 cups of milk (or you can do half milk and half cream for a richer clafoutis)
Dash of salt and, if you want, a teaspoon of nutmeg
Butter and flour your pie dish and preheat the oven to 350 degress F.
Combine your eggs and flour. Add the Sucre Vanilla, sugar, butter, salt, nutmeg, and then gradually add your milk (and cream, if you’re using it). Pour the mixture into the pie dish and place the cherries on top. Alternatively, you can put the cherries in the pie dish and pour the mixture on top.
Put it in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until firm and slightly brown on top. Enjoy hot.
At long last, a one-year labor of love, I am releasing my new 
Here’s another recipe out of my French Alps Cookbook (coming this summer). There are so many variations of this recipe in books and on the internet but the French like things simple with limited ingredients, so here’s one of the French versions. This is perfect for summertime when the cherries are fresh. You can also do it with flash frozen cherries if they are out of season.
