Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Meeting the World Through Blogging and Having Them Cook for You too.

Blogging makes the world fit in a nutshell.

Susanna, a blogging buddy who I have never met, but feel like she is a childhood friend (we started blogging around the same time (four years ago) introduced me (by email) to a friend of hers. Pascale and Laurie, chefs from Canada, who are coming to my home this morning. I met them recently and we seemed to be separated at birth. Why my mother never told me I will never know. They are going to give me a cooking lesson (I hope they know recipes and me do not mix?)

Lately I have met more people from blogging than I have in my day to day life. I use to meet people in the market and invite them over for dinner. That alone I could write a book about: How I Came to Know the World Through the French Market

Though it seems with blogging I meet people who come over and cook me dinner.

They cook and I do the dishes. It doesn't get better than that… well unless it involves brocante too.

When you come over to my house to cook, what recipe will you share?

Comments

60 responses to “Meeting the World Through Blogging and Having Them Cook for You too.”

  1. The Little Red Shop

    I don’t cook…but I make a pretty mean sandwich! Actually, I love to bake…cakes, cookies, swedish breads….Mmmm…yes, I have all of my Swedish great grandmother’s recipes! How does that sound?
    Have fun with your new friends and their cooking lesson, Corey!
    : )
    Julie M.

    Reply
  2. Britt-Arnhild

    Yes, the world of blogging is amazing.
    I met Lieselotte and her sister in London on Saturday. Lieselotte told me she first found Roz’s blog – AutumnCottage, there she found a link to ULLA and from there she was led to both Tongue in Cheek and Britt-Arnhild’s House in the Woods 🙂
    By the way – Lieselotte is a lovely Kindered Spirit!

    Reply
  3. Irina

    i can cook ukrainian borshch for you and your family. since you don’t eat meat, it could be vegetarian or with fried fish. in the summer when there are all new vegetables – it’s the best.
    and there is no such thing as russian borshch, it’s always ukrainian. when i saw Campbell has their canned soup called ‘russian borshch’, i was laughing. in russia there is a parody on our borshch called ‘schi’ and it tastes nothing like real ukrainian borshch.

    Reply
  4. Linda C.

    You know what Corey, I even failed the French Kindergarten Yoghurt Cake!….and I sang your Mother’s cooking song for good luck!
    I wish, I wish, I wish I had the magic touch, but alas ’tis not to be.
    Recipes & me..well, VERY hit & miss.
    What would I serve you Corey….soup. I’m good at that..

    Reply
  5. Bev

    Oh, there is so much good food out there. A family favorite (it’s comfort food at our house) is Brazilian rice and beans (feijao e arroz). And if we’re in luck a salad or a whole avocado on the side!
    Enjoy your meal!

    Reply
  6. Laura

    I would bring bag lunches of veggies and fruits and off we would go to the brocante!…..after an afternoon rest we would dress, have a relaxing glass or two of wine and go to your favorite restaurant….my treat of course!:)

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  7. Jeanette M.

    I would make you our favorite meal, which is vegetarian but southwestern in nature so I imagine I’d have to bring my own ingredients! I actually talked about it on my blog today – strange coincidence. Truth be told, I’d make you anything you asked for just to get the chance to Brocante with you! I would love Bev’s Rice and Beans and some of The Little Red Shop’s sweet treats!

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  8. meredith

    salmon cilantro madeleines

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  9. Gracie

    Being you vegetarians, why not a leek, ricotta and pecorino cheeses, mushrooms pie? Pure delight, trust me!

    Reply
  10. Eileen @ Passions to Pastry

    Is that a deal? I’m holding you to that! The next time I get to Provence I will call you up (or more likely, email you) and stop by to cook. I think I’d like to use that outdoor pizza oven! And, of course, there will be dessert!

    Reply
  11. Sheala

    Wow Corey! Have a blast, maybe I need to start a blog too and get some homecooked meals around here!!!! Are they veggies???

    Reply
  12. Rhonda P

    My blogging buddies seem to share my same interests, I feel closer to them than people I see every day.
    I would share a recipe for blackerry cobbler, it’s easy and it’s so good. But brocanting would have to follow.

    Reply
  13. Penny

    Oh my, that depends on the time of year and the time of day and the length of the visit and the mood we are in.
    If it were winter, I would want to make you my creme sherry cake. We would enjoy the first slice, go brocanting, then have more late at night when the cake mellows. It it were spring, Irish Soda bread.I’m a Greek whose Irish Soda bread is perfected so that even the leprechauns stop their mischief to have some, oozing with butter and sweet, golden raisins. Summer, ah, summer’s bounty would have me making The Barefoot Contessa’s vegetable tian, though your environs surely provide it in bounty, and Fall, hmm, a hearty soup with whatever is at hand in your markets. I am pretty inventive and we will just throw whatever is fresh into a big pot and let it simmer while we share each other’s “finds” and maybe your Annie will come for awhile and I can compare how we make stuffed grape leaves here in the midwest.
    Can I stay the whole year through?

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  14. Christy

    I make a pretty mean apple dumpling!

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  15. marlis

    How about a Schwarzwaelder Kirschtorte??? (Blackforest cherry cake)
    Have fun today. and then share the recipe! please please

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  16. Alison Whittington

    I have no meal-type recipes to share, sadly. But I make the best chocolate-chip cookies I’ve ever eaten in my life. I would add “if I do say so myself” except that the recipe isn’t really mine, so I can’t take credit for it. I just make them. And they are incredible.

    Reply
  17. Ed in Willows

    If I ever come over there, you’ll need to stop being a vegetarian. I COOK MEAT! I grill it, smoke it, broil it and BBQ it. Guess I won’t be cooking for you anytime soon.

    Reply
  18. Vicki

    I make a mean marina sauce…for you Corey I would put lots of different peppers!!! Hope you will stop and have a sampling when you go on your motorcycle adventure!!!

    Reply
  19. kelleyn

    Since you are vegetarian, I would have to share some of my soup recipes with you or even a really simple pasta dish that has only 4 ingredients. However, I am by heart a baker. How fun to have chefs coming to your house to cook. Yeah!

    Reply
  20. AmyKortuem

    You’re so adventurous and generous! What a wonderful way to meet new friends.
    I would share my organic vegetable soup and homemade bread recipe with you. It’s what’s getting me through this awful Minnesota winter this year!

    Reply
  21. Natalie Thiele

    I will make gazpacho for you. It will be in summer, on a pleasant warm day. After we return from the Brocante.

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  22. Donna

    For you, my Italian Chocolate Pate with a white chocolate orange sauce. We’ll start with dessert first and work backwards to a leek/artichoke tart with shrimp grilled on rosemary skewers and a fresh orange, olive & green onion salad drizzled with your best French olive oil…..and, of course, champagne………can’t believe in 2 months we’ll be in France…….in the spring…makes these winter blues disappear just to think about it……..

    Reply
  23. Alexis

    Do you eat cheese? I recently invented a dish of a nice mild white cheese with a dab of orange marmalade, then wrapped in a wonton wrapper. The whole thing is friend just until the wrapper is nice and golden. Then I drizzle it with a sauce I make out of a bit of water and more marmalade, mixed and heated until saucey (and not thick like marmalade alone.)

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  24. Sandra

    Well if your travels ever find you in New Jersey..I would host a lovely old fashioned afternoon tea in your honor. 🙂
    Hugs,
    Sandra

    Reply
  25. Mmd. Tortoise

    For you I would make squash and tomato stew with cornmeal dumplings. It may not sound like much but when the following flavours marry there is a delicious honeymoon: olive oil, lots of garlic, ground cumin, cinnamon, hot green chilies, tomatoes,yellow winter squash, zucchini,salt, sugar, and chopped coriander leaves, topped with corn meal dumplings made with rich cream and sweet butter etc. While not a vegetarian, I do have a few other things up my sleeve. Enjoy your cooking class.

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  26. georgie

    It would depend upon what was fresh at the market and the meal would be created from that. Carrot cake-one of my specialties-would be made.

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  27. Kel

    My green chili, it’s good.

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  28. Delores

    I don’t cook, but I would bring my husband, daughter Ashley who is a chef and son Aaron who is a gourmet cook to cook for you and French Husband.

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  29. Katiebell

    Ahhhhh, I would love to visit and be so lucky cook for you and your lovely Yann, Corey. I’m not sure how you’d go on my modern vegetarian cuisine though? My favorite at the moment for lunch (although today I had it for breakfast) is:
    Purple rocket, not-bacon salad
    rocket and something simple, clean, yum (today slithers of pear and a little grilled red onion)
    dressed in drizzle of fine olive oil, poppy/raspberry vinegar
    spears of facon (our name for soy non-bacon)
    drizzled with blueberries and their juices like a light syrup. Yum Yum Yum
    all amazingly zinging and energizing, and looks so gorg in my big handmade blue bowl. Mind you if you dont like the sound of that (it is pretty way out even for a fellow vego) Keep in mind I’m trying to avoid wheat.
    I would do this too:
    almond meal pancakes with blueberries and cream, mayple syrup, strawberries, brandy and berry and chocolate sauce (seperate), and everything else your heart desires. All set out in the spring sunshine on way too many plates, using every sauce pouring, exotic, magic piece of crockery you have and set with flowers bursting from possible spot, music playing, children laughing, sweet scent in the air the works! If you wanted to come over to my place I would do it all here 😉 with pleasure!
    We could sit in my herb courtyard, under blue skys while the wattle birds squark and play above us and sit eating breakfast all day … 🙂

    Reply
  30. cynthia Wolff @Beatenheart

    Oh my darling Angel!! I would love to come to your house !!!
    I’ll cook and do the dishes!!Make the beds,sweep, wash your clothes!! Getting carried away..perhaps I’ll hire someone and bring them along…I would cook this great new recipe I made for a New
    Years Eve party..Green Coconut Curry with Vegetables..Vegetarian
    deliciousness..hot,steamy,fragrant broth..sweet potatoes,carrots,onions,courgettes all cooked in broth with coconut milk, garlic,ginger!!!

    Reply
  31. Katiebell

    Oh, its summer here. Maybe you’d prefer the simple pizza’s I make, either/and:
    pumpkin, fetta and pinenuts
    potatoe, camembert and caramalised red onion
    tomatoe, fresh basil and olive
    or
    I make a mean roast veg.
    or the shepherds pie vego alternative I call ‘gardener’s pie’
    or
    I can do pretty good thai food, indian, and reckon I am about the best at making anything up that you fancy. I also have a few australian originals.
    Ps If you want to use my Purple rocket recipe, make sure you credit me please!~ 🙂

    Reply
  32. Katiebell

    Or
    I could do stuffed peppers, risotto, my own exploding mushrooms with a parmesan, baby spinach salad
    or avocado vinegarette, warringal greens (aust cuisine) twists, and baby tomatoe salad
    or would you prefer marinated tofu, basil stir fry, or the yummiest homemade sushi you’ve ever had, rice paper rolls or, or
    or, there’s desert!
    oh my god, I have to stop now, I’;m going crazy!!! But have I convinced you? can I come over yet? 🙂

    Reply
  33. Cheryl

    I don’t cook much myself anymore…tough to fix a dish for two {that’s what I tell myself and Mr. CCC…lol}. And I do not like leftovers! So, if I were to have the delightful pleasure of visiting you and your family, I would want to stroll the local market for fresh veggies and fix you a yummy vegetable soup! Of course, we would have to include bread, so I would bring along some fresh loaves of San Francisco sourdough bread 😉

    Reply
  34. Marilyn

    What a treat! Isn’t blogging the best for meeting all kinds of wonderful people? I wish I could come and cook for you, but I am not the best cook. I could make your a tea sandwich and bake something like an apple pie, but cook I am not good at. Enjoy your wonderful meal.

    Reply
  35. Tammy at The Butterfly Mind

    Hmmm….if I come to your house we’re going to be in trouble. And hungry. I’m not much of a cook either. I guess we’ll just have to go out!
    Check out the whacky robin who drives me nuts EVERY YEAR (for 4 years now):
    http://thebutterflymind.com/ramblings_0147_robbyreturns.htm

    Reply
  36. PattyG

    Corey, Isn’t the world a lot smaller because of blogging! I read Susanna’s blog, that too makes the world smaller. I love following many blogs of a wide variety of talented women and men. They fill my creative side. I am not vegetarian though my son keeps trying to introduce me to many dishes. I would figure something out just for the opportunity to meet and go brocanting with you. Have a nice day with your chef. Please post what they fixed etc. etc. I can’t wait for your next post. Also it’s a gift to have the ability to be open to meeting and establishing connections to others the way you do. You are blessed with the ability to make others shine. What a gift to have.

    Reply
  37. Kathie B.

    To go cook in France, isn’t that rather like Coals to Newcastle? I’d be going to France for the French food.

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  38. Kathie B.

    P.S. On the other hand, Corey, it might be fun for us to go to your local farmers’ market to buy fresh produce, and to the local boulangerie and patisserie for fresh baked goods, so we could whip up a simple vegetarian meal.

    Reply
  39. Jenna

    Cheese, fruit, and bread; or a little pasta. With a bit of red wine. Sometimes simplicity is the best thing.

    Reply
  40. Kimberlee

    Being a native California now living in the Dordogne, I would prepare a mexican style meal with local products … perhaps a goat cheese & spicy avocado starter, duck fajitas, haricots rose and a caramel flan for dessert. I’d do a sangria with a bergerac red … mexican café and maybe finish with a nice calva for a twist!

    Reply
  41. Paula

    New Mexican Cheese Enchiladas with both red and green chile. Home cooked pinto beans. Fresh hot off the grill flour tortillas. And last but not least Margaritas!!!!!!!!!!
    Oh, now I’m hungry !!!!!!

    Reply
  42. susanna

    Laurie and Pascal are coming to your place this morning? Lucky you! Lucky them! I want to come, too! I tasted my first caviar at P & L’s place years ago. Pascal made the most amazing dessert that looked like a birds nest. And all the guests tried bellydanced in their living room while the snow fell outside. Oh to be with you all…sigh…
    As for what I’d serve…ummm… How about I bring the wine and music and everyone who left a delicious comment here can come, too? And Annie must come, too. We could have one big picnic in a field in the South of France. Now that would be fun!
    PS: Thank you for the kind words. You’re one of my favourite people in blogland. 🙂

    Reply
  43. Sara

    I am not that into cooking, so I will just bring you tortillas and chocolate chips and then be so very happy to do the dishes (which I prefer to cooking) while you tell me lots of great stories!

    Reply
  44. Kit

    How about melanzane alla parmigiana with a wonderful fresh salad and some hoem-made bread… except baking bread in France seems crazy with all those lovely fresh baguettes there to be brought home from the bakery every day.

    Reply
  45. herhimnbryn

    Pumpkin, chickpea and ginger tagine with cous cous. Mascapone and prune tart.

    Reply
  46. Sally

    You are so adorable Corey! Does a day go by that you do not meet and make a new friend?
    I think not.
    You are a most blessed and special soul.
    And now … you’ve got them cooking for you! bwahahhahahaha! How fun and fabulous is that?! I can’t wait to hear about what Pascale and Laurie made for you.
    And please do write about meeting people in the marketplace please please please.
    Happy Thursday to you!

    Reply
  47. Miss Robyn

    dear Corey,
    when I come over (and is definately going to happen!) I will cook for you: slow roasted lamb with roast vegetables…nothing fancy. and I will cook lamingtons and I will create a pavlova.
    in exchange I wish to just sit and hold your hand

    Reply
  48. susan

    Something very easy. Allowing for lots of time to talk and drink a little bubbly.

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  49. Kimberlee

    oops, missed that you were a veggie gal…so guess it will be market-fresh veggie fajitas instead of duck! still delish!

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  50. shelley

    Ladelle is so young to have such sorrow! Her smile looks warm and appreciative…of the buns perhaps?
    Write what you feel m’lady, and you’ll never go wrong!

    Reply
  51. annie

    I’ll be too exhausted from the brocante to actually cook, so let’s pick up some cheese and bread with a little vino…
    annie
    p.s. and let’s not forget the fruit tart…

    Reply
  52. Miss Robyn

    oh my lord.. I forgot you were vegetarian.. you will never ask me to visit if I cooked lamb…how about a vegetarian tagine of some kind? plus the lamingtons and pavlova of course.. there is no meat in them!!

    Reply
  53. Rebecca from the Pacific Northwest

    I’d love to have the recipe for *real* Ukrainian vegetarian borshch, Irina! Could you post it if you reread these comments please?
    Reading all these entries made me hungry!!! I love Susanna’s suggestion best: everybody come by at once for a wonderful picnic together! I’ll bring wine, and blueberries.

    Reply
  54. Kieren

    The last time I was in France, I made apple pie for my host’s birthday. (I was 23, and it was one of the few recipes I knew by heart back then, 20 some-odd years ago.)I’m hoping to make it for him again soon, maybe next summer. My family always serves it with sharp cheddar cheese, so I would serve that to you.

    Reply
  55. Joanie

    Homemade apple pie. Because life is short so we eat desert FIRST!!

    Reply
  56. Mindi

    Hi Corey! I think it would be so much fun to go shopping, hit up the French market for some small bites and than I would make my Machado Royales to drink!

    Reply
  57. Genevieve

    I’d like suggest that we cut to the chase, skip dinner and head straight for dessert.
    Perhaps you’d be so good as to get out some special set of brocante procured antique dessert plates, gorgeous serving ware, crinkley oatmeal colored linens and mismatched silverware.
    My all-time best culinary production is none other than simple apple pie (with very good bean vanilla ice cream). It is my kitchen Opus.
    Crunchy Pippins and Green Granny Smiths, cinnamon, a pat of butter or two, a shake of flour and lots of fresh lemon juice happily bubbling up inside of a flakey, buttery crust.
    This dish has produced smiles, sighs and once even a tear – it is that good.
    The secret ingredient really is in the happiness and peace that I feel while peeling and paring each apple, while creating a fall apart crust, while sprinkling a bit of sugar on top.
    That would be my gift to you.

    Reply
  58. joanny

    Corey
    Aren’t you glad you redid your kitchen and kept that great stove of yours — just in time for people coming to cook – no more outdoor firing up the pizza oven — although that would be nice if a blogger friend came and cooked up the best pizza you ever ate.
    Joanny

    Reply
  59. jend’isère

    Cooking with cayenne peppar leftover from jambalaya I recently concocted for a New Orleans Mardi Gras party…. in France.

    Reply
  60. carol

    I will take care of the salad. My version of taboolie, yum, yum. I will play the piano for everyone while they are eating!!!

    Reply

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