Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

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French Cooking and my Belle Mere

Leeks in bechamel

 

This Little Piglet went to her Belle Mere's (Mother in Law's) house.

Her Oink-Husband cautioned, "We gotta control ourselves."

This Little Piglet saw that her Oink-Husband did not heed to his own advice…she couldn't help but to follow suit.

Leeks in a bechamel sauce was the beginning of the down hill slide into the trough.

 

Beets with potato

 

"Beets with potatoes." The Little Piglet had never heard of such a thing. Though Oink-Husband squeeled that it was a family classic. "…everyday, and sometimes twice," as he helped himself to a second serving.

Beets were never a favorite of the Little Piglet, though she dare not say no when it was offered to her. She two had a second helping.

 

Floating island

My Belle Mere reads my blog, so because she does I want to say:

 

"Dear Bonne Maman,

Thank you for the delicious meals and the new recipes that I gathered.

I made the herring this afternoon. I'll let you know if it is as good as yours when we have it tomorrow.

By the way… thank you for not making your signature, "Floating Islands" because if you had I would not have been able to squeeze through the door, let alone our jeans!

Honestly, you should not have made the the nine hundred, and ninety-nine other million delicious things either.

Happily Stuffed,

Oink and Piglet.

 

Second helping

Ah the French and their meals.

Their glorious food.

Their cheeses, and sauces, and bread, and main plates, and desserts, and appetizers, and quiches, and wines, and chocolates….. and…..

 

Second helping

Their mothers who cook.

Mr. Oink and Piglet went, "Oui, oui, oui all the way home."

(Get a load of that second serving!)

 

Have you ever stayed a week at a French family's home?

If you have I bet you weighed five pounds more when you left.

What is a classic food from your childhood dinners?

Comments

48 responses to “French Cooking and my Belle Mere”

  1. kelleyn

    Nothing as extravagant as your French husbands childhood. Taco’s were served often in our home. How lucky you! You must share the recipes. Actually, the beets and potatoes sounds pretty good.

    Reply
  2. carol

    I’d love to have you post the beets and potatoes recipie. Please! Everything looks so delicious – leeks – yum!

    Reply
  3. Eileen @ Passions to Pastry

    Classic recipe from my youth. Can you believe it… beef tongue for Saturday lunch. I loved it then; now I think about it and don’t know if I could ever eat it again. Cold tongue sandwiches with mustard on white bread the rest of the week!

    Reply
  4. Stephanie M

    This is a little off track but my husband and I took a barge trip through France for our honeymoon. And all I can say is that it was a traveling gourmet experience. Everything fresh, on board chef and crew. 4 new cheeses were introduced everyday, 3 new wines and the lunches and dinners were always fabulous. When I think of this leisurely trip I always remember the food first and then the delightful scenery second with side stops at wineries, castles and potteries. Thank you France!

    Reply
  5. Jackie

    Remember, I was born and raised in the 1950’s/1960’s in America…in a large catholic family…Fridays were always Mac and cheese with fish sticks, then a rotating menu of hot dogs and beans, spaghetti and meatballs, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, sometimes a roast beef with canned green beans…nice and mushy…
    jackie
    bliss farm antiques

    Reply
  6. Linda R.

    I have a recipe to share from my childhood – grate carrots and apples together – that’s it. Fantastic. I would love for you to share your belle-mere’s beets and potatoes recipe.

    Reply
  7. Debra

    My mom is southern: fried was on the menu a lot, also, desserts galore (pie, pie, and more pie). Nothing like the food you were eating the last week. I detoured & cook nothing like my mom . . . love to try any French recipe/cookbook I can get my hands on. Are you planning on sharing any of the recipes?

    Reply
  8. Gina

    Cabbage rolls and potatoe dumplings. And potatoe pancakes made from raw potatoes. My Mother would stand by the stove, frying pancakes, one of us would sit next to her at the table. She insisted on serving to one person at a time just as the pancakes came out of the frying pan.

    Reply
  9. Star

    Daddy was a farmer, so meat and potatoes were a staple. When I moved from home for school, my favorite thing for my mother to fix when I came home was her meatloaf and escalloped potatoes–definitely comfort food. Since I’ve been vegetarian for quite some time, things are going the other way and my mother is eating less meat and more of the food that my husband and I make!

    Reply
  10. Everton Terrace

    What a heavenly delight to the senses it must have been. I also would love the pot’ beet recipe.
    My mother is English and doesn’t like to cook so my childhood memories aren’t so much connected to food, well perhaps they are, it’s just very plain food. Banana sandwiches and the like.

    Reply
  11. Carolyn

    We have so many! At all family gatherings we have to have three things: Homemade dinner rolls (which are always requested anytime there is a pot luck dinner elsewhere), chicken soup with egg noodles, and my mother’s cinnamon rolls. Nothing in the world can compare! Well…except maybe your Belle Mere’s cooking.

    Reply
  12. Amy Kortuem

    Oh, wow. The simplicity and the richness of that FOOD. I’ve been so tired out from playing during the holidays (still) that all I’ve managed to make for dinner is whole wheat pasta with olive oil and parmesan cheese. For weeks. Sad, I know.
    I can still taste the beef roast and homemade noodles my grandma made. I have been a vegetarian for years now, but if my grandma came back and made that one meal for me, I would eat the whole thing.

    Reply
  13. martina

    I thought the French stayed so slim because they ate often, but smaller servings! Favorite Aunty would make kumle once a year for the family. Pronounced kum la and a meal Grandma served when Aunty and Dad were kids. Something you don’t find in cookbooks. Basically riced potatoes and flour made into dense ball and then boiled. The balls each had a center of a piece of salt pork or ham. Served with melted butter, salt and pepper. I made them with Aunty once. Mom and Uncle hated kumle so they’d have a different dish.

    Reply
  14. Jenna

    Your MIL is a beauty, I’d kill for those cheekbones! The last picture is so sweet, her Sacha.

    Reply
  15. Brenda L from TN

    Hey! I’d like to have that beet/potatoe recipe…I like both and never thought of them together in one dish.
    FH looks so happy to be eating Belle Mere’s cooking again…
    My Dad’s mother was THE BEST cook.She lost her mom and baby sister when she was 6 and said she pulled a chair up to the old wood cook stove and her daddy taught her how to cook on it…
    Her Roast beef with carrots/potatoes/onions cooked in gravy was soooo good. (I can make her potatoe salad and get compliments on it all the time)…She made from scratch homemade yeast rolls,cookies and pie dough. Her cherry pie, real lemon meringue pie and chocolate cake with homemade vanilla ice cream were so good….plus the best fried chicken ever…
    My other grandmother made the BEST banana pudding…(and never used anything like coolwhip in it…UGH)…and she also made wonderful homemade soups (chicken, veggie, mushroom, noodle)and mac and cheese and fried cornbread and cucumbers/onions in a vinagarette and oatmeal/raisin cookies..OH YUM!…People don’t cook like that anymore and today’s kids are really missing out…what a shame….what great memories…

    Reply
  16. Sharon, Morrison Mercantile

    would love to have the beet and potato recipe.

    Reply
  17. Tamara

    Corey, your Belle Mere is so thin! Is it true, like the title of the book, French Women Don’t Get Fat?

    Reply
  18. Gigi

    So funny! Our first ‘real’ meal in France with our (then) 13 year old grandson, Aidan, included dessert of Floating Island — he was bowled over by this amazing meal — not to mention the glorius view through the windows of a charming hilltop restaurant in Provence. Aidan was somewhat of a picky eater until this trip. He became (and still is) a true foodie thanks to our dining experiences in France.
    The only thing that saved us from needing to buy bigger jeans was all the walking we did while there ;)!

    Reply
  19. annette richmond

    How lucky are you to have such a great MIL. I too would have definitely had seconds. Two of my favorite foods from my childhood are macaroni & tomatoes and potato soup. And my Grandmother’s chocolate pie. I grew up in Texas so nothing fancy just good home cooked food.

    Reply
  20. Camille

    I was raised in an Italian home. Lot’s of polenta (with various sauces) for comfort food, gnocchi, home made soups and pasta, always fresh salads. Yum. We also live in the south had a lady cook for us so we had an abundance of delicious soul food. The very best of both worlds. I think I will eat/taste just about anything. There isn’tmuch I don’t like.
    Add me please to the list of people who would love the beet and potato recipe. I love beets.

    Reply
  21. Dru Brenner-Beck

    Beets and Potatoes, yum… pls share the recipe.

    Reply
  22. Jenny N

    Pretty please to Corey’s Belle Mere for the beets and potato recipe. Oh, Corey…I too would be wanting seconds..what a treat…but for us it is calorie free (yet, sadly, flavor free too), yet a feast for the eyes. Actually your question brought to mind an almost lost memory of mine from 1993. I was in college and a part of a missions group in Paris for the summer and for a weekend another girl and i stayed with a church family to appreciate the French culture more…Oh, my did I ever appreciate it. I remember cake charlotte, avocados with tuna (delicious..who knew?), quiche Lorraine, rabbit, potatoes in bechamel sauce, but best of all the friendly and caring hosts. But the oooh-ahh moment of all was the first morning’s breakfast of a steaming bowl of chocolate chaud, with pastries and buttery croissants made ever better with the open window and cool summer breeze with the entire small village laid out from their hilltop view…ahh. Thanks for prodding that memory Corey.

    Reply
  23. maria

    Corey,
    Did you once tell us that your Belle-Maman is 80yrs old ????
    maria
    ___________________
    Hi Maria,
    Yes, she is now 81.

    Reply
  24. Marilyn

    Oh that sounds divine and delicious. You must just walk more when eating at Belle Mere’s home.
    We ate tacos and creamed tuna on toast.

    Reply
  25. Annie v

    one of my childhood dishes I still cook for my family (I dont know the english word for it) endives wrapped in ham covered with bechamel sauce , sprinkled with gruyere and baked. Great in the winter.
    Annie v.

    Reply
  26. Annie v

    Oh no! did you mention leeks? still cant eat them after all these years long ago, it was a favourite dish (for the nuns!) while I was in boarding school.
    Annie v.

    Reply
  27. Marie-Noelle

    Classic food from my childhood dinners :
    – quenelles
    – gâteau de foie
    – criques de pommes de terre
    – saucisson de Lyon pistaché
    – gratin dauphinois
    – gratinée
    Your post brings back many memories from my childhood, especially
    those family sunday lunches at my grandmother’s. 16 people round
    the table. I remember the adults always complaining about too much
    good food … but never saying “no” and always ready for another go!
    Thank you

    Reply
  28. jend’isère

    Pouring sauce on everything is a way of showing affection. My mother-in-law, who lives in France, pours her “sås”, with a big “å”, smothering fish, meats, desserts, as well as conversation.

    Reply
  29. Kiki

    oh soooooooooooooooo funny….. I too start to wonder how you still get in your jeans!?!
    great meals – great cooking – and of course i too absolutely adore beetroot…. and leeks and potato gratin (not necessarily the bechamel sauce)…. and absolutely NO desserts!!!! Except like on Sunday when I had a fresh crème brulée…. how could I not?!
    Love Kiki

    Reply
  30. Jenny N

    81?!!! How does she do it? She looks fabulous and upon first glance I was thinking 60-something….of course that age figured with FH’s possible age was not adding up….wow. Please, would she share some of her secrets? Ask your friend Annie too, pretty please.

    Reply
  31. Ed in Willows

    STOP !!! I have been on the treadmill every other day since New Years and have lost 11 lbs. No more talk about food! You’re driving me crazy.

    Reply
  32. Jo

    Have you seen the film Babette’s Feast? My family ate very basic foods similar to the meals served by the two sisters. My Norwegian/American father was the chief cook and served many a boiled cod dish with kumla (potato dumplings)…ugh! Thank heavens I discovered Julia and Simone in the late 60’s! They had the most profound affect on how I fed my own family. We now eat quenelle rather than kumla! 🙂

    Reply
  33. Leanne

    Oh yum. Could you please please post the leek recipe? I can see where FH gets his gorgeousness from. Oh that Floating Island Dessert what is in it – it looks divine.

    Reply
  34. Alena

    I am drooling over here.
    Looks amazing!
    Corey please post some recipes.
    Thank you Corys mom in law!

    Reply
  35. Linda

    Sad to say, my mother was not a good cook. She did get better as time went by and I liked her barbequed chicken. I don’t remember a favorite dish growing up though.

    Reply
  36. Sally

    Your Belle Mere cooks beautifully and looks so young! How does she do it? Must be good genes!

    Reply
  37. Elaine L.

    Yes, but why is it that they don’t gain the weight. It just isn’t fair, is it?

    Reply
  38. Irina

    Corey, your posts often bring memories from my live in Ukraine. we eat a lot of beet root in Ukraine and especially in winter. of course it’s a main ingredient of our borsch and winter salad – ‘vinegret'(винегрет)that also includes potato, carrot, kidney beans (all cooked) and home made sauerkraut, dressed with sunflower oil. the other easy to make salad – cooked grated beet root + grated garlic, walnuts and mayonnaise.

    Reply
  39. Gracie

    Twice we were guests at my friend, living in Paris, and you’re right, it’s a real treat!

    Reply
  40. Alexis

    Oh dear…I decided to read this just as I was starting to think of looking for a snack to eat.
    Now I’m even hungrier!! And I like beets…what exactly does she do to it? it sounds good!

    Reply
  41. Merisi, Vienna

    Oh my oh my oh my oh my, oink! *giggles*
    I can see you two happy well-stuffed piggies, under the table, begging for mercy (hm, I typed “merci” – what’s that?). 😉
    And yes, I spent a week with a French family and I am still dreaming about all that wonderful food they made me eat (and those tiny black ceramic pots with lemon yogurt in the fridge!). They made me fall in love with France, head over hill!
    Childhood memories of food? Ha, my mom served us beet salad in winter: Boiled reed beets, sliced thinly, served with a salad dressing made with apple vinegar, a little oil, salt and pepper and fresh grated horseradish. I was one of the few kids in town who loved it. I once took a classmate home from school for lunch, must have been second or third grade. She only came once, horrified by all that blood in the salad bowl. Poor Waltraud, her mom never cooked beets!
    I love oven roasted small beets, red ones, golden ones. Just wash them, leave a bit of the leave stems on the roots so they don’t bleed, and roast them at 350°F until they are soft when pierced with a knife. Cut them in half, or quarters, depending on size, arrange them on the plate and put a few slices of fresh goat cheese on the hot slices. Add a tiny bit of olive or hazelnut oil, a few drops of really good white balsam vinegar, salt and fresh pepper, and there you have a meal! A few roasted pinoli or hazelnuts go well with it too.

    Reply
  42. Merisi, Vienna

    “Head over hill”???
    See, that’s what love does to you, loosing your heel, er, mind! 😉

    Reply
  43. Merisi, Vienna

    ” I was one of the few kids in town ”
    Correction (just in case I ever decide to run for political office and the tabloids start digging for dirt!):
    Truth is, there was no town, only a hamlet, a dozen farm houses around a church.

    Reply
  44. Merisi, Vienna

    Linda R, you reminded me of a childhood favorite:
    Grated apples and carrots with a bit of lemon juice and whipped eggwhites or cream. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the dish and can’t find a recipe.
    P.S.:
    How many comments can one make without being banned from commenting forever?

    Reply
  45. Linda C.

    Yep! Belle-Mere is belle AND slim…and, look at that watch…81?
    What is their secret.

    Reply
  46. Kim G.

    I believe Kraft macaroni and cheese was the highlight of our childhood. We also had a big treat if my mom made sloppy joe’s and chocolate milkshakes to go with them. Hardly French fare, but I still like them to this day.

    Reply
  47. carol

    My mother was an excellent cook. She made wonderful fried chicken, fried corn, biscuits, and still makes wonderful potato salad! (she is 84 and doesn’t cook much anymore) Her desserts were divine, buttermilk fudge, german chocolate cake, chocolate and lemon pies. My aunt also made wonderful biscuits. Just the opposite of my mom’s (although I loved them both) Mom’s were small and my aunt’s were large, and fluffy. Both excellent.
    Merisi’s roasted beets sound wonderful.
    Your belle mere is beautiful. Stylish and chic! Your post made me laugh. I don’t know how you stay so slim! Must be France…ah….

    Reply
  48. sue

    Oh, that all looks delicious! I was raised on very healthy, very good food growing up. My mom worked, but she ALWAYS made meals “from scratch,” and I learned that from her, so we have always done the same. I don’t understand the people I see who eat every single meal at fast food places when one can eat such heavenly meals right at home. And part of the joy of the food is in the fixing and the family surrounding you in the kitchen and at the table. I love the sound of this meal. Potatoes and beets is a new one for me–I must try that! I LOVE beets!

    Reply

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