Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Vegan Lunch with my Cousin Shelley

 

 

 

Shelley McArdle Lunch

 

My cousin Shelley is a vegan who sometimes eats cheese. However, she does not cook with it. I guess you could say she has cheese sometimes to tease her taste buds, though I do not know if that is true.

Shelley is the one who inspired me to be a vegetarian who always eats fish. I did not eat fish before I went to France. Though as soon as I was there, I realized that if I didn't at least eat fish, I would most likely never be invited over for dinner.

France is 100 percent about food. Being a vegetarian in a country with 365 kinds of cheese complicates the invitations to go to other people's homes for a meal. In France, food is breathing, and talking about it is an art form.

Being a vegan in France would be difficult for me. Conflictual with every meal, going out to dinner… to a food-related lifestyle. Being a vegan is possible, just not my desire.

My cousin Shelley invited my Mom and me over for lunch.

 

 

Lunch with Shelley McArdle

 

 

Shelley made a delicious zucchini basil soup with coconut. It was deep green and delicious.

My cousin is an excellent cook and a fantastic baker; many of us have told her she should write an elegant vegan cookbook due to her impeccable style and lovely home as a backdrop. It would be a bestseller.

 

 

Lunch with S

 

Preparing lunch

 

Shelley has three children.

Christian served us. If he weren't my second cousin and thirty-some years younger, I would be camping on his doorstep—such a catch.

 

 

Table is set

 

 

The Elegant Vegan.

 

 

Sisters

 

My Aunt Mary is my mom's older sister; she is ninety. She is a vegan too.

I think my Aunt Mary did Kickboxing when she was in her eighties.

She had seven children, was a nurse, and was a sweet person (just like all my mother's sisters are.) I always loved staying at her home when I was a young girl. My Aunt Mary lives with her daughter Shelley.

 

Aunt mary

 

Is she stunning?

 

Roasted beet salad

 

Shelley served a roasted beet salad with a dressing. I am begging for the recipe. I don't care for beets, but Shelley's recipe was out of this world. I could have licked the bowl.

I could be a vegan if Shelley lived in France, if she were my cook, and if everyone cooked vegan as she does.

Later she served a vegan chocolate dessert that consumed my thoughts to the point of forgetting to take a photo of them. 

I might have to return to California, camp at her house, and encourage and help her write that cookbook.

 

 

Comments

26 responses to “Vegan Lunch with my Cousin Shelley”

  1. Franca Bollo

    Oh, Mary! My mother’s high school and college classmate, fellow nurse and lifelong friend. <3<3<3

    Reply
  2. Jenny M

    Apart from recipes in that book, Shelley could give us beautiful ideas on how to set & decorate the table for entertaining. Your photos of Shelley’s table & food are so beautiful!

    Reply
  3. Linda S.

    Corey, I was thinking that you are a vegan. Or is it your husband and children who are? What a wonderful cousin and aunt you have! Beautiful home and lovely table. If you’re lucky enough to get the recipe for the salad dressing could you please post it on your blog? You have my curiosity up now! It sounds like you’re having a wonderful time at home in California. Enjoy it
    and savor it all. All the wonderful memories of this trip will help tide you over until you return home again.

    Reply
  4. BONNIE BUCKINGHAM

    I quoted you on FB and hope that is ok. I loved this blog! You all are all in the same black and white! So beautiful and written to give us a taste!

    Reply
  5. Star

    My husband and I grow closer to vegan as the years pass…what a treat it would be to dine with someone who was actually good at putting a vegan meal on the table! Thank you for sharing your experience and beautiful photographs 🙂

    Reply
  6. Cathi

    My daughter and I are vegan and are always looking for fabulous cookbooks. Tell Shelley to get working on her book! Delicious post! xxoo

    Reply
  7. becky up a hill

    Oh my..can’t we see more of Shelly’s home? Your aunt is beautiful.

    Reply
  8. Lyn

    That sounds like a wonderful idea. her style is just beautiful – I’d buy it as soon as it was out.

    Reply
  9. 24/7 in France

    The setting, service, & salad look scrumptious!

    Reply
  10. Rae Hilhorst

    I want not only the food and that young man’s company. If he’s a member of your family I bet he’s very nice. Now how about the recipe’s and especially that kitchen, which is to just beautiful. I love fish and would eat it every day if I could.

    Reply
  11. Shelley Noble

    Absolutely! Yes, please do encourage her book… or website 😉
    And your Mary is the most vibrantly alive elder of her decade I’ve seen. Brava! to Mary

    Reply
  12. Carola of Boxwood Cottage

    Love to see your 90 year old vegan auntie looking so good and fit! Shows one more time that a plant based diet is just the best that you can do for your health apart from all the other advantages it has for the animals, the environment, the world hunger etc.pp.. How great for aunt Mary that she has a vegan daughter like your cousin Shelley who loves to cook vegan meals. Same here, my daugther loves to bake and cook vegan meals for us. Most part of my family (my daughter and I and both of my sisters and their families) became vegan during the last three years, only my parents are still struggling with it. I can imagine though how hard it would be to be a vegan in France, especially while living at the country side.
    Happy new year to you and yours Corey!
    xoxo~ Carola
    P.S. Yes help her go for that vegan cook book!

    Reply
  13. Natalie Thiele

    An elegant vegan cookbook would certainly surprise those of us who think of a vegan diet as somewhat drab. Yes, encourage her to write it and tell her that you will photograph it. In the meantime, will you ask her to give out the beet salad recipe? I am insane about beets.
    Do I sense a new matchmaking in the air? I hope so! It’s great fun to see relationships evolve through your beautiful photos and storytelling.

    Reply
  14. Marie-Noëlle

    The kitchen, the table and the full plate look fabulous !
    My curiosity is piqued about that vegan chocolate dessert as I’m an “all-eater”.
    Shall browse the net to go into details…
    XO

    Reply
  15. XiijnTEXAS FRANCOPHILE

    What a beautiful post. So much to love. Dozens of cousins, precious time with your Mother, lovely meal, beautiful home. My what fabulous genes you have young lady!!!!

    Reply
  16. Dd

    Lovely
    She could start with yesterday’s lunch. We’re all drooling!

    Reply
  17. jeanne stone

    looks like a lovely day with a lovely family!

    Reply
  18. La Contessa

    MAY I come for lunch cousin Shelley?THat first photo took my breath away!Your kitchen is STUNNING!Love the old FRENCH(?)Flags hanging above the stove!The bottles with the dash of fleurs………on the old silver tray is just plan GORGEOUS!YOUR MAMMAN…………..that gate………….we do not even have to eat!I will just come and take it all in!REALLY BEAUTIFUL……..
    I feel I missed out terribly in not making the journey to see COREY……….it just did not work for me this time.Was hit with a VIRAL thing and I am still blowing my nose!Week THREE!I know she has had a wonderful visit………and I think I saw a glimpse of the tomorrow post that she might be leaving!
    Corey…….safe travels……….GO HIT THAT SON!Then HUG HIM HARD!Thank YOU for sharing your GORGEOUS FAMILY with all of us………..YOU have something VERY VERY SPECIAL!XOXOXO

    Reply
  19. Smariefabry

    You need a better picture of Christian!! And an address to camp out at 😉

    Reply
  20. Judi

    The food sounds wonderful, but I want a tour of that house!! Wow!

    Reply
  21. Teresa Young

    I think any of us could be vegan or vegetarian’s if we knew how to cook to make it delicious. It would be very hard to give up cheese, especially in France. I know that after a week in your home, Dave & I both confessed it would be easy for us to not eat meat. I must say….I was admiring the beautiful kitchen in the background, as well as the dishes. The meal looked wonderful!

    Reply
  22. Sarah

    If not a book how about a few recipes??

    Reply
  23. Kathie B

    But for a little — well, OK, a fair amount of — cheese (plus milk in my tea), we were already planning to have a nearly vegan dinner tonight: green salad with vinegar/oil dressing, vegan French onion soup, oranges, and tea (plus a little red wine for Farmboy Husband). Nice way to keep warm during the Polar Vortex!

    Reply
  24. Marilyn

    Beautiful and wonderful!
    If she cooked for me, I could
    be vegan too. The meal sounds
    like it was a delight and your
    Aunt Mary is lovely.

    Reply
  25. Linda P.

    We are vegan and not only vegan, but no-added oils vegan. I’ll be honest: it does present difficulties with eating with friends. However, the health benefits have been enormous, especially for my diabetic husband, and I love, love being able to eat all the time and weigh my high school weight. Drab, plain, uninteresting with all the vegetables, grains and nuts available, with all the ethnic cuisine to be attempted? As you already know, that’s just not true. This week’s experiment has been a doctored (to remove oils other than those included naturally in the nuts) sweet potato gnocchi with brussel sprouts and tarragon cream (“cream” is made from ground cashews), a recipe by cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

    Reply
  26. Eileen

    Wow… cousin Shelley’s cooking + kitchen really grabbed my attention. I would love to read more about the dishes she makes in that beautiful kitchen and see more photos of that house. What fun it must be to visit!

    Reply

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