Welcome!

Georgeanne BrennanOn my web site, you'll find information about my cookbooks and garden books, my recent and upcoming articles in newspapers and magazines, my seasonal cooking school, Provence in California, the Annual Writers Retreat for Women in Provence, that I co-founded, and forthcoming events in which I will be participating.

If you would like to receive my quarterly newsletter with tips and updates about food and life in Provence and Northern California, as well as other interesting places I visit, please enter your contact information on the form and request to be put on the mailing list.

You can also take a virtual tour of a small village house in Provence that I own and that you can rent by the week. Contact me with questions and comments.

New Cooking Classes for June

Dear Friends

My Provence in California Culinary Weekends will resume in June. They’ll have the classic format of starting Saturday at the Davis Farmers Market to shop, home to my house to gather from the garden, and then seasonal, fresh from the market and garden cooking in my country kitchen. Cooking is followed by aperitif and appetizers and a multi-course lunch under the ancient black walnut tree.

Sunday we gather and cook again, this time using my outdoor wood-fired oven. We’ll enjoy another lengthy meal under the black walnut before saying our good-bye.

What will be in season?
Fresh apricots, berries of all kinds, figs, peaches, fava beans, artichokes, early beets and tomatoes, leeks, fresh garlic, zucchini blossoms, zucchini – a wonderful abundance.

I’m thinking things like fresh apricot tart, spring lamb with fresh garlic, zucchini blossoms stuffed with herbed ricotta, leek and feta flatbreads, grilled pork belly, homemade fennel sausage, fresh pasta with braised artichokes and prosciutto (I make my own) and, well the possibilities are nearly endless.

And something special, only in June - Vin de Noix
To celebrate resuming the culinary weekends, I’m adding, just for June, making Vin de Noix, the walnut aperitif wine beloved by the French. June is the month the walnuts are ready – green and plump, but with a shell still undeveloped so it can be pierced by a needle. Bring a bottle of inexpensive, red wine such as Syrah or Merlot and a jar with a lid large enough to hold the wine and walnuts. I’ll provide the sugar and walnuts, plus the marc to fortify it. Take your Vin de Noix home to age, and have your first sip for the holidays.



June 2012 CLASSES

Limited to 8 participants

June 2-3
June 23-24
Cost: $375.00 per person

To register, please inquire for availability via email gbrennan@georgeannebrennan.com or call me 530-795-3043

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Provence in California Cooking Classes 2012

  • April 28-29, 2012
  • June 2-3, 2012
  • June 23-24, 2012

 

"A Pig in Provence"

A Pig in Provence, my memoir of a life with food in Provence, continues to attract readers, and I get fan mail on Facebook, as well as email, which is fun. Click here to see photographs of Ethel with Lucretia the pig of the title, one of me and Oliver as a baby, and my herd of goats, as well as Marie and Marcel, my longtime neighbors and friends in Provence. I'm thinking of starting a blog, "A Pig at the Stove", writing about my food and life in Provence, and here at my small farm.

Provence in California Cooking Classes

My Provence in California cooking classes continue to be a source of inspiration and fun, so I've decided to try some new formats for winter.

From My Farmhouse Garden to Stove

Spring is on the way because the first asparagus spears have broken through the crust, the leeks are swelling, and the artichoke plants spreading their grey-green leaves. I'm still harvesting collards, broccoli, chard, radicchio and frisee, along with gorgeous Savoy cabbages which are perfect for Provencal Stuffed Cabbages. Delicious! The garlic and onions are coming along, and the greenhouse is lush with lettuce, tomato and pepper seedlings.

Cooking guests (and me too!) enjoy using my green-enameled, brass trimmed CornuFe French range. I love it, not just because it is so beautiful, but because it is such fun to cook with. It has two electric ovens, a 17,000 btu central burner, and a burner just for simmering, in addition to 3 other powerful burners.Read my essay about the angst I suffered when trying to decide to buy it, but it has been worth it.

French School Lunch

Through my consulting work, I am spending more and more time on school lunch and in March made a trip to France, courtesy of the French government, with letters of interest from state and federal leaders, to research that nation's school lunch program. Watch this site and my new site, www.evansandbrennan.com for findings.

Consulting

My consulting business, Evans & Brennan, LLC, which I share with my business partner, Ann M. Evans, continues to be full of exciting work around local food, food policy, and marketing. We are currently working on a number of fronts, with the Center for Ecoliteracy on a feasibility study to improve school lunch in the Oakland Unified School District, and the TomKat Charitable Trust on a tracing study, mapping 12 California crops from ground to school lunch table. We are also working with the Winters Joint Unified School District and with Yolo County around local fruits and vegetables in the school lunch programs. It is fascinating work. Read my op-ed piece in the Sacramento Bee, July 31, 2011.

~Georgeanne