Welcome!
On 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 in Provence, and forthcoming events in which I will be participating.
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.
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 forward your contact information on the feedback form and request to be put on the mailing list.
July, 2008
July 26: Heirloom Tomato Tasting and a Mult-course Tomato Themed Dinner at Capay Fruits & Vegetables in Capay
July 31: 7-8 PM, Rakestraw Books, Danville, CA, Dinner and Signing
August 23: 12-3 PM, The Village Feast, a Grand Aioli for 300 people, a fundraiser for Farm to School, presented by Farm to School and Slow Food Yolo.
Cooking from the Winter Garden 'Provence in California'
It is a amazing how many different vegetables grow in my winter garden, almost more than in summer and spring. Nothing tastes better than fresh, crisp broccoli or cauliflower freshly cut. One of my favorite winter dishes is cauliflower gratin with lardons topped with St. Marcellin cheese. Everyday I harvest a basket of mixed escarole, frisee, radicchio, and arugula, maybe a little parsley, to make the slightly bitter winter salads that go so well with the blood oranges that I pick from my trees. Leeks, kale, cabbage, chervil, celery, and even celery root can be harvested at any time, and the thyme, rosemary, and winter savory is still abundant. The cellar (really a shed) holds winter squashes, sweet potatoes, apples, shallots, and garlic, and the pantry dried fruits, walnuts and almonds from my neighbors. It is a wonderful time to cook from the garden. Book your class early......
I think having a potager, a year-round vegetable garden, is one of the most rewarding things anyone can do. After returning from our sojourn in Provence (see my food memoir, A Pig in Provence: Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France, my husband and I planted one in our front yard. The back yard we reserved as a safe play area for our children.
For me, having a potager like my neighbors in Provence, allows me live in the same way that I do there – checking the garden in the morning, seeing what looks good, later in the afternoon or early evening gathering what I’ve chosen for dinner, and then spending time cooking it, and sitting down to a leisurely meal.
My garden is enhanced by apple, apricot, peach, plum, nectarine, and citrus trees, and my cooking by an outdoor, wood-fired oven as well as a barbeque grill, all perfect for summer and fall. In winter, I can cook in the big fireplace in my kitchen, just like I cook in my fireplace in Provence.
It occurred to me, now that that dollar is so low against the euro, why not share my “Provence in California” world and have cooking classes here? We can go to the farmer’s market in Davis, come home and gather from the garden, have a cooking lesson, followed by an aperitif under the deep shade of 100-year old black walnut tree near the grape arbor, and then a long leisurely lunch. The next day we can have another cooking lesson, one that includes using the wood-fired-oven, aperitif and lunch.
So, please look at “Provence in California- Weekend Cooking Classes from the Garden” for all the details, and I hope to see old friends who have come to my program in Provence and to meet new ones who love good food.
I continue to get notes and emails from people who have read A Pig in Provence, even one wishing me happy Mother’s Day. I enjoy them very much.
For those of you who have read A Pig in Provence, you’ll be sad to know that my dear friend and neighbor in Provence, Marcel Palazolli passed away this fall, leaving a gap in the community, the landscape, and many people’s lives. Marie is doing very well, and continues, with help, to maintain the fruit trees and market garden.
My new consulting business, Evans & Brennan, LLC, which I share with my business partner, Ann M. Evans, has been full of exciting work. We are currently working to increase fresh, local, seasonal food in the Davis Joint Unified School District, and working with the Yolo County Agricultural Commissioner on promoting the food, wine, and agriculture of Yolo County, a tasty job. For more information about what we are doing, visit atasteofyolo.com
-Georgeanne
