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.

Specialty Winter Cooking Courses

Dear Friends

The Winter Homage to Marcel Pagnol weekend was so popular, I will be doing it again, plus a weekend dedicated to the wonderful pig, plus a few more classes to start the season. I've had a lot of requests to post classes for 2012 early so people can give them as holiday gifts, so here they are. Also watch www.davisfarmersmarketcookbook.com for news and publication date (March) of my new book, co-authored with Ann M. Evans, celebrating the Davis Farmers Market, where lots of you have shopped with me for cooking classes. Happy Holidays to all, and I look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

Georgeanne

New Cooking Classes for 2012 in Time for Holiday Gift-Giving

Note different prices for different classes

Winter Homage to Marcel Pagnol

Feb 4-5

Limited to 6 participants, $400.00 per person
10 am to 2:30 pm each day
Saturday
Includes 4 Course Lunch and Wines each Day
Pastis or Cassis White Wine
Olives
Socca – chick pea crepes with tapenade, goat cheese and arugula
Buttered Olive Bread with Anchovies and Lemon
Soupe de Poisson et Rouille – Pureed fish soup with spicy red pepper aioli and garlic croutons
Leg of Lamb with Herbes de Provence on a Bed of Potatoes and Onions
Green Garlic Flan
Tarte au Citron with Whipped Cream Fraiche
Cote de Rhone Red Wine

Sunday
Pastis or Coteaux d'Aix rose
Olives
Chicken Liver Mousse on Brioche Toasts
Blue Cheese and Walnut Puff Pastries
Leek and Salt Cod Gratins with Gathered Greens Salad
Wild Mushroom Soup with Grilled Garlic Croutons
Beef or Wild Boar Daube with Panisse – chick pea polenta
Sautéed Winter Greens
Walnut and Almond Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream
Cote de Provence Red Wine

Winter Homage to the Pig

A workshop with lunch and wines each day

Includes 5 # pancetta to finish curing at home

Feb 18-19

Limited to 6 participants, $400.00 per person
10 am to 2:30 pm each day

Saturday
We'll start: Pancetta, Head Cheese, Pigs Feet in Filo for Sunday
For lunch on Saturday
Pastis, Rhone Red Wine
Pig's Ear and Arugula salad
Boudin Noir with Apples and Onions
Toulouse Sausage and Braised Savoy Cabbage
Escarole and Spinach from the Garden with Champagne Vinagrette
Blood Orange Upside Down Polenta Cake

Sunday
Pastis, Cote de Provence Red Wine, White Wine
Head Cheese with Cornichons and Pickled Onions
Pig's Feet in Filo with Ravigote Sauce
Pork in a Crispy Potato Roll
Sauté of Pork with Green Olives
Fried Panisse Batons
Apple and Goat Cheese Galette

Provence in California Weekends

March 3-4

April 28-30

Limited to 6 participants, $375.00 per person
Saturday begins at the Davis Farmers Market, 9 am
Sunday 10-2:30
Includes multi-course lunch and wines each day

Saturday
White and Rose Wines
Puff pastries with Blue Cheese and Walnuts
Roasted Bone Marrow with Salad of Bitter Greens
Cauliflower Soup Shots with Black Truffle Oil
Guinea Fowl Stuffed with Wild Mushrooms and Homemade Croutons
Fresh Baby Peas and Lettuce, a la francaise
Strawberry Meringues (April)
Walnut and Almond Tart (March)
Red Wine

Sunday
White and Rose Wines
Roasted Garden Asparagus with Tarragon Aioli
Chicken Liver Mousse with Cornichons
Individual Cream of Heirloom Tomato Soup with Puff Pastry
Leg of Lamb with Herbes de Provence on a Bed of Potatoes and Onions
Braised Garden Artichokes and Fava Beans
Blood Orange Upside Down Polenta Cake
Red wine

 

Provence in California Cooking Classes 2011

  • Feb 4-5, 2012
  • March 3-4, 2012
  • April 28-29, 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