and so we begin.........

2010
Wow, the same year as the poorly executed 2001 sequel. 10 years after Y2K. I've covered many miles in the last 10 years, this is for sure, but that is a story for another time and place. This is a food blog ,which could be a life blog, however, it is a blog about a food project I have embarked on as of the beginning of 2010 nearly a week ago. First just a little history:
I moved to France over the summer of 2009 to be with Frederic, whom I married in October in Florida. I left a city I never thought I would ever leave, New Orleans, and moved to the country in a part of France called Brittany. Prior to moving I had spent the last 25 years of my life in the southern part of the USA in Arizona, California, Florida and finally Louisiana. I packed up my suitcases, shipped a few things to family members and sold nearly everything else I owned including my massive cookbook collection and headed across the Atlantic. I brought a small part of my kitchen with me, like my knives, my cast iron pans, some tools and a hand full of cookbooks that I couldn't bear to part with . I discovered after being here a few weeks that other than the fact that much of the New Orleans cuisine is either French or French influenced, France is surely a foreign country, and I felt a bit out of place.
I have been a lover of food and cooking for as long as I can remember. I have structured most vacations and trips in my adult life around where I plan on eating a meal. I even drove 150 miles out of my way once in the hills of Tennessee to eat bar-b-que ! Call it an obsession, that's okay with me. This love of food is what spawned this blog and the project. Of course as soon as I arrived in France we went grocery shopping and the adventure began! My husband is French and of course we all know that French food is the best in the world ( ask any French person , they will tell you !) but thankfully he is curious about other foods. Myself, since I lived in cities most of my life and multicultural ones at that, I am a big fan of all sorts of ethnic food and have learned to cook many types of food over the years. Trying to duplicate the flavors here in France has been a challenge. I also found myself missing many things I used to eat in America. These three things in addition to the fact that we are leaving France in 9 months to starting some continent hopping has necessitated the creation of a book. I can't carry everything with me everywhere I go, thanks to the restrictions on luggage when you fly now, so I have to consolidate.
The first idea was to create a book for me so I wouldn't have to carry my cookbooks around with me. I would write the recipes using the ingredients I could get wherever I lived and using the measurement system in the country I was in. Then Frederic had a dream that I wrote a book that was about American food, but written for French people so they could cook and enjoy it. This dream wasn't so different than what I was already doing so I embraced that and off we go!
I spent the first week researching with google. I Love google , end of sentence. So I know what Americans like to eat, and I'm polling my friends to find out what their favorite foods are and then I will try and recreate the dishes here! Sounds fun right? So for now if anyone cares to tell me what their favorite food dishes are , I'd be happy to know that information !

Happy eating !!