Desperate Anglo Housewives : Bordeaux > she's back and dating in her 50s

Blasting away the winter blues The winter term in France is slightly north of  "mad."  You trudge your way, in my case somewhat willingly, through 'les fetes"/xmas, new year...foie gras again, bottle after bottle of superb wines, jaw dropping calorific feasts. Recall :Christmas day, a moment of heightened gastronomic excitement ( food version of multiple orgasm!) as I plunge my silver fork into my motherinlaw's asparagus pannacotta and take a sip of a 2007 dry white Meursault...I knew that if I tried to stand my legs would have simply crumbled underneath me such was my total total pleasure . Out the other side of this period and its a time when schools start really putting on the pressure - tests, exams, case studies. For "we, the teachers" its a race to write and grade exams, deal with students in crisis mode and those who have totally lost their motivation. My belief is that its important to feed ourselves well to battle against the stress an...

Rebirthing with squid ink pasta.. I was given some Squid Ink Spaghetti last week. I have been admiring it in its Italian packaging and pondering over how to "put it into value." It has taken me back to my ephinany with cockles in Geneva in Italian friend Gabrielle's kitchen over 20 years ago. This was a time when in NZ we weren't really cooking with cockles..as a child my parents would send me out with a bucket and a spade at low tide to collect ' pipis .' As a parent now I understand their clever 'time out' from children tactic. I would wade around  ankle deep until my bucket flowed over. Back at home with my full bucket my mother would throw out all the cockles ( apparently they were " polluted"), steam open the pipis serve them in a cold salad with vinaigrette,red onion rings and lashings of chopped parsley. Back to the 80's in Gabrielle's kitchen..I watched my friend steam open kilos of cockles in white wine and garlic a...