14.32 - Summer: How do you celebrate it? Do you 'Bottle' it or 'Reverse engineer' what you really love?
Oh to bottle summer! To be able to open it again at any time & indulge. Do you ever experience this feeling when life is so good! Today we celebrate how others celebrate summer? Learn French Bubbly ++
Bonjour special subscribers… readers, supporters, friends and family
Welcome, whether you’re a new, and long-time subscriber of le Bulletin, I’m thrilled that you are here.
When life is wonderful, the weather is wonderful and nature around you is a reason for celebration, I find myself in awe of nature, of people, and even sometimes of myself… and at that time I’m full of gratitude ;)
Today we celebrate how people ‘SUMMER’ differently.
Additionally, you’ll find new MyFrenchLife Magazine articles at the base of this newsletter ↓↓
Now let’s see what’s been happening in France and at MyFrenchLife Magazine. Thank you for reading and your financial support, it means the world to me.
I hope that you have a wonderful week ahead.
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Judy - 17.8.’24
1. A celebration of SUMMER, fresh food, and fabulous people — we all do it differently
Today, I’d like to share some of the summer goodness I’ve been experiencing. Recently I wrote about the lusciousness & abundance of summer… but I can’t leave it alone, I’m finding that I’m continuing to experience an avalanche of summer, in my inbox and all around me.
I find it interesting that different people celebrate their summer differently…their enthusiasm… and their summering...
Let’s look at several wonderful examples of how others celebrate summer:-
A celebration of growing cut flowers in summer in rural France
by Rebecca Jones in ‘Between’ ←
I dreamt of this cutting garden. A tapestry of flowers, hemmed in by rickety fences tied together with string. Where the rising sun turns petals to stained glass and bees buzz lazily from flower to flower, writes Rebecca Jones.
A celebration and a reason to invent a new language: ‘to Summer’ a verb!
First is Kate Hill in her Camont Journals with: How to Summer (verb) like a French Grrl - August Flashbacks: Gascon Kirs, Cajun Parties, French Spa food, and more!
- Oh my!!!! what a fabulous concept of turning ‘Summer’ into a VERB! Look at me - I’ve been writing summering, summerness, and other nonsense and at the same time Kate has turned Summer into a verb - brilliant, she’s nailed it.
Go Kate, you summer so well!
Image copyright: Kate Hill
A Celebration of Tomatoes, Tomatoes, and Tomatoes… and…a variation!
To me …”…Clafoutis is dedicated to the flavour of summer travel and the hordes of tourists that descend upon France each summer, but specifically this one because of the Olympics.
Clafoutis, a pudding from the Limousin region of France, is usually made with cherries but often with other fruit, such as berries, apples, or pears. It seems everyone is offering stunning stone fruit clafoutis right now, but how about a savoury one? This tomato and gruyere clafoutis is from the tomato chapter of my book TENDERHEART and has all the custardy lightness of a sweet fruit one. “... the most satisfying part is squeezing those tomatoes!” says Hetty Lui McKinnon in her To Vegetables With Love
Copyright details here: Hetty Lui McKinnon
Can there ever be too many superb French tomato dishes - here are 12! ←
I don’t think there can be too many (anything) tomatoes but in case you’re running out of ideas.
Amelia Horne comes to the rescue!!!
Last nights witching hour insomnia found me counting tomato recipes rather than sheep, after my boastful bragging to Aimée Francis
as to possibly being able to pen an entire book with these natty fruits [tomatoes] front & centre of all it’s recipes.
Here are the first DOZEN ideas I can call to mind on waking”: wrote Amelia in her delicious Substack note. [Note: The capitalisation is mine.And here is Amelia Horne’s Substack - Le Bon Home
Image credit: Amelia Horne Celebrating great tomatoes with fabulous past: family history with audio!
Nonno Giggi’s Roman, Almost-Aglio-e-Olio Tomato Spaghettini
I asked Marco to describe his Grandpa's favorite Spaghetti, straight from Rome.
A recipe with a voice note! Here, my friend Marco describes (in a proper Roman accent) how his grandpa Gigi made these garlicky, hot tomato spaghettini. Translation and recipe included.
Thanks, Marco, and thanks nonno! says Valentina - you’ll find her here ←
Copyright via Valentina’s substack.
The pinnacle of a celebration of a different type:
The highly sought-after, Olympic chocolate muffin recipe — some (me) may say, I deserve a medal for this, by Kassie Mendieta
Kassie, describes herself as a:
“mildly deranged girl with a cake stand sharing recipes, music recc's, a her favorite things about life”
Image credit: copyright Kassie Mendieta
Apparently, everyone, (yes everyone who is anyone) was after THIS chocolate muffin recipe from the Olympics! I didn’t know this before… did you?
But Kassie took this challenge on to such a serious degree, I’m almost without words. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it!
Kassie has reverse-engineered this recipe! It’s absolutely amazing.
- Ingredient list,
- Method and more!!!
→Check it out and tell me what you think. Should Kassie receive the Paris Olympic Reverse-engineering award in 2024? My vote is yes!
And if anyone is reading this who tasted those Olpmpic Chocolate Muffins please get in touch… I want to hear more!
Un grand merci - Thank you to all the writers I’ve featured above!
Now… moving on… let’s find out what’s been happening at MyFrenchLife Magazine & le Bulletin newsletter this week.
2. I invite you to follow us on Instagram → @MaVieFrançaise
Bursting with news, views and articles, video chats, poetry, introductions to new magazine contributors… and more… follow us and join in @maviefrancaise … See you there soon, I hope.
Also don’t miss the weekly post by member Jennifer Andrewes on her solo pilgrimage to Rome: 2500km.
Here she is after 39 days - a total of 855 km so far!
3. In My FrenchLife Magazine you’ll find these new articles — A Celebration of Gastronomie - Food and Wine from France
1.→ How Not to Be Intimidated by French Bubbly: The 3 Most Important Types of French Sparkling Wine -Learn how to speak French Bubbly, pronunciation et al.
by Karen Bussen
In this delightful video, Karen Bussen chats with us as she tries to entice us into reading her most recent article about French Sparkling Wine. And… I agree with her wholeheartedly — what we’ve done here is to avoid all jargon so that you’ll feel confident “speaking French Bubbly” when you order in a restaurant or bottle shop…or when chatting with friends, and there is pronunciation support as well. Read the entire article. Enjoy.
→Please, please let Karen and me know what you think of the video and the article - we’d love to make more videos if that’s the feedback you give us. Judy.
2.→ The 4 Best Affordable To-Go Lunches in Toulouse
by Ally Mitchell
Lunch in Toulouse: At lunchtime, the city descends to the riverbank. So, knowing where to buy the best to-go lunches that are also affordable is of the utmost importance. Read the entire article.
3.→ Paris' best baguette: How Sri Lankan baker Tharshan Selvarajah won the top prize
by Anna Muckerman
Although he lacked language skills and formal training, Tharshan became determined not only to become a great baker but also to build a reputation for himself and his bread - Read the entire article.
Un grand merci
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Judy MacMahon
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MyFrenchLife.org
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Love all the summer tomato recipes! I tried out an older one from Clotilde Dusoulier of "Chocolate and zucchini" blog fame (now a Life Coach): savory parmesan and tomato French toast. Soak old (French, preferably) bread in the usual French toast milk & egg mix, then, in an olive oil-coated pan, layer alternately with fresh tomato slices & sun-dried tomatoes, sprinkle generously with grated parmesan, herbes de Provence (I think garlic would be nice too, though not in the original recipe) and/or any other fresh herbs you have on hand, bake in oven until the top is nicely browned & contents are cooked.
It was delicious, and a great way to use up French bread that's a few days old.
I hunker down and hope it doesn’t get too hot.