“Dinner in French: My Recipes By Way of France” by Melissa Clark

A cookbook is definitely not my typical reading fare. But when Sam gave me this cookbook for Mother's Day last May--partly because I was too intimidated to dive right in and actually start cooking any of the recipes in this book, but partly because the pictures are so beautiful and I wanted to get an idea of what I'm in for--I got into the habit of reading a recipe or two most evenings just before bed. And now, can you believe it? I've actually read the whole thing!

Sam bought this cookbook for me because I love Clark’s Dinner: Changing the Game so much. (199 recipes down, 26 to go!) I have never before owned a cookbook from which I believe I will cook every single recipe. To me, most cookbooks are like most short story collections: Two or three standouts, the majority are ho-hum, and there are always several clunkers. (This is not a perfect analogy because I do read all the stories in the collection.) But Dinner is amazing, because of the sheer number of recipes that turn out amazingly delicious and make me feel like a chef. Anyway, as I began to approach my goal of cooking all 225 recipes in Dinner, I started to worry about what I would work on next. Sure, I could start repeating the best ones in the book (of which there are legion!), but I really enjoy trying recipes that are new to me. Hence Dinner in French!

But, yeah, I'm a bit scared of this book. Luckily I can ease my way into it while I whittle away at the original Dinner, but after that . . . wow, a lot of these France-inspired recipes seem long, drawn-out and complicated. Not to mention the fact that where the heck am I supposed to get things like fresh currants? Not where I live, that's for sure. At this point I am not planning to challenge myself to make every single recipe in Dinner in French. But I have already made two of them! (Well, yes, they were the two simplest ones, why do you ask?) One was lavender lemonade, the other was marzipan bonbons (half rose-flavored, half lemon), and everything was pronounced delicious by everyone right down to the ten-year-old. Miam!