Cooking for the French
Thankfully my mother in her wisdom decided to teach me how to cook, no matter how much I made a complete mess in the kitchen, ruined knives, or 'needed' to buy weird ingredients. Real cooking, when you know how much a tablespoon of oregano is by putting it in the cup of your hand kind of cooking, and I learned to enjoy it too (maybe not when I'm starving or when I'm expected to, but I cook what I like to eat). This has come in very handy because I am living with a family while the parents are away on vacation, so I have been looked upon as the chef de cuisine. I've figured out that with the passing of time, just like in the US, the French have gotten away from the 'homemade' style of cooking and have moved toward Picard frozen meals, jarred ratatouille, and bags of frozen pre-sliced onions. Which to me is sad because they have such an amazing cultural connection to good fresh food. This is not saying that they do not appreciate good food but that they n...