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Ten years or so ago, I was entranced with Monet's Table: The Cooking Journals of Claude Monet that lived happily in my kitchen with the other cookbooks that I collected, which lined my white shelves. This particular book was a favorite because I loved France so. She had long since sung her siren call to me, and I had called my Arkansas snort back to her that I was doing the best I could to get there. (This was before I'd thought of the book that the Lone Wolf could write that did get us here called Chasing Matisse.) I lingered over the pages in the book and soaked up the beautiful photos of the Monet house and gardens as well as the luscious recipes the Monets served their artist celebrity guests. Even with the painter's strict schedule, the Monets frequently entertained--at lunch--and were generous hosts and servers of feasts.
So I decided in the middle of May of that year that I would give myself a French fix by throwing a long Monet lunch. On the record, the lunch was 10 hours long for those who hung in there until the drunken end. (You can read about it in another book my husband wrote called If These Walls Had Ears: The Biography of a House.) And by late afternoon on that Sunday (which is a key bit of information since we couldn't buy any liquor), we were out of champagne and, yes, driving to the houses of friends in an enormous chocolate Cadillac to inquire whether they happened to have any cold bottles of bubbly that they could loan us. It was purely and deliciously glorious.
This magic book of Monet's life and recipes carried me away to the painter's house in Vernon and made me dream of good food and France. One of the recipes that I turned to over and over again was for cèpes.
It is now the season for cèpes in Paris. Our friend Mario invited us for dinner last evening. He drafted me into the kitchen, and I was happy to oblige because he was slicing and sauteing this most attractive of fungi that is delighting French cooks this time of year.
Our Menu:
Entree: Sauteed cèpes, greens with pecan oil, and roasted Ratte potatoes
Plat: Rack of Lamb on a bed of Roquette with Artichokes and Parmesan
Dessert: Moelleux au Chocolat
Lemon Tart
Ladurée Macaroons
The meal was every bit as delicious as it sounds.
And when you close your eyes, what do you dream? And what do you cook this season?
Unless otherwise indicated, all photos taken by Beth Arnold on her iPhone.
---Beth Arnold in Paris
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