knitting a life

I’ve just finished reading a lovely book — The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz, baker and blogger extraordinaire.  I got the book as a gift at Christmas and I am really wondering why I waited so long to read it.  I’m also a bit sad that I have finished it; I’ll miss DL’s funny, slightly ironic, informative voice in my head as I fall asleep every night.

The book tells the story, in a satisfyingly non-linear fashion, of Lebovitz’s adjustment to living in Paris after over twenty years in San Francisco.  Each chapter describes a different adventure (if you can call getting the painter to finish painting your apartment, or searching futilely for 110 cm shoe laces adventures) in Paris and ends with a recipe or two.

The recipes are sometimes thematically linked to the chapters they complete but more often are not related, resulting in the somewhat disconcerting juxtaposition of a recipe for Mole au Chocolat (Chocolate Mole) following a chapter on the rather unpleasant French habit of peeing in the street.  Nonetheless, it’s a wonderful book, filled with insight, humor and tempting recipes.

I found a number of recipes I’ll be trying in the next month or so, from flourless chocolate cake to chickpea crepes.  Imagine my delight to also come upon a recipe I had made once and loved (inspired by this other wonderful blog post about the same book) for Breton Buckwheat Cake.  Inspired again, I had to make it today.