Coq au vin from bouchon Restaurant
Here's Chef Charles Frederick's version of this robust Burgundian classic.

Ingredients

• 4 Chicken legs
• 4 Chicken thighs
• ¼ lb. Bacon lardons
• 1 head Celery
• 3 ea. Carrots
• 3 ea. Onion
• 1 pint Crimini mushrooms
• 3 medium tomatoes
• 750 ml Red wine
• Bunch each Rosemary, thyme, sage-leave whole

Preparation
Retain bacon and chicken font for stock. Le Cruesset is the preferred cooking vessel for coq au vin but any traditional dutch oven will do Chicken: season & dredge, sear hard with grapeseed oil, remove from pan. Bacon: render lardons in chicken font, set aside. Celery, onion and carrots: sweat in chicken-bacon font from above until onions are translucent. Deglace with ½ bottle of red wine, reserve other half of bottle. Return chicken to pan and add water and remaining half bottle of wine. Add cleaned mushrooms, tomatoes and herbs. Bring to simmer and cover to bake at 300 degrees for 1 ½-2 hours until chicken pulls easily from the bone. Remove herbs before serving.

Serve
Serve with pommes purées (mashed potatoes) and simple greens. Enjoy with a dry red wine or maybe a Belgian ale, depending on the mood, company or the weather!

Fruit Frappée
French Smoothies as prepared by Guy deMangeon ("The Berry Man") This is a delicious, healthy summer beverage or afternoon treat. If you make it extra thick you can even serve it as a dessert!

Ingredients

• Peeled bananas, melon chunks, and whole berries (rinsed and patted dry)
• Milk and/or orange juice and/or apple juice
• Crushed ice (optional)

Preparation
Place fruit on cookie tray and freeze until solid. Store in freezer in plastic bag. Put frozen fruit in blender in any combination (frozen banana will make it creamy like a milk shake). Add milk and/or juice and crushed ice if desired. Blend.

Serve
Serve in tall glass or wine glass...with a spoon if it's really thick. Garnish with an orange slice or sprig of fresh mint, if desired.

Ratatouille: Provençal Vegetable Stew
A wonderful summer dish. Ideally, the vegetables will be picked fresh and ripe from your own garden, or selected at your farmer's market. Exact proportions are not critical!

Ingredients

• 3 big vine-ripened tomatoes (regular or roma; about 1-1/2 pounds)
• 2 medium bell peppers (green, red, yellow or any combination thereof; about 1 pound)
• 1 or 2 yellow onions (about 1 pound)
• 1 big (or 2 medium or 3 small) zucchini (green, yellow, or combination; about 1 pound)
• 1 medium eggplant (about 1 pound)
• 2 to 5 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped
• 2 to 3 taplespoons of virgin olive oil
• Fresh chopped basil (dried, if fresh not available)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Optional
Rosemary, parsley, thyme, and a plug of red wine (not traditional, but they taste good!). Double all quantities and use a BIG pot, if you like.

Preparation
Chop veggies into bite-size chunks. Sauté onion and garlic until softened (a minute or two) in half the oil. Add everything else. Simmer 25-30 minutes, so all the veggies have softened. Serve warm or at room temperature (as hors d'ouevres, main dish, or side dish) with crusty French bread.

Soupe à L'Oignon: French Onion Soup
Onion soup warms your very soul on a cold winter's day. Parisians will sometimes enjoy soupe à l'oignon in a café at dawn if they've been up all night!

Ingredients

• 3-4 tablespoons butter
• 1-2 tablespoons oil
• 6-7 cups thinly sliced onions
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• Bay leaf, sage
• 1/2 cup wine (optional)
• Croutons
• Grated Swiss cheese or Swiss/Parmesan mixture

Preparation
Melt butter with oil in large kettle. Add onions, stir, and cook uncovered over low heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add sugar and salt and cook 15-20 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle on flour and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring, to brown. In another pan bring stock to a simmer, then pour it over the onions. Add herbs. Add wine if desired. Simmer on low heat partially covered another 20-30 minutes. Add salt and pepper if needed.

Serve
Put croutons in bowl, ladle on soup, sprinkle on cheese. OR ladle soup into ovenproof bowls, top with croutons, sprinkle on cheese, and place under broiler until cheese melts and bubbles.

Olives Niçoises
Provençal Olives
Here's how to cure homemade olives in the style of Southern France, using only water and salt.

Ingredients

• Black ripe olives picked from the tree
• Water
• Salt

Preparation
Pick ripe black olives. Soak them in a jar of water. Change water daily for 12 to 14 days (until the bitterness has been removed). Boil 10 parts water to 1 part sea salt for several minutes and let cool to room temperature. The French call this brine solution a saumure. Soak olives in saumure and let rest for a month or so. Don't worry about the scum on top-just skim it off and discard. (You can store the olives in the refrigerator if you want.)

Serve
Eat and enjoy! For extra yummy olives: Rinse and drain the cured olives, add a bit of olive oil, vinegar, and lemon juice and some chopped herbes de Provence (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary) and marinate a day or two.

Pissaladière
Onion Pizza from Provence.

Ingredients

• 3 cups unbleached flour
• 1 cup warm water
• 4 tablespoons virgin olive oil
• 3 large onions, sliced thin or chopped
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped
• Black olives with pits in (warn your diners-they may not be used to this!)
• Anchovies or anchovy paste (optional)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Herbes de Provence

Preparation
Proof yeast in1/4 cup warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar. Mix salt and flour. Blend in yeast mixture, rest of water, 1 tablespoon oil. Knead until resilient, cover and set aside in warm spot to rise until doubled (about an hour, but longer is better). Sauté onions and garlic in 2 tablespoons oil until softened and colored, but don't overcook. Salt and pepper to taste. Punch down dough, stretch and roll to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick, transfer to baking pan sprinkled with cornmeal, rub 1 tablespoon oil on top, let rest 10-20 minutes. Preheat oven to very hot (400 to 500 degrees-in France you would ideally be using a wood-burning brick oven). Distribute onions over dough, add olives and anchovies in an interesting checkerboard pattern. (If using anchovy paste, rub it over top before adding onions.) Sprinkle on Herbes de Provence (fresh or dried), or any combination of the following herbs: basil, oregano, marjorum, thyme, rosemary. Bake in middle rack of oven until crust is raised and crisp on bottom.

Serve
Enjoy with a green salad and a glass of hearty red wine (a Côte de Rhone type wine from Santa Barbara County would be appropriate). Can be enjoyed hot as a main course (serves three) or at room temperature as hors d'ouevres or a picnic lunch.