Have you ever struggled with getting meringue right? Maybe it weeps, or its texture is not smooth and shiny but more rough and clumpy? Meringues are the base of many recipes such as macarons, mousse, soufflés and others, so it is important to understand what is happening and be able to troubleshoot problems as they happen.

Disclaimer : my two culinary degrees are from two different schools here in France, so my personal experiences may not be the same as yours.

I arrived in Paris the fall of 2007 to attend the prestigious Parisian culinary school L’École Supérieure de la Cuisine Française Grégoire-Ferrandi. I literally had no idea what I was getting into.

Anyone who has ever visited France can testify that what is labeled as « French Bread » in American supermarkets is far, far different from what is sold in boulangeries across France. One of life’s simplest and cheapest (once you’ve paid your airfare!) is to walk into a real French bakery and buy a fresh, still warm traditional baguette. You can’t get but just a few feet from the bakery before ripping the end off of it and devouring it right then and there.

It always amazes me how many people are scared of this little French word - quiche. I know, I know……you, my reader, are much more cultivated and cultured than many people that I meet while traveling and a quiche is nothing exotic to you, but you would be surprised at how many people are perplexed by what might be hiding in this glorified omelette.

This is one of my favorites ! Nothing beats the taste of real lemon curd inside a crumbly butter crust with a dreamy meringue piled on top. Here, to bring more color into the desert and change things up a bit, I’ve added one of my favorite fruits, blueberries.

I grew up in a small town called Nacogdoches, which is the oldest town in Texas. Every summer its quaint downtown brick streets are lined with vendors during its annual Texas Blueberry Festival, where all kinds of local blueberry specialties are served up, most notably being blueberry pancakes. I also have fond memories of accompanying my father early in the morning to the blueberry farm just outside of town, then coming home and making blueberry muffins…….yum!