Two Great Finds!

Yesterday, Daniel and I had to take a quick trip to Decatur (outside of Atlanta) and back, which meant about eight hours in the car. So, we decided to have a fun lunch break there, which for us means good food AND, if possible, a great bookstore as an appetizer! We were not disappointed with either. We had delicious Mediterranean inspired food, but before that Daniel drove us to a fantastic used bookstore!

There we found two great treasures - two cookbooks, which bring back memories and awaken the travel bug in both of us!

Oh, yum, did I find many recipes that are so familiar to me from family meals in this cookbook!! I was starting to drool just looking at the pictures...

And the best thing is that the recipes look very authentic, but have been tailored to American measurements and ingredients I can find here. Perfect!

My mother's family is from the Black Forest, and we lived for many years near Heidelberg before moving further north to Westphalia, so my sister and I grew up with typical meals from all areas.

We were lucky in that our mom was a gifted cook, who enjoyed making traditional recipes and also trying new things. Add to that that my grandmother lived with us and cooked for us for many years, and you know we ate very well!

Don't these recipes look scrumptious?

Because my mother was a French teacher and my family loved France, we spent many family vacations in various parts of that beautiful country.

Plus, a few years ago Daniel got to teach in Provence for a semester and I got to explore the area more with him, which made it even more special!

So, this cookbook brings back many memories for both of us and really makes us want to go back to visit and stay awhile!

Looking at regional recipes always makes us want to travel.

Do you have that same experience?

You can click on any of the photos to see them more clearly, but I'm afraid I wasn't able to eliminate all the glare on the pictures. I still hope you enjoyed this little culinary trip with me to Germany and Provence!

Tomorrow, I'll have a delicious recipe for you (this is all making me very hungry)! I guess these days I'm feeling my creativity more in the kitchen than in my studio...