Soeurs de Coeur: Sisters

I am delighted to be here at Fresh French Home. As you know from reading Kate's blog, she is in the hard-working, thrilling and creative midst of making her 'daydreams' come true. Kate has been surprising and delighting me for years; from the first moment I saw her behind nursery glass and welcomed a sister into my life.

She has always made ordinary things beautiful. Her innate and incredible eye for design, color, finishing details, and spatial and visual properties has been honed and sharpened over the years. She has come a long way from the purple and silver wallpaper she insisted on having in her bedroom when she was five years old! Those were the purple years. But it comes as no surprise to anyone who knows Kate that she has dreamed of a shop like the one she's making in Fresh French Home. We are all so lucky to witness and share in it.

I'm here as a proud sister, but also because my family and I live in the South of France. Kate wants me to share some of our story and a bit of my life here with you. Living here has been the most wonderful experience for my children and my husband and me. I've written a blog about our lives since we arrived in 2010 and you can check it out and catch up on the ups and downs of life in another country, culture and most challengingly, language.

{my three at the market}

This February marked our third year in France. I've come to love the seasonal changes of this country as I've learned and experienced them over time. By March, the days grow longer and the sun shines brighter. We begin to see the first of the spring strawberries, bunches of radishes in sunset hues and perfect pink and white buds on fruit trees.

One of my favorite trees here is the mimosa. It isn't the mimosa with anemone sprays of pink flowers and fern-like leaves that grew in our grandmother's front yard in Carthage, Texas.

{mimosa flowers on my rue}

The southern French mimosa flowers the brightest sunshine yellow puffballs that grow in clustered bursts and smell of the sweetest spring day. They are the promise of months of sunshine ahead. A gift from Australia, the happy charm of the mimosa is celebrated with parades in its honor in Mediterranean coastal towns. France is good about celebrating nature and appreciating beauty for beauty's sake. This is one of the reasons Kate loves French design. Graceful utility is something the French (and Kate) do so well.

One last tidbit about the cheery, promising mimosa is one that includes a recipe because for me, life in France is nothing without the food.

The deviled egg as we know it in the US is called an oeuf mimosa here, named for its sunny yellow color. I love learning things like this, don't you? It makes sense that the French would name a springtime appetizer made with eggs and all they represent after this visual hint of wonderful, bright new things to come.


Oeufs Mimosas or Deviled Eggs

6 eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 tsp. mustard powder
1 tsp. white vinegar 

sea salt and white or pink ground pepper

In a saucepan, cover the eggs with fresh water and bring to a boil. As soon as the water comes to the boil, remove from heat and cover. Leave the eggs covered in the saucepan for 10 minutes. Rinse with cool water and peel. 

Cut the eggs in half carefully. Put the yolks into a bowl, reserving half of one for later. This is what makes them look like mimosa flowers.

Combine the yolks and the mayonnaise (homemade if you're French), mustard, vinegar and salt and pepper with the tines of a fork.

Wipe out the whites with a paper towel to remove any residual moisture.

If you want to be fancy you can pipe the yolk mixture into the waiting whites or if you're like me and have greedy fingers waiting, simply fill them gently.

Chop the reserved half yolk finely into a small dice and crumble over the top of the filled eggs.

And as my Littlest says, 'Voila!'