Mille Feuille

French Lesson #1: I thought today that if everyone I knew spoke French then our lives would seem so much more exotic. Bonjour ma cherie. And then later, A tout a! We'd kiss four times because who wants to miss out on a long greeting. Feeling bristly whiskers and brushing hair back would be standard. And no one would ever say "um", we'd always give long uhhhhhs like the french. They sound so much more rich.

So-french lesson number one is Mille Feuille. A mille feuille is a pastry--made from layers of creme anglaise, a thick vanilla custard, and puff pastry. It is layered carefully and called a mille feuille because the puff pastry looks like a thousand sheets. Mille Feuille literally translates into a thousand sheets.

In San Francisco, I photographed this mille feuille of soap at the Ferry Building. I thought it was gorgeous-wrapped up like a parcel and sprinkled with flecks of soap. Wrapped up with thought and quadruple kisses.

Make a mille feuille this week--layer carpacio slices of zucchini with crab meat, stack slices of avocado with tomato and black beans. Tower your boars head turkey in between the tattered slices of swiss. And when you do, you'll thank me, mille fois.