Hi, I’m Vanessa. Half-French. Half-American. All Foodie.
I’m a home chef who learned much of what I know cooking with my mother in France, but also studying at Peter Kump’s cooking school, now the Institute of Culinary Education in New York.
This is my new site where I am slowly bringing over hundreds of recipes from chefdruck.com. This is the rebirth of my testament to a life of feasting.
15 years of content takes a long time to migrate. Please enjoy the gradual relaunch of French Foodie Mom: a recipe repository.
Let the feasting begin again!
Recent Posts
Recipes make their way into this blog after three dinner trials. Hope your family likes them as much as ours does.
Easy Dinners on Steroids: Boursin Spinach Artichoke Ravioli Bake
Boursin cheese is so good on a cracker or a sliver of red pepper, but it can also transform a dish. Boursin transforms this spinach artichoke ravioli baked dinner and takes it to a whole new level.
Warm Chocolate Pudding Cake
Childhood food memories have a special power and hard to recreate but this recipe comes close to my favorite childhood chocolate cake from the now defunct Tootsies Restaurant in Notting Hill in London. They served it in a wooden salad bowl, filled with steaming, crumbly and moist hot chocolate cake. It oozed with chocolate sauce and was, of course, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Nothing could beat that chocolate pudding cake perfection.
Chocolate Souffle Cake: a Delicious Gluten-Free Dessert
This chocolate souffle cake is a great dessert to serve when you have gluten-free dinner guests and it’s also a great addition to a Passover seder. It’s rich and oh so chocolatey. Definitely lick the bowl good.
Air Fryer Chicken with Bang Bang Sauce
These air fryer chicken thighs are crispy, juicy, and so flavorful. The bang bang sauce is zesty thanks to the lime juice with just a touch of heat. This dinner is such a favorite in our house.
Midnight Cherry Cookies
These Midnight Cherry Cookies are rich, dark, and mysterious, studded with large chunks of bittersweet chocolate and dried bing cherries. Once you taste them, you’ll have to add them to your regular cookie roster.
Whipping Up a Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette
This basic balsamic vinaigrette takes seconds to whip up and adds so much to a simple salad.
Chocolate Swirl Meringues
Give these chocolate swirl meringue cookies to friends and family this Christmas. They are the perfect holiday cookie. So elegant and so light - and they’re even gluten free!
Oven Roasted Baby Back Ribs
This oven baby back rib recipe is a bit of a cheat as it doesn’t use the grill, but you’ll feel no shame when you taste how delicious they are.
Homemade Fudge Brownie
Brownies are intensely personal. Edges or centers. Fudgy or Cakey. Bitter or sweet. Everyone has an opinion. This recipe may not be your idea of the perfect brownie, but it makes me pretty happy. The texture is definitely cake rather than fudge, but the flavor is intensely chocolatey. But there’s something for both camps in the final product, as the edges are crispy but the middle is soft and moist. cake, yet fudge, with a crispy upper crust. This brownie is a uniter, a bringer of people together.
Creamy Cream-free Mushroom Soup
This flavorful cream-less cream of mushroom soup is delicious. The mushrooms give it the creamy texture, but there is no fattening cream added. The earthy and rich flavor of this soup makes me happy that it is fall.
Roasted Vegetable Coconut Milk Bisque
Lately I’ve been roasting vegetables and giving them some sweet heat with curry, ginger and coconut milk. I’m calling it Roasted Vegetable Coconut Milk Bisque. My kids are calling it lunch, snack, and double thumbs up.
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup: the Perfect Way to Celebrate Fall
This simple roasted butternut squash apple soup is my children's comfort food. As soon as the leaves start falling, they start asking for it. They have it for lunch... for dinner... and even for afterschool snack.
Golden Vegetable Soup: a Forgotten Childhood Staple
This is the soup my sisters and I grew up with, the soup my mom served us for lunch on so many cloudy Parisian days when she was feeling uninspired. We complained about this vegetable soup, bored to tears by its simplicity and predictability, but now we crave it as adults. It’s what I often make as a gift to new mothers or sick friends: simple goodness in a bowl.
French Style Butternut Squash Soup with a Touch of Curry
This French style butternut squash soup is one of these bridging recipes. Simple ingredients, but powerful flavor. Butter, squash, shallots, a touch of curry, a wild drizzle of salt and pepper, and of course, a heaping spoonful of creme fraiche. It’s simple, but so good, exactly my mother’s type of cooking, soup therapy in a bowl, guaranteed to feed not only your belly, but also your soul with every bite.
Fire Roasted Tomato Soup
Fire roasted tomato soup is a celebration of color and flavor. One I can’t get enough of. Is there anything better than tomato soup to beat back the chill of fall and winter? I don’t think so, especially when the tomatoes have the kiss of fire roasting.
Whiskey Short Rib Sliders
Short ribs have been my favorite slow cook dish for years, but the whiskey gives them a glorious caramel overtone. Leave them to rest for a day or two after you cook them and they’ll just get better.
Oreo Truffles Even a Kid Will Love
These Oreo Balls are the truffles I wish I’d reached for as a child. They’re also the type of treat that will be the talk of your cookie exchange and the perfect little something to give to your neighbors. They’re incredibly easy to make as they require no baking.
Just a Simple Little French Cake: Fondant au Chocolat
French cooks, just like American ones, have recipes they whip off without thinking, even dessert recipes. This recipe for Fondant au Chocolat comes together in five minutes and has six ingredients, but the moist and intensely chocolate cake is definitely worthy of being served at the fanciest French restaurant.
French Crepes for my American Kids
Like many French foods, crepes sound fancy and difficult, but you could have them on the table faster than you can boil pasta. Just throw 4 ingredients in a food processor, pulse a half a dozen times, and get cooking.
Carrot Souffle: a Family Favorite Worth Sharing
Vegetable side dishes are rarely the star of the show, but my carrot souffle is the exception. This sweet and fluffy casserole is like eating dessert with dinner.
Vive la France! Here are my favorite French recipes.
