Add the turkey, season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until cooked through and slightly browned (but not tough as a shoe).

Not tough as a shoe. This is what I love about Clotilde Dusoulier’s Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen, the imaginative language she uses for the most mundane cooking instructions. Unlike most cookbooks, Clotilde’s book reads more like an adorable memoir, something that you could just curl up with in bed and take delight in the enjoyment of every word. Not to say that the book doesn’t have beautiful photos and inspiring recipes, it does, in spades. It’s just that Clotilde’s light-hearted, amusing stories that accompany each recipe are what I think will give this book a long life. It truly is a joy to read.

If you aren’t already familiar with Clotilde, she is the writer behind the delightful Parisian Chocolate & Zucchini blog. Although Clotilde is French, she writes her blog in English, giving us a window into her world of food in Paris. When I read her blog or her book, I am transported to that glorious city, with its sidewalk cafes, impeccably dressed women, little French dogs that invariably lounge in the doorways to the stores you are trying to enter, and the best (fill-in-the-blank) cheeses, peaches, pates, baguettes, chocolates, and house wine imaginable.

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