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How to Make a French Family: A Memoir of Love, Food, and Faux Pas

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How to Make a French Family: A Memoir of Love, Food, and Faux Pas

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Overview

Say bonjour to a whole new way of life!

Take one French widower, his two young children, and drop a former city girl from Chicago into a small town in southwestern France. Shake vigorously... and voilá: a blended Franco-American family whose lives will all drastically change.

Floating on a cloud of newlywed bliss, Samantha couldn't wait to move to France to begin her life with her new husband, Jean-Luc, and his kids. But almost from the moment the plane touches down, Samantha realizes that there are a lot of things about her new home—including flea-ridden cats, grumpy teenagers, and language barriers—that she hadn't counted on.

Struggling to feel at home and wondering when exactly her French fairy tale is going to start, Samantha isn't sure if she really has what it takes to make it in la belle France. But when a second chance at life and love is on the line, giving up isn't an option. How to Make a French Family is the heartwarming and sometimes hilarious story of the culture clashes and faux pas that , in the end, add up to one happy family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492638490
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	04/04/2017
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,124,222
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Samantha Vérant is a travel addict, a self-professed oenophile, and a determined, if occasionally unconventional, French chef. She lives in southwestern France, where she’s able to explore all of her passions, and where she’s married to a sexy French rocket scientist she met in 1989, but ignored for twenty years.

Author's Note xiii

How to Make a French Family xv

Preface: How to Marry a Frenchman You've Ignored for Twenty Years xvii

Ingredient 1 Communication xxiii

1 A Beautiful Mess 1

2 Leaping into L'amour 9

3 Bienvenue en France 17

4 This Is My Circus, and These Are My Fleas 27

5 Winging It 35

6 I'm an Immigrant? 43

Recipes for Communication 53

Paulctte's Tomates Farcies 53

Jean-Luc's Mottles a la Mariniere 55

Monies Curry Sauce 56

Monies Roquefort Sauce 57

Monies a la Plancha 58

Tuna Noodle Casserole 59

Jean-Luc's Quiche Lorraine 60

Ingredient 2 Friendship 63

7 Integrate or Die Trying 65

8 Driving Forward 71

9 Bring on the Mistletoe and Holly 77

10 A Baguette in the Oven 87

11 Online (Friend) Dating 95

12 Love Doesn't Just Come from DNA 105

13 Swinging from (the Sugar High of) La Chandeleur 113

Recipes for Friendship 123

Jean-Luc's Tartiflette 123

How to Host a French Dinner Party 125

Individual Tomato and Zucchini Tarts 125

Alain and Muriel's Grapefruit, Shrimp, and Fennel Verrine 126

Roasted Potimarron (Hokkaido Squash) Soup 127

Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Cream Sauce 129

Boeuf Bourguignon 131

Jean-Luc's Langoustes à I'Armorkaine 133

Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette 135

Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette 135

Ingredient 3 Adventure 137

14 A Spring in My Step 139

15 Salmonluhjali! 147

16 Weight Not, Want Not 155

17 Making Ends Meet 163

18 Diving Right In 173

19 La Guerre des Boutons (The War of the Buttons) 181

Recipes for Adventure 189

Jean-Luc's Crepes 189

My Mom's Chicken and Mushrooms in a Cream Sauce 190

Maxence's Ham and Cheese Crepes 191

Chicken Tagine with Apricots, Prunes, and Almonds 192

Lemon Confit à la Marocaine (Preserves) 194

Sam's Toulousian French Creole Gumbo 195

Isabelle's Gateau Fondant a Vorange 197

Ingredient 4 Passion 199

20 The American Invasion 201

21 Digging Up Roots 213

22 Dreams Change 221

23 Throw Papa from the Plane 233

Recipes for Passion 243

Jean-Luc's Flambéed Pastis Shrimp 243

Mango-Avocado Salsa 244

Moelleux au Chocolat with a Cceur Fondant 245

Sautéed Rosemary Potatoes 246

Elvire's Gateau au Yaourt (Yogurt Cake) 247

Ingredient 5 Love 249

24 Stepmother's Day 251

25 Get Me to the Church on Time 257

26 Friendship Is Always in Season 265

27 Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, Even When There Are Pits 273

28 Sweet Sixteen 279

Recipes for Love 289

Jean-Luc's Traditional Tian Provencal 289

Kathy's Goat Cheese and Balsamic Glaze Tian Provencal 290

Jean-Luc's Simple Pot-au-Feu 291

Jean-Luc's Cherry Clafoutis 293

Jean-Luc's Strawberry Soup 294

A Crumble for All 295

Frushi 296

Cherry Compote 298

Epilogue 299

How to Host the Perfect Book Club 301

Reading Group Guide 303

Acknowledgments 307

About the Author 309

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

02/13/2017
Verant combines one part second chance at romance, on part travelogue, and nearly three dozen recipes in this heartfelt account of how she reconnected with a lover 20 years after their affair and started life over in France with an instant family. When Verant was 19 and traveling through Europe, she had a brief encounter with a Frenchman named Jean-Luc. Not ready for something serious, she never responded to his ardent letters. Two decades later, divorced and in debt, Verant reached out to Jean-Luc, who had been widowed, recently divorced his second wife, and become the solo parent of his two young kids. The undeniable chemistry was still there, and a year later they married and moved outside of Toulouse. In her new environment, Verant had to navigate the laborious bureaucracy and red tape that come with being a foreigner living abroad, learn how to speak French more fluently, and understand vast behavior and cultural differences (such as the French habit of being very direct and making intense eye contact). Most critically, she had to figure out how to bond with her stepchildren, who were still dealing with grief and distrust after Jean-Luc’s ill-advised second marriage. In the end, as Verant warmly writes, food—and her cooking—gave her a sure-fire way in with the family, as they often prepared meals and dined together. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"How To Make A French Family shares the ups and downs, good, bad and funny moments of building a new life and family in France, never letting us forget that in the end, love saves the day." — Kristen Beddard, author of Bonjour Kale

"Samantha Vérant dishes up a funny and tender memoir in How to Make a French Family. The setup is pure fairy tale but the tale’s power is in the ever-after. Vérant’s story is genuine, romantic, sometimes heartbreaking, and, in the end, as wonderfully satisfying and rich as the French cuisine detailed on its pages." — Michelle Gable, New York Times bestselling author of A Paris Apartment and I'll See You in Paris

"Like its author, Samantha Verant's new book is sweet and sassy, told from the heart. Her story of creating a new family and becoming a different kind of mom is brave and vulnerable. A tale of what happens when we go looking for our best lives and best selves." — Elizabeth Bard, New York Times bestselling author of Lunch in Paris and Picnic in Provence

"An honest, heartwarming—and at times—heartbreaking account of the struggles that occur when you dare to make your dreams come true." — Janice MacLeod, author of New York Times bestseller Paris Letters

"Verant combines one part second chance at romance, on part travelogue, and nearly three dozen recipes in this heartfelt account of how she reconnected with a lover 20 years after their affair and started life over in France with an instant family. " — Publishers Weekly

"Love has no boundaries in Samantha Verant's honest and courageous memoir about leaving it all behind to marry her French husband. How to Make a French Family is a testament to her perseverance to adapt to a new life in Southwest France. In the tradition of Seven Letters from Paris, readers will laugh, cry, and cheer for Verant until the final page." — Susan Blumberg-Kason, author of Good Chinese Wife

"...charming and witty....Verant’s memoir touches on universal, real-life themes, like love, loss, and family, while mixing in plenty of delicious French flavors (and actual recipes) that make for a tasty read that’s true to the heart. " — Booklist

"A charming and insightful memoir about what follows happily ever after. The fact that Samantha’s quest to create a new family is set in France (and filled with recipes) makes it all the more delicious!" — Jennifer Coburn, author of We’ll Always Have Paris

From the Publisher

2016-12-27
A determinedly positive memoir about starting life over as mother to a family in southwestern France.Vérant's first memoir (Seven Letters from Paris, 2014) chronicled the author's fairy-tale romance with a handsome French rocket scientist she had met 20 years earlier and then pursued after a divorce and a business failure left her in debt. This book is the happily-ever-after follow-up, in which the two marry and the author takes responsibility for her new husband's two children, preteen Max and teenage Elvire. Rugby-playing Max took the new situation in stride; "porcelain doll" Elvire was less taken with her new stepmother. In short, peppy chapters, the author describes the stages of her adjustment to life in France. She got her driver's license, made some expatriate friends, gradually increased her knowledge of the language, learned to scuba dive and ski, wrote her first memoir, and, along with her husband, renovated their house. As a "glass-is-half-full, not empty kind of girl," Vérant touches on but doesn't explore deeply the emotional pain of miscarriage. Instead, she provides accounts of family vacations, holiday get-togethers, the self-created "Stepmother's Day," and delicious meals, for some of which she supplies recipes, including one for "frushi" (French sushi). Her husband, Jean-Luc, can be "a little bossy," but they never "argue, yell, or fight," instead employing the "bonobo strategy" of using sex to defuse anger. The author's descriptions tend toward the generic: one friend's husband is "tall, dark, and handsome," and another's "dashing and charming." So do her insights: "life is a bowl of cherries, even when there are pits"; "even with its twists and turns, nature eventually takes its course." Those looking for a breezy read about a transplanted American in France may be satisfied, but the book dwells more on Vérant's personal life than on observations of the world around her.

Kirkus Reviews

How to Make a French Family: A Memoir of Love, Food, and Faux Pas

How to Make a French Family: A Memoir of Love, Food, and Faux Pas

Paperback

Paperback

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Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

Customer Reviews

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

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Customer Reviews