Barbra Austin

Thanks for visiting. I’m a writer, and this is my blog. Here you’ll find information about my work, plus occasional posts about restaurants, recipes, and that time I got in deep trouble after the Homecoming dance.

I was based in Paris, which should explain most of my archive, but now I’m spending more time in Hong Kong. You can read more about that over on my new project, Eat (Think) Hong Kong.

I’ve been wanting to attempt this dessert since having it at Le Bal Café a few weeks ago, and Friday’s nuptials seemed like a good occasion to try a little bit of British dessert cookery.

“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” starts the classic American holiday tune, but it’s the French who really know how to make chestnuts sing.

I accidentally made two of these cakes a few weeks ago.

This turned out to be a happy accident.

There is one flaw in this soup: It requires turning on the oven.

Life is not a bowl of cherries. It’s not like a box of chocolates, either, unless some of those chocolates happen to have bad timing, sinus infections and heartbreak at their centers. Do I sound bitter?

I thought I might feel better if I did a little baking (speaking of clichés). It usually works.

This is a recipe I recently did for Girls’ Guide to Paris. It’s a pretty, pale green spring soup, easy to make for a casual meal but elegant enough to serve to guests.

Continue reading at Girls’ Guide to Paris….

I got an email recently from my friend Bonnie, wondering what would happen if she substituted butter for the Crisco called for in her mom’s “crazy delicious” rhubarb coffee cake recipe.

I replied to her query by saying, “The cake will be more delicious, that’s what will happen.” And I asked for the recipe.

Parfait is perfect for those who like creamy frozen desserts but don’t have an ice cream machine.

In other words, me.

When I first made this cake years ago with my friend Heather we used pecans, but pecans are not so easy to find here in Paris.

We also wrote a song about it, which I’m sure is funny only to us. I will not share it with you.