Lucy Baluteig-Gomes is the French designer behind Rose la Biche, a poetic line of handmade clothing that’s both easy to wear and one-of-a-kind — think petals cascading from collars, ruffled hoodies, and tulle neckpieces.

Lucy and I have known each other for years — we first met at a C&Z get-together in San Francisco in 2006 — and I have followed her adventures excitedly as she moved from San Francisco back to Paris, before relocating to Barcelona where she lives now. Lucy is a mother of two, and I am delighted to have her as my new guest on the Parents who Cook series.

Can you tell us a few words about your children? Ages, names, temperaments?

I have two kids: my son Oscar is 6 years old, and my daughter Brune is 3. While they have two very different personalities, they get along very well and are very protective one of another.

Oscar is sweet and sensitive, calm and responsible. He’s sociable and like to make people laugh. He cannot stand injustice. We like to joke that he’ll win the Nobel Prize for Peace one day.

Brune is a lively little girl, playful and full of energy, with a strong personality. She has quickly understood that a smile can get her almost anything she wants, and she uses this trick as much as she needs!

Did having a child change the way you cook?

Not really. Once the baby phase was over, I quickly made a point of cooking the same meal for the whole family. First because it’s more practical, but also because I cherish mealtimes very much — that’s my conservative side.

We talk about the meal, the vegetables or spices we’re eating, we comment on whether we like them or not, and then we chat about everyone’s day. I like that time when we’re all gathered around the table, and my husband and I try our best to make it happen on weekdays, even if it means eating late.

Plus, I come from the Southwest of France, a region where food is taken very seriously, and in my family, cooking is almost a religion. In the end, I might have slightly modified some of my recipes to make them more kid-friendly (like preparing fish into fishballs) or quicker (like a great 9-minute risotto in the pressure cooker). But all in all, I didn’t really change the way I cook.

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To celebrate the 10th anniversary of C&Z, I am hosting 10 giveaways throughout the month of October. Keep checking back for chances to win wonderful products I’ve discovered and loved over the past decade!

Our seventh giveaway prize is a set of three reusable shopping bags and five reusable produce bags from Flip & Tumble, a small design studio based out of Berkeley, California.

The first product they developed when they launched in 2007 is the 24-7 bag, a reusable and durable shopping bag that folds back into a neat little pouch attached inside the bag. Co-founder Eva Bauer got in touch with me back in 2008 to tell me about it, and I have been an intensive and intensely happy user since then. (See my post on reusable shopping bags.)

We have a collection* that we keep around at all times — a couple on the sideboard by the door, one in the stroller, one in my purse, one in Maxence’s computer bag — and they have become such staples of our everyday lives and travels that we call them “flips” for short, as in “T’as pris un flip?” (Did you bring a flip?).

Encouraged by the success of that bag, the Flip & Tumble team came up with reusable produce bags, and I am just as enthusiastic about those*. I love that they help me avoid much of the plastic and brown paper normally involved in bringing home the fruits and vegetables we eat; they are easy to wash and lightweight enough that I don’t end up paying more for my produce; and I get so many compliments from other shoppers and vendors that I hope their use will one day become more commonplace.

For this giveaway, co-founder Eva Bauer is offering three assorted 24/7 bags and a set of five produce bags.

To participate, leave a comment below (in English or in French) telling me about the environment-friendly habit you think is most important in the kitchen. And if you’re on Facebook, please consider liking the Flip & Tumble page (and the C&Z page, too!).

You have until Monday, October 28, midnight Paris time to enter; I will then draw one entry randomly and announce it here. Eva has generously agreed to ship internationally, so you’re welcome to play regardless of your location; please make sure you enter your email address correctly so I can contact you if you win.

Good luck! And check back on Thursday for a new giveaway.

WE GOT A WINNER!

I have drawn an entry at random using random.org (see screen capture below), and I am pleased to announce the winner is Margaret, who wrote: “There are so many little things and I’m not sure what is most important. Reusing as much as possible for bags and containers is something that is easy, but reduces a lot of waste and plastic. The other thing I try to do is not waste water using too much when washing dishes. Water is such a precious resource…”

Congratulations Margaret, and thank you all for entering!

* Disclosure

The Flip & Tumble products I own were sent to me for free by the company, with no obligation to write about them. All opinions expressed are my own.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of C&Z, I am hosting 10 giveaways throughout the month of October. Keep checking back for chances to win wonderful products I’ve discovered and loved over the past decade!

Our sixth giveaway prize is a 12-month membership to Jules Clancy’s Stonesoup Virtual Cookery School. I have told you about Jules before when her wonderful 5 Ingredients 10 Minutes cookbook came out*: she’s the Australian author of the blog The Stonesoup, a talented food writer and entrepreneur who specializes in minimalist cooking.

For a while now she has been running a successful e-cooking school that gives you online access to carefully crafted programs on different themes (meal planning, stress-free entertaining, simple bread-making…) with tools, techniques, email motivators, recipes, and e-books, all designed to boost your confidence in the kitchen and strengthen your culinary skills. Jules’ approach is a rare mix of the practical and the inspiring, appealing to the budding as to the seasoned cook, and I am delighted that she has agreed to offer a one-year membership for this giveaway.

To participate, leave a comment below (in English or in French) sharing with us the biggest challenge you face in your everyday cooking. And if you’re on Facebook, please consider liking the Stonesoup page (and the C&Z page, too!).

You have until Thursday, October 24, midnight Paris time to enter; I will then draw one entry randomly and announce it here. Jules’ school welcomes students from all around the world (note: all classes and material are in English), so you can play regardless of your location. Please make sure you enter your email address correctly so I can contact you if you win.

Good luck! And check back on Monday for a new giveaway.

WE GOT A WINNER!

I have drawn an entry at random using random.org (see screen capture below), and I am pleased to announce the winner is Ivana, who wrote: “My biggest challenge is getting fresh, good-quality fruit and vegetables for cooking throughout the week. Farmers’ markets here are only open on the weekends, and I haven’t managed to find a way to keep the stuff I buy during the weekend fresh all the way through Friday. And the supermarket fruit and veg is all “plastic”, even when it is marked organic.”

Congratulations Ivana, and thank you all for entering!

* And don’t miss the incredible collection of 140 five-ingredient recipes you came up with then!

I don’t know what my body is trying to tell me, but I seem to have developed a high taste for all things Brassicaceae, and recently I’ve been hankering for cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, kale, and cabbages of all stripes.

I have made so many batches of Cauliflower à la Mary Celeste my oven has stopped counting; I have stir-fried broccoli together with sweet potatoes; I have sliced raw kohlrabi to top with seaweed tartare (the one from The French Market Cookbook) and cubed it for a lentil salad; I have roasted Savoy cabbage and planted kale on my mini-balcony, dreaming of the 50 things I can do with it; I have roasted green cabbage with summer’s last bulbs of fennel and fall’s first heads of potimarron; and I have been making lots and lots and lots of cabbage slaws.

Such sliced cabbage salads are the most effortless way to transform a head of green cabbage into something fresh and satisfying to go with your hard-boiled eggs or your cold roast chicken.

Sliced cabbage salads are the most effortless way to transform a head of green cabbage into something fresh and satisfying to go with your cold roast chicken.

You just need to think of it a little bit in advance, as the perfect coleslaw requires the cabbage to sit for an hour with some salt to relax. This step is key in making the salad crunchy but not agressively so, and helps to season the cabbage thoroughly.

Coleslaws are open to any number of variations, but my recent favorite is this one, flavored with fresh ginger and dill. The combination was serendipitous at first — an open-the-fridge-and-see-what-we-got sort of inspiration — but I have gone out of my way to reproduce it since then, so zesty and aromatic it was.

I sometimes make vegan slaws with my simple tahini sauce, but the dressing for this particular version involves mayonnaise: not the bucketloads called for in some recipes, but enough to satisfy. I confess I don’t make my own mayonnaise for this, but rather use a very tasty store-bought mayo I recently discovered at the organic store; you can use plain yogurt if you like that better.

And although I have sometimes used my mandolin to produce wispy strands of cabbage, I find I prefer the texture of a coarser cut, sliced by hand with a sharp knife.

Join the conversation!

Are you obsessed with cruciferous vegetables too? What have you been making? And what do you put in your ideal cabbage slaw?

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