French Kitchen Lessons: Recipes & Stories from Normandy's Rabbit Hill Farm

With rich and transporting photography, a back-to-basics approach to French cooking, and an inspiring story of starting over, French Kitchen Lessons is your passport to the abundance and beauty of the French countryside.
 
In 2010, Cat Bude and her husband left their jobs in the Pacific Northwest, packed up their house and kids and moved to Normandy, France. Uprooted and longing for connection, the search for a home base began. They found that and more in the form of a run-down, rambling farmhouse, overrun with wild rabbits. Now restored, and lovingly named Rabbit Hill Farm, this is the center of Cat’s world, and her vehicle for sharing the joys of country life with others, from guided market trips to lavender harvest parties, and cooking classes. 
 
Following the seasons, French Kitchen Lessons begins with classic French staples like sauces, and stocks, then teaches you how to create simple, satisfying, and elegant dishes like Steamed Mussels with Pernod, Summer Vegetable Tian, a Wild Mushroom Omelet, Cider-Braised Pork, and Lemon Poppy Seed Crêpes—all inspired by the French market-to-table tradition.
 
Finding a common language in food and feeding others, French Kitchen Lessons is a celebration of food, farm life, and the seasons–not only the seasons of the year, but the seasons of life: starting over, finding your place, and creating new connections.
 

Cat Bude is a writer, photographer, and cooking instructor. She moved to Normandy with her family in 2010 and started the website Rabbit Hill Lifestyle, where she shares her life as an expat in the countryside. Cat offers vintage shopping tours and market excursions, and hosts cooking classes out of her renovated 17th century French farmhouse.