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Socca being made and baked over a fire at the Marché Provençal, Antibes, France. March 2012. Freshly baked, piping hot socca is a Niçoise specialty made from chickpea flour and olive oil. Socca is a specialty of the area of France around the city of Nice on the Côte d'Azur. At the Marché Provençal in Antibes, we enjoyed a piping hot socca made over a fire. For only two Euros ($2.67), my husband and I shared the socca.  Made from chickpea flour and olive oil, it has to be healthy, right? This was my first taste of socca as there are always long lines of customers waiting for these pancakes to come out of the oven. If you're interested in making socca at home, here's a recipe from David Lebovitz , an American pastry chef and cookbook author, who lives in Paris. Hot work! Words and photos by Freda Cameron , Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel . All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective compa...

1.  Jenny's White Garden at Fearrington Village. Pittsboro, North Carolina. March 2012 2.  Duke Gardens, Duke University. Durham, North Carolina. July 2011 3.  Duke Gardens. July 2011 4.  Central Park, New York City. June 2011 5.  Musée des Impressionismes, Giverny, France. May 2009. 6.  In a Paris, France park. April 2011 Sprinkles, masses or entire gardens—the use of white flowers can be a huge success or a total fail. These six inspirations were gathered on visits to gardens at home and abroad. Jenny's White Garden at Fearrington Village changes with the seasons. Since this is located only five minutes from my home, I've seen the changes. In early spring, the white blooms are primarily daffodils and other spring bulbs. I've seen the Page-Rollins White Garden at Duke Gardens  only in the heat of July where it was splendid in the 90+°F heat of the summer sun. There are succulents, perennials and annuals as well as foliage plants. I've not locate...

I faced and conquered a fear. On a January evening, I was bored with reading the Internet and watching TV. I avoided reading a novel because I was writing a novel and didn't want someone else's fictional work to influence my own. I needed a challenge that was creative and different. It was time to attempt to bake biscotti! Biscotti is a twice-baked Italian biscuit. The "twice-baked" aspect is what seemed daunting to me. Every time I took a bite of a biscotti from a bakery, restaurant or store, I was in envy of the baker behind the product. How difficult can it be? Ingredients in my kitchen led to my choice of a recipe. I had almonds and dried cherries on hand. Finding a Williams-Sonoma® recipe for hazelnut and dried cherry biscotti was close enough. I didn't want to go out and purchase more ingredients, so I substituted almonds for the hazelnuts. Other than the substitution, I followed the recipe, adjusting my oven temperature down by twenty-five degrees to use t...

Yes, the Hunger Games movie was filmed right here in North Carolina! Take a look at the link to the official tourism website, VisitNC.com, if you're interested in visiting the locations. Scenes were filmed in the beautiful western part of our state, including DuPont State Recreational Forest for the "arena" and below the Craggy Pinnacle Trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway. 12 Places To Experience 'The Hunger Games' In North Carolina - What's New In NC – North Carolina Travel & Tourism There is even a suggestion for a 4 day itinerary on VisitNC . An article on Huffington Post® provides a good overview of the travel options here in North Carolina. Are you going to see the movie? Did you read the books? Words and photos by Freda Cameron , Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel . All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

We're rocking around the garden again! After the April 2011 gravel garden project proved to be such a success, we were shoveling and raking again on the first sunny days of a very early spring. I have to be more specific with the work credit—my husband did the heavy hauling and shoveling and I raked the gravel to smooth it into place. We did nothing to the last year's garden (photo below, click to enlarge) except raked it a bit and tugged out a few weeds that were easy to pull. All the shoveling and raking work of the last week was done to extend the use of gravel in the front entrance, upgrade the path through the deer resistant garden and create a Zen-inspired garden where a chaste tree was removed. The gravel garden/guest parking on 15 March 2012. View is looking toward driveway from the garden gate. Constructed in April 2011. The Pros of Using Gravel My husband is an enthusiastic supporter of gravel projects because he is in charge of mulching. Over the  years, the applica...