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For the holiday season, I'm repeating this post from 2012. This Chocolate Biscotti Recipe from David Lebovitz is easy to make. Bake a delicious gift! Start out with good ingredients such as Valrhona Cocoa, demerara sugar, slivered almonds and chocolate chips. As a fan of food and bigger fan of Paris, I follow the blog of expat American  +David Lebovitz , pastry chef, author of cookbooks and one of my favorite iPhone apps,  Paris Pastry ®. I made his  Chocolate Biscotti Recipe  for holiday gifts.  Is it possible for an amateur like me to turn out great biscotti? I took David's advice and searched out the best cocoa as he proclaims it makes a big difference. At the new  +Sur La Table ® in Durham, I found  +Valrhona® Cocoa Powder   (made in France) and while a bit on the pricey side, I'm now a convert to this brand. Intense chocolate. I also picked up demerara sugar (for the glaze) and slivered almonds at the local  +Southern Seas...

The Grande Allée in Monet's Clos Normand. Giverny, France. September 2013 In Paris, the weather is anything but predictable, but you cannot wait around for a sunny day. So it was with umbrellas and raincoats that my husband and two friends left our apartments in the Marais neighborhood and descended into the Saint-Paul Métro station at seven that September morning. Destination: Giverny. Switching once at the Châtelet métro (but we prefer to switch at Concorde), we traveled to the regional train station, Gare Saint Lazare. There, we purchased roundtrip SNCF tickets on the Rouen-bound train. Before boarding, we validated our tickets in the yellow boxes on the platforms. If you don't validate, you'll have to pay the conductor a fine when he comes around to check tickets. After forty-minutes in our comfortable second class seats, we descended onto the platform at Vernon. Since there were four of us, we climbed into a taxi (instead of the buses) destined for the nearby village o...

Luxembourg Gardens, Paris.  15 Sept 2013 The fashionable color combo around the Senate building at  Luxembourg Gardens is red and purple. This is another favorite garden in Paris where I've never seen the same combinations repeated on my many visits over the years. Familiar flowers combined for a unique design. Castor bean, dahlias, petunias and geraniums dominate. Panoramic view of public section of the gardens. Pink (begonias and anemones) and blue plumbago towers (corners) are introduced. I like the use of purple fountain grass and purple spires of salvia. Add caption I'm inspired by the spires of salvia. Love this look. On a smaller scale, this would look great in a cottage garden. The color coordination of my scarf with the garden was purely coincidental. 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 ...

Dahlia 'Bel Amour' at Jardin des Plantes. 15 Sept 2013 Jardin des Plantes is my favorite Paris garden, and I wander through on every visit, in different seasons and it's always delightful. Huge dahlia blooms—in many forms and colors—are abundant right now. The flower trial sign indicates the varieties were created by  Label Rouge   and are "Les dahlias de qualité supérieure." After enjoying our picnic on a bench in the gardens, I snapped a few dahlia photos to share with you. I can't decide which ones I like the best—do you have a favorite? Huge blooms! Dahlia 'Château de la Bordaisière' Dahlia 'Flamina' Dahlia 'Bumble Rumble' Dahlia 'Fripon' is a short variety, paired with echinops. Dahlia 'Néo' Dahlia 'Colorama' Dahlia 'Clair de Lune' These red dahlias show the height of most. Paired with deep red coleus, backed by grasses. Words and photos by Freda Cameron , Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel . All...

Tuileries Garden, Musée du Louvre in Paris. Sept 2013 Don't you know the goats would love a bit more rope to reach those flowers in the Tuileries Garden? A few days later, the goats were gone, but the grass was evenly trimmed in the ravine. Good work from the goats. 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.

Once again, we have a dog in the family. Brie, our miniature poodle, loves to lunch with us so we're getting to know all the dog-friendly dining spots in the area. Fearrington is one of her favorite hangouts. We love it, too. Puppy Brie sits patiently under our table at The Granary Restaurant. Brie will be one year old on October 19, 2013. Jenny's White Garden behind the Fearrington House Inn. May 2013 Fearrington Village , with the charm of an English hamlet, is located in the rolling countryside only ten minutes from Chapel Hill and thirty minutes from the Raleigh-Durham Airport in North Carolina. Fearrington House Inn, with its renowned restaurant, is a member of Relais & Chateaux, a family of the finest hotels and gourmet restaurants in the world. Whether overnighting at the Inn, dining outdoors or browsing in the shops, dogs on a leash are welcome to join their owners. They may even sniff out a rock covered with dog biscuits while strolling along a garden path. B...

Eryngium yuccifolium (aka 'Rattlesnake Master'). Looking downhill in the deer resistant meadow garden. July 15, 2013 The first time I saw Rattlesnake Master was at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.  I saw it again in The Battery Gardens in New York City and was hooked on the architectural form of this native wildflower. This is now the third growing season and my plants have matured into tall, sturdy stalks supporting branches tipped by white globes. I grow mine in a meadow mix of flowers (daisies, coneflowers, bee balm, etc.). But I think the white globes would be spectacular against a solid green or burgundy foliage background or among grasses. The bluish rosette foliage at the base of Rattlesnake Master resembles yucca leaves, but don't use the leaves to fight off rattlesnakes. The eyebrow-raising common name for Eryngium yuccifolium originated from the Native American tea, brewed from the roots, used as an antidote for rattlesnake bites. The one-inch globes a...