Classes add spice to vacation in France
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LA CADIERE D’AZUR, France — It is day four of cooking class at La Bastide des Saveurs, and many
of the 14 students are looking for chairs to rest for a few minutes before the whisking begins. But
it is dessert day, so a delicious reward at the end is guaranteed.
Such are the joys, and challenges, of a gourmet cooking class at the estate of the Hostellerie
Berard in La Cadiere d’Azur, France.
There is work to be done, and instructions to follow, during a day that can stretch to seven
hours. The key is to have fun. Who wants to work on vacation?
The setting is movie-set perfect: the rustic kitchen of a 19th-century country house. Students
pass by the herb and vegetable garden on the way to the kitchen with chef Rene Berard.
A cutting board and knife await each student around the wooden block table. Bowls of cubed
butter, sugar, yellow apples and pine nuts give clues to the day’s tasks. Berard walks in, and it’s
time to grab a knife and get cooking.
Source: Columbus Dispatch
Life inside the all-American dream - New Jersey's 'Tent City'
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The main difference, now, is that families are not crossing America in the hope of salvation. They are sitting tight, because there are no jobs fruit-picking in California, no gold rush to lure them onto the road.
They know the rest of America is also suffering.
The US Census Bureau last month revealed its 2010 findings, which showed that one in six Americans was now living in poverty. Poverty is calculated across a range of thresholds, but a family of four earning $22,314 a year is considered to be in poverty.
The census showed that, for the fourth year running, the poverty rate has steadily increased, and there were now 46.2 million people below the poverty line - the largest number since estimates were first published 52 years ago.
The census also found that real median incomes had declined for white and black households, while Asian and Hispanic-origin households, while suffering high unemployment and low incomes, were holding steady.
Brigham, a fit 51-year-old aligned to the local Lakewood Outreach Ministry Church, has left the known world behind to try to make a difference helping America's new homeless.
Source: The Daily Telegraph