Mimi Thorisson is living the dream. That is, she is raising her children in a stunning chateau in the Medoc in the South of France, which she and her husband painstakingly renovated. On her blog, she catalogues her cooking adventures, which were fodder for her first book, A Kitchen in France, and her newly released second cookbook French Country Cooking (Clarkson Potter). French Cooking has 100 recipes and 100-plus inspiring photographs of the dishes and Thorisson’s equally dreamy table settings and home. Not to mention snapshots of the family’s six dogs. It’s chaos, but of the artfully chic, countrified kind. Equally appetizing are stories behind the recipes and pictures of the home, including tales from the chateau’s previous owners. If ever there was a reason to pack up and move to the French countryside, this is it.

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