I’m back!

October 2011 will go down as one of the greatest months of my life. It was all so good. I’ll share more soon, but for now let’s get right back into baking.

Traveling at the start of Autumn had me in constant awe of the bounty of food at the markets in Europe and happy(ish) to return to my kitchen and actually make something. I missed cooking! I returned to a pile of magazines, many with turkeys on the cover.

As soon as cool air flows into town, I start thinking about Thanksgiving. I use October and November as recipe testing time. Everything I try is an audition for a spot at the Thanksgiving table. Auditions have begun. read more+++

I somehow missed the 3-year anniversary of my blog.

I’m still distracted.

Here’s the thing, I’m planning a wedding—my wedding! Yes, dear reader, Bryan is finally making an honest man out of me (eww, that joke kind of creeped me out). Remember when we went to Massachusetts back in July? Well, we got married on a beautiful summer day under an old tree in Salem. Just the two of us.

But we weren’t content with it being just the two of us. We think these things need to be celebrated and so we’ve been planning a wedding celebration to bring together many of our closest friends and family for a fun weekend.

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In the past, I have publicly expressed my dislike of bread and butter pickles. Honestly, I just don’t love sweet pickles. Usually. But maybe I think I don’t because so many are overly sweet and lacking in flavor. So, it was with a bit of trepidation that I tried this recipe for zucchini pickles from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. My friend Sandra was the first to recommend the recipe, and she is a very trustworthy source. Judy Rodgers ain’t bad either.

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When Bryan and I decided to move to Oak Park, we were moving further away from our friends. It was the one part of the decision to leave our old neighborhood that we were agonizing over. For anyone not familiar with Chicago’s geography, Oak Park is the first town directly west of the city center. It is still connected by the same public transportation and the Sears Tower (I reject its new name) is a major part of the view from our apartment. Think of it as a Manhattanite moving to Brooklyn. Or Hoboken? The point being, we could easily have moved somewhere else within the city limits and been much further away from our old neighborhood and friends. But still, we worried. Ultimately we decided to go for it, and honestly have never found the extra 20 minutes of a commute to be a problem, and we love our new community. read more+++

Barbeque season is here. We don’t have an outdoor space for grilling, so we find ourselves traveling to friends’ backyards or porches to cook outside during the summer. I’m always on the lookout for a good salad that will transport easily and taste delicious alongside some grilled meats. This salad does the trick and is nice to look at, too.

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I’m not sure how rhubarb and strawberry became such a famous couple. For me, rhubarb and raspberry are the superior pairing.

I know, I know- rhubarb and strawberries are the first “fruits” of spring and it makes sense that they hang out together. And yes, they are delicious. But raspberry adds a deep jamminess that really elevates the tart rhubarb and makes a perfect duo. I say this, in part, because of this insanely good raspberry and rhubarb crostata that helped make our memorial day weekend memorable.

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Sometimes a recipe stops you in your tracks.

A few weeks ago Bryan and I attended a dinner party for my friend Amber’s new business, Las Manas Tamales (more on that in a minute). The first course was described as a spring vegetable escabeche with savory granola. I didn’t really know what to expect and certainly had no idea I would be so moved by the dish.

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It amazes me how some recipes slip through the cracks. This is one of my all-time favorite cookie recipes, and somehow I never shared it here. This lead me to realize that there are still several more of my all-time favorites that have never made it onto the site. I plan to remedy that in the coming weeks. But these cookies! These cookies are really something. read more+++

101 Cookbooks, the gorgeous blog started by Heidi Swanson in 2003, is one of the sites that inspired me to launch Lottie + Doof. That may surprise you if you were to compare the nutritional qualities of the two sites, but I really related to Heidi’s sense of design and to her relationship to food. It is one of the places on the web that continues to inspire me to cook. Heidi also writes some lovely cookbooks and I was pleased as punch that she sent me a copy of her newest, Super Natural Every Day: Well-Loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen. read more+++

You’ve likely seen these bagels before. Luisa just raved about them last week.  Because of her wonderful post, I considered not posting them here—but it is too important. Think of this post as a public service announcement. You need to make these bagels. For those of you that have experienced the joy of making your first loaf of no-knead bread, this is like that, but with bagels. I mean, what else is there to say? You. Can. Make. Bagels. And not just any bagels, really amazing bagels.

The recipe (from Peter Reinhart) is available here or here. But I wanted to add my two cents to the process.

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