Oh, Québec, I miss you.

It has been a while since our last trip to Montreal, and I am pretty eager to return. Those of you that are lucky enough to visit Québec in the winter (yes, lucky!) should take the opportunity to visit a sugar shack. Across Québec maple syrup is celebrated at “sugaring off” (giggle) celebrations held in the forests where maple sap is collected. You travel to a rural area where you sit down for a feast (usually in some sort of log cabin structure) featuring maple syrup—soups, meats, desserts, all flavored with the sweet nectar of the surrounding sugar bush. There is song and dance and a very merry time. It is a wonderful way to spend the day. Then you can walk around and check out the systems for gathering syrup and even watch them boiling it down. If you are lucky, someone will be making maple candy in the snow. We went a couple of years ago with Bryan’s grandparents (two of my favorite people) and had a blast.

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There are a wide range of dishes that I consider good and worth making and worth telling you about. Some are simply satisfying and delicious, others are totally knock-your-socks-off amazing. This recipe is from the later category of recipes. It comes from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi and I have been eying it for weeks but feeling stressed out by the three kinds of soy sauce it calls for in the recipe. I didn’t know there were three kinds of soy sauce and I had no idea how I would find them, but am I glad I did.

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The first recipe I ever posted to this site was one for sour cherry pie. It remains one of my favorite recipes and probably one of the least viewed posts ever. Not even one little comment! I was writing to myself back then before I had all of you wonderful people to share recipes with.

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I don’t know Carole Walter, but I love Carole Walter. She is a woman after my own heart. She is an incredibly accomplished baker, teacher and cookbook author and judging from her author photo, a very sweet lady. But the books are what I want to talk to you about today. Specifically, Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins and More, her encyclopedia-like cookbook dedicated to these pastries. An entire cookbook about coffee cake, people! You know how I feel about coffee cake! Walter’s books are wonderful resources for anyone interested in baking and I encourage you all to seek out her recipes. read more+++

I have been MIA, but with good reason! For starters, my friends at Floriole opened their bakery and café and I have had no reason to bake since freshly made croissants, tarts and cakes are a couple of blocks from my office. I’ll be writing more about Floriole soon, but if you are in Chicago you really need to drop what you are doing and go! It is the most exciting thing to open in Chicago in a long time and definitely my favorite bakery.

But really, my time has been spent planning Bryan’s birthday party which was this past Saturday. It was a great night with lots of good friends and good food. A few of the recipes from the Southern-style barbecue were real stand-outs and worth sharing with you. I’m starting with Bryan’s favorite, which is a recipe for skillet cornbread from the Lee brothers. read more+++

After working on my recipe index, I was surprised to see that I didn’t have a recipe for peanut butter cookies. This is strange for a couple of reasons. As someone who never cared about chocolate, peanut butter cookies were always a safe choice when I was a kid (the other option, oatmeal, was always risky because too often they contained raisins- yuck). Also, peanut butter cookies are one of only three things my mom baked on a regular basis. Her peanut butter cookies are my favorite. They are thin and crispy and always over-baked. Yes, my mom is a pretty classic over-cooker. She just wants to make sure it is Done. As a result, I developed an appreciation for well-browned baked goods at an early age, I think it makes me very European. I still bake things longer than I should if I am baking for myself. There is something about that deeply browned edge that makes me very, very happy.

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I live closer to St. Louis than most of you, but I had never heard of a St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake until I came across an article in the New York Times a few month ago. I was intrigued. But not intrigued enough to do anything about it until I saw that Deb loved it. That night I made the cake myself and it knocked my socks off. It is one of the best things I have made in quite some time. For the record, Bryan didn’t agree and claimed it tasted like an Entenmann’s Coffee Cake you would get at the grocery store. I see what he means, but those things are good!

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Right after graduating from undergrad, I was lucky enough to spend a month traveling around Europe. It was the first time I had been out of North America and it was a real adventure. In Florence we ate at a small family-run restaurant that we discovered by chance while wandering around one evening. I remember everything being lovely but I have never forgotten the onion soup I had that night. It was a puree of onion and at the time I thought it was the best thing I had ever eaten. That flavor has stayed with me all of these years and I have often lamented the fact that I didn’t record the name of that restaurant so I could go back.

I was excited to see this recipe for an onion soup in the most recent issue of Bon Appetit and hoped it would live up to my memory of that soup in Florence. read more+++

I fall in love with Los Angeles a little more each time I visit. This time we were lucky enough to have some really amazing meals. Many of them were at Bryan’s parents’ house—his mom is a wonderful cook and his dad an excellent sommelier. I came home with great family recipes (and some excellent wine) which I will undoubtedly be sharing with all of you as the year progresses. But we also managed to get out for dinner. Rustic Canyon Wine Bar in Santa Monica blew my mind early in the trip. The meal was pretty close to perfect and included a beet salad that may be the best salad I have ever eaten in my life. The pear tart and cinnamon sugar donuts were equally exceptional. I also really loved Church & State in downtown Los Angeles, which some friends recommended. Really outstanding bistro cooking and such a charming atmosphere. If I lived in Los Angeles I would be a regular at both places. If you live in Los Angeles—go!

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Welcome, dear readers, to the first of 12 DAYS OF COOKIES! That is right, from today until December 12th, I will be bringing you a new post and a new cookie recipe each and every day. 12 Lottie + Doof-style cookies to make for your friends and family (or yourself). But that isn’t all! The best part is that I am going to have some very special guests helping me out along the way. Who, you ask? Well, you’ll just have to wait and find out, but I promise it will be good. We’ve been working together for the last few weeks pulling together some very delicious cookie recipes to share with all of you! Starting now… read more+++