Today we are hosting our very first Thanksgiving in our new place. I’m not a traditionalist when it comes to this meal. Turkey never impresses me and since I am now in charge— I declared it a turkey-free Thanksgiving! Although this declaration was met with resistance (mostly from Bryan) I am confident that I will be able to convince everyone that we can still give thanks without killing a turkey (instead we will kill a cow). We’ll still have a really lovely meal, just minus the bird. I’ll tell you a little more about the feast once I have cooked it, but for now I wanted to share these delicious little cheese straws that will accompany cocktails and wine at the start of the meal. read more+++

I love this time of year. I know that it portends some seriously bad weather ahead, but for now I don’t care. I like putting on a scarf and walking around our beautiful new neighborhood amazed by the colors that a tree can produce. I am also pretty enamored with the foods available at the market right now: baskets of apples, and squash and especially concord grapes.

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In addition to not having much time for kitchen projects, I have also been feeling a little bored of myself in the kitchen. I tend to make the same sorts of things with the same ingredients. I felt like I was in a little bit of a rut. I decided to try something new in the form of these pecan rochers (boulders en francais). Little piles of meringue, filled with pecan pieces. I don’t have much experience with meringues and so this seemed like a good challenge. read more+++

I love pickles. All forms. All vegetables. Pickled onions, turnips, cucumbers, peppers. Bring. Them. On. Until last week the only thing I pickled on a regular basis was red onions, which I love on salads and on top of tacos and other Mexican dishes. (I love this recipe for quick pickled onions) Then I found this super fast and easy recipe for spicy dill pickles and am currently on my second jar of them in less than two weeks. They are perfect. read more+++

Okay everyone, let’s start tackling some of our kitchen fears. A while back I asked you to share some information with me in the form of the Lottie + Doof Food Quiz (If you haven’t already completed the quiz, go for it!). One of the kitchen fears that came up most often was YEAST. I think there is a general misconception that working with yeast is difficult and I know many of you automatically dismiss recipes if they contain the words “let rise”. I used to be one of you! The truth is that yeast doughs are as easy as any other and just require a little extra time and patience. read more+++

I missed a very important occasion: my 100th post. It is hard to believe it’s been that long already and even harder to believe that you all found me! The internet is such a vast space full of people with things to share, and I am always grateful that some of you keep coming back to see what I have been up to in the kitchen. It is also satisfying for me to look back at the past 100 recipes and see a record of what I have been eating for these past few months. It is like a living cookbook. One of the most common questions I get from readers is about the name of this site: Lottie + Doof. I think it is about time I talk a little about Lottie.

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My friend Sophie Buhai is one half of the design genius behind Vena Cava, a women’s fashion line that launched in 2004 and has been rocking the fashion world ever since. The duo (which also includes my pal Lisa Mayock) won runner-up honors in last year’s prestigious CDFA Fund Awards and have garnered countless accolades from the fashion world and their loyal fans. If you’ve read a fashion magazine in the last few years you have undoubtedly heard about Vena Cava. Their clothing is consistently beautiful, relevant and smart and always has a sense of humor. The only problem I see with Vena Cava is that they don’t make men’s clothing—yet. I keep begging and hopefully one day I’ll be spending my paychecks on VC menswear. read more+++

This recipe goes out to all of you chocolate lovers—don’t say I never did anything for you. This chocolate and caramel tart has provided me with a bit of an adventure, nerd-style. You may recognize it from the cover of the current issue of Saveur which features it as part of a story on the beloved Marlow & Sons in Brooklyn. The tart looks beautiful, but I first come across the recipe a while back in Diner Journal, the quarterly culinary publication by the folks that own Diner and Marlow & Sons. If you haven’t already checked out Diner Journal, please do. It is such a beautiful publication, beautiful and inspiring. And if you haven’t already eaten at Marlow & Sons and Diner—do. read more+++

This weekend a car full of my favorite ladies drove from New York to Chicago on a roadtrip. I wanted to make something delicious for them and I pretty quickly decided on Macaroni and Cheese. Mostly because, like me, my dear friend Tini can’t get enough cheese. She asks for extra cheese on everything and usually is upset because it still isn’t enough (lucky for her, she has the metabolism of a hummingbird). In honor of Tini and our mutual love of cheese, I decided to try to combine a few of our favorite things into one perfect dish of baked pasta. read more+++

In addition to sharing good recipes with all of you, I hope to use Lottie + Doof as an archive of what I eat. I want to make sure that all of my favorite recipes end up on this site.  This isn’t as easy as it seems since I often don’t repeat recipes, but I’m making an effort. This Austrian Shortbread (or Austro-Hungarian Shortbread as we’ve recently started referring to it because of my confusion over which country it belonged to) has been a favorite for a while and it is a recipe that I will gladly make whenever I have an opportunity. Luckily, an opportunity presented itself to me last weekend. read more+++