You’ve undoubtedly heard of Miracle Fruit before. I first read about these magical little berries in the New York Times last summer and have been curious about them ever since. We used Bryan’s birthday as an excuse to have a couple of friends over for dinner and flavor trip. read more+++

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+++

I’m back from Montreal (more on that soon!) and ready to start cooking again but first:  We’ve been together for a while now and there is so much I don’t know about you. In an effort to deepen Lottie + Doof’s relationship with our readers, I present to you: The Lottie + Doof Food Questionnaire. This was inspired by those crazy quizzes that were all the rage on social networking sites a few years ago, which were themselves inspired by the Proust questionnaire that Vanity Fair made famous. My friend Ashley and I became obsessed with those quizzes a while back and completed so many of them. We still have all of those quizzes and they remain a really lovely artifact of that time in our life. Anyway, I wanted a food-centered survey and so I put this together! I hope you’ll all leave your answers to this quiz in the comments. All of you! Even those of you sitting quietly at the back with big smiles on your faces. And yes, even you Ashley.

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Cheese. There may be nothing I like more than cheese. All sorts of cheese, from the very strongest and most aggressive blue to the smooth creaminess of goat. I never imagined I would be making my own, but an article in this month’s Food and Wine changed all of that. Maria Helm Sinskey convinced me that making ricotta was both easy and fun—and it was. read more+++

If you have looked at the recipe index, you’ll notice that this is the only recipe I have posted so far that belongs in the savory category. What can I say, I’ve got a sweet tooth. read more+++

The organic market on the boulevard Raspail is another must-go Paris destination. I enjoy farmers’ markets wherever they are, but like ice cream, they really are best in Paris. In addition to excellent vendors of produce, cheeses, and meats there are some especially good stands that are worth a stop. Michael Healy, an American living in Paris, sells handmade English muffins that are a real treat—his stand is about halfway down the narrow market. For me the best thing about the market is Les Gustalin, the stand right near the entrance at rue du Cherche-Midi. It sells the most amazing potato pancakes I have every eaten. We kept going back for more…

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In July I spent a week in Paris with Bryan. We rented an apartment in the Marais and basically ate our way through the city. I dream of moving to Paris—it really is the most beautiful city in the world. And it is full of the best food you’ll ever eat. Recently a friend moved to Paris for the year and I tried to compile a list of my favorite places to eat. This seemed like a good thing to share here because everyone needs to go and you all need to eat at these places.

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