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+++

A tiny little post and a final recipe from Bryan’s party. read more+++

I usually plan menus in reverse. I start with what I want to make for dessert and then worry about the rest of the meal later. Since I was working around a Southern Barbecue theme for Bryan’s birthday, I knew I wanted a layer cake. I ended up making John Besh’s Père Roux’s Cake which was really good, but a little too sweet for me. It is a white layer cake filled with layers of a banana-rum-caramel and topped with cream cheese frosting, I have some ideas for adjustments on the cake and will likely share my version in the future. For those of you interested in giving it a try, the recipe is available here. If you have his beautiful cookbook, My New Orleans, note that there is a major error in the printed recipe. It calls for 3 tablespoons of baking powder! A version in Food & Wine calls for 1 tablespoon so I went with that. In addition to the cake, this was the perfect time for a pecan pie.

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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+++

Here in the Midwest we are hovering between seasons. Winter is over but spring produce is just starting to trickle into the markets. Consequently, I end up eating some strange things that don’t necessarily belong to any season. This salad is a good example. It was inspired by something I ate at Hot Chocolate a couple of months ago that stuck in my head.

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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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RANUNCULUS
Ranunculus are one of my favorite flowers. They are beautiful in bunches or as single stems and they even look good as they are dying (for real!). The bunch pictured above are from one of my favorite internet friends, A Rockridge Life. Elizabeth’s site is always inspiring and her floral arrangements are incredibly beautiful. (photo courtesy of A Rockridge Life)

FRUIT SPOON

This isn’t just any spoon. I mean, look at this thing—it is so beautiful! It is made using an 18th century spoon mold and hand forged and polished. It is a real work of art and perfect for serving up some fresh berries or a generous scoop of whipped cream. Also, it is dishwasher safe which makes me immeasurably happy.

STANLEY & SONS APRON
I already wrote about these aprons over at ReadyMade, but wanted to share my own with you. The other day I realized I was choosing what to wear based on what would look good with my apron. Yikes! read more+++

The new issue of Saveur features a cover story on the food of Rome. I’ve been experiencing some pretty serious wanderlust in recent weeks and so dreaming about Rome came pretty naturally. Since I have no real hopes of a trip to Italy in the near future, I decided to try a couple of the recipes. I started with the gnocchi and the milk-braised fennel. Luckily, they were both great, relatively easy to make, and perfect for this moment where many of us are anxiously waiting the arrival of warmer days and adventure.

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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+++