Well I’m home from my two weeks of travel and gluttony. More gluttony than travel. My next few posts are going to be all food from my trip. Mainly because I won’t be cooking or eating much for several days weeks…. days.

I flew BA and on my flight from Chicago to London I got this promising looking menu.

Then I got this less promising looking Chicken Tikka.

Thankfully I started my food journey in London with a proper curry takeout. So the memory of this sad airplane tikka is pretty much just an image now. Thank god.

My flight got in around 7am and after finally getting to my sister’s place I needed coffee. So we visited my favorite English coffee chain.

Too bad I don’t still have my punch card. Does Caffe Nero honor six year old punch cards? Probably not.

We wandered around Chiswick, which is right near Kew where my sister, Genevieve, & family live. That’s where we stumbled into Gail’s. Beautiful artisan breads, pastries and tarts. I love how they do their carrot cake- perfectly layered and square. You can see it a bit in the photo.

Genevieve bought a cute little tart (which I didn’t even get to look at before she ate it) and a loaf of gorgeous bread. Unfortunately that bread had olives in it. Way to ruin a good loaf.

We stopped for lunch at Charlotte’s Bistro. And after a long flight, an hour in customs and 30 minutes in traffic it was high time for a drink.

I started with the smoked salmon, which was way more beautiful than I expected.

It was a nice change from your traditional salmon on toast. I need to stop looking at it because I’m getting hungry. After that I ate this.

To be perfectly honest I wasn’t really sure what it was that I was ordering. I was exhausted and slightly drunk. Cornish Gurnard turned out to be a freaky looking (but tasty) little fish. It came with perfectly cooked lentils, mash and veg. Really fantastic actually. It was sort of accidentally decadent for what we thought was going to be a simple lunch. Accidental, but not unappreciated.

When you’re in England you really need to have the obligatory full English breakfast at least once. But do a little research and make sure you find a good one. They can be awesome or they can be wretched. Mine was awesome and I had it at Annie’s in Chiswick.

Eggs, beans, potatoes, sausage, toast, roasted tomatoes and sauteed mushrooms. This particular breakfast was actually missing a key component of the full English: the black pudding. (Looks okay, right? It’s not. It’s blood.) I say “key component” but I never eat it. Actually, I don’t think anyone ever eats it. Which is probably why they omitted it at Annie’s.

I ate that before a long day of “motoring.” Normally I’d just call it “driving” but when you’re in a car like this…

…it’s called motoring.

Here’s something I didn’t eat.

Corn sandwich… yum.

How about some tea sandwiches instead?

Much better. Let’s jump to the end now.

This is the Strongbow I drank at 10am before my flight home.

And this is the “beef and yorkshire pudding” they tried to feed me on said flight.

Where’s the beef?

I don’t know. I couldn’t find it. In the end I just drank the wine.

More travel food to come!

I figured I would give you a little sampling of the incredible food I’m seeing/eating to tide you over till I get back.

Also, I’m bragging a little. I don’t get to do it often. Indulge me.

Those are macaron from Maison Georges Larnicol on Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris. He is primarily a chocolatier, and it shows in his shop. He did have amazing macaron and caramels, including these sinful little pots.

They come with a spoon for eating on the go. Which Parisians love to do by the way. I don’t know how they don’t end up wearing all those kebabs.

His chocolates were by far the most impressive items in the shop though. Just look at this wall.

All chocolate. He even had a working clock made of chocolate. Really amazing.

In the Latin Quarter where we stayed we found Coesnon Marchaudon Traiteur. A little shop that sells little things. We called it the mini burger shop.

It’s where I got my mini baguette.

The weekend markets are incredible and have all manner of food and goods. Naturally I only photograph the food.

Scallops in their shells with the roe still attached.

The only shot I could get of the insanely crowded cheese stands.

Fresh oysters.

Crispy potatoes, hot from the pan.

This is making me hungry.

I’ve still got five days left in London and in that time I plan on eating more delicious food. Yes, delicious food does exist in London. And I haven’t even scratched the surface of the food I ate in Paris!

Sorry, skinny jeans.

Thought I’d post a quickie before I take off for the land over the sea. Today I had tea with two of my favorite ladies in the world, K and E. (When you add my G we make a KEG!) The three of us went to college together and studied abroad in London. Now we are a chef (E), a pastry chef (G) and a public defender (K). We almost never see each other since my little lawyer friend lives in MO and we two chefs are so busy we barely see our families. So getting together this afternoon was a real treat. In memory of our English adventures we decided to do a full tea service at Chicago’s legendary Russian tea room.

We opted for the classic Russian tea, a blend of black teas with a hint of berry. Fragrant and wonderful. And served in a beautiful cup to boot.

That’s the hand of my savory chef counterpart in the background. Note the engagement ring- she’s getting married! The traitor. There were four of us total the full tea service got us unlimited refills of tea and two of these.

Everything was fantastic, particularly the little napoleons on the bottom. And unbelievably filling. You wouldn’t think that little finger sandwiches would fill you up, and then you pair them with two other plates of delicious carbs and a neverending cup of tea. And then you unbutton your skinny jeans.

Anyway, if you’re in Chicago for a visit or if you live here and simply haven’t ever experienced the quaint joys of Russian Tea Time I highly recommend it.

And now- to Europe!

I may or may not have gone a little crazy with baking this year. Crazy. Really crazy. Insane. Certifiable. I don’t know what I was thinking.

I’d planned on making two cakes and three different kinds of cookies. Somehow that morphed into two cakes, four different kinds of cookies, two different kinds of bread and some doughnuts. Yup, serious mental instability going around this Xmas. Let’s recap.

Last Xmas my mom got me a mini doughnut maker and I’d never used it. So this year she requested doughnuts for breakfast. It’s really no more difficult than making pancakes. I did orange cinnamon doughnuts with an orange glaze, and they were awesome. Obviously they’re cake doughnuts and not fried (which is just fine with me- I’m not really a doughnut fan) and everyone loved them. The batter is so easy to manipulate and change up. I’ll probably use it a lot more often now that I know how versatile it is. And how yummy the doughnuts are.

Another “by request” was the Buch de Noel. I hadn’t planned on making one because I think they’re sort of a pain in the ass, but my dad asked for one so I obliged.

Chocolate sponge with chocolate buttercream and white chocolate peppermint filling. It was pretty delicious, I must say. I even made some little fondant mushrooms. I don’t know when I had time for that, but there they are.

I’m not really a big cake person anymore, but there is one cake I cannot resist: Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cherry Cake). Chocolate cake, tart cherry filling and whipped cream. For real, I dare you to say no to that.

I like to do the outsides of mine in toasted almonds, just like my aunt and uncle used to do at their bakery when I was a little girl.

I also made a panettone… we’ll talk about that later. While I was waiting for the panettone to rise I thought it would be a brilliant idea to make dinner rolls.

I really love these little knotted dinner rolls. I did four different kinds of knots, par baked them and finished them on Xmas morning. They were wonderful. Really nice flavor, lovely, soft and delicious. Yay!

Onto the cookies. My original plan was to do ginger cookies, florentines and macarons. After I’d already done a lot of baking -and was fairly exhausted- I decided to eighty-six the macarons, so I made these delicious little cardamom crescents instead. The ginger cookies are so easy- full of spicy candied ginger, brown and soft. But after a couple days they sort of turned into little rocks, which was exactly the opposite of what I wanted them to do. Yes, spicy, delectable rocks.

The cardamom crescents were awesome. Cinnamon and ground almonds in the dough add a great combination of flavors. And almonds are good fats, right? They’re pretty much like health food.

The florentines gave me a little bit of trouble. I fooled around a lot with the size of the cookies and how long I baked them and when they came out they were tasty, but really greasy. I almost wrote them off as a lost cause, but decided to try storing them on paper towels overnight- it totally wicked away the grease and left me with these wonderful, crispy, thin little dreams.

I think my uncle ate almost all of these, which is a huge compliment since he’s a master pastry chef and was trained in Vienna. Keepers.

Sooo, the next day I decided I didn’t have enough to do and I’d make macarons after all. (I wasn’t kidding about the mental instability.) Green! With raspberry & buttercream filling.

Get it, Xmas colors? I can be cheesy too, y’know.

Ah, lovely macarons. All in all I feel like my slew of Xmas desserts was pretty successful.

Oh, you want to know about the panettone I mentioned earlier? Eh. It was supposed to be for Eric’s parents. Maybe it was because I used an actual panettone paper instead of a springform like the recipe recommended. Or maybe the recipe just isn’t great. When I finally took it out of the oven (after like, 2 hours) it was completely raw in the center and black as coal on the bottom. I was really sad about it. I candied my own peel and everything.

Which brings me to my next question: Does anyone out there have a great panettone recipe they can recommend? Soft and fluffy and delicious like a panettone is supposed to be? Now that I’ve had a spectacular panettone failure I’m determined to succeed. Please, help a girl out! (I’m 25% Italian if that helps to grease the wheels.)

I’m taking a week off of cooking (and eating!) to get ready for my two week jaunt across the pond.

Back to London, my one time city home. And to Paris for a pastry class at the Ritz Escoffier and other incredible food adventures.

I’ll come back with plenty of stories, photos and extra pounds.

Au revoir mes amis!

This is what I’m eating today. Also Airborne, Halls, miscellaneous teas, and disgusting Zinc tablets. Have you ever noticed that those Zinc tablets never really completely dissolve? They just diminish into tiny little gross tasting rocks in your mouth. Medicine is supposed to be gross, right? That must mean it’s working.

I just got sick today. Kind of bad timing really. Especially since we’ve got a 2 year old coming to the house next week. Good thing I’ve gotten my 300 truffles out of the way already.

Kahlua. Here’s the problem with making alcohol laden ganache- it never sets up quite like a plain ganache. So when you’re rolling them they’re kind of melting in your hands. They end up looking really rustic (food code for ugly). Solution: fifteen minutes in the freezer. Reroll, redust with cocoa powder. Keep in cooler. Happy rolling. Oh I made peppermint too.

Don’t they look like little snowballs? Aww. This was for a big special order at work. Once we had that out of the way we had this weird calm. Eerie really. Like the calm before the holiday storm.

Nice, right? Sort of quiet and lovely. I do things other than work though.

For instance, Saturday night my parents and I went out to dinner for my mom’s birthday. We went to a French place in the Northwest Suburbs called Le Titi De Paris which has been around forever. It was opened and run for three decades by Chef Pierre Pollin who is from Normandy, France and happened to be one of my instructors in pastry school. Seriously amazing to learn from such a culinary genius. I had to stop and say to myself “Pierre Pollin is teaching me pork tenderloin!” It’s too bad that he’s not running Le Titi anymore. It’s still got amazing food, but there are some serious flaws. I yelped it. You can read my review here. If you feel so inclined. I’d still recommend the restaurant, but… well, just read it.

Hey is anyone else a Maker’s Mark ambassador? If you are then you will have been the happy recipient of this lovely bottle sweater.

I tried to put it on my sister’s dog. It didn’t fit.

Dog > Bottle of Makers.

Okay well it’s about time for me to pass out in a sickly stupor. And pray that when I wake up my throat feels normal. It’s currently rejecting all food with sharp edges.

Next week will be filled with home baking Xmas craziness. There are a hundred different kinds of cookies I want to make.

Or maybe just three.

On a totally food unrelated note, how cute is this?

Look, it’s not even $135 anymore! If you are my boyfriend and you are reading this, I can send you the address of that shop. Or you can  ask my cousin Kate. I’ll be totally surprised.

Promise.

I don’t know what’s going on with you, St. Louis, but in Chicago our corn dogs are good clean fun. Maybe we should have stayed longer. I mean, we didn’t even have time to do the brewery tour. I know, sacrilege, right? It’s okay, I think we had a pretty good sampling of St. Louis anyway. The good… and the not so good.

In case you’re wondering, the dark side of the corn dog can be found at the City Museum. “Where imagination runs wild!” Incidentally, it is also where a hundred million children run wild. I wasn’t prepared for that. Now you are. We did hit the  most recognizable St. Louis attraction. Or at least, the tallest.

Yes, that is a gut wrenching view from the top of the arch. All this sightseeing is making me hungry. After much Yelp searching, bartender asking and pre-dinner cocktailing we decided on Carmine’s Steakhouse, which was down the street from our hotel. Really excellent toasted ravioli (“toasted” read “deep fried”- apparently a St. Louis thing). Solid steakhouse overall. And this is coming from a Chicagoan.

We were in St. Louis for my cousin’s wedding, which means that Saturday night was a marathon of drinking, eating, partying and 2am pizza ordering. Yes, St. Louisians we ordered Imo’s. Imo’s was recommended to me by a genuine born & raised St. Louis resident, and I have to say I liked the crust. But the cheese. Please let’s not talk about the cheese. About the weird, fake creaminess. The overwhelming smoke flavor. No, let’s not talk about the… “cheese.” Let’s talk about the best wedding favors ever instead!

Thanks, Diane & Brian. We had a fantastic time. Except for that pizza. I need some Lou Malnati’s, stat.

Moving onto great food in St. Louis. We had hangover breakfast at this place!

Rooster! Seriously cute, sort of artsy, great looking bloody marys- even though I don’t drink bloody marys. I do drink ginger ale. Which they had. And which was delicious. Other delicious things include:

Roasted ham, fontina and emmentaler crepe with local sausage. I had serious doubts that a crepe would do the trick, but they’re surprisingly filling. Really, I couldn’t even finish it. Which, after seeing my Thanksgiving plate, should be shocking to you. We’d planned on visiting the brewery after brunch, but it was gross and rainy. And we were feeling fat and happy and ready to get on the road and drive home (okay we got in the car and went to sleep. My dad drove home. Thanks Dad!).

After all, we had an exhausting night.

The one St. Louis tradition we didn’t try was the gooey butter cake. Aaand, I’ve gotta be honest. I’m not too upset about that one. It sounds scary.

Till next time.

Bourbon apple pie. So delicious. I may or may not have added a little more bourbon than the recipe calls for. And I may or may not have left it in the oven 15 or 20 minutes longer than I should have. I got distracted. It was more like applesauce pie. Delicious, bourbon-y applesauce pie. Hey, we can’t be perfect all the time.

How was your Thanksgiving? Thaaat’s good. Mine was just peachy. Full of food, drinks and family. That’s how it should be on Thanksgiving, right? I’ve decided I’d like to start out every winter meal with spiced spiked apple cider. Heavy on the spike.

I say winter. It was almost 60 degrees in Chicago on Thanksgiving. Hey, I’m not complaining. I know our time will come soon enough. We went to my aunt’s for Turkey Day, which was just fine with us. She’s a spectacular cook. And they did ask us to make the desserts. I know what you’re thinking, “Well of course everyone asks the pastry chef to make the desserts.” Nooo, no, no, no. My aunt and uncle owned a Viennese bakery in Chicago for over 40 years. My uncle comes from a long line of pastry chefs in Vienna. They know how to make dessert. But they’re retired now. And I’m more than happy to pick up where they left off.

I delegated pumpkin pie duty to my mom. She’s no slouch in the kitchen either. (Understatement.) That’s spiced pumpkin cranberry cake with orange maple cream cheese frosting. I’m not gonna lie. It was pretty freakin’ awesome. Then we had the bourbon apple(sauce) pie, which, despite its distinct lack of distinguishable apple slices, was also completely delicious. From the drinks,

to the meal,

(that’s mostly for my coworkers, who are convinced that I never eat anything) look, I ate it all!

To desserts

…and more desserts.

It was a gut busting day. And not just for us humans.

My bourbon pie, Biscuit. Mine! I’m bad at sharing. Curse of being the youngest.

The only problem with not having Thanksgiving at home is the no leftovers issue. Come Saturday (I seriously think all I ate on Friday was two bread rolls at Eric’s house) I was hungry again. So my mom made me this dish she used to make us all the time when we were younger. It’s really simple. She calls it “peasant food.” It’s sauteed apples and onions, browned sausage slices (turkey sausage in this case) and noodles. Toss it all with a little butter and you’ve got yourself a meal fit for a pauper.

So simple, but so delicious. It brings me back to my childhood. And reminds me that I should probably go get on the treadmill.

This weekend we’re getting out of town- St. Louis for my cousin’s wedding. I’ve actually never been to St. Louis, so I’m interested to see what kinds of things (read: food) we’ll find there.

I’d like to leave you this week with a public service announcement. Reason #9834209 not to buy convenience store doughnuts.

You’re welcome. Have a lovely week.

I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t think I’m cut out for the whole traditional food blogging thing. When I make food at home I like to just make it. I can’t be bothered with the photography and the lighting- I so rarely get to cook in the comfort of my own home, I just want to enjoy it. So I’ve decided to change things up a bit. That’s the Kraken by the way. It’s my new favorite rum. I’ve traded in wine for Dark & Stormies lately. For those of you unfamiliar with the Dark & Stormy, it’s rum, lime & ginger beer. And it’s deeeelicious. Moving on.

This blog is now going to be my venue for all things food/beverage related. I’ll still post recipes from time to time, or I’ll go on and on about a restaurant or bar that I love and think you should go to (Macku Sushi in Lincoln Park, by the way). Or I’ll rant about crazy stuff that happens when you work in the food industry. It’ll be fun. I promise. I mean, look at the carrot we got at the bakery last week. It’s as big as my arm! It weighed 2 pounds and accounted for half the carrots in our carrot muffin mix. Freaky.

For my birthday this year Eric took me for a beautiful dinner, and afterwards we went to Aviary for drinks. I know everyone raves about this place and Grant Achatz is Jesus, blah blah blah. But for serious. The things they’re doing there are amazing. I had a drink called the Cider- they bring you a clear canteen type thing filled with fruit and herbs and spices and the alcohol inside sort of steeps with all of it. So the first drink you pour is a different taste and color than every following drink. It’s amazing. It’s magically delicious!

A friend of mine from college has a birthday around the same time as mine and we try to get together every year around that time. Our lives are crazy. We were roommates while studying abroad in London in 2006, we were both writing majors and now we’re both working as chefs. Funny how life happens. Anyway, for our birthdays this year we decided to go bakery hopping. There are scads of lovely bakeries to visit in Chicago these days, and we tried to hit as many as we could without driving ourselves into diabetic comas. Our first stop was Floriole. This Lincoln Park joint started as a stand in Chicago’s Green City Market and is now a very popular bakery. Most everything we had there (quiche, ganache tarts, brioche grilled cheese) was delicious, but there was one absolute standout for me. It was there that I ate this for the first time.

It’s a cannele. The outside is caramelized to a bittersweet crispy shell and the inside is soft and custardy. I’m obsessed. Cannele molds are copper and must be brushed with beeswax in order to achieve that glorious caramelization. Don’t be shocked if I make my own sometime soon. Because I think I’m going through withdrawal…

So there you have it. Tomorrow is the busiest day of the year at the bakery. We have to bake about 347028 pumpkin pies and today I peeled and sliced 35 pounds of apples. No, I’m not exaggerating. These are our orders for Thanksgiving Day.

Did I mention that I’m making the desserts for my family dinner too? Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

It’s nice to be back. I hope you enjoy my new way of doing things. I’m having a good time already.

Have a fantastic Turkey Day, my friends!

This is another “make food from your Bon Appetits” recipe. They’re actually supposed to be PB&J bars, but I think I left my 8 x 8 pan at my sister’s, so I used a 9″ round cake pan and called it a pizza instead. The crust is really simple. You make it in your food processor, press it into your pan and top it with the jelly. I used classic grape, but I think my adult palate would prefer raspberry next time. Because it was incredibly sweet.

The topping is just some of the crust broken up and spread over the jelly. Oh and lots of chopped salted peanuts. More than I used. Lots. I like chunky peanut butter, and I think I’m in the minority on that one. Still, I’m calling for lots of chopped nuts.

Good lord, look at that. I’m telling you, I could not stop eating it. I’m salivating right now just thinking about it. I saved a piece to photograph, but I think my dad ate it… or I ate it in my sleep. I’m going to stick with the dad thing. Make this. Seriously, you will not regret it.

Not until you try to put on your skinny jeans that is. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars

(Bon Appetit March ’11)

I’ve subscribed to Bon Appetit for several years now, and every time I get a new issue I go through and flag all the recipes I want to try. Because I’m a little OCD, and I like the sticky flags. Then I put the magazine on the stack that’s growing in my extra closet and forget about it. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a pretty stupid practice. The stacking, not the flagging. The flagging is awesome. Anyway I decided that I need to start going through them and making all the recipes I flagged. This is one of those.

A ham and cheese sandwich doesn’t exactly make my heart go pitter pat, but the combination of melty cheese, cheese sauce and mushrooms in this classic twist most definitely caught my attention. Mostly the melty cheese. Because melty cheese most certainly does make my heart go pitter pat. The mushrooms are chopped really finely and sauteed with shallots to cook them and pull out the moisture.

For the love of all that’s holy do not skip this step. If you put raw mushrooms on your sandwich the water they release while cooking will soak your lovely crispy bread. Set those aside to cool and make your mornay. The recipe calls for a bit of hot sauce, but I used cayenne and a little chili powder. Because I possess no hot sauce.

Crisp your bread in the broiler and get ready to assemble your sandwich. Bread, ham, cheese, bread, mornay, mushrooms, more cheese! My god I love the amount of cheese in this sandwich!

Sheet pan. Oven. Stat! I would keep it around 375° instead of the recommended 4-something. Our tops got really brown before the centers melted, so we had to put them back in after we’d already taken them out and been seduced by their bubbly lids. Painful, I tell you. Absolutely gut-wrenching. Eric almost cried. Eventually they come out looking like this!

And then you cut them in half and the cheese oozes out and you take a bite and the boiling mornay burns the crap out of your mouth and when you open your face to scream you exhale a cloud of steam (I’m not even kidding. This happened to Eric and I witnessed it. True story). But once it cools a bit you realize that this is one of the most decadent, rich and delicious sandwiches you’ve ever had. And you eat the whole thing.

And then you smile.

Mushroom Croque Monsieur

mornay sauce

• 1.5 tablespoons butter
• 1.5 tablespoons AP flour
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan
• pinch nutmeg
• cayenne or hot sauce

sandwiches

• 8 oz. baby bella mushrooms, trimmed
• 7 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons minced shallot
• 12 slices egg bread (we used sourdough and it was just fine)
• sliced ham
• 12 oz gruyere cheese thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan

Mornay Sauce:

Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add flour; stir till pale golden, about 2 minutes. Whisk in milk. Add bay leaf. Increase heat to medium high; whisk till mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat and add cheese and nutmeg. Season with salt, pepper and hot sauce.

Sandwiches:

Place mushrooms in processor. Pulse till finely chopped. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and shallot; stir till mushrooms are browned and dry, about 8 minutes. Let cool.

Preheat broiler. Spread remaining butter over 1 side of bread slices. Place bread, buttered side up on rimmed baking sheet. Broil till golden, watching closely and rotating sheet halfway through broiling, about 3 minutes. Cool bread. Preheat oven to 400° Turn 6 bread slices over; top with ham and sliced cheese. Top with remaining bread slices, broiled side up. Press to compress. Spread about 2 tablespoons mornay sauce over sandwiches. Divide mushroom mixture and place over sauce. Top with cheese.

Bake sandwiches till cheese inside melts and cheese on top is golden and bubbly, about 10 minutes.