challah! (like, holla) get it?

I'm bread obsessed - in a carb-overload sort of way. I use the awful excuse, "I made it so, the bread doesn't have any preservatives, which means that I must consume the entire loaf in 48 hours." The habit was kicked for about a week -- until...

Challah.

This is the most FABULOUS bread recipe that I have found. And it is a Cooking Light recipe, too! Who woulda thunk?

The recipe calls for threads of saffron, which I'm sure would have been fantastic, but after finding the spice EXPIRED on the grocery store shelf, and trying to explain to the 16 year old when the heck this stuff was...I decided to try something new. Orange zest. See the little flecks?

I think the recipe was darn good with the orange zest. My mom made some pretty mean french toast with the leftovers the next day. Add a little splash of Grand Marnier to the egg mix for that extra pop. Nice job, mom!

OMG

Pazo...

cupcakes...

cocktails...

pair them together for a happy hour.

I must go.

salt

The recent snowfall has left many locals longing for summer - including this bacon lover. I love restaurant hopping in the summer, when you actually don't mind parking your car three blocks away just to get in a walk after dining. One of those great places that we found one warm summer evening last year was Salt Tavern. This is a great, tiny place located inside a converted home. Two things grabbed my attention that night - duck fat french fries and goat cheese mini donuts with lavender salt.

The french fries?

Duh.

No explanation necessary.

The donuts? Wow. Such an interesting play on sweet and salty. It was a refined version of pretzels and ice cream, chocolate-covered potato chips...and the like. I can't wait until the piles of snow are gone, so I can actually dream of parking around some of these side-street restaurants such as Salt.

Until then, allow me to reminisce...

bread 2

Add to the original recipe:

- cinnamon

- chocolate chips

- dried cherries

- chopped walnuts

- dash of ground pepper

And you have the best breakfast bread in the world.

cabin fever

Three to four feet of snow in a week? That's enough to drive this girl crazy. Thank goodness I was able to get to the grocery store before the masses ran over me in the hopes of buying 100-packs of toilet paper. We cook A LOT while snowed in and the gym will certainly be seeing me after I can finally dig myself out of this mess.

The good news? Work is closed due to this non-stop blizzard! Let's make a toast to snow days! How about a mimosa with fresh-squeezed blood orange juice?

We also attempted to create some bread from Jim Lahey's book, "My Bread". This book was a present to my mom from some wonderful friends and foodies in New Jersey. Many thanks for a great snowed-in recipe! You can find a version of the recipe on the Sullivan Street Bakery's site, Lahey's shop in NYC.

Lahey's technique involves no kneading, but an incredible amount of time. You will also need a Le Crueset or Lodge Pot. I would recommend the Lodge pot, since you do not need to remove any hardware before placing it in the oven. Le Crueset's black handle is known to melt past 350 degrees or so, but just use a knife to remove the screw and replace with aluminum foil.

I did miss the kneading process, but this technique is a little less messy and uses less space - which is perfect for the small counter space in my apartment.

After almost 20 hours of proofing...

and 30 minutes of baking...

we were rewarded with chewy, crunchy, beautiful bread. It has an amazing texture and was actually "singing" when we took it out of the oven. The Lord blessed this bread and we celebrated with a stick of butter.

"Hallelujah!"

sucre high

My mom and I seem to love visiting the coldest climates in the most extreme weather -- but we sure get a discounted rate! Our trip to Quebec two years ago provided us an opportunity to build our immunity for the Chicago trip this past December. "Five degrees below zero? Ha! Try a wind chill of negative twenty degrees with twelve feet of snow."

Have the cab from the airport take you directly to Le Cochon Dingue, our favorite spot for breakfast and hot chocolate. I found this place when on a school trip for the French National Honor Society in high school (dork alert!) and spent most of my Canadian dollars on croissant.

Walk down the street and go to Fruits & Passion, a Canadian parfum company, and buy Purple body spray, my favorite scent.

Chicago was the better food scene. But I didn't see any street vendors with hot maple syrup on a stick. So...point for Quebec.

Instructions: take off gloves in frigid weather. Pay the man to pour hot maple syrup over dirty snow.

Take a stick and roll sugary mixture onto the end - lollipop style.

Pick out debris from dirty snow and enjoy.

Also, try the maple butter on homemade white bread. Carb-o-rific!