Two loves, united.

As you all know by now, I love France. This love started as a sort of pining, probably around the time I started taking after-school French lessons in the first grade. In those lessons, we learned, among other things, to count to ten by memorizing stories. For example, for un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, we learned the following story:

"One day, a cat wanted to cross a river, but didn't think it could swim across. A snake named Trois, resting in the branches of a tree on the opposite bank of the river, convinced the cat it could swim across easily. The cat believed Trois, began to swim, and sank. Repeat after me: Under Trois, Cat sank."

Lovely, non?

And yet, despite this gory tale, my love of France and the French language persisted and flourishes to this day, fueled in part by an ever-growing love of French cuisine. It's only natural, then, that the food-based French idioms Clotilde Dusoulier shares on Chocolate & Zucchini each week have me entranced. They combine a few of my favorite things. A few choice phrases:

"Aller à quelqu'un comme un tablier à une vache." Literally, "like an apron suits a cow," it's used to describe something that is bizarre or simply unbecoming on a person.

"Le ver est dans le fruit." Literally, "the worm is in the fruit," it means "the damage is already done," but it's so much more poetic.

Go check out the whole list, and let me know which ones are your favorites!

Rainy travels, part one.

Last weekend, my friends Miles and Hall invited me to join them on a trip to Milford, Pennsylvania, in the Delaware Water Gap area. Nestled in a valley just west of the river, Milford is tiny but bustling, full of weekending New Yorkers and inhabited by a cast of characters worthy of Stars Hollow.

Our home base for the weekend was the Hotel Fauchère, established in 1852 by Louis Fauchère, then master chef at the legendary Delmonico's Restaurant in New York. Miles and Hall own a beautiful hotel of their own (Otahuna Lodge on New Zealand's South Island), and discovered the Fauchère through their Relais and Châteaux connections. The existing hotel was built in 1880, and is a gorgeous example of Italianate architecture, complete with clean, straight lines and flat roof.

Upon arrival, we were shown to our rooms, right next to one another on the third floor of the hotel, overlooking the garden. While the boys had a glassed-in shower in their room, mine featured a deep, claw-footed soaking tub. The rooms were pleasant, and the beds were very comfortable, but the bathrooms were gorgeous, all grey-streaked marble and Pennsylvania bluestone. Overall, the hotel gives off an air of summery ease, with plenty of spots to lounge, read, or play a game of dice (as Miles and I did on the super-rainy Saturday afternoon).

About fifteen minutes after check-in, Miles knocked on my door to let me know a little welcome gift had arrived: cheese, apple walnut bread from the hotel's patisserie, and an ice-cold bottle of Schramsberg. We headed out to the garden to enjoy these delights, enjoying one of the weekend's few hours of sunshine.

Next up, the sights of historic Milford, including a walking tour and a visit to Grey Towers. Oh, and, you know: food.

Cinnamon buns, two ways.

A couple of weekend ago, I set myself a challenge: make a whole hell of a lot of cinnamon buns.

Cinnamon buns are one of my favorite things of all time, but I'd never, ever made them at home before. I had no idea where to start (an internet search for recipes yielded, as you can imagine, an overwhelming number of options), and so I consulted my new go-to: my tweeps.

They came through with two very different recipes: one a quick-rising, buttermilk-based, biscuity version, and one a more traditional yeasted bun, with nuts and a caramel topping. Both are delicious, but different enough to satisfy two very different kinds of cravings. (Click the link for the buttermilk recipe; see below for the for yeast-risen recipe.)

The buttermilk biscuit version is chewy, slightly salty, and tangy from the buttermilk and cream cheese topping. The yeasted version is lighter in texture and has a deep, caramel flavor, made even richer by the addition of nuts to the filling. It also makes about three times as many rolls, so be prepared to either freeze your leftovers (they keep well for a few weeks) or invite over an army of friends to eat them while they're hot.

No matter which you choose (or if you make both), make sure to roll the filling tightly into the dough, something key to an evenly-baked, moist bun. And, of course, you must enjoy at least one bun with a cup of coffee - there really is nothing better than that.


Katie's Cinnamon Nut Buns
Makes approximately 24 buns

For the rolls:
1/4 cup warm water (about 110-115 degrees)
2 packets (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm whole milk (110-115 degrees)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp. salt
3 large eggs
6 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for work surface)

For the filling:
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2/3 cup pecans
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

For the glaze:
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
6 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tbsp. water

Sprinkle yeast on water in small bowl, let stand until foamy (5-10 min.).

Butter two 13x9 (or three 9x9) baking pans; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together milk, butter, salt, sugar, and eggs. Add yeast mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir in 6 cups flour, until you have a soft, shaggy dough (if needed add more flour).

Turn dough out onto a floured work surface; knead until smooth (5 to 10 min.) Butter the inside of a large bowl; place dough in bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm spot until dough has doubled in size, at least one hour.

Place all of the filling ingredients - except for the butter - in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Pulse until coarsely ground; set nut mixture aside.

Divide the risen dough in half (keep the other half covered). On a flour-dusted surface, roll dough out into a rectangle about 16 inches by 10 inches. Spread 4 tablespoons of the butter over dough, leaving about 1/2-inch border all around.

Sprinkle half the nut mixture over butter. Leave a border around the filling so it doesn't spill over. 
 Roll the dough tightly, crosswise, like a jelly roll. Once you've finished rolling, use a sharp knife to cut the log crosswise into 12 equal pieces.

Place buns, cut side down, in the prepared pans. Cover pans loosely with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm spot until doubled in size (about an hour).

Place the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 375°F. Bake buns until golden brown (25 to 30 minutes), rotating pans back-to-front and top-to-bottom halfway through.

Remove pans from the oven and let cool in pans, on racks, for fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze:

In a small saucepan set over medium heat, mix the brown sugar, butter and water, stirring gently until the mixture comes to a simmer. Cook one minute more, then drizzle the glaze over the cooled buns. Let stand 10 more minutes before serving.

Buns keep well, cooled completely and then frozen in plastic bags, for up to four weeks. Thaw overnight and warm gently in the oven before serving.

Many, many thanks to @lostplum and @KathrynYu for the awesome recipes!

Change of season.

The asparagus are few and far between, strawberries are everywhere, and the tomatoes are starting to pop up at more and more stands...this can only mean one thing: summer is here, however cold and rainy it may be. I'm looking forward to a couple months of tomato, basil & corn salads, roast squash, beets galore, and stone fruits.

What are you most excited about this summer - food-related or no?

Gallivanting around Pike County.

Hello there, dear readers! This is one of those posts where I'm the one looking to you for advice and wisdom.

I'm headed to Milford, Pennsylvania tomorrow for a long weekend with some very good friends (Miles and Hall, who decamped to New Zealand a couple of years ago when they bought Otahuna Lodge, the most amazing lodge you'll ever see), and am wondering what you wise folk recommend we do.

Obviously, a visit to the fluviarchy is in order, as is a stop at the patisserie in our hotel. But what else, what else? Do tell!

I'm a nerd, and a sucker for detail.

My latest obsession, as many of you may already know, is Battlestar Galactica. I only got "real" cable (as opposed to randomly-there-when-you-plug-into-the-wall-NYC cable) last year, so I wasn't able to watch the SciFi Channel's re-imagining of the seventies miniseries from the beginning. Since people have been raving about it to me for years, I decided the right and proper thing to do would be to wait till I had time (read: till my shows were off the air for the summer) and watch the entire series on DVD.

Well, I just finished season 2, and I'm in love.

For those who don't know, Battlestar Galactica (BSG, to those of us nerdy enough to tweet about it on a regular basis) chronicles the struggles of a group of 50,000 human survivors of a massive holocaust of their 12 colonies. They've been wiped out by the Cylons, a race of machines originally created by humans to help out around the house (and the factories and airports, one imagines). This group of 50,000 are a society in unexpected exile; things are decidedly low-tech, as far as space travel with gravity goes.

One nifty manifestation of the series' analog sensibility is the ubiquity of the mason jar as drinking cup and all-around handy vessel. I noticed the mason jars about halfway through season one, and it was one of the tiny little touches sprinkled throughout that demonstrate the show's incredible attention to detail.

After all, mason jars were created for canning; it represents our terrestrial connections, our link to the rhythm of the seasons and the need to preserve them throughout the year. They are decidedly low-tech and old-fashioned, and yet the space-faring vessels depicted in BSG all seem to have them in spades. (The image above is of an actual prop from the show.)

Highly practical, as they're darn useful, and hold a generous helping of ambrosia.

Photo of the mason jar courtesy of www.aarondouglasfans.com.

Speedy shortcake.

The other night, on my way home from work, I got a hankering for something sweet. I try not to eat "real" dessert very often, but sometimes the voice inside will not be denied. I had some gorgeous strawberries just sitting at home, on the brink of going bad, so I decided the time was right for some strawberry shortcake.

However, it was already 7:30, I wasn't home yet, and I wasn't much in the mood for cooking dinner AND baking dessert. So, I crossed my fingers and stopped off at Two Little Red Hens on my way home. Sure enough, they had a few buttermilk biscuits left. I snagged one and ran home with my treasure.

After I'd eaten dinner, I sliced a few berries, sprinkled them with sugar, and set them aside to macerate a bit while I whipped a little cream (spiked with a touch of vanilla extract). I sliced open the biscuit, saved half for breakfast the next morning, and put together my half-homemade, half-storebought delight. Juicy, sweet berries spooned over buttery, flaky biscuit, with a generous portion of whipped cream on top.

Who says you have to do everything from scratch, every time? Not I.