Lottie claimed she hated garlic. It was somewhat of a mystery to my mom and me because she most definitely did not hate garlic. She loved foods that contained garlic— pizza, all Italian food, sausage, garlic bread (yes, garlic bread). I guess she just didn’t like the idea of garlic? Food preferences are weird and my grandma remains a mystery, but I know she wouldn’t have gone anywhere near this soup.
In the immortal words of Alana from Toddlers & Tiaras, “My special juice is gonna help me win!!“.
Like Alana’s secret go-go juice (it involves Mountain Dew), this special juice really will help you win, not child beauty pageants, but the admiration of breakfast or brunch guests. It might also help you win beauty pageants, I just haven’t tried. Yet.
I’m getting off track.
This is my favorite juice blend and something that we make for very special breakfasts. I say “we” because Bryan juices the fruit. We don’t have anything to help juice, he uses a fork and sheer determination and then swears we are never making this stupid juice again, but of course we do.
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If I could give each of you one cookbook, it would be The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham. I’ve written about it before, but it seemed worth revisiting, especially after enjoying this custard-filled cornbread over the weekend.
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You probably weren’t expecting me to return with dessert (although, at this point, maybe you were). I know that everyone else is currently writing about salads and whole grains and cleanses. Screw that, I want some sticky toffee pudding.
I have been wanting to write about sticky toffee pudding ever since I returned from our honeymoon. It is one of my favorite sweets and difficult to find in the US. But it seems to be everywhere in the UK. With good reason— it is amazing!
Whoa, 2011 was a pretty great year at Lottie + Doof! I just reviewed the recipes from this past year and impressed even myself. It may have been the best year for recipes yet, what with bagels, savory granola, and crostatas. On top of that, we had a couple of dinners, a cookie sale, a wedding and a honeymoon. It was all pretty terrific. What better way to celebrate than with what is one of the best recipes I discovered in 2011. It snuck in at the end, just in time for our celebrations.
It is hard to believe the 12 Days have come and gone. I hope you had as much fun as I did. Although, I will be honest, I have never been as uninterested in sweets as I am right now. That probably explains my choice for the final cookie.
Some of you might argue that these are not cookies. I’m not very interested in arguing, so I might agree. But I think this “cake” is served best as thin slices, which are a lot like cookies. Also, David Lebovitz, officially classified them as “bars“, which we can all agree get grouped in with cookies. I consider Lebovitz an authority on everything. They are cookie enough for me.
Like many of you, I have been a fan of Lisa Fain (aka the Homesick Texan) for years, so I couldn’t be happier that she is our guest today. Lisa’s blog is one of the first I loved. It is beautifully designed and photographed and her writing endears you to her immediately. I have made many of her recipes over the years and they are always successful.
I was thrilled when I heard that she was publishing a cookbook. We’d become internet buddies over the years and I wanted to help her out in any way I could, so I helped her test recipes. It was fun and provided me with a little preview of what we all had to look forward to. The finished product is fantastic and receiving lots of well-deserved praise.
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Pistachios need a new hype man.
They are amazing, so why does everything that calls itself pistachio taste like almonds?! Most ice cream shops in America sell ice cream that calls itself pistachio but is actually almond, tinted green, with a handful of pistachios mixed in. You know the stuff! It has very little to do with what is awesome about pistachios. When we were in Paris and ate the pistachio gelato at Grom, I understood what pistachio ice cream could be and felt sad for all of that other, lesser ice cream.
I hope you already know my next guest, Nikole Herriott, from her beautiful blog and online shop. Nikole and her dad, Lance, collaborate on an online store filled with lovely handmade things, including the amazing wood objects that Lance carves. I love everything they make so much. We used one of their beautiful bowls to hold our rings at the wedding, it was perfect. Nikole is a multi-talented maker who graciously agreed to share her family recipe for these sweet Jam Thimbles with all of us. They are the perfect cookies for all of my fellow jam-makers to show off their goods and a wonderful addition to this cookie festival.
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I didn’t see this one coming. I had no plans to post this recipe, but I was curious about these baby cinnamon rolls from one of my all-time favorites, Alice Medrich. They are so ridiculously good, I could not not include them.
