I’m back from Montreal (more on that soon!) and ready to start cooking again but first:  We’ve been together for a while now and there is so much I don’t know about you. In an effort to deepen Lottie + Doof’s relationship with our readers, I present to you: The Lottie + Doof Food Questionnaire. This was inspired by those crazy quizzes that were all the rage on social networking sites a few years ago, which were themselves inspired by the Proust questionnaire that Vanity Fair made famous. My friend Ashley and I became obsessed with those quizzes a while back and completed so many of them. We still have all of those quizzes and they remain a really lovely artifact of that time in our life. Anyway, I wanted a food-centered survey and so I put this together! I hope you’ll all leave your answers to this quiz in the comments. All of you! Even those of you sitting quietly at the back with big smiles on your faces. And yes, even you Ashley.

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I’ve written before about how much I love my ice cream maker. If you don’t have one yet, get ye to the store and buy one before ice cream making season arrives. For an investment of around $60 you can spend your summer (your whole year!) eating delicious homemade ice cream whenever you like. Ice cream made with organic ingredients and less sugar than the commercial stuff. You can whip up all sorts of crazy flavors like black pepper, blue cheese or bacon. Or, you could make this amazing version of Maple Walnut Ice Cream. read more+++

These are the perfect oatmeal cookies. They might even be the perfect cookie. Although it may not be a popular opinion, I like my cookies crispy. These are thin, crispy and buttery and their caramel-like sweetness is accentuated by a sprinkling of sea salt. They are simple to make and exceptionally tasty. In the past I’ve adapted these to include things like dried fruit, white chocolate, nuts, or spices. All of the variations are delicious, but for me this basic recipe is the best.  Once you’ve tried the original you can play around and try different variations. Or, if you’re like me, you’ll be unable to resist this original. read more+++

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This is one of my least favorite times of year in Chicago. The weather bounces back and forth between sub-zero and balmy spring-like days. We’ll enjoy a couple of days of sun and mild weather only to be reminded of winter by snow and temperature below freezing. We’re all so anxious for spring that it ends up making the city a little crabby. It is on days like these (high of 24 today) that we need a piece of coffee cake to drink with a hot cup of coffee before work.

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The latest issue of Saveur features an article on eating in Atlantic City in the 1980’s. The essay made me nostalgic for the east coast, the 80’s and even for Atlantic City. It is funny how we can feel these close connections to places we have never been. There is this mythology surrounding east coast Italian-American food that affects me even though I grew up in the Midwest. The article inspires images of red vinyl booths, dyed hair, plastic coated menus, muscle cars, perfume, checkered tablecloths, red sauce and high heels. These food mythologies add story to the recipes we cook and connect us to the past; we can be a teenager in New jersey, a grandmother in New Orleans, or a hippie in Berkeley. read more+++

In addition to sharing good recipes with all of you, I hope to use Lottie + Doof as an archive of what I eat. I want to make sure that all of my favorite recipes end up on this site.  This isn’t as easy as it seems since I often don’t repeat recipes, but I’m making an effort. This Austrian Shortbread (or Austro-Hungarian Shortbread as we’ve recently started referring to it because of my confusion over which country it belonged to) has been a favorite for a while and it is a recipe that I will gladly make whenever I have an opportunity. Luckily, an opportunity presented itself to me last weekend. read more+++

I have been reading a lot lately about the trade war over Roquefort cheese—a trade war that was advanced by Bush in retaliation for France’s unwillingness to accept imports of hormone-containing beef from the US (and likely influenced by residual anti-France sentiment in the USA post-September 11th). In January, before leaving office, the Bush government imposed a 300% tariff (raising it from an already steep 100%) on the import of Roquefort, essentially stopping its sale in the US.

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The Bananas Foster at Freemans is one of my all-time favorite desserts. I don’t know what it is about caramel and rum that makes me love bananas. Well, I guess it is the caramel and rum. They might make me love anything. The dish was supposedly invented at the famous New Orlean’s restaurant, Brennan’s,  in 1951. This confirms two things: a lot of good recipes were created in the 1950’s AND southern cuisine is spectacular. When I saw this recipe for individual bananas foster cakes in a recent Cook’s Illustrated, I was anxious to try it out. It is a excellent adaptation of the classic dessert. read more+++

An Academy Awards dinner would not have been complete without some sort of special dessert. I decided to use it as an opportunity to tackle this recipe for Tres Leches cake that has been at the top of my “to bake” list for a while. If you scroll down, you’ll see that this recipe is more complicated than what I normally post. It is true. You need to devote some time and energy to this one. You’ll also notice that this cake might kill you. With over a dozen eggs and several cups of heavy cream, this needs to come with some sort of health warning. read more+++