Happy New Year! I hope your 2015 is a year full of joy, exciting ventures, great conversations, rich relationships, enlightening experiences, and plenty of delicious meals. It certainly promises to be a full year for me, and I look forward to keeping you updated on my various projects.
As we bid 2014 adieu, I have great pleasure in recalling this excellent year through these few highlights:
Biggest changes on C&Z: A brand new design, in which I’m happy to say I continue to feel wonderfully at home, the return of the monthly desktop calendars, and the recent addition of a shop section.
Most enlightening read: The Third Plate, by my culinary hero Dan Barber (if you care about food, you have got to read this).
Favorite new appliance: My griddler and waffle plates, with which I’ve made weekly batches of croque-monsieur and all kinds of waffles, including these irresistible Belgian waffles.
Most popular food gift I’ve made: These chocolate bars studded with cinnamon granola [sc:cinnamon_link].
Favorite new breakfast items: Paleo granola with homemade yogurt and seasonal fruit, and healthy breakfast cookies.
Favorite resolution I’ve actually kept: Making the most of my cookbook collection.
Loveliest book publishing moment: Hosting a signing for my latest book, Edible French, in the company of my talented watercolorist friend Melina Josserand. (We wrote about our collaboration in The Cook’s Cook December Issue, page 39).
Most wonderful vacation: Renting a house in the Pyrénées ariégeoises with a few friends, and discovering the friendliest little neo-hippie enclave and the most gorgeous, unadulterated lanscapes.
Favorite Paris eats: simple, wowing plates at Cuisine, vibrant sandwiches at Le Look, kushiage at Peco Peco, big salads at Lockwood, fine dining at Porte 12, barbecued ribs at Flesh, and arepas at Bululu.
Blow-torched mackerel at Porte 12
Most successful store-bought-to-homemade experiment: Vegan “cheesy” kale chips.
Most rewarding baking endeavor: Achieving madeleine perfection.
Favorite new quickie snacks: Easy nori rolls with cucumber and avocado and soy-roasted cashews.
Favorite travel tips: Fasting against jetlag and putting together a minimalist cooking kit.
Favorite new kitchen habit I’ve been trying to embrace: meal planning.
Favorite new way to eat my greens: This greens and walnut quiche.
Favorite do-ahead, weeknight treat: Oven-baked falafel.
Favorite new twist on a classic: Cherry clafoutis with chestnut flour.
Favorite new soup recipe: An ayurveda-approved lentil and butternut squash soup.
Favorite new baking trick: A simplified puff pastry, to make a caramelized apple tarte fine for instance.
Favorite new way to cook eggs: This kid-friendly one-egg omelet.
Favorite way to cook broccoli: charring it.
What about you?
What are some of the most memorable things you’ve seen, experienced, discovered, and tasted in 2014?
Vertical garden on rue d’Aboukir in Paris
