I’ve had the lovely book Baking with Julia in my cookbook collection for a while and have made some very successful and delicious recipes from it, but it had somehow gotten buried under the ever-growing pile of newer cookbooks over time. When I discovered that the Tuesdays with Dorie group had chosen this book, which Dorie Greenspan put together from Julia Child’s PBS series of the same name, I dug it out and flipped through the pages thinking all the time “Man, I forgot how good this book is!”

I know the brioche and sticky bun recipes are fabulous, and I love the idea of baking my way through the book in order to try all the other recipes.  So, here goes!

The first recipe chosen for the month of February was White Loaves, contributed by Craig Kominiak, which begins a chapter titled “Daily Loaves”.  Regular Shortbread readers will know that I have made quite a few loaves of bread in my time, and it was difficult for me to keep from straying from the recipe and doing my own thing.  But I tried to use the techniques it called for, and the only substitution I made was using instant yeast instead of active dry because it was all I had in the pantry.  (If you find yourself in the same situation, skip the first step of mixing the yeast, sugar, and water together and just stir the yeast and sugar into the first half of the flour before adding the water.)

This dough was definitely on the wet side for me, but the loaves rose quickly and baked up tall and fragrant.  It sliced easily and made tasty sandwiches, toast, and was even better with a layer of Nutella.

This week’s TWD/BWJ hostesses are Laurie of slush and Jules of Someone’s in the Kitchen, and on their websites you’ll find this recipe.  Visit the Tuesdays with Dorie blog for more information!

To me, homemade soup is one the best things ever, especially in the winter and especially at lunch time.  The only negative is that it can be somewhat time consuming to prepare.  But if I can carve out one morning to spend putting together a fresh pot of soup, it can be divided up into freezer bags or containers and taken out as needed to defrost on days when I’m pressed for time.

This Broccoli and White Bean Soup is an example of one that really doesn’t take a lot of time to make, and the reward is three-fold:  warm, comforting, and so good for you.  The beans are what I call a ‘secret ingredient’ because at the same time they thicken the soup and make it incredibly creamy when you blend everything together.  The recipe calls for fresh broccoli, but frozen works too – just skip the steaming step and add it in along with the beans.

Broccoli and White Bean Soup

adapted from Whole Living Magazine

makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients

“Eating that sandwich would make her fell better.  And it would make her feel worse.  It was a familiar dilemma.  She’d never experienced anything that was simply and entirely good for her.  She wondered if such a thing even existed.”

This is the struggle of the main character, Josey, from The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen.  She is a 27-year-old woman still living under the thumb of her unloving mother, hoarding snack cakes and travel magazines in her closet, and wishing things would change but not knowing how to make them.

One night, however, when a woman appears in her closet, Josey’s life starts to spiral out of control and she doesn’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad one.  She’s forced to venture out of her room and open her eyes to the world around her, and it is full of shocking discoveries that never seem to end.

The Sugar Queen has suspense, drama, romance, and a little bit of the supernatural.  This is a book that is so engrossing that you might end up devouring it in one day – I did.

Visit The Kitchen Reader blog for a list of the other members’ reviews of this book.