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Here in Berlin, today and Monday are holidays, so the city gets all quiet and serene. Shops close, streets empty and peacefulness descends onto our red-roofed buildings. It's lovely. On Sunday, I'll be having a bit of that magnificent, sweet, yeasted rooster for breakfast, moist and tender and studded with marzipan eggs. We'll be over at my friend Joanie's that morning, though "friend" is hardly a good word for everything that this woman is to me – but you'll read more about her in the book when the time comes. (The book that now has a cover!) What you need to know for now is that Joanie is the queen, the empress, of sweet yeasted doughs scented with cinnamon, lemon peel and fairy dust. What starts out as a pallid lump in a ceramic mixing bowl gets transformed into sweet little rabbits, great roosters, feathered and wattled, and more. This particular rooster was last year's Easter breakfast and while it almost pained me to watch her slice into it to serve us all, it was even more delicious than it was beautiful, if you can imagine that.

Elsewhere:

This corn bread (not cornbread, mind you) is haunting my nights. It's on the to-do list for the weekend.

The cutest grocery tote I've seen in a long time.

I had lunch at ABC Kitchen in New York with Deb last week and this deceptively simple appetizer served in a pretty bowl (no spoon, though) stayed in my thoughts all week: Roasted Beets with Yogurt.

Are you brave enough to eat wildflowers?

I love reading about what other people eat, even more than I love looking into people's shopping baskets at the grocery store, so I got a kick out of Phoebe Cates's diet.

I've always wanted to make sushi at home, but I never actually do it. These rice balls (a rounder version of onigiri) somehow seem more approachable. Also, mouthwatering.

I've become anemic during pregnancy and a month of iron supplements hasn't made much of a difference. My doctor says to eat more millet and this spiced millet breakfast bowl sounds like the best way to start.

Yet another reason I can't wait to be in L.A. for the book tour this fall. (Yes, Los Angeles is on the list!)

Have any of you read Bringing Up Bébé (UK folks: French Children Don't Throw Food)? I had no intention to, but then I was given a copy by my publisher and my best friend couldn't stop raving about it and I had nothing else to do on the airplane back home (besides bemoan the hideousness that are well-fittting compression stockings), so I read the whole thing in one swoop…and liked it. Can we discuss?

Happy Easter, happy Passover, happy weekend, folks!

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28 responses to “Friday Morning Link Love”

  1. Katrin Avatar

    This rooster is art! Happy Easter Luisa!

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  2. Flora Avatar
    Flora

    I’ve been quietly following your blog for over a year now having been living in Berlin at first, now Munich. It helped me know that it IS possible to cook familiar & tasty foods using German ingredients 🙂 Thank you!
    I saw you mention that you are anemic at the moment – having been pregnant this time last year and with the same problem – I discovered that watermelon is really rich in iron. Watermelon, cottage cheese and chopped parsley salads really helped (and were much tastier than most other iron rich foods!).
    Good luck! 🙂

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  3. lauren@spicedplate Avatar

    As always, many thanks for this list — you always take me to new and exciting places, through the internet 🙂
    One thing I’ve learned from being anemic on and off since I was a toddler is that pairing iron with vitamin C is crucial. I like to throw brussels sprouts in with iron rich food that I’m eating because of their high vitamin C levels. I’m also not a fan of orange juice, which seems like the most obvious choice.

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  4. Sasa Avatar

    Hi Luisa, did you know that eating vitamin C rich foods with non-haem (vegetarian) sources increases iron uptake, and that eating non haem iron with haem (meat) sources also increases iron uptake due to a thing weirdly called “meat factor”? Good luck building up your stores x

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  5. ileana Avatar

    I had a roasted beet salad with yogurt and pistachios at Wildwood in Portland. I couldn’t stop talking about it for days. It blew my mind.
    That’s a beautiful rooster – happy Easter!

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  6. Caroline Avatar

    I will get on reading “Bringing up Bebe!” I feel your pain with the compression stockings! 🙂 My little one will be 2 in July. So excited for you!

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  7. sarahkeith Avatar

    I am really enjoying Bringing Up Bebe too! I’m pregnant with my first, so I really have no idea what to expect, in terms of parenting challenges, but I’ve always considered myself to be of the “attachment parenting” mindset. This book brings up a lot of what seem to be great points, though. I’m especially interested in the sleep topic– I really enjoy my sleep and was very interested to read that most french children apparently sleep though the night by between 2-6 months! Wow. That is NOT the case in my neck of the AP woods 🙂

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  8. Michelle Avatar

    I can’t wait to get my hands on that book. I am planning a child in the year and love to soak up information.

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  9. DeeAnna Avatar
    DeeAnna

    Is the rooster bread going to be in the book? Because now I really want to learn to make my own!

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  10. teryll Avatar

    So glad you’re coming to LA!

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  11. Pinchandswirl Avatar

    Luisa, thank you for the mention, so generous.
    How exciting to see your book cover! I can hardly wait…

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  12. Deanna Avatar

    I’m so excited you’re coming to LA. I figured the west coast was too far. I need a tutorial on how to make that rooster bread. Any chance you could get Joanie to do a tutorial?

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  13. Jaimie Avatar

    My midwives told me that cooking everything in a cast iron skillet will increase one’s iron levels – it apparently provides a very soluble form of iron, easy for your body to absorb with whatever food has been cooked, compared to supplements. Good luck!

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  14. gemma Avatar
    gemma

    you know a human that can make something like that?? wowza. Also, I randomly clicked on your LA Times link there and the pastry was made at a place called “luisa and son” – v.cool! miss you x

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  15. L Avatar
    L

    Speaking of millet– I was looking for recipes for dinner tonight, and I found many a mention of millet in a blog post from 2007… http://wednesdaychef.typepad.com/the_wednesday_chef/2007/04/suvir_sarans_sp.html (can’t wait to try the recipe)

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  16. Suzy Avatar

    What a cute grocery bag!
    Umm did you make that rooster? It’s so pretty!

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  17. Charlotte Avatar

    That rooster is amazing – how lucky you are to enjoy it – although I think my heart would stop for a second when the knife hovered over to slice it. And although my boy is 6 I’ve ordered the bebe book as it looks like a great read and other viewpoints on parenting are always welcome. Happy Easter!

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  18. Mallory Avatar

    I LOVE the rooster! Very, very cool.

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  19. ML Avatar
    ML

    I enjoyed Bringing Up Bebe, although the narrative voice was somewhat annoyingly neurotic. Sleep training is not a linear process, though, and an infant who has been sleeping through the night for months may stop for a variety of reasons, like teething, developmental spurts, etc. and then have to be trained again (first-time parents of infants who brag about how their kid sleeps like an angel at night and then blame you for your own sleepless nights are maddening, but get their comeuppance later). I’m big on parenting research and tend to take advice with a grain of salt–whatever fits with your family and children is what goes. I just like having a lot of tools at my disposal to try.

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  20. Selkie Avatar
    Selkie

    Lovely Bread; mmmm, bread with marzipan. I’ll go get Bringing up Bebe in anticipation of First Grandson’s July birth…

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  21. Dee Ow Avatar
    Dee Ow

    Love your blog! I have a question that refers to a slightly older post though – clementine bakery’s banana cake. I made it very recently and found it very sweet, bordering on too sweet BUT absolutely loved the texture which was phenomenal. Is it possible to cut down up to a 1/3rd of the sugar without it affecting the texture?

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  22. Luisa Avatar

    Katrin – isn’t it amazing? I should perhaps have mentioned that Joanie is, literally, a sculptor. So I guess that helps! 🙂
    Flora – thank you so much for the watermelon tip, I had no idea.
    Sasa – I am so confused right now. 🙂
    Sarah – ha, yes, attachment parenting doesn’t seem to be part of the larger French experience, but I am sure there are exceptions… I hope you find a happy middle ground!
    DeeAnna – the rooster isn’t in the book, but a couple different yeasted doughs are. They’re very easy to make – however, sculptural food art is another story… 🙂
    Deanna – So glad, too! Maybe I can see if I can get Joanie to make another rooster and I’ll videotape her while doing so.
    Charlotte – at Easter breakfast yesterday, she had made TWO roosters and her son wanted one of the heads, so she chopped it off without a moment’s hesitation. My heart skipped a beat!
    ML – yes, advocating a one-size approach fitting all kids/families doesn’t seem sensible, I agree. I’m really interested to see how things go when our little one is here – if I’ll even be interested in leaving him alone to sleep at 2-3 months! What an adventure…
    Dee Ow – I really don’t know, but I think you could definitely try it! Let me know how it works out.

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  23. Keri Avatar

    Oooh, this beets recipe sounds amazing. I’m so into beets right now!
    I haven’t read Bebe, but have learned (with two girls 6 and 3) to step back from judgement of most kinds of parenting behaviour. I learned the hard way after spending a lot of time saying I’ll NEVER do what so-and-so friend is doing. That said, sleep training a baby of 2 to 6 months seems severe to me. I didn’t sleep train either of my girls; I couldn’t have done it. Every parent has to make her/his own decision about what’s right for the family. And that’s a moving target as well. Bonne chance!

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  24. teti.konstantinidou Avatar
    teti.konstantinidou

    Wow! Is there a special mould to shape the dough like this?

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  25. Luisa Avatar

    Teti – no, she sculpts the rooster and marzipan decorations herself.

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  26. Nigel @ Best Food Mixer Avatar

    Love the sculpture of the rooster. Wish I had that sort of talent.

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