natural wine, nuts and Nora Ephron

I spent the weekend in St. Louis visiting my parents and my best friend — and eating and drinking very, very well. I had two separate biscuit sandwiches, both so big I had to deconstruct them. More biscuits on breakfast menus outside the Midwest and the South, please!

I ate at Little Fox, one of my favorite places I’ve had dinner this year. The short rib, the stracciatella and the crispy artichokes were all excellent. Earlier that day, I had wine at ’Ssippi, a natural wine bar on Cherokee Street that made me swoon — and not just because the bar’s mascot appears to be a cat. There are tons of St. Louis-specific touches in the decor, the patio is superb, the service is great and the drinks are somehow even better. Spend a few minutes perusing ’Ssippi’s Instagram, and you’ll be checking flight prices to St. Louis.

… anything from “More Is More.” I got Molly Baz’s new cookbook for my birthday, and I haven’t had time to cook much of anything since it arrived last week. But I’m about to buy groceries for a chicken and leeks dinner that looks like the perfect compromise meal in my household; my husband worships chicken, and I tend to like the things served around chicken, and there are very few vegetables I love more in the world than a leek.

This is all to say: Go buy the book. I have never gone wrong with a Molly Baz recipe. And if you’re not in the market for a new cookbook — and listen, I hear you, my cookbook shelf is overflowing and I’m now stacking new ones on top of the espresso machine — I did find one recipe from the book online. It’s for broken noodle bolognese, which feels like something else I must make in the next few weeks!

… spiced nuts (adapted from Natasha Pickowicz’s “More Than Cake”). This is, technically, cooking — even if these spiced nuts are great to use in your future baking endeavors. They’re also great to snack on, and great to give as a gift.

Here’s the gist: Scoop 1 cup of the nuts of your choice (raw, not roasted or salted, but they can be blanched) into a medium or large saucepan. Add ½ of a cup of granulated sugar and 3 tablespoons of water. Stir the three ingredients together and turn on the stove to medium heat. You’re going to bring the mixture to a simmer and keep it there, stirring frequently and allowing the water to boil off. How long does this take? Great question. It varies, stove to stove, but usually it takes me between 6 and 10 minutes. (My stove tends to run extra hot, so I actually do this on medium-low; the key here is keeping an eye on your mixture and making sure the sugar water doesn’t begin to caramelize. Lower is better!)