After a sickly and tiring December, I'm happy to find myself excited about a few things.

Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan. At first read, it looks like Greenspan has written a definitive tome for the home baker, from breakfast through dessert. After perusing it on the train, I had to stop at the grocery for sour cream and lemons for her lemon-poppy seed muffins. There's also a pear tart to try with leftover pears. It's a very personal book with lots of food pr0n.

What to Drink with What You Eat, by Andrew Dornenburg, Karen Page, and Michael Sofronski. This was my anniversary present to Jorj, and, as with any book gift he receives, he's had to pry it from my fingers to get a chance to read it. Orangette recommended it, and it looks like a great way to explore wine and spirits.

Lebkuchen. I successfully baked Renate's Pfefferkuchen, and am still hoping for another go at Elisenlebkuchen, now that I think I understand where my technique failed.

Peppermint white hot chocolate: The basic recipe seems solid, Penzey's supplied a big bag of dried mint (can't find a source for peppermint essence or oil), we've lot's of candy canes lying around: it's time to experiment.

Basic kitchen set up: I've written more, and might finally get this addition to Baking 101 up before the Spring.

XML, XSLT & CSS: If we ever find my copy of Jeny Tennison's Beginning XSLT 2.0 (really a reference for beginners through experts), I may be able to easily generate all manner of indexes for the site: by region or origin! Cookie-type! Dietary restriction! Meantime, I'm categorizing the recipes and tweaking the layout because I can.