Since Thanksgiving is almost upon us and pie season is here, I decided to make my favorite dessert for the holiday: Chocolate Mousse Pie. This is a mash-up of recipes from my 100 Cookies book: the pie crust from French Silk Pie Bars [#63], the chocolate ganache from the Banana Crunch Blondies [#37], and the chocolate mousse filling from the Mud Pie Bars [#64]. This pie is also inspired…
It took me a long time to feel confident making pies. I never actually made one until my late twenties, as they had seemed so daunting and time consuming; so much work for something that had such a high percentage of not turning out right. My first attempt actually was incredible: I made a perfect apple pie. The crust was flaky and golden brown, the filling perfectly cooked,…
Four years ago when I started this space I set up a Flickr account, mostly because everyone else was doing it. I browsed through pages and pages of photographs and profiles, and after falling down long rabbit holes of foodie pics and vacation photos that inspired serious bouts of envy, I found this cake made by Tara O’Brady. There was something about it that made me pause. All…
Rhubarb finally made an appearance at my local co-op. It’s ruby red stalks called to both me and the puff pastry tucked away in my freezer, so I took it home with me and set to work. I had this rhubarb tart recipe in mind, and didn’t change anything except to stir some raspberry jam into the crème fraîche, and sprinkle the tarts with a good amount of…
Years ago, after completing college and moving back in with my parents for a spell, I would pick my Grandma up once a week and take her out shopping. She was close to 90 and could no longer drive, but was always eager to get out of the house and buy her own groceries and necessities. One of her favorite haunts was a neighborhood department store that she…
Last week I received my copy of The Homemade Flour Cookbook by Erin Alderson in the mail. I’ve been a fan of Erin’s site Naturally Ella for a long time, and last September had the pleasure of meeting her (and photographing her wedding). Erin is a hardworking, go-getting woman, and one of the most generous souls here in blogland. I’ve been terribly excited about her book. The premise…
*photo by Pure Green Magazine ‘In later life the idea of a moveable feast for Hemingway became something very much like what King Harry wanted St. Crispin’s Feast Day to be for “we happy few’: a memory or even a state of being that had become a part of you, a thing that you could have always with you, no matter where you went or how you lived…
sweet spring is your time is my time is our time for springtime is lovetime and viva sweet love (all the merry little birds are flying in the floating in the very spirits singing in are winging in the blossoming) lovers go and lovers come awandering awondering but any two are perfectly alone there’s nobody else alive (such a sky and such a sun i never knew and…
I’m sneaking in for a post. I just couldn’t help myself; there were cherries. Not just any cherries, but hand-picked cherries dripping from trees like drops of rain: red, sparkling drops of sweet-tart rain. We filled our bucket gleefully, and my baker-heart had prophetic visions of flaky turnovers leaking dark juices, and sweet-sour chutney served next to roasted chicken; cherry and vanilla bean compote to cover the tops…
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the…
