This week I was sent an advance copy of Odette William’s new book, Simple Cake. It is a beautiful book filled with all kinds of (wait for it) simple cakes, and after flipping through the pages I was immediately inspired to head to the kitchen and bake. I decided on this Lovely Lemon Cake with Nana’s Simple Glaze; we have been buried in piles and piles of snow…
This little olive oil cake was tucked way back in the archives. I decided to give it a new photo and bring it front and center once again, as it is one of my forgotten favorites. It’s from Kim Boyce’s wonderful cookbook Good To The Grain. Throughout the book, Ms. Boyce focuses on incorporating a variety of underused flours in her recipes, not so much for added health…
“Gathering around the dinner table has been and still is the highlight of our day… We believe that eating together is more than just everyone sitting down at the table; it’s about the communal meal, which at its best is the ritual of sharing food, of cooking together, eating together, and laughing together. Our recipes return families to the idea of a common pot.” A few weeks ago…
‘Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.’ – Mark Twain (I ran into these words by Mr. Twain this week. They were much needed after some unkind voices from the past spoke loud and clear unexpectedly. Letting go is never an easy task, aye?)…
The days aren’t discarded or collected, they are bees that burned with sweetness or maddened the sting: the struggle continues, the journeys go and come between honey and pain. No, the net of years doesn’t unweave: there is no net. They don’t fall drop by drop from a river: there is no river. Sleep doesn’t divide life by halves, or action, or silence, or honor: life is a…
I don’t think I’ve ever finished a bottle of red wine. I’m one of those fruity-white-wine-spritzer kind of girls, and to the horror of some I have been known to ‘brighten up’ my dark reds with a little 7up [should I be admitting this? Probably not]. So thankfully, this wonderful genius came up with red wine chocolate cake. Because now instead of stashing that half finished bottle on…
I like having dinner guests. It’s lovely, catching up, sipping cold beer, laughing and watching the little ones race around. Sometimes friends come spur of the moment, to chat the afternoon and evening away. Even though it’s last minute, I still have to have dessert. I can’t help it. It somehow doesn’t feel right to skip that after dinner sweetness. Luckily I had bought plums earlier that day.…
I don’t make a lot of ‘everyday’ cakes. I find them charming, but I tend to avoid them. I’m not quite sure why, because the idea of tea and cake makes me swoon. It sounds so lovely – summer afternoons spread out on a picnic blanket somewhere, chatting and eating without a care in the world. But I’ve never had that luxury; alas, my afternoons are much more…
