Joy the Baker

Praise the heavens!  I got a new cookbook!  I think I was in a cookbook rut.  I found myself relying on the same two cookbooks day after day for my baking indulgence.  Granted, they’re great cookbooks- charming, attractive and funny- but I had heard all their stories, seem all of their dress shirts, and laughed at all their jokes.  I needed something new.

Just when I was about to accept my circumstance, a charming new love came into my life. Sweets by Patty Pinner is my new darling.  This book is more than just a collection of recipes.  Sweets is a gathering of family memories.  In my life food is all about family and memories, so this book has quickly become so so dear to my heart.

Sweets is a southern style cookbook.  The recipes are extremely approachable.  Some of the cakes are made with (gasp!) cake mix, and then fancied up with additional ingredients.  The family pictures are utterly charming and the stories that go along with each recipe are really touching.  I read this book, cover to cover on an airplane, like a novel.  I just love it!

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I’m so thrilled about strawberries season, I can barely contain myself!  It’s still early in the season and I’ve already had my way with many berries.  Oh the possibilities are limitless!  Summer produce offers so many possibilities, it’s my favorite food season.  And peaches!  Don’t even get me started on peach season.  That’s when I’ll get into some real trouble!  

It seems that strawberry fever is spreading across blog land.  Here are a few of my favorite strawberry entries this week.  

Miri of Room4Dessert made a Strawberry and Cheese Mousse Tart.  With the bright red beauty of the strawberries, the tart looks absolutely irresistible.  So much yum!  And beautiful photos too!

Pastry Studio experimented with Strawberry Balsamic Sherbet.  It seems to have to simplicity of strawberry sorbet with a touch of good balsamic and cream to accentuate the beauty of the fruit.  Brilliant!

And lastly, Helene of Tartelette always brings the goods.  She’s incredible.  This week she delighted with  Ice Cold Lemon Strawberry Fraisiers.  The dessert has three parts: Meyer lemon pound cake, Grand Marnier mousseline, and sliced strawberries.  Yea… it’s a serious time commitment, but just beautiful! 

This dessert was born out of the current circumstance of my life.  Big things are changing for me in the next few months.  While it all feels good and exciting, I have to admit that big change makes me anxious.  You might think that when I get anxious, I bake.  That makes sense, right?  Well I actually clean (a lot!) when I get nervous.  I called this afternoon’s kitchen scrubbing extravaganza “spring cleaning”.  That’s how I justified my nerves.  It is almost spring, after all.

My spring cleaning, in turn, reminded me of strawberries.  I love strawberries, and impatiently await their arrival in April.    Clearly, I couldn’t wait until April.  Once my kitchen sparkled, I went out in search of strawberries, to make my spring themed day more complete.

With the strawberries I created Browned Butter Cardamom Spiced Sugar Paper.  Sugar Paper is just a fancy name for Fillo dough layered with butter and sugar and spice.  This dessert was a wonderful respite to my cleaning frenzy.  With spring comes change.  Somewhere in the cleaning and baking, I began to feel more comfortable with that.

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