use real butter

I don’t usually buy a lot of peaches and plums and nectarines, just because Jeremy doesn’t dig on drupes and it’s cheaper to buy fruit we both eat. But when they are on sale, I’ll hazard a few from time to time. Sometimes I will pick a few up from a farmer’s market when they are really fragrant and absolutely juicy ripe. Well, I fell sucker to a sale at Safeway recently and when I bit into one raw (because that is my favorite way to enjoy fruit), it was just a touch grainy. So I looked around for a recipe to use up the rest of the nectarines. Most recipes are listed for peaches and not nectarines, so I found: Georgia peach cobbler, Georgia peach bread, Georgia peach tea cake, Georgia peach muffins, Georgia peach this and Georgia peach that. Just in case you were wondering where peaches are grown…

Recipe: lemon bars

I realized today that I don’t bake anymore. I make pastries. I used to bake a lot, and by baking I mean making foods that were easy to distribute and share like cookies, brownies, bars, pan cakes, bundt cakes. These days I make things that are difficult to share unless I’ve invited you to my house to eat. Stuff that gets plated, or cannot be easily transported or mailed. This struck me with some sadness, so I shook it off and made a quadruple batch of lemon bars (I can hear Heather squealing with delight right now).

**Jump for more butter**

There is an almost floral flavor to ripe, fresh strawberries that screams summer to me. And while it isn’t my favorite fruit, I find it to be a beautiful fruit and a nice one to work with. When I want the really authentic flavor of strawberries in a dessert, I try to buy organic, and if not organic… in the old days, I bought from farmer’s markets like Pasadena *sigh*.

Yesterday I topped and washed and froze two pounds of berries.