use real butter

Recipe: triple layer lemon cake

I like spring. I do. I do. Love the sound of birds singing in the early morning. Love seeing the foxes traipse through our yard at dusk. The light is different outside and in the house. The sun is bright and high, but not yet oppressive as it will be in summer. This alternates with chilly, overcast, drizzly days that hover around freezing. The air is just cool enough that you need a jacket, but warm enough that you take the jacket off after hiking for an hour. Yesterday: sunny and warm (70°F, which borders on hot for me). Kaweah engaged in her seasonal brain-baking on the deck and then staggered into the office to cool down. Friday will be rainy/snowy and cold again – and Kaweah will stand at the deck door, making little grunting sounds, asking to be let out… because she thinks it’s always nice and sunny on the deck.

where could we take this?

No one fruit represents sunshine to me more than the lemon. It’s not just the vibrant yellow, but the liveliness of the juice and the scent of the freshly grated zest. It wakes me up, keeps me interested. I was recently asked to post a couple of links back to the website of a certain national magazine. But you know, I can’t endorse something I haven’t tried and to be honest, I have never tried any of their recipes before. I agreed to test-drive one of their desserts. [UPDATE: 5/28/09] Because those brilliant people can’t hold up their end of a simple agreement, I’ve removed the links. Food bloggers – I recommend not having anything to do with Better Homes and Gardens.

grating some lemon zest

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: cheesecake

We prepped a late dinner Sunday evening. As Jeremy opened the door to the deck to get the grill going, we noticed a nice little layer of snow everywhere. [I realize I talk about the weather a lot. It’s not because I’m trying to be polite, it’s because I am a bit of a weather dork.] Just a few hours earlier we were in Boulder, enjoying these:

tulips on pearl street

April is like that around here. Can’t make up its mind about the seasons. That’s sort of how I felt about this month’s Daring Bakers challenge… I couldn’t make up my mind about the flavor – so I did both.

daring bakers, baybeee – we knead to bake!

The official line: The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. The unofficial line is that Jenny rocks it along with our Superstahhh founders, Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice. I heart them all.

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: lemon mousse bombes

It’s the last day of March, kids! Where did all of that time go? Our local farmer’s market is opening this weekend and I’m both excited and a little leery. Excited, because I love farmer’s markets in general and Boulder has a nice one. Leery, because if I recall correctly, early season doesn’t have a lot of fresh produce to offer (particularly the fruit). See how living in Southern California can spoil the heck out of you (me)? I especially miss harassing the asparagus dude at the Pasadena Farmer’s Market (and then the Alhambra Farmer’s Market the next day).

My enthusiasm for cooking and baking and blogging waxes and wanes. There are times when I just don’t want to bake or cook (or at least blog about it) for several days. Knowing this, knowing myself, I have a stash of recipes in queue for just those times. I think I got into the habit when I kept having to dash to the ER last year or when I knew I’d be out after a chemo infusion. But when my enthusiasm is on the upswing, like it is now, I just write a list about a mile long with ideas and recipes I want to make and shoot and I wonder if the old recipes will just languish in the archives for months on end (some are already 6 months old).

start with white chocolate

… and you guessed it, temper the chocolate!

**Jump for more butter**