use real butter

Recipe: sticky buns

I haven’t done any yeast doughs since we moved from sea-level. If you consider the pizza dough we make, it isn’t actually we, but Jeremy who makes that. I really love the yeasty smell and flavor of home baked breads. I tend not to bake breads because I know I’ll just end up eating them. I’m a sandwich whore. The other main deterrent for not baking breads is that I wasn’t a seasoned bread baker at sea-level and then tossing our elevation into the mix makes for quite some uncertainty. We’re not even at a “nice” elevation like 5000 feet which is what “high altitude” directions usually target. 8500 feet delves into the realm of “who the hell lives up there?” We do.

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**