Let's Be Serious For A Moment

Ever been in the mood for a cookie? If there are none around or only the dry, prepackaged selections from the gas station, you know they are important little pieces of work. They are tedious, but worth it. Some people will turn down a slice of cake or a bowl of ice cream but most people can make room for a little cookie. And a homemade cookie is a thing of love.

Now there are definite favorites in the world of cookies. The most popular Girl Scout cookies are, in this order, Thin Mints, Samoas, Peanut Butter Patties, Peanut Butter Sandwiches and then Shortbread. I'm not a big store bought cookie fan. They have no spirit and I don't think that a human being had a whole lot to do with their creation. So, I avoid them and their souless existence unless I'm desperate and tired.


In the world of home bakers there is some dispute with the top few but they typically include sugar cookies, chocolate chip and oatmeal. While the typically popular cookies are all undeniably enjoyable, I have a cookie that has been the star of my show for the past few years. It is a butter almond cookies, much like a shortbread. I make them without eggs and they become delicate and light while baking. I normally dip them in either white chocolate and crushed pistachios or dark chocolate and almonds. They are elegant enough for a sweet table and comforting enough for your nightstand.




The most tedious and time consuming cookie is the decorated sugar cookie. The dough is chilled, rolled, cut and cooled. The icings are colored, piped and dried. The packaging is fun and I could pretty much shop in any store and find a fun way to store them. Trust me when I tell you that if someone cares enough to make you decorated sugar cookies...well, they care enough.

So, don't take your cookies for granted. They take time and energy and never get the respect or admiration of a 3 tiered cake or a tart or even a pie, all of which take only a part of the time it take to make most of the cookies I make. Save a pastry chef, eat a cookie.

It's Not You, It's Me

Let's just get this out of the way....I have abandoned this blog for 8 months while I focused on the very thing I write about. I love that damn kitchen and my garden so once I get in either of those places, it is like nothing else matters. That includes this blog. Well, I have seen the error of my ways. I'm back and touting the glory of sugar and its partners in crime.

This time of year places me smack dab in the middle of when I can plan for the garden that will bring me ingredients to obsess over. So, I think a lot of the plants I have hidden under the snow out there in the plot. My rhubarb plant, of course, came back this summer and grew with a vengeance. I was able to make several pies including one for an old guy in northern Michigan who hadn't had this pie since he was a kid. I did my best and he approved. That damn plant is like the loaves and fishes. It just kept on giving. I even made rhubarb creme brulee. So, I have faith as most gardners do that it will keep on keeping on. If you want something rhubarb, hollar at me.

I planted strawberry plants two years ago and last year, while not overwhelmingly fruitful, were growing deep roots and spreading like the good little plants I knew they would be. They even started to sneak outside the garden fence. I do not blame them for wanting to expand their reach. I also planted raspberry and blackberry plants which did suprisingly well for their first year. I always say, "Hey there" when I pass by the snow covered garden. They look dead, but they are not. They are saving up their energy because very soon they will show themselves as perfect partners for my mad skills with sugar.

So I am quite apologetic for my absence. I just love to be around the food and there isn't a speck in this office.

Cupcakes are Everywhere

I know that the cupcake invasion has been coming...and staying for the last few years. Every town has a shop or four. I like to grab a cupcake now and then, without having to create them myself. So, I appreciate the trend. The most recent shop I found is in Livonia, Michigan on 6 Mile Road at Farmington Road. I took a walk with my sister Patti and my neice Laya and landed at the bakery.

They have so many flavors and it does smell sugary good as soon as you walk in. The sign outside declares it "Just Baked". I was secretly wishing that that were just baked because few things dry out quicker than a little cupcake. Well, they weren't all that small and they were super moist. I picked out a dozen and they included some vanilla and chocolate with buttercream. This is my favorite, being a purist for most things, and I found the cake just sweet enough and the frosting was the same. I just couldn't help but wonder why the frosting didn't harden up on the way home....I suspect shortening. Oh why, when we were off to such a great start? I call this American buttercream as opposed to the Italian buttercream that I use.

Two of the remaining cupcakes out of the dozen were a version of a bumpy cake. If you haven't had this delight, well, I can say that it is sweet and chocolatey. I grew up having this cake in full size portions in Detroit and never saw it anywhere else. I actually don't see it much even in Detroit anymore. This owner must have grown up around my part of town. In case you are wondering, the bumpy cake gets its name from the rows of buttercream atop the cake which are covered in a thin chocolate icing, thus making bumpy rows. Those rows called to me when my Mom would bring one home. It was pure torture for me to look at them and not be able to dig in. It could have been a little OCD in me as well. I didn't want that cake to be bumpy. I wanted to smooth it out. But that's just me.

The baker had given us quite a selection to choose from and from what I hear, she is a pretty decent person as well. We took home her pumpkin cupcake, a tropical, and a grasshopper (mint) for the others waiting at home. I didn't taste them so I can't attest. However, I can say that they didn't last and that I ate more than one of the buttercream. The word on the street is that she, who was too busy to talk to, hired back the staff from the previous, long time German bakery who occupied this space for as long as I can remember. Only now, the space is clean and inviting. Try it out and let me know what you think....

Just a Few Thoughts that Flowed Freely

Is that you, Spring?

Is that you, Spring?
The morning dove is cooing at the sun that wakes me early.
Silent soil’s moving at the plumping of the seeds.
My skin is warm at rising without blankets or arms wrapped right
Earthy tang wafting over porch, over me

Have you come to call on the buds, the blades, the nest builders?
I’ve been awash in expectation since I tucked the flora into bed
While I donned a coat and suffered still from shivers
Watching rain, then sleet, then snow cover my stepping stones
Soothed myself with the wisdom of your patience to see ahead

While the coolness tempered the ground
And the rest built strength in roots
Snow obscured nature’s fermentation
The earth is not lonely, but I am
I delight this morning to hear the soft announcement of the dove

And there she is calling to me
To dig, to nurture the roots, to feel the staleness leave on a breeze
Cobwebs wiped down and spirits hoisted up
The tiniest seed in my hand, some I cannot even see for the size
I say good morning to the rain, the dirt, the birth of a fresh start.

Written by Yours Truly

I Was Obsessed Even Then

I was looking through some old memorabilia with my Mom yesterday. It was snowy and we didn't want to think about it, so we were off to the basement to put our heads in the old boxes. We saw all sorts of things but the one that made me laugh out loud was a note I wrote to her. I was living in Japan and took a trip with my husband to Tokyo. I wrote that I had seen a very old place of worship and I even got to have a nice Japanese dinner with my then brother in law. Then I ended the note with this line, "The thing that impressed me most was the double chocolate mousse cake that I got from room service". I am certifiable.

I was not yet a pastry chef. Indeed, I was fourteen years from it. But this seems to be the running theme in my life. I remember the rum soaked cake in Paris, the fois gras that I ate every day the second time I went to Paris and the little sandwiches I had in London at the Ritz. I have as many pictures of food as I do people. I took pictures of the mignardise tray at Daniel in New York, of the ladies room (not food, but weird and I thought that they might slap me where I sat if I had tried to photograph the food) at Alinea and dozens at Le Francais where I worked. I had to stop in the park near the shops Laduree and then again near the patisserie Fauchon in France to take the petit fours out of the boxes so I could photograph them. I only took a bite of each. Eating them wasn't the whole point. They were beautiful little babies and I needed to really look at them. And so it goes that I count the moments of my vacations not by days but by meals. My husband will actually say to me, "You only have 4 meals left", because he knows they count with me. I don't like the "quick bite" here or there. I like to think about it, plan it and even check out the menu first. It's an event for God's sake. Respect it.

So, anyway, I admit I am single minded some times. I could be in a place that means a lot to you or that you think should mean a lot to me and I will most likely not be thinking about what you might expect. Even if I am not hungry, I am thinking about what to make you or for me when I AM hungry. I've done it in church, while I'm mowing the lawn or when I am at the doctor's. I cannot stop it. Who would want to stop it? I have been thinking food since I was very very small and I think I will be thinking it until I am very very big.

The Oreo Dilemma

This here is an Oreo cake. For the last two years my daughter has requested this cake for her birthday. It is a no-bake, layered cake. It is normally made in a big pan and you scoop it out with a big spoon. I layered it in a cake ring (actually two seeing as it made enough for an army) and topped it with chocolate covered oreos. I tried my damndest to make it pretty or to look like something special. Out of all the things I could have made for this girlie, she chose a cake that took me no time and no skill. And no smell. It doesn't even smell like anything at all. But she loves it, so there it is.

Really?

Okay, I was walking through a local grocery store and was meandering down the aisles. It is the type of store where I have found many unexpected items. My last favorite was the Abuelita Hot Cocoa. I bought it for my sister who just had a new grandbaby. Since this child was a millionth Mexican, I was calling my sister Patti "Abuelita", which is grandmother in Spanish. I know this from reading the highly esteemed http://www.dlisted.com/. The best part was that the grandmother on the front of the box looked more Polish than Mexican. We are also Polish, so I think the box was meant for me.

Yesterday, I went to this same store because they carry the european butter, Plugra, that I use in all of my baking. I also needed to shop the cookie/cracker aisle for a combination to use in a cheesecake crust. I always mix it up so it actually has some flavor and doesn't taste like a robotcouped cardboard box. I saw these cookies and passed them up for one, two, almost three steps before I realized their value. Morning sticks? Really? And they are in a new shape, shall we say? Who eats graham crackers for breakfast anyway? Well, I bought them so I could do a half and half mixture between them and some ginger cookies. I actually hid this box from my teenage daughter because I know her and this subtle humor would not be lost on her. I didn't show them to my husband because the endless "I'll give you a morning stick" would get old for me in half a second, however he would continue to enjoy it for far longer. Oh, and I love that they are honey flavor. Maybe I should call the dessert "The Honey Morning Stick Cheesecake".