Caesar Salad Bread in “A Passion for Baking”

(I thought this needed to be dusted off and brought out again. Its a wonderful bread to go with a salad, a nice dinner, or soup for lunch. I call this my ‘Italian Cheese Swirl Bread.)

This has to be one of my favorite over-the-top baking books.

And this particular bread is one of the best recipes in this book.

And that’s saying something, because her book is pretty full of wonderful recipes. I have even tried the popcorn bread, yep.

But before I get started, I have to snap out of this funk. Its a ‘I-took-seasick-pills-last-night-because-we-were-supposed-to-go-sailing” funk. The kind that, when I woke up this morning, my eyeballs kept rolling back in my head. And since its a holiday, I didn’t really have to get up for anything. So I didn’t. When I finally rolled out of bed like a sloth, my brain felt like it was wrapped in cotton batting. Not to say this is a particularly bad feeling. No, not at all, just not very productive. I put on my robe and slippers, schlupped into the kitchen and actually made a big ol’ breakfast. Hubby was putting on the pressure ’cause collage son is home for weekend. We need to fill him up to last a while. Okay, so my kitchen is still a mess, with dregs from last nights festivities that didn’t get cleaned yet and now breakfast madness. I just won’t acknowledge its there. Maybe the dish fairy will come and it will all go away.

Advertisements

Cream Puffs

Cream Puffs.

Oui!

You may not remember, but I wrote up how to make crepes here once long ago. A kind, enthusiastic woman I met from Paris taught me and it was so easy! At least as easy as pancakes. How had I been missing this? And we have had Saturday morning crepes ever since.

Then in Alabama once, visiting my Aunt at the Mistletoe Bough, we had a cream puff emergency! (Just because you’ve never had one, don’t scoff-its a real thing!)

A group of discerning ladies having a luncheon at the Inn, expecting cream puffs for dessert and none where to be found at the stores or bakeries. Cream Puff emergency!

Gluten Free Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

 

Here is a moist and delicious cake for all seasons. And I bet you cant even tell by looking how much of the cake got left behind in the bundt pan, and had to be dug out and layered back on top and glued in place with icing. Great huh?

Apple Walnut Streusel Muffins

(Ha, spellcheck tried to turn ‘streusel’ into ‘stressful’. I can’t imagine muffins being stressful. Really? They are anti-stressful if you ask me. The cure for stress. A couple of these and some tea? Or a glass of milk or even coffee…)

First, Happy Mothers Day to all Mothers, grandmothers, foster mothers, God mothers, and anyone involved in mothering. 

Since it was Mothers day, I figured I would make some of my own personal favorite muffins, apple walnut, although I do not have a go-to recipe really, like I do for some other recipes. This one is always hit and miss. So I dug through some of my favorite baking books.

This one is a hit!

Sad Sack or “Why Flour Matters”

 

Isn’t this just the saddest thing ever?

Carrot Cake

This was a recipe originally from Taste of Home that I found so long ago, I had it written down on a recipe card.

You know, not printed up on a computer or anything like that. Just hand written. Straight out of magazine I probably borrowed from my mom.

Its a great cake, a favorite among cake eaters, easy to whip up and-did I mention?- its got carrots so fiber, right? And pineapple! And nuts! Heck, this is practically a breakfast food, probably better for you than a bowl of cereal!

I print it here, now, just for you. So you can make your basic and delicious and much requested carrot cake.

A gratin of leeks, potatoes and cheese cooked in the French style

Here is a satisfying recipe and review submitted exclusively for La Petite by a  guest blogger, (and sweetie), author of “Thread and Bones”.

“The other week I was on a plane and decided to re-watch the movie Julie and Julia, which, if you haven’t seen it, is an excellent though fatally flawed film starring the amazing Meryl Streep as Julia Child, who’s life is fascinating and delightful, written by the lovable Nora Ephron, and heavily featuring Food, in all it’s glory.

Gingerbread Cake

(Here is an old favorite I made again last night. Its been 7 years since the original post, so I thought I would dust it off and bring it out for a run around the internet world before retiring again.)

So, what was your first cookbook? The one you got for your wedding, or Christmas, maybe when you first moved out? Mine was a Christmas gift from my dear mother. The “Betty Crocker Cookbook”  which is now missing it’s spine, is yellowed and stained with the ripply pages of a book that has had flour and egg wiped off with a wet towel. I still refer to it on occasion. Its the “new and revised” edition from 1978. (gosh, before lots of you were born!)

Spaghetti Sauce…Also, Gluten Free Meatballs

There you go, plain and simple.

Spaghetti sauce.

Conjures up a plate of steaming pasta, a deep red sauce, some cheese-snow sprinkled on top, perhaps a meatball or three.

I think we know someone with their own wonderful special sauce, some takes all day, some are handed down from your mother-in-laws cousins grandma in Sicily.

Butternut and Bacon Bisque

My aunt and I were on a road trip together last fall (which is its own whole story) and one of the most memorable meals we had been a delightful lunch at a cafe on lake Winnipesaukee. We had just gone wild at the Keepsake Quilting store in Connecticut and were looking for a lunch of champions. We almost missed it, a little stand alone house converted to a cafe that just looked appealing. In fact I think we turned around to go back to it.  I would tell you the name of it if I could remember. (see photo below)

 

I DO remember we split a lobster roll, the best I’d ever had, and each had a bowl of butternut bisque, wherein we both licked the bowl clean, looking over at the others bowls to see if maybe she missed a bit.