The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking.  They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month.  Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

I made the tiramisu more than a week ago and froze it.  Last night I cut two small squares out to photograph (and eat!) but put the rest back in the freezer.  It was quite tasty.  I didn’t end up with as many layers as I was supposed to because based on the ladyfinger recipe I didn’t have enough for a third layer.  Regardless, it was far superior to any tiramisu I’ve ever had in a restaurant.  And it was great to learn how to make mascarpone from scratch.  My results looked thus:

Not to give away my age or anything, but I graduated from high school in the year 2000, and from college in 2004.  So it seems hard to believe 2010 is already in progress.  A decade has passed since high school.  Really?  A decade?  Of course, high school does seem long, long ago (and for that I am thankful) and for that matter college seems distant as well, but somehow it is still surprising to be so far into this century.  But rather than think back over the last 10 years, I’d prefer to look forward.  There are many things to look forward to in this new year and I am going to enjoy it all thoroughly.  I do have goals — not New Year’s resolutions per se, but things I hope to do, see, work on, enjoy, etc.

Here are some pictures from the recent past.  It was a great holiday season and I enjoyed many days of relaxation.  My family did a handmade Christmas which was truly wonderful.  At some point I will post some pictures of the gifts we gave and received.  And I plan to put up a short series of 2009 photo collections.

This week has been light in the sleep department, but for mostly good reasons.  I had a flurry of printing activity this week as I scrambled to get cd sleeves printed up for Pete Witham & the Cozmik Zombies’ cd release party for their new record, Full Tilt.  This was my first experience printing cd sleeves and I really enjoyed the process.  I hope more music related printing is in my future.  As always, the end result was a combination of foresight, happy accidents, physical and time constraints.  But I’m pretty pleased with them.  My last push on Wednesday night to print the back cover was made possible by the following: a bowl of moosemeat stew, a couple slices of bread & butter, one can of Barq’s root beer, half a brownie, encouragement from J, and lots of fabulous tunes that J cranked in the studio.  Cheers!

Last week was a blur.  J had surgery on his wrist and that meant general anesthesia…yippee!  Lots of waiting for me, but I had good things to read (I finished My Life in France by Julia Child while I was there) and I snuck out of the hospital and headed down to Standard Baking Co. to procure provisions for myself.  The provisions came in the buttery, flaky form of a ham and cheese croissant and a delectable pain au chocolat, plus a hot cup of coffee to wash it down.  Then we had a quiet, restful weekend at home, which included lovely visitors {armed with gooey cinnamon rolls!} many loads of laundry, house cleaning, movie watching, cooking, meal planning, and heavenly naps.  Just the thing for a couple chilly October days.

Didn’t August just begin?  I can scarcely believe it’s already nearing the end of August.  Summer weather, in the form of hot, sticky days, arrived in Maine last week and has kept a tight grip over all the land.  Today is less of a scorcher resulting in a simply hot, lovely summer day.
Moving and settling seems to have swallowed August whole.  But I am enjoying my new environs (despite some pesky rodents who would like to share a home and food…) and am glad to have a place to truly call home where my stuff is together, in one place (rather than scattered between 3 or 4 locations as the last few years have demanded).
However, this moving and settling business has proven a poor climate in which to take photographs.  My camera has scarcely been touched these last few weeks, but I am looking forward to finding a new rhythm in a new place.  For now, a few shots from earlier this summer will have to suffice.  {the first couple shots are from my mom’s birthday celebration when we took her out to a lovely brunch at Caiola’s in Portland}

A sneak peek into my new home:

It’s raining again today (and I’m wearing a sweater and wool socks in July!) but the sun did make an appearance over the weekend. I decided to take it easy over the holiday weekend and relaxed at my parent’s house, enjoying great food and spending time with friends and family.
Weekend highlights included:
~ baking strawberry muffins
~ thrift store shopping
~ sewing project (and a sewing lesson)
~ dinner outdoors on the deck
~ leisurely mornings
~ sunbathing
~ late night guacamole & chip fest
~ popovers and freshly picked strawberries for breakfast
~ a motorcycle ride
~ ice cream sundaes
~ yummy pizza
~ a mint mojito {which I am officially declaring the official drink of Summer}

I was really sorry to miss a friend’s wedding but due to my persistent cough and nose blowing I opted for the restful route. And I had a great time just chilling out.

For my birthday J took me to see Away We Go on Tuesday night.  It’s a fun, quirky, and sweet film and we really enjoyed it.  I definitely recommend seeing it if you have the chance.  It was great to see John Krasinski (who plays the character Jim in the TV show The Office) in a film setting with new co-stars.

And my parents drove down last night and took me to a lovely dinner.  The food and drinks were fabulous, as always, and the company superb.  Of course, sunshine would have really made my day but given our stretch of rainy, dreary weather I guess that was too much to ask.  And it’s raining again today…

No.1

No.2

Clearly I have not been a faithful blogger these last few weeks.  Once again, time has slipped away in the blink of an eye and I have not made the time to write in this space.  But here I am, trying to make up for lost time.
Let me begin by telling you that spring is really here, in all its glory.  To back up my words I offer Exhibit A (and if this isn’t proof, then I don’t know what is):

Of course, most of you know this by now and have yearned for and embraced this seasonal change right along with me.  But I thought I would offer proof anyway.
In other exciting news, J has just joined Girls Guns & Glory and will be touring around the Northeast, Midwest and South in the coming months.  You can view the band’s schedule here to see if they’ll be playing in your area.  The band happened to have a show in Portland (Maine) at Empire last Friday so I was lucky enough to see him play with them already.

And in case you’re wondering, J is gesturing to the drummer with his pointer finger and not his middle finger in the photo above.  Pictured is Ward Hayden, lead singer and acoustic guitar, Colt Thompson, lead guitar, John Graham, drums, and Maine’s very own Justin Maxwell on upright and electric bass.  The guys sounded great and we had a blast ripping it up on the dance floor.  The band is headed to NYC tonight to play at the Rodeo Bar.
In other music news, J and I (along with his father and step-mother) went to see Greg Brown last week at the Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, Maine.  I bought tickets back in November for J’s birthday, and the original date back in February was cancelled due to a blizzard and rescheduled for April 9.  This worked out well, in part because it became a celebration of almost exactly two years together for us.  Our first real date was going to see Greg Brown at the Camden Opera House in April of 2007.  Both shows were great, and the Stone Mountain Arts Center is worth the trip and price.  I hope we’ll make it back again.

I think I’ll sign off with a few photographs from Easter weekend.  J and I drove up to my parents for church and dinner, and as usual my mom prepared a dinner that was just as pleasing to the eye as it was to the belly.  I can take credit only for the maple-glazed parsnip dish (we had our first CSA pickup last weekend!).

I knew exactly what I wanted to make this morning.  And then the dreaded moment of realization hit me and it was clear that I would have to alter my course.  I had forgotten a key ingredient and heading out the door on this rainy, lazy Sunday morning seemed cruel.  So, it was back to the drawing board and carefully inspecting recipes to ensure the requisite ingredients were indeed stashed happily in my cupboard.  Of course, I am working on my flexibility as a baker and cook.  Truth be told I have never been one to get mixed about in changing recipes.  No, I was a stick-to-the-book kind of cook.  And I’m not sure what has started to soften this engrained spirit but I have begun to substitute here and there, usually in attempts to make my baked goods a smidge healthy (I was going to say healthier, but let’s face it, are chocolate chip cookies healthy to begin with?).  I stocked up on a variety of flours a couple weeks ago, adding organic whole wheat pastry flour, brown rice flour, white whole-wheat flour, and corn flour to my shelves, along with sucanat, an alternative to certain refined sugars.

I have begun substituting white whole-wheat flour for all-purpose flour sometimes entirely, but sometimes using half and half.  And sucanat can do well to replace brown sugar in certain recipes I’ve found.  Back to this morning.  I was on the search for a breakfast baked good that wouldn’t require hours of my time and I was leaning towards muffins.  I had some blueberries in the freezer and a lemon on hand (well, it was actually for the original recipe I planned to make, but I can replenish my supply) and did a quick search for lemon blueberry muffins and quickly came across this one from Country Living magazine.  I was lacking a couple of things but was feeling confident in my flexibility and with a couple substitutions I ended up with a dozen tasty muffins (they’re still warm if anyone wants one!).

Lemon-Blueberry muffins
Adapted from Country Living