Diving Into...

My new book just arrived - can't wait to devour what I hear is a truly delectable treat of a read! Such great new (food and otherwise..) literature out now. I must catch up! For more information, see the author, Kathleen Flinn's site here.

Lemon Coconut

I must admit, I got on the cupcake bandwagon early on. Weddings, bakeries, books & articles all centered around the lovely cupcake. What's not to love? Of late, however, my tastes have turned to not actually eating the cupcake, but admiring from afar - for no good reason other than that I must have been on cupcake overload. Oh what a fool I have been...

Coming across the literally magical combination of lemon and coconut is a revelation. But in a cupcake, it's really perfection. Here are a couple of recipies; one with lemon curd in the center, and a good old fashioned lemon cake with coconut creme. Happy Friday!

Photos via measured memory

If Johnny Cash drank hot chocolate.

Must be all the snow, but I have been really feeling the need to cuddle up with hot cocoa lately. Preferably with marshmallows and Cinnamon. Upon further research into recipes for spicy hot chocolate, giving homemade gifts of Oaxacan hot cocoa mix, and visiting Rick Bayless' Xoco for drinking chocolates - there is so much more to this 'cuddle beverage'.

Canelle et Vanille Churros with Spiced Chocolate Bisque (recipe here)

Lucid Food Spiced Chai Hot Chocolate (recipe here)

Vosges Haut Chocolate Aztec Elixir Drinking Chocolate

A girl can dream can't she - that a plate of hot churros and spiced chocolate bisque would be brought to her by a roaring fire after a long day of ice skating, sledding, skiing...all in a long winter day's work.

New decade!

We have successfully recovered from what was a lovely New Year's Eve - ending what was not our favorite year to date. The Scandinavian feast went well, although our resident seven year old "kid" Buddy the border collie mix had a memorable beginning to the new decade with a full belly of Gravlax. We decided that the Omega-3's were good for him and left it at that. Lucky dog.

We did manage to push through and enjoy ourselves with a fantastic Rose Cremant, Quilette oysters and blackberries. Very civilized with some CNN times square coverage, a full blue moon, sparklers, and Van Morrison.

The first weekend of the year was spent with a major organization & cleaning session of our terribly over sized closed (it has it's pros and cons). It had become somewhat of a mess to say the least, and it was time to clean it up - and we did....for the whole weekend, with a few televised sports games intermixed, joy. Since 2009 was not our 'fave' year as I mentioned, we decided that a jambalaya with smoked chicken sausage, stewed tomatoes, gala apple, onion, amber ale, and of course the good luck of black eyed peas said to bring prosperity in the new year and was perfect for the chilly weekend.

So all in all, a great start to the new year, the new decade. We all need any luck we can get these days, but it's enough to just be - which is a lot easier with a clean closet!

posted by vanessa