Mevrouw Cupcake

After my temporary resurrection from my sick bed, to make last week's peanut butter torte, I hope you'll all give me a break about opting out this week. I went from my sick bed to the airport last Wednesday night and flew off to Edinburgh with E to visit my best girlfriend. A good time was had by all and with the help of some spicy curries and fabulously decadent cocktails, I was soon feeling right as rain again.

All in all we had a lovely long weekend and enjoyed Edinburgh at its most beautiful, under sunny and cloud-less skies, a pleasant surprise and a rarity according to the locals.

I have several addresses to share with all you food connisseurs, but want to give them the full praise that they deserve, so I'll be posting about them later this week. In the meantime, please stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie blog to find out what all the other TWD bakers got up to!

 

Spring has finally arrived!!!

It's sunny and beautiful outside and a balmy 21ºC (70ºF) with not a cloud in the sky. Too lovely for baking, blogging, and any other inside activities, so I leave you with this image from our 4pm brunch (we're very slack and obviously don't have kids, huh?).

Enjoy your Sunday where ever you may be, and I hope it's sunny there too! 

 

Last night we went for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, then biked to the video store and picked up the 3-for-10 euro special and moseyed on home for a double-feature evening on the couch. Today we're both at home, having taken the day off, we're hiding out and lying low---our way of celebrating 3 years of enjoying each others company. Today is our weekend during the week, so we slept in and ate brunch so late in the afternoon, that it could almost be considered an early dinner. Ain't love grand?

I had to take time out from this festival of love, though, to talk biscuits; because this afternoon I just happened to make the best buttermilk biscuits that I have EVER made, and I've made a lot buttermilk biscuits in my life, none of which you'd call shoddy.

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I've watched the steady proliferation of memes across the blogging world, but have never been tagged nor voluntarily joined in on the fun, until now that is. Lucy over at Nourish Me got tagged for this meme, and left it open for volunteers to play along. So I'm playing along.

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(Do you see that I'd already cheekily taken a bite of my chicken before snapping the picture? It happens more often.)

Two Sundays ago, my darling girlfriend D called me up and imparted some rather exciting news, of the impending baby variety! I was so thrilled to hear to hear that this beautiful woman is going to bring an undoubtedly beautiful baby into to this world, that I thought a celebration was definitely in order. When D told me that she was hungry all the time, I knew then and there that I needed to pamper her with a home cooked meal.

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I read a really interesting article this week in the NY Times on dietary differences in relationships. Some of the stories really made me appreciate the fact that although E. doesn't like anything in the Brassica family, in general we're compatible enough when it comes to food. They say (and I surely believe) that way to the heart is through the stomach, and if that's the case, it's important to speak the same language of food.

I also realize that we're pretty lucky, we're both gainfully employed, can afford to buy organic produce and meats, and as we don't yet have children, we're pretty flexible, about everything from what time we dine to what we dine on. We make an concerted effort to eat all our meals together and this makes up a fundamental part of our relationship. That may not always be the case, as this fabulous short film from Faye Hess over at FayeFood illustrates, but that doesn't mean that you can't find your way back to one another, and the dinner table.

I haven't been cooking much, I haven't even baked a single holiday goodie, but I still have time. When I arrive at my parent's in Kansas this coming Sunday, the holiday food bonanza of preparing and partaking of food will commence. Until then I'm counting every second of my dwindeling work days and making lists (the what to shop for in America list, the family and friends gift list, the Christmas card list, the which clothes I'm taking with me list), and checking them twice.

In the midst of work Christmas parties, last minute get-togethers, and vacation preperation, I got a craving for spaghetti. So when a friend canceled our dinner plans tonite due to illness, I knew exactly what I'd be making for dinner. I've had this recipe for Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter on my radar ever since Molly over at Orangette posted it back September. I know why she waxed lyrical about it, and I'm sure it won't be the last time I make this particular recipe. I just have to pretend that it didn't taste so fabulous due the 70 grams of butter...ha!

I've been AWOL, dear readers....my feed reader has 1,068 entries in it, I can't remember the last meal of any significance that I actually made, and the last time I baked was October 26th, when I produced a 14-inch, 4-layer wedding cake for my sweet friends Maya and Hein.

What have I been doing for these past 5 weeks (to the day)? Well I've swum laps for a total of 4 and half hours, I've worked out for a total of 13.5 hours during a total of 18 trips to the gym. My head is in fitness land, as I purposefully try to rectify the damage that two years worth of baking trials, honeymoon period Sunday brunches, and general laziness and gluttony have wrecked on my body. And oh, have I got a ways to go! The first three kilos were easy enough to lose, but it's going to take some serious dediction if I want to lose another 15-20 kilos without dieting.

So while the food has been an ever important part of my new process, taking pictures of it and writing about it hasn't. Hopefully, this post will usher me back into the world of food blogging, newly inspired and maybe even with a new direction?

Stay tuned....