Off to the country for weekend to visit E's parents...

Have a great weekend! 

It’s been hot and steamy here in the Netherlands today; not really baking weather, but it seems that many of my fellow TWD’rs are suffering similar weather. Having grown up in Kansas where it’s common to have 90+ temperatures in the summers with a similar percentage of humidity, I personally like it hot and steamy, it suits me; or at least it does when everything goes as it should.

I don’t know why, but there is something mythical about the Daring Bakers’ challenges that seem to put the fear of God into me. This is only my second time participating in the Daring Bakers and I am still so impressed and overwhelmed by the in-depth explanations and tips that accompany multi-page recipes. This month’s challenge, hosted by Kelly of Sass & Veracity and Ben of What’s Cookin’?, was no exception. This month, Daring Bakers everywhere tackled the technique of making and working with yeasted laminated dough, to create a Danish Braid, based on Sherry Yard’s recipe as featured in The Secrets of Baking.

For this month's installment of Cookie Carnival, hosted by Kate of The Clean Plate Club, we were given the opportunity to vote on which cookie we'd like to bake. Hard choices had to be made with three equally tasty, but very different cookies on the menu. What to bake? Snickerdoodles? Coconut Macaroons? Double Chocolate cookies? As it turned out the majority of the 40-bakers strong group, including yours truly, voted for Snickerdoodles.

Last month I was contacted by a fellow expat here in Amsterdam, who was looking for a bakery or a baker to turn out some American-style baked goods for his partner’s birthday. He’d seen the Peanut Butter Torte that I’d made for TWD and thought that would be just the thing for his peanut butter loving partner. I informed my prospective patron that he should look no further and promptly sent him over my price list, with the promise that I’d get back to him with a quote for the Peanut Butter Torte. He eventually ordered a dozen cupcakes in addition to the torte and we set a date for the pick-up.

I love the blogosphere and how it connects food lover everywhere, and that was solidified when my lovely patron turned up to pick up the goodies. I was right in the middle of my the little gilding job you see gracing the devil’s food cake cupcakes and while he patiently waited for me to finish up and stow everything carefully into their boxes, we talked about Europe, America, cake, cocktails and living abroad. It was a fabulous experience.

Now I hate to toot my own horn, but the gilded cigar shaped decoration just so happens to be a mini Twix bar! You see, my patron had asked that if I could somehow work Twix bars into the mix, knowing it would be just the thing to thrill his candy bar loving partner. I thought about it for about a week and then it struck me, why not gild mini Twix bars with some edible gold leaf sheets that I’ve had lying around for the last year? So I bought a box of mini candy bars and would you believe it had exactly six mini Twix bars in it? Just the amount I needed. Luckily for me I happen to know some very talented frame makers who specialize, amongst other things, in gilding. I’ve been at their shop many times and have watched the process, so I just winged it (with the help of a few mini Milky Way bar test subjects) and I was well chuffed with the end result! I’m very much looking forward to getting a proper gold leaf brush and really having a go!

Last but not least I’ve been awarded another blogger award! Andreea of Glorious Food & Wine has honored me with the Arte y pico award! Thank you Andreea!

There are so many talented bloggers out there, that it’s not really difficult to find five to present this award to, but this time I'd like to award some blogs I've been reading for a couple of years and still love …

Gigi of gigi cakes…for her beautiful baked goods and generally lovely self.

Mandy of Fresh From the Oven…for her inspired recipes and gorgeous photos, she's no longer a novice baker, by any means.

Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once…who never fails to thrill me with creative recipes and gorgeous food.

Molly of Batter Splattered…who is all about local ingredients.

Jeanette of everbody likes sandwhiches…because she’s funny as hell and because I’ve meet her in person and she’s very cool. So cool that she probably won’t accept this award.

It’s that time again and I don’t mean “business time” (that’s Wednesdays); it’s Tuesdays with Dorie time! This week’s recipe is nothing French or fancy, involves no complicated prep work, and is in my eyes the homiest and most delicious of American fruit desserts, and my personal favorite, the cobbler; Mixed Berry Cobbler to be precise, as chosen by Beth of Our Sweet Life. I want to give a big shout-out to Beth for picking this recipe, because I am crazy about cobblers!

Click on the mosaic, read about the concept and find out how it relates to me.

A quick word on Hannah Kaminsky of Bittersweet, for those of you who may not know her, but it just so happens that she single-handedly wrote and photographed a cookbook on vegan desserts (all her own recipes), and all this before she hit her first year of university! This girl is talented, folks! I don't have my own copy yet, but I've read some glowing reviews and if her blog is any indication of her copious talents, then I'm sure that her cookbook, My Sweet Vegan is amazing!

Last, but not least, I’ve been honored with my first award! Lore of Culinarty was so kind as to grace me with an E for Excellence award…{uhm}…like a month ago. I must admit I feel a bit sheepish being the recipient of this award, after having had a rather slow month posting wise, but I feel honored nonetheless. Of course, I want to take the opportunity to pass that honor on to ten of my favorite bloggers.

 

Brown Interior…a fellow TWD member, who came along and knocked my socks off. Check out rainbowbrown’s amazing Labneh Golden Beet tart.

Erin Cooks…landed on her site via a Google Search and into my feedreader she went. Love the whimsical design of her site, the variety of recipes and cookbook reviews.

Ezra Pound Cake…another fellow TWD member with a whip-smart sense of humour, she never fails to crack me up. For a good laugh check out some of her older posts, like this one and this one.

Nosheteria…I’ve been a fan for a while and I just love this lady’s writing. Not to be missed on her site, the Dinner Oracle.

Nourish Me…Lucy shares nothing less then good writing and beautiful still life photography, all topped off with uber-delicious whole foods recipes.

Pictures of Cake…the name says it all, but there is so much more to this blog. This photo montage was one of my favorite posts, so far.

Scrumptious Photography…need I say more? Another fellow TWD who can bake and shoot with the best of them! Get your food porn here, ladies and gentlemen!

Seven Spoons…gorgeous photography, great recipes and great writing. That’s what it’s all about, right?

Slow Like Honey…yet another fellow TWD member, savoring life’s pleasures one recipe at a time.

Something Sweet by Karen…yep, you guessed it (but I swear there is not nepotism going on here), Karen is a TWD’r too. Her site’s color scheme just gets me and her pictures are gorgeous, I could look at her site daily, its eye candy.

The accomplishment that I'm most proud of from the whole of my "professional" (and I use this word lightly) career, is the cantina that I set up at the last company I worked for, thus saving my former computer games developing colleagues from frozen pizzas and microwave meals for lunch. They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but for me every meal is important. I don’t ever remember a time when I didn't make an effort to eat delicious food at every meal, and if I'm not making it myself, then I'll go out of my way to find the best and tastiest food I can find.

Well ladies and gentlemen; let’s just say that things didn’t go as planned. I knew as soon as I read the recipe for the Peppermint Cream Puff Ring, I wasn’t feeling the mint/cream/chocolate combo. I also knew that I had two birthday parties (it seems never ending at the moment), but that this dessert wouldn’t be suitable for either, as one was a late night affair and required a trip out of town. As I didn’t want a big ring of cream filled choux pastry lying around tempting us, I decided that I’d make profiterole sized puffs, which would make them easier to transport to work where either E or I could foist them onto our respective colleagues.