Tag: baking

Book Club Tuesday: 100 Afternoon Sweets

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I can’t help but think back to last fall when I was bustling around the kitchen in preparation for my friend to arrive. While grey clouds floated by outside my kitchen window, and the rich red and jewel-toned orange and yellow leaves fluttered in the breeze, I felt happy to be putting the finishing touches to the cake I baked. Having friends over for coffee was a regular occurrence before the pandemic but standing there at the counter, trying to artfully swoop the Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: 100 Afternoon Sweets” →

Book Club Tuesday: Small Batch Cookies

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Happy 2025! In starting the new year, I can’t help but look back on the old one and feel that it was personally both long and forgettable. Favourite activities like reviewing or baking slipped away and, by the time what I affectionately think of as “Cookie Season” came around, I had lost the gumption to even think about, let alone bake any cookie boxes. Talking it over with a friend, she encouraged me to, at the very least, bake something for myself. I had promised my daughter that we would be baking together, and what my friend suggested ended up giving me a different perspective on Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Small Batch Cookies” →

Book Club Tuesday: The Side Gardener

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Although my favourite seasons are autumn and winter, I do find spring and summer to be thrilling as new plants grow green and flourish in the warmth of the seasons which are unencumbered by thick layers and clompy boots (but give me warm woolens any day).  And, while taking the long walk home after school drop off the other day, I happened upon a yard with chickens! Peacefully clucking while searching out tasty Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: The Side Gardener” →

Book Club Tuesday: Kitten and the Bear Cookbook

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Much of what drives me forward as a cook is the desire to preserve those warm feelings of family and home that I experienced as a child, eating meals so lovingly made by my family. Food connects us to each other and to all the home cooks that came before – and, what I’ve found reading through Sophie Kaftal and Bobby Zielinski’s Kitten and the Bear Cookbook is that they’re not only preserving the sweet and most delicious offerings from gardens and orchards, they’re maintaining and building a “…fairy tale life full of beauty, tradition, and the art of daily ritual.”(2) For those who have Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Kitten and the Bear Cookbook” →

Book Club Tuesday: Stuffed: The Sandwich Cookie Book

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From the response I recently received on an Instagram post dedicated to Christmas cookie boxes, and how I felt that these boxes are the embodiment of pure joy, I’d say that everyone loves a good cookie. Home baked cookies are such a treat because it feels special when someone has baked just for you (or, at least, this is how I hope people feel when I give them a box full of cookies!). I love baking and, cookies are the perfect thing to share. Unlike a cake, you can gift cookies Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Stuffed: The Sandwich Cookie Book” →

Book Club Tuesday: Anna Olson’s Baking Wisdom

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[B]aking isn’t just following instructions; it’s a journey and an exploration. (1)

It’s not very often that a home baker can pinpoint where tips come from because we take them in, make them our own, and move ahead. One tip that I learned from watching Anna Olson on her show was to add skim milk powder when making whipped cream to stabilize it. That piece of information has served me well (as well as all my friends and family who I passed it onto). Watching her often, I learned that much of her Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Anna Olson’s Baking Wisdom” →

Book Club Tuesday: 100 Morning Treats

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I keep thinking about why I’m so enamored with Sarah Kieffer’s books. Is it because I feel a culinary kinship with Kieffer? In her latest book, 100 Morning Treats, I feel like I can relate when she talks about how that early morning time in the kitchen is hers. In the introduction she talks about arriving at the little shop she worked at in Minneapolis at 5 o’clock to start her day, “With most of the city still asleep, those dark hours were mine, and I spent them in solitude, quietly whisking, mixing, and stirring.” (11)  For me, spending a peaceful, Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: 100 Morning Treats” →

Book Club Tuesday: Cake & Loaf Gatherings

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You know what cookbook I didn’t know I needed in my life until now? A baking book that focuses on seasonal gatherings. Much is made of seasonal cooking and, it’s mostly to do with availability of ingredients (i.e., the fresh ones). But, as I baked from the newest cookbook from Nickey Miller and Josie Rudderham (co-owners of Cake & Loaf Bakery),  Cake & Loaf Gatherings, I’ve come to appreciate their approach to what seasonal baking Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Cake & Loaf Gatherings” →