Book Club Tuesday: 100 Afternoon Sweets

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: 100 Morning Treats

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: Zoë Bakes Cakes

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Zoë Bakes Cakes is about longing realized. Which of us hasn’t looked at pictures of beautiful baked goods online and sighed at the seeming impossibility of being able to bake like this at home? This is where Zoë François comes in — she enthusiastically creates the most incredible baked goods while demonstrating to home bakers how to achieve these same results for themselves. She comes across as
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Book Club Tuesday: Holiday and Celebration Bread In 5 Minutes a Day

Is there any better smell than freshly baked bread? Truly? It is a smell that both warms and comforts — a smell that makes a house feel like a home. With the smell comes the task of making and baking the bread. The next question most people ask themselves: is there a task more daunting than baking bread? A skill that would seem to most people to have belonged to another generation, it has become Continue reading “Book Club Tuesday: Holiday and Celebration Bread In 5 Minutes a Day”