summer

I decided to make this simple summer dessert from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking.  This book is fantastic-everything I've made out of it has come out better than I expected.  I used a dollop of Greek yogurt instead of whipping cream and it turned out fine.  I've been eating Greek yogurt quite a lot and I'm glad I have.

I enjoyed the dessert while watching Howard's End--Emma Thompson is fantastic as usual and I just saw her in Nanny McPhee Returns--I love Nanny McPhee.

best of both worlds

I make tea using both tea bags and loose tea leaves; however, every time I use loose tea leaves I always end up with some floating leaves-not a horrible amount-but enough that I wasn't always thrilled about using loose tea leaves.  So, I was very happy when I discovered these tea filters from finum and I've been making tea with all of my loose tea leaves I have around like crazy. You basically just stuff the little empty bags with your loose tea leaves and continue as usual.  These little bags really work and I get to use both a tea bag and loose tea leaves--all wrapped up in one. 

i love books

I wanted to share some vintage paperbacks I recently found.  I love books and have collected them for ages--basically hardbacks with a few paperbacks, but lately I've grown to appreciate paperbacks (wow was I a book snob ?).  I think paperbacks are wonderful--new editions as well as old.  The covers on these vintage paperbacks speak for themselves.  Later on I'll share other books I've found.

honey+lemon

After trying many different recipes for pound cake-each extolling the magic ingredient or technique to the "perfect" pound cake--finally success!  It's Ina Garten's recipe for honey lemon pound cake--it was moist and not difficult to make-super delicious with some raspberries.