Oh my. It's been nearly a year since my last post...which was about it being nearly a year since my last post. Not a very convincing way to start a new post about how I plan to write more often eh? To be fair to myself, my last post was written just a few weeks before I found out I was pregnant, and the epic ten months of pregnancy hell that followed. I understand that pregnancy is different for every woman; some adore being pregnant and find the whole process "magical" (I hope each and every one of those women end up with horribly colicky babies for nine months. Okay, no I don't. Well...maybe a little bit. At least those women that flouted that they never threw up, never fell nauseated, felt energized by it all, and ran throughout their pregnancy. Those women can get colicky babies.) For me, pregnancy was miserable. Between the constant throwing up, debilitating fatigue, sciatica, and swollen ankles, there wasn't much time to focus on the magic of it all. For the first four months I called my mom nearly every day in tears, looking for reassurance that it would someday be over, and was worth it. Fortunately my mother, an unconditionally loving woman who is the epitome of kindness and goodness, told me this: she hated every single second of pregnancy. The "glow" others attributed to her pregnancy, she insisted came from inner rage. Inner rage sounded about right. But I digress. Ten months of misery led to the most perfect baby the world has ever seen. And though Marilla may say that "every baby is the sweetest and the best," I know better. Mine actually is the sweetest and the best. Just look at this girl.
But back to this blog. Now that I am no longer pregnant (huzzah!) and can stomach the thought of baking again, my passion for it is reinvigorated. The first thing I baked after having Roxie was for a couple of dear friends who were moving into a new place after somehow surviving a year together in a teensy studio apartment. While the bambino kept me from actually getting to help them move, I figured the least I could do was bake something delicious for the moving crew. I made two things: first, a refreshing double-lemon bar. My father is the biggest lemon bar fan I know, and I always think of him when I see them; he cannot resist buying one if they are in a bakery, even if his primary pastry is something else (usually a cream cheese danish of sorts. This is much like my father-in-law who cannot pass up ribs if they're on the menu. He'll order them in addition to his main entree, and have the ribs brought to the table already in a doggie bag for later.) I cannot blame my father; lemon bars are highly underrated pastries, if done right. And boy, were these done right. I got the recipe from the fabulous Bon Appetit Desserts cookbook, which has yet to fail me. It is a simple recipe, but what sets it apart from other lemon bar recipes are its two key elements: the cookie bottom is more of a sugar cookie than shortbread (I detest shortbread, so this is a welcome change); and the quantity of lemon curd topping is double that of normal lemon bars. Yes! Why is this not done more often? The bars are intensely tart with a delightfully bright lemon flavor that isn't muddled up with too many ingredients.
This is a horrible photo of the end product, but these were gobbled up so quickly by myself and others that I nearly forgot to take a photo of these beauties before I finished off the last one.
The second dessert I made was a batch of brownies I'd seen on the Pioneer Woman television show. I've been a follower of her blog for quite some time, and was happy to see she'd been given a cooking show as well. These brownies were one of the first things I saw her make, and man did they stick in my mind. First things first, they're called "Knock You Naked Brownies." How can you go wrong when your recipe starts out with such conviction? These are fairly easy to make and hugely impressive. One layer of oozing caramel sandwiched between two layers of chocolate brownie, studded with chopped pecans. Unfortunately these suckers were eaten up so quickly I did not have the opportunity to snap a photo of them. I should have taken a photo of my husband's sticky chocolate grin though, as that would have captured their essence as well. These brownies are incredible, decadent, and worth all the time it takes to peel the plastic off all 60 of those darn caramel candies. For a photo and recipe, go here: Knock You Naked Brownies
The last thing I baked this month was a Vanilla Cardamon Peach Crumble. It was a bit of an amalgam of the highlights of several different recipes -- topping from one, spices from another, etc. My brother-in-law and his lady were coming over for dinner and I wanted to make something summery and special. I tried to think of my favorite summer treats and remembered a recipe my aunt Shari had made for my father's 60th birthday -- hands down the best peach cobbler I've ever eaten. The kind you convince yourself can also be a breakfast food so you can eat it in the morning guilt-free, save any you feel about polishing off the last bit before the rest of the family wakes up to find out it's gone. I fully admit to doing this more often than I should.
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