Gluten Free Goes Vintage

A couple of weeks ago I got a charming email from a reader claiming I was reading her mind! She lives in Michigan, writes a food blog based on vintage recipes and collects vintage kitchen stuff... in short, her similarities to my heroine, Jaymie Leighton in A Deadly Grind, are truly startling!

But the basis of her reworking of vintage recipes is a little different; she creates gluten free recipes from vintage recipes!!

So Holly and I have partnered to offer one of my autographed books to a commentor on her blog, Gluten Free Goes Vintage. Check it out, read about the fun she had at the Feast of the Strawberry Moon festival, and drool over her lovely Hoosier-style cabinet and comment for a chance to win!

http://glutenfreegoesvintage.blogspot.ca/2012/06/once-in-strawberry-moon.html

50 Shades of Cake

Lately I've been seeing a lot of mention of 'food p o r n', (I'm separating the letters of the word because I don't want to wind up with trouble, or weird stuff... LOL!) and I never quite got what that phrase meant. Then on Thursday, I went to the thrift store; I got the cutest teacup with a little mystery attached, which I have to investigate and I'll talk about later. But I also perused the books, and besides getting Mary Daheim's Hocus Croakus and another 'Company's Coming' cookbook, I found a book called Luscious Afternoon Teas by Rosemary Wadey.

OMG. This book has the most gorgeous cakes and pastries... here are some of the names of the cakes... Chocolate and Hazlenut Caramel, Orange Caraque Gateau, Gateau Japonais, Lemon Praline Ring... and the photos!! Beautifully photographed, gorgeous flowers, and the plates and cutlery are divine...

I was salivating, and not just for the food.

And suddenly it hit me... I understood food p o r n. The recipes are difficult, too much so for my limited baking abilities, but I can look, right? So just like that other kind of p o r n, which describes activities and positions you might not actually try, flipping through the book was still fun.

You get my drift. The book will stay on my shelf, even though I'll never try one of the recipes. But I will look it over and sigh.

Oh MY! Will you look at that!!

Autumn

It really feels like autumn this morning. I thought that, as I stood outside in my nightgown and a windbreaker, watching firefighters work on the second local housefire in two weeks.

Oh, yeah, and I thought, 'I need to get a new battery for my smoke detector.'

I'm always of two distinct feelings as autumn closes in, days getting shorter and nights getting longer and colder. On the one hand, I hate to see nice weather leave because I love sitting out in the garden with a cup of tea or glass of wine. 

On the other hand, autumn and winter bring their own joys. I like 'autumn' foods, heartier fare and yummy holiday treats. Oh, and roast turkey... yum! I also get back to crafting: crocheting, painting, needlework, etc. But most of all, autumn brings with it a 'back to work' mentality that really helps me get a lot done. I don't feel like I'm missing out on outdoor activities when the weather is as cold, windy and rainy as it has been the last few days.

What do you like about autumn?

(By the way... no one was hurt in the fire, the second in our neighborhood in two weeks, but what an eye-opener at five in the morning... standing outside in 6 Degrees Celsius... brrrrr!)