Two bites = two words. Tropical. Paradise. 

A sweet tart crust….. filled with luscious coconut pastry cream….. sprinkled with chewy toasted coconut….. and topped with fresh, sweet, juicy pineapples.

Is your heart open?

This is best made in stages because you will need to make your pastry cream first and let it sit in your refrigerator overnight.

Coconut Pastry Cream:

1 (13.5 oz) can of unsweetened coconut milk

1 cup flaked coconut

3/4 cup sugar

3 egg yolks

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

2 Tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup confectioners sugar

Heat the milk, sugar, salt and vanilla in a large saucepan over medium heat.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and cornstarch.  Add 1/2 cup of the warm milk mixture to the egg yolks whisking constantly.  Then put the egg mixture back into the milk mixture and continue to whisk until the mix becomes thick and bubbly.  At this point continue to whisk for about another 3 minutes.  Take off the heat and whisk in the butter.  Strain through a mesh sieve into a bowl.  Stir in the coconut and cover with plastic wrap, making sure the wrap touches the top of the custard to prevent a skin from forming.  Refrigerate the mixture overnight.  When you are ready to use the pastry cream, you will first make a whipped cream by whipping the 1/2 cup heavy cream with the 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar.  Stir about a half of the whipped cream into the coconut cream to loosen.  And then fold the rest of the whipped cream into the pastry cream until it is all incorporated.  This will be spooned evenly into the 6 cooled tart crusts.

Sweet Pastry Crust:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

1/2 cup sugar

7- 8 Tablespoons heavy cream

1 1/2 sticks cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1/2 teaspoon salt

You will need to use an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, six 3 inch tart pans with releasable bottoms, a bench scraper, rolling pin, tin foil and pie weights.

This is a super easy recipe and can be tossed together in the bowl of  your electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  So first mix the flours, sugar, and salt on a slow speed for about 30 seconds.  Add the cut butter cubes and continue to mix on low to medium speed for another minute more.  Add the 7 Tablespoons of cream and continue to mix until the mix looks like gravel.  This will take about a minute or two.  If after 2 minutes, it still looks like the texture of parmesan cheese, pinch a piece between your fingers.  If it falls apart, add another Tablespoon of cream.  If it holds together in a clump, continue to mix on low to medium speed for another few minutes until it comes together in a cohesive mass.  Cut the ball in half with your bench scraper.  And then divide each half into 3 equal portions.  Roll out each portion to form a circle a little larger then each tart pan.  Press the dough into each tart pan and use a knife to scrape the excess dough from the top edges of the pan.  Fit a small piece of tin foil over each tart, leaving a bit of an overhang to make it easy to remove.  Fill each foiled tart with pie weights or beans to the top of each tart. Place the tarts on a baking sheet.  Bake in a 400° oven for 20 minutes.  Carefully remove the foil and beans.  Return the tarts to the oven for another 8-10 minutes, until golden brown.  Cool completely before filling.

To Assemble:

Toast about 1 cup coconut flakes in the oven until golden.

Peel and core 1 large, fresh pineapple.  Cut large pieces of pineapple as shown in the pictures.

Spoon the pastry cream evenly between the tarts.  Toss some toasted coconut on top of each and layer with 4 slices of pineapple, larger pieces on the bottom and tapering a bit smaller on the top.  Garnish with a few leaves from the top of the pineapple. 

Enjoy!!!

I often find that most food tastes better as leftovers, when it’s had time to sit and let the ingredients and flavors meld.  But what I am really finding, as I bake, is that an ingredient for one recipe often drives the idea for another.  I simply don’t want to waste, an often costly ingredient, and I want to use it up to the extent that I can.  And so this morning I was making a pâte sucrée for another recipe.  And I decided to turn the scraps into these delicious little cookies to be dipped in the leftover strawberry jam that I made from my Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream. 

Honestly, these were so surprisingly good, I’d consider making sweet pastry crust just for the purpose of making a big batch of these cookies!  Or if you need a quick and easy dessert, you could even buy the pie crust dough, roll it, cut it and toss a little sprinkling sugar before baking for about 15 minutes.  Serve with your favorite jam for dipping.  I’ll never throw out those scraps again!

Okay.  So I didn’t really have these for breakfast this morning.  Ummm.  I had them for my dinner last night!  A great group of bakers and fanatics for the cookbook, Baked Explorations, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, have been making these Malted Waffles in some form or another.  Please check out Baked Sunday Mornings to see what my fellow baking explorers did with this recipe.

So in keeping with the theme of my blog, I decided to turn them into dessert waffles!  The batter was particularly light and airy.  And the waffles were more chewy and never crisped up quite the way I am used to.  Another reason why I decided to turn these into dessert waffles was because while the recipe called for malt powder, the only thing I could find in all of the markets in my area was Ovaltine!  And while these waffles were not very sweet at all, I just thought the flavor might be enhanced with some home made Baked Brown Sugar Banana and Walnut Ice Cream!  And to top it off…..a drizzle of Malted Chocolate Sauce.  Let me show you what the ice cream did for these waffles…..

The recipe for these waffles can be found at Baked Sunday Mornings. 

As I mentioned earlier, the waffle batter was very light and airy.  The waffles cooked up exactly the same way.  A light crunchy exterior, and soft and chewy inside.  But the flavor needed a little kick to it.  And while it was suggested to serve them with maple syrup, I thought it would be better to try and pair something to the mild chocolate malt flavor of the Ovaltine I used.  So I made some home made banana ice cream, by roasting bananas and brown sugar in the oven and then turning them into ice cream studded with walnuts.  I will divulge the recipe in another post soon!

The sweet banana ice cream, melting all over these malted waffles was what made this so good for me!  A few strawberries for good measure, and I was really onto something here.  So, okay.  It was one of those days where I forgot to eat again.  And when I finished making these and was ready to photograph, it was dinnertime.  But still, I had to pull myself away from this half eaten plate just to take another photograph!

The malted chocolate sauce that I made for this was just okay.  I debated between this chocolate “sauce” vs. some home made hot fudge.  The next time I will go for the thicker sauce.  I think even caramel would have worked here.

Please head over to Baked Sunday Mornings if you would like the recipe or if you want some information about participating in this awesome group!

And I’ll be baking from…..

miette

“recipes from San Francisco’s most charming pastry shop”

by Meg Ray

I can spend hours, days even, pouring through cookbooks and magazines, searching for new and interesting recipes to make.  Sometimes it’s the recipe that catches my eye, but usually, it’s the photography that compels me to want to give it a try. 

This time, as strange as it sounds, it was the entire book!  I would love to visit this pretty and quaint little pastry shop one day.  The pictures that I’ve seen of it online are almost magical.  It is the bakery of your dreams!  Glass domes showcase pretty little cakes and pastries.  Tall jars are filled with the candy of your childhood.   Pretty painted tables and shelves offer bags of cookies, marshmallows and confections. All tied up with pretty little ribbons.  And this book was designed in the exact same light.  Scalloped pages in pastel prints offer the secrets to Ms. Ray’s favorite sweets from her beautiful shop. 

This 223 page book is divided into 7 main chapters which contain 100 recipes and 50 of the most gorgeous pictures you will ever feast your eyes upon.  The chapters are Cakes; Afternoon Cakes; Tarts; Cookies-Bars-and Pastries; Candies & Creams; Miette essentials; and a chapter on essential ingredients and tools.

The first chapter, Cakes, comprises most of the book and teaches you how to make the basic recipes for Hot Milk Cake and Butter Cake.  And from these, she offers variations of flavor and decorations.  Among the many cakes you can make are Lemon Debutante Cake, Double Chocolate Cake, and the iconic Tomboy Cake which is featured on the front cover of this lovely book. 

In the chapter, Afternoon Cakes, you may choose from such delightful recipes such as Honey Tea Cake and Banana Bread with Nutty Streusel.

The chapter, Tarts, will have you daydreaming about Lime Meringue Tarts and Pastry Cream and Fresh Fruit Tarts.

In Cookies, Bars, and Pastries you may choose from such delicacies as Chocolate Sables, Parisian Macarons, Brownies, and Eclairs.

Candies and Creams will have you preparing English Toffee, Miette Marshmallows, and Buttermilk Panna Cotta, among others.

And in her Miette Essentials chapter, Ms. Ray will teach you some of her basics, such as Buttercream Icings, Mousse and Pastry Cream.

You will learn what tools you will need and are provided sources where you will find these tools along with some other ingredients you may need.

Though I look at this book often, I have yet to actually make anything from it.  Most of the actual baking seems straightforward; but it is the decorating that seems a little daunting to me.  There are many pictures to guide you.  But I question my own skill in piling whipped cream on top of a cake to make a dome, and then covering that dome with fondant without having the cream deflate or lose it’s shape.  But the photography is just so stunning, the cakes are just gorgeous, and the recipes are so inviting…..that I’ve decided to give it a go!

I am going to bake from this book…cover to cover….though not necessarily in order.  I hope to feature something scrumptious from this book once a month.  And I will start with a cake which I will make for Mother’s Day.  Which cake?  Come back and find out!  I think this book is just lovely and inspiring and I’m excited to challenge myself with Ms. Ray’s most beautiful creations.  Wish me luck!

Ahhhhh!  If only love were so easy to bribe!  But would we really want it then?  For me, there were two reasons for wanting to make this cheesecake.  First, I saw a picture of it naked, in it’s purest form in an issue of Bon Appetit magazine.  And that was good enough for me.  It looked rustic, and simple and beautiful.  But….for some reason, last year, I developed a mad passion for blackberries.  And I wanted to add them to this delicious, creamy and crustless cheesecake.  I am in love with this cheesecake!  And I know it will last!  At least until the last bittersweet bite has consumed me…..

So this recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine.  It is the first time I’ve had a ricotta cheesecake!  And I really love it.  Here it is naked…..in all it’s humble glory.

A soft dusting of powdered sugar, and I am a girl, smitten.

Add the reckless abandon of plump, luscious blackberries coated in a sweet, fresh blackberry sauce, sinfully spiked with cassis…..and I am a woman in love!

I know you will fall in love with this recipe, too.  The cake sinks ever so slightly in the middle, to create the most perfect little bowl, to hold the berries of your heart’s content!  And if you just gotta have it…..by all means…..add some chocolate somewhere!  This is a perfect blank canvas just waiting for you to add all the things that you love!

FOR THE CHEESECAKE:

2 (15 oz) containers of whole milk ricotta cheese

2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, cut into cubes, and at room temperature

1 cup plus 1 Tablespoon sugar

2 large eggs

2 Tablespoons cracker meal

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon zest

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature

3 Tablespoons unseasoned dry breadcrumbs

powdered sugar for sprinkling if desired

You will need an 8 inch springform pan or similar size pan with releasable bottom with 2 1/2 inch sides. 

To release the extra liquid, place your ricotta in a large fine mesh strainer set over a bowl.  Let it drain for 30 minutes.

Set your rack into the lower third of your oven and preheat it to 350°F.  Grease your springform pan with the softened butter.  In a small bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs with 1 Tablespoon of sugar.  Sprinkle this mixture into your buttered pan and tap and swirl the pan all around so the breadcrumbs coat the entire pan.  Tap out any excess crumbs. 

After 30 minutes, place the ricotta cheese into your food processor.  Puree for about 30 seconds.  Then scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to puree until smooth.  Add the softened cream cheese and puree again, until blended and smooth.  Add the sugar, eggs, cracker meal, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla and salt.  Puree again, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl, for another 30 seconds.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

The cheesecake will bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes; until it is golden brown and set in the middle.  Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool.  The cheesecake will fall slightly in the center (there’s that perfect bowl for your berries!)  When the pan is cool enough to handle, place it in the refrigerator to cool for about 3 hours.  Then cover it and chill overnight.  When ready to serve, release the cake from the pan, dust with powdered sugar if desired.  Slice and serve with berries. 

The ricotta definitely lends a different texture to this cheesecake.  But with the ricotta and cream cheese together it is still super creamy.  So I didn’t feel the need for any additional whipped cream.  But I’m glad I made a simple blackberry sauce to drizzle over.  Here’s what I did…..

BLACKBERRY SAUCE:

1 cup blackberries

1/4 cup sugar

freshly squeezed juice of half a lemon

1 Tablespoon (or so!) of creme de cassis liqueur

Place the blackberries, sugar, and juice into a small saucepan.  Simmer over medium high heat for about 5-10 minutes until the berries are softened.  Transfer to your blender and puree.  Strain the juice into a bowl and then add your cassis and chill.  After straining, this really only makes a small amount, about a quarter of a cup.  I tossed a drizzle of the sauce over the blackberries before putting them on the cake.  And I drizzled a bit onto the cake when cut.  I have just enough for the entire cake.  But if you prefer more sauce, then you may wish to double the recipe.

Here…..take a bite…..

ENJOY!!!

Does the arrival of spring (and then summer) signal a departure from the kitchen for you, especially in baking?  My ovens run all year round!  Though I do often like to lighten up in the warm weather.  For me though, the arrival of spring is the opportunity to use a new set of ingredients.  A new season, new fruits, new vegetables and all fresh!  I am excited to be able to walk onto my back deck for fresh herbs.  AND….. it means the opening of my local farm markets again!  And two of my favorite markets offer the best fresh cream and butter you can ever imagine!  This bread won’t have you in the kitchen for very long, I promise!  But your reward is a warm, fresh bread that is moist and tender, a little bit lemony with a tiny bite of pepper.  This is most definitely…..

…..a light, bright bread and a savory treat!  Perfect with a slice of cheese or a side to your salad.

Here’s what you need to have you in and out of the kitchen in no time!

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Tablespoon of finely chopped fresh tarragon

1 Tablespoon of lemon zest

4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup sour cream

1 large egg

Preheat your oven to 350°F.  Prepare an 8 x 3 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.  Melt your butter and set aside. 

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, sugar, tarragon and lemon zest.  In another bowl, whisk together the egg, sour cream and buttermilk.  Pour the melted butter and the egg mixture over the flour mixture and combine just to moisten the dry ingredients.  It’s okay to have a few dry spots in the dough. 

Spoon the dough into your prepared bread pan.  Bake for about 50-55 minutes or until the top springs back lightly when touched in the center.  Place the pan on a cooling rack until just warm.  This bread will keep at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap for 1 week.

Enjoy this light, bright kickoff to spring!

Well it is once again time for The Secret Recipe Club reveal!   I had the great pleasure of being assigned to The Kitchen Witch this month!  I felt immediately at home in Rhonda’s place!  She writes with spunk and humor.  And with the exception of the fact that I have never been on a Harley, I could relate to so much in her blog.  Her recipes run from rustic to elegant and she has quite a nice variety.  Many of her recipes have points values (I am a former weight watcher)!  And when I read her post on jello salad, I found myself grinning from ear to ear.  We definitely grew up in the same era where jello was THE dessert of the times.  So funny!  And as I perused her scrumptious selection of recipes, naturally looking for the perfect dessert or baked good, I came across a post that I could relate to more than any other!

Rhonda called it …..Lemon Bites: A Tasty Failure.  And I thought….wow….I love this woman.  Because this time last year I had a similar post.  A strawberry lemon tart I made that had a meltdown but was the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted, despite the fact that you had to eat it with a spoon.  But Rhonda, like me, had a vision.  And her vision was for a little puffed pastry filled with lemony curd and topped with whipped cream.  And though it didn’t turn out exactly as she expected, she loved how they tasted.  So with a bit of Rhonda’s determination, and the luck of a ‘kitchen witch’ on my side, I decided to go for it.  And this is what happened…..

I know puff pastry can be temperamental.  But I thought of those packages of puffed pastry squares, that have that area that is so easy to remove once they are baked.  And I thought….hmmm…..maybe if I score the pastry before I bake it, I’ll be better able to remove the center.  So I used the smallest biscuit cutter and the end of a piping tip to do this:

BRILLIANT IDEA!!!!

Too bad it didn’t work!

Puffed pastry, when you are trying to form it into some shape, has a mind of it’s own.  Some puffed up perfectly.  Others looked so wonky.  But by the time I managed to scoop out some center and fill them….there was little area to fill in the lemon curd let alone top them with whipped cream.  So….plan B…..I sugared and brulee’d them.

They were good!  But like Rhonda…..I wanted the whipped cream!  So onto plan C…….pinwheels!  I simply took the sheet of pastry and lightly rolled the area of the seams, slathered a light layer of lemon curd, and sprinkled on a few poppy seeds for color and crunch. I rolled it and let it sit in the freezer for about a half hour before slicing and baking in a 400° oven for about 18-20 minutes.

Now just top them off with a little whipped cream and maybe a little fruit salsa and we are almost there!

No…..these were not the perfect little cups of pastry as I had hoped.  But you know….sometimes, as long as all the flavors you desire are there…..it doesn’t matter what shape your vision will take! 

I hope you all will take the time to visit Rhonda at The Kitchen Witch.  I think you will love her and her blog as much as I do.  And a thank you to Amanda at Amanda’s Cookin’ for her vision to start The Secret Recipe Club; and to Angie from Big Bear’s Wife, for being the wonderful leader of group C. 

And don’t forget to peruse what the other fabulous group C members made this month!

I took a short break and some much needed time to catch my breath; and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to participate in this month’s challenge.  But I just love this group.  And I couldn’t resist!  And so I admit…..I kept it simple for myself this month.  SIMPLY DELICIOUS and almost addictive!  Thanks so much to Kristen from the Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker for being the wonderful hostess for such a great group of food fanatics!  I am looking forward to seeing what everyone did with our two key ingredients this month….peanut butter and jelly!  These ingredients were likely suspects for an ice cream because not only do I like my ice cream sweet…..but oddly, I prefer it salty, too!  My PB & J’s are always made with my favorite, strawberry jam, and it’s so easy to make from scratch.  Come try this!  It’s rich, creamy, sweet and salty.  And it couldn’t be easier…..

I think it’s a good idea to make the strawberry jam in advance and give it some time to jellify before adding it to the ice cream.  (Yes…jellify!)

You will need:

1 pound of strawberries, hulled and diced ( I diced about 3/4 of the strawberries and left the remainder in larger pieces)

3/4 cup sugar

1 lemon, juice and zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Place the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice and zest into a large saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium, cover and let reduce for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  When the mixture has thickened, remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract.  Let cool to room temperature, before storing, covered in the refrigerator.  It will keep for about 10 days.

Follow the directions for my Sweet Cream Ice Cream  or prepare your favorite vanilla ice cream.  (I added about 1/4 cup chopped peanuts to the ice cream at the end of the churning cycle…..it’s optional!)

To assemble:

Mix 1/2 cup of peanut butter with 2 Tablespoons of cream (just to loosen it a bit.)

Measure 1/2 cup of strawberry jam.

When the ice cream has finished churning, scoop it into a rectangular freezer contain.  Alternate dollops of peanut butter and jam on the top.  Swirl it into the ice cream.  Cover and freeze.  That’s it!

I hope you enjoy and don’t forget to check out what my fellow Improver’s made!

There was a time when I dreamed about traveling state to state, stopping off to see a baseball game played in every stadium in the country.  Well that dream has changed only slightly.  I would much rather travel the country visiting bakeries!  Have you seen the show Unique Sweets?  Well they often have a theme for each show, but they basically feature several bakeries across the country and one of the sweets that they are famous for.  One show featured the bakery, Proof, in Los Angeles.  And one of the things Proof is known for are these meringues which are about the size of your hand and filled with flavor!  They offer chocolate and pistachio, citrus and coconut, and strawberry.  What fascinated me is that the strawberry was made with dehydrated strawberries.  So I did my best to recreate these using…..

…..dehydrated mandarin oranges!

At Proof, they talked about grinding the dehydrated strawberries into a powder, incorporating that into the meringue and then sprinkling a bit on top as well.  So….I had this package of dehydrated mandarin oranges that I found at Trader Joe’s.  And so I decided to see how I could work that into a meringue.

I know…..this is kind of a funky and unique product.  I bought them on a whim.  They are fabulous on their own as a snack.  But I originally purchased them thinking I might rehydrate them in a simple syrup and a little Triple Sec and use them to top an orange cake I am planning on making.

Here is what they looked like before they met my mini food processor:

So I ground these pretty little slices into a powder.  I used the mini food processor to chop up some pistachios as well.  And both of these were folded into the meringues as well as being sprinkled on top before baking.  That’s the thing about meringues, they bake so slowly at such a low heat that it doesn’t really change the pretty color on top!

See?

Since they don’t give the recipe on Unique Sweets, I thought I would just use my trusty meringue recipe and wing it with the mix ins.  Here’s what I used:

8 1/4 oz. castor sugar

4 large egg whites at room temperature

the juice of one lemon (I might have tried orange for this recipe but I didn’t have one!)

4 Tablespoons of mandarin orange powder (reserve one Tablespoon for sprinkling on top)

4 Tablespoons of finely ground pistachios (reserve one Tablespoon for sprinkling on top)

Preheat your oven to 170°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix the sugar and lemon juice in the bowl of your electric mixer.  Add one egg white and mix for about a minute.  The mix may look a little hard, but keep going.  Add another egg white, beat for another minute.  And when all the egg whites are in, beat until the whites form stiff peaks, about 5 minutes.  Sprinkle in three Tablespoons each of the orange powder and pistachios and mix for a minute more.

I then used a large serving spoon to scoop the meringue into a cannelle form and placed them on the parchment lined baking sheets.  Sprinkle the remaining orange powder and pistachios evenly over all of the meringues and place them in the oven.  Bake at 170°F for 1 1/2 hours.  Then turn off the heat, open the oven doors a crack, and let them sit in the oven until cooled.

I love the crunchy, soft, chewiness of home made meringues.  But I love them even more when they are a bigger cookie like these.  I think these could really be dressed up for Easter!  And of course, you could always pipe them into shapes or make them smaller if you’d like.  But they are heavenly!

Perfect clouds of heaven!  In every soft , chewy bite!

So use your imagination and mix and match flavors and ENJOY!

This lovely quote by Leo Buscaglia rings so true for me.  The food blogging community is really a wonderful place to exist.  As those of you who also blog know, it’s fun, but not as easy as it seems.  And I have this feeling that I struggle more than most!  I’m technically challenged, am often baffled by all the forms of social media, and always seem to be a beat behind as I strive to do what I really enjoy despite my full time job in health care.

I was recently given some blogging awards and nothing means more to me than to be recognized by my peers for what I do.  There are so many outstanding blogs out there!  And so I am always very honored when someone acknowledges mine!  But once again, I must apologize as I pull myself out of the weeds and am finally getting around to congratulating a few friends on receiving these awards and to thanking them for passing them on to me!

Ramona from Curry and Comfort received and passed on to me the Blog on Fire Award!  Ramona…please forgive me for being so late in telling you how wonderful I think you are and what an amazing blog you write!  Ramona is one of the loveliest people you will ever meet in this blogging world.  I don’t know how she manages to post her wonderful Indian and Sri Lankan recipes daily!  But she truly takes us on an exotic culinary journey.  Her recipes are fabulous (especially when she cooks with shrimp, my favorite!) and her blog truly is a comforting place to visit!

Congratulations also to Susie from Sweetlilpiggy!  Susie received the Liebster Blog award and so graciously passed it on to me!  Susie has a very eclectic blog.  And when you visit her, you will learn so much more about her than what she likes to eat.  She has a very warm writing style and shares stories of her life, her family, her travels….and some amazing recipes and beautiful photography!  She is one of the most kind and genuine people I have had the pleasure of meeting through blogging!

And most recently, I’ve had the pleasure of discovering a blog which is new, at least, to me.  It is called Go Bake Yourself, and is written by a young lady who calls herself Choc Chip Uru in the blogging world and describes herself as “…just a teenager.  An Indian kid born and bred in Australia.”  Her blog is AMAZING!  I can absolutely see how she was awarded The Versatile Blogger Award.  She writes extremely well, and definitely from her heart.  But you will be knocked over by the beauty of her baking and her photography!  And so I am particularly delighted to receive this award from an amazing fellow baker and dessert lover!  And I really look forward to following her, hopefully for a long time to come!

So congratulations ladies, on your beautiful blogs and your well deserved awards! And thank you from the bottom of my heart for thinking of me.  Your recognition and kind words mean all the world to me.  I hope everyone will take the time to visit these diverse, creative and amazing women and their equally outstanding blogs.  I’m hooked and I know you will be as well!