In my kitchen...

traditional lambie cake, it was awesome :: my first homemade french bread :: 

hoecakes :: Victoria sponge :: sandwich bread

I know it looks like we are carb-a-holic, wheat-binging, fat-so people but we aren't. I can completely justify all of this.

For starters, we had a wonderful weekend yardsale-ing. I added four new vintage Fire King milk glass mixing bowls, a boat-load of Christmas ornaments, a baguette pan, a lambie cake pan, and who knows what else. So... I just had to make the lamb cake. You can't own a lamb cake pan and not make it, come now. Here are links for the cake recipe and the frosting. FYI, the frosting recipe makes just enough for this cake... no real extra for eating off the spoon, so I don't recommend sneaking tastes. Ask me how I know that.

Now, the lambie cake recipe I linked to actually makes two cakes, but if you just put your leftover batter in a loaf pan, you have a perfect base for a Victoria sponge. Slice it down the middle, fill it with raspberry jam, sprinkle the top with powdered sugar and head to your tea party to watch Jane Eyre. We loved the cake, the movie, and the reunion of friends.

The french bread happened much like the lamb cake happened. I haven't managed to find a place to put the pan yet, so I filled it with dough and baked it. Makes sense to me.

Last but not least, I am really into cornmeal lately. Maybe its the chill in the air. Maybe its the yellowing of the powdery, dry leaves. Maybe its the 10lbs of apples I have on my counter. Just take your favorite recipe for cornbread, add an extra egg (and extra milk if you need to) to get it the consistency of pancake batter and fry those puppies up just like {American} flapjacks. Yum.

What happened in your kitchen this week? Show and tell with Heather @ Beauty That Moves.

Short Days, Long Days

Knock-Out Rose at sunset

Until yesterday, it literally had been MONTHS since I had even looked at the blog. I found this picture sitting in my draft folder. It was taken back in the fall when the days were short and the shadows were long. Isn't it sweet?

My rose bush looks pretty dead at the moment but I'm happy to report dafffodil buds which will be opening any day now. This past winter was the first time I realized that the longest days and darkest nights really do come and go so quickly, before Christmas. So when we all have the winter humdrums, we really are getting longer days and more sunshine each day despite the fact that it still seems so gray.

Anyhow, here's to a new spring and soon-to-be-green-again rose bush.