jek in the box {is home}/flickr
Bonjour!
Would you like a macaron? Please help yourself!
mosaic from lildamselfly’s flickr photostream
Small and round, crisp, creamy, so colorful and, let’s face it, so dang cute — you’d have to be hard-hearted indeed to turn down one of these beauties. Before you accuse me of misspelling the name of this French meringue cookie sandwich, let me clarify — le macaron is different from the American macaroon (a sticky, chewy, overly sweet coconut cookie).
Victorian kitchen at Shugborough Hall, UK.
ALL YOU THAT TO FEASTING AND MIRTH ARE INCLINED
by Anonymous (English/Medieval)
All you that to feasting and mirth are inclined,
Come here is good news for to pleasure your mind,
Old Christmas is come for to keep open house,
He scorns to be guilty of starving a mouse:
Then come, boys, and welcome for diet the chief,
Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minced pies, and roast beef.
The holly and ivy about the walls wind
And show that we ought to our neighbors be kind,
Inviting each other for pastime and sport,
And where we best fare, there we most do resort;
We fail not of victuals, and that of the chief,
Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minced pies, and roast beef.
All travellers, as they do pass on their way,
At gentlemen’s halls are invited to stay,
Themselves to refresh, and their horses to rest,
Since that he must be Old Christmas’s guest;
Nay, the poor shall not want, but have for relief,
Plum-pudding, goose, capon, minced pies, and roast beef.
The countdown is in earnest — just one more week till Christmas!
“Forever on Thanksgiving Day, the heart will find the pathway home.” ~ Wilbur D. Nesbit
photo by midstatemagazine.
The one thing I am thankful for above all this year is that I got to see my aunt when we were in Hawai’i last month.
Almost two weeks ago, I learned she had passed away. She fell at home and never regained consciousness. She had dementia and didn’t know who I was, but seemed happy in the little world she had created for herself.
photo by KellyLWatson.
In addition to giving thanks for family, friends, and good health, I will be celebrating my aunt’s life and reflecting on good times. Auntie Ella was my godmother, my mother’s younger sister, and since she lived just 10 minutes away, we saw each other often while I was growing up.
photo by frotos
Good, you’re here! Just in time for lunch.
Today, we’re featuring some beautiful May flowers on the menu. It seemed like a perfectly mad idea, since most of us are used to flowers as either table decoration or garnishes on dessert.
What’s that? You say you’d rather look at flowers, smell them, maybe wear them, rather than actually eat them? Me too! Somehow it just seems wrong, doesn’t it, to bite into a blossom?
Apparently, people do it all the time, and I’m thinking, maybe I need to get over myself and munch on a marigold. After all, flowers have been incorporated in foods for thousands of years in Roman, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Indian cultures. The first recorded recipe was by a Roman named Apicius for eating brains with rose petals. *scrunch face*
“Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.” ~ Buttercup Bake Shop
If you think you’ve been seeing cupcakes everywhere, you’re definitely not imagining things. Ever since Carrie and Miranda ate those famous Magnolia Bakery cupcakes on “Sex and the City” back in 2000, everyone has gone cupcake crazy.
photo by yummyinthetummyblog.
Actually, Magnolia Bakery cupcakes had been oh-so-cool as far back as 1996, when co-owners Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey began to specialize in cupcakes after they made a batch from leftover cake batter and noticed how quickly they were snatched up. “Sex and the City” then turned the Greenwich Village bakery into a tourist shrine, and cupcake specialty shops have been sprouting up across the country ever since.
Magnolia Bakery delectables (yummyinthetummy).
Today’s gourmet cupcake is a far crumb from the ones we ate in childhood. They’ve gone deliciously upscale, made of the finest, freshest ingredients, like Valrhona chocolate, Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla, and European sweet cream. Flavors like lava fudge, ginger lemon, passion fruit poppy seed, and chai latte beg for your attention alongside the traditional vanilla and chocolate. Some are filled with luscious, flavored creams, others adorned with coconut or colorful sprinkles. What do you say to a chocolate liquer cupcake filled with raspberry Chambord cream, topped with white chocolate meringue frosting?
Jama's Alphabet Soup 