Sunday, January 31, 2010

Some vacation acquisitions

While in Spokane, Wa., Shannon and I visited an adorable coffee/tea shop called Atticus. They kept all the tea in large glass jars along the wall in this one nook so it looked like an apothecary. We went in one day to warm up after ice skating and I had no choice but to drag Shannon and her mom back in the next day.

I picked up two kinds of loose leaf tea while I was there (plus a super cute water bottle):  Market Spice Green and Earl Grey with Lavender.






Apparently "market spice" is a west coast thing, but I had never heard of it. I haven't properly tried that yet. The earl grey is actually something we sell at the west coast stores but never get in the east coast shops so I was curious to try it out. It's nice. It smells pretty floral but mostly you just taste the black tea base. It's like drinking tea and your posh aunt's house.
This little guy was a world market purchase but he makes a damn fin cuppa

Friday, January 8, 2010

My New Obsession:Baked

Shannon's sister gave me Baked: New Frontiers in Baking for christmas. So far I've done two recipes out of it and they have both been a-mah-zing. Some of the recipes are a bit involved but all the steps are simple and easy to follow. 

The first recipe I tried was the Flourless Chocolate Cake (pg 50)


It was delicious (though the ganache was super thick, I might half or three-quarter the recipe next time).

The second recipe I tried was the Sour Lemon Scones (pg 27).
We were too busy eating them to take pictures. I love, love, LOVE the texture of these scones. I didn't have enough lemons to make the candied lemon peel but I definitely want to try that next time. I also had to use lowfat buttermilk because it was all the store had. I also love that its a good basic scone recipe that could hold up to whatever I wanted to add.