Pink of Perfection

In addition to cozy, my love (and yours) of which we’ve discussed at length, I have a thing for wholesomeness. This is why, I think, I find myself so drawn to My Antonia, Anne of Green Gables, and fresh baked cookies. There’s something about them that just seems so guileless and innocent, how could there really be anything wrong with them? Who cares about the loneliness, Matthew’s death, or all that butter?

This is also how I feel about a certain sort of cake. It’s a cake with fruit it in and a dense crumb. The kind of cake that goes magically with a cup of tea on a dreary afternoon. The kind of cake that a mother — real or imagined — ought to bake. And the kind of cake that is just right after a rich and boozy dinner. It will soak up all the wine and cream sauce, brighten the air with citrus, and set things right again. Oh, how I wish at this moment there were still a slice in the kitchen.

Continue reading “Orange Walnut Cake with Greek Yogurt” »

Can we talk about cookies yet?

I know you’re all eating tofu and baby bok choy and feeling like lean, virtuous tigers of unbounded energy, but consider the cookie. So perfectly portioned, sweet, buttery, a little salty. The perfect nibble, really, with an afternoon cup of tea when you feel your will to look at another spreadsheet flagging. And even though I can’t think of a way to convince you that a cookie is the gold standard in nutrition, you can’t deny how utterly wholesome these devils are. What do you think Laura Ingalls Wilder ate on the grassy plains when she sat cooling her heels in a cold brook? What did Jane Austen use to fortify her mind while considering the proper twist to bring Elizabeth and Darcy back together? I cannot prove that it was cookies, but I feel quite certain that the chances are good it was.

Necessity inspired a revelation with this particular recipe. All I happened to have in the freezer was salted butter, undoubtedly something my mom sent me home with in a “your not eating well enough” care package. Here, take four sticks of butter. Anyway, I followed the recipe to a t, using the salted butter and then absentmindedly stirring in additional salt as well. The results were addictive: flat, rich cookies, crisp on the edges, soft in the middle, studded with saltiness. A cure for the Mondays? I won’t make any promises, but it’s worth a shot.

Continue reading “Peanut Butter Cup Cookies” »

I say salty because that’s what catapults these rich cookie bars into another stratosphere. Without the salt these sweet rectangles would be cloying. With that lick of savoriness, a layer of butter cookie topped with a salted chocolate caramel and sprinkled with sea salt becomes otherworldly. One guest proclaimed that these knocked chocolate chip cookies out of her favorite cookie spot.

I say salty also because as filled with as I am with hope, goals, dreams, and expectations for the new year, I’m sure those dark days will come: we’ll get caught in the rain (but not in a romantic way), stay home sick (but not in that mental health day kind of way), and fine ourselves beset by the blues (and not necessarily in a creatively rich Dorothy Parker kind of way).

Just today I woke up with the world unexpectedly softened by snow. At first, it seemed magical in that Christmas morning kind of way. And then I thought of the treacherous streets, worried about someone I love moving from one office to another, just today turning the page on one life chapter. Perhaps the best we can do is notice the flip side of life, and then turn that coin right back to the bright side. That is the art and challenge of living well, no matter how fat your bank account.

Whenever I talk of moving to some fair city and starting anew, a friend reminds me, “Wherever you go, there you are.” The same certainly can be said for money. Sure, some of life’s problems can be banished by waving a wad of cash at them. But the heart of what it means to live fully, ecstatically, confronts rich and poor alike everyday: What is truly meaningful to me? How can I create a daily life that contains my deepest values? What (gulp) is the meaning of my life? And what’s for dinner?

As we approach a new year and the fourth (!!!) anniversary of Pink of Perfection, I want to thank all of you for coming to this site, reading, hanging out in the forum, and most of all, leaving your insightful, funny comments. I have always loved this blog as my creative place; the unexpected joy has been watching it become a gathering spot to the wisest, loveliest blog readers out there. I take great comfort in this community, and I hope you do, too. Here’s to another year of asking the big questions and savoring the smallest pleasures. Happy New Year!

Continue reading “A Sweet (and Salty) New Year” »

A friend of mine who has recently received an Adult Dose of Life’s Bad Stuff met me for a cozy fall cocktail a couple of weeks ago. We sat in the wooden booths of my favorite neighborhood bar surrounded by walls of white subway tile and settled in for Real Talk. The buttered rum (her) and apple-gin-maple-syrup cocktail (me) quickly got us in a chatty groove. I was coming off a time in life so happy, I burst into tears every time I recounted details of it, and my friend was coming off a time so trying, she too burst into tears. At this particular moment in time, toasting our friendship in low candlelight, our lives could not have been more different.

But my friend is kind of a genius of perception and she found the common thread: we both felt blessedly lucky to have support. For me, having friends and family from different times in my life and points on the globe descend on one backyard to toast to a solemn vow made for a wedding day of magic. For my friend, her friends and loved ones were laboring on her behalf — behind the scenes at times — to make her life run a little more smoothly as she passed through some serious turbulence. “If I’ve learned one thing this fall,” she said, “it’s that we get what we need.”

I wonder if we need the kick in the pants life serves us sometimes–the tests of our mettle, the challenges of our character. I prefer, more pleasantly, to believe that life knows when we need to see an adorable child or step into a short line at the grocery store. But there is some comfort in knowing that whether we’re served treats or tests, we are always only getting what we can handle. It is hard to see the need in brushes with death or extreme poverty or hunger, but maybe it’s in there somewhere. I’m still trying to figure it out.

What I’m sure of, though, is that upon returning from my honeymoon, I needed to meet with a group of strangers on a Sunday evening in November in a cozy brownstone to drink red wine and talk about Mad Men. I needed a book club — had wanted one for years — but at exactly the right moment, there it was: a roomful of smart, accomplished women who wanted to talk about literature and eat cake. My kind of girls.

Continue reading “Classic Pound Cake: Book Club Tested, Book Club Approved” »

Allow me to introduce you to a new very special someone in my life…

To answer your unasked but anticipated questions: yes, it is as wonderful as they say; yes, it is absolutely the heaviest item in our entire household; yes, I feel rather lucky and pretty spoiled to be the recipient of this thing. But guilt aside, having this mixer on my counter feels like crossing a sort of threshold. I think I have just entered the realm of Fancy Baker Type. More importantly, if I ever needed a push to whip up more cookies and cakes (I didn’t), this is it. I’m positively chomping at the bit to feed people desserts.

Which is why last weekend you could find me in the eye of a floury storm. First up was banana bread. Now, I know people have staunchly held beliefs about what they want from their banana bread, and I wouldn’t dare to call this the best banana bread. But in terms of what I’m looking for — a tender crumb but not cakey, a pronounced banana flavor without other distractions, and a relatively healthy composition — this is it.

I served this to a highly discerning friend (the type who can actually identify notes of cassis and butter in the wine you serve her) on an overcast Saturday afternoon. She came over wearing a plaid shirt and suede boots, tucked her legs under her on the couch, and declared this banana bread delicious. That out of the way, we poured the tea, and the real talk could commence.

Continue reading “My Best Banana Bread” »

You bought a quart of buttermilk for one recipe and now you’re wondering what to do with the rest? So been there. Allow me to introduce the Ultimate Buttermilk Recipe Repository! I scoured the web for the best-looking recipes that call for a bit of buttermilk, giving us plenty of opportunities to use up what’s still left in the fridge.

Breakfast

• Wheat Germ Scones with Dried Fruit and Nuts
• Buttermilk Banana Bread
• Pumpkin Pecan Muffins
• Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
• Buttermilk Bran Muffins
• Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins
• Pumpkin Walnut Flapjacks
• Strawberry Buckwheat Muffins

Continue reading “Ultimate Buttermilk Recipe Repository” »

Even before I was invited over to a friend’s house for the world’s best beans and rice (holy ham hock!), these cookies had been on my mind. Cool air makes me think of oatmeal. Strike that, cool air makes me want to bake, and nothing gets me back into the baking swing of things than cookies. So wickedly wholesome, so perfectly portioned, so associated with all that is good and innocent and simple in the world. But if oatmeal needs a friend, I confess raisins just don’t get my heart pumping. Chocolate chips, you say? Now we’re talking.

When I discovered, however, that I was out of brown sugar, my powers of improvisation leapt at the idea of making these cookies with maple sugar (white sugar mixed with, of course, maple syrup rather than molasses). I thought the maple flavor would kick up the fall feeling of these cookies. But to my dismay, the maple ended up being a silent accompaniment to the batter. Now I find myself wondering how far a little extra maple syrup would have gone… It’s important to ask the big questions on Monday morning.

Continue reading “Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies” »

September means back to school, which for me signifies a return to my grand diplome course. No, I didn’t forget about it, but truth be told, I’ve been hung up on the cake lesson. Who in their right mind, without a birthday to commemorate, wants to bake something like this on a hot summer day?

The September issue of Everyday Food with its recipe for a plum cake, however, got me in the mood. There is just something about plum cake that seems to have a hold on people’s psyche. Just the words sound anachronistic to my ears, like an antique baking tradition in which brunettes with twin braids in long, calico dresses carry hot baked goods to the prarie neighbors after picking the last of the season’s plums. Or something.

Whatever the connotations, there is an undeniable bit of cozy magic at work. Because everyone I mentioned this to got a dreamy, far-off look in their eye, remembering plum cakes of days gone by. Meanwhile, I had never had one in my life. Plum tarts — sure — but not a cake. And even still, there was something so dear about just the idea of it, like a treat Mama Bear would pull out of the oven to serve with a tiny china cup filled with weak, milky tea.

I served it instead to the man I’m going to marry in 52 short days, dusted with powdered sugar, and chased with a small glass of whiskey (it had been a rough day). The reviews were raves, and the wedding’s still on.

Continue reading “Super Moist Plum Cake” »