The first...

I'm not sure how I learned to bake. I am one of five kids and my mother's idea of

gourmet cooking is chicken breasts covered in Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup.  
Wait! No! Her favorite dish is spaghetti with cottage cheese and in fact, two of 
my sisters still eat it in their own homes. Unlike my wonderful mother who 
curses at the can opener, I feel a sense of calmness when I bake. Yes, Elyzabeth 
is right, I do tend to get a little "Top Chef-y" but that's just because I'm 
classic type A personality and that is my idea of calm.

I've known Elyzabeth since I was a 21 year old front desk girl at the Peninsula 
spa in NYC. The most glamorous and expensive spa and I showed up everyday in 
crinkled khakis.  That tells you a lot about me.  In that crazy city Elyzabeth 
and I  somehow found one another; me with my short dyed red hair and Elyzabeth 
with her cascading long real red hair. Together in NY we "babysat" in Jersey for 
the Sopranos,  we laughed about the blind-date she had with Chewbacca, and vowed 
to stay friends when I left New York.  We did.  Years later I stood next to her 
as the maid of honor at her wedding. I am reminiscing about NYC because it was 
in my tiny Manhattan apartment (where my arm span was as wide as my kitchen) 
that I baked my very first banana bread.

Last night was also a night of firsts.  I made my first cake in a jar for our 
first dinner party in the first home my husband and I have bought.

Vanilla bean cake with cinnamon apple streusel swirl.

Every last bite was scraped out.

...Marisa 

 

 

Before going in the oven.

Overflowing with goodness.