pennington's icebox cake: a no-bake summer dessert

the second in a series of desserts featuring pennington's strawberry rye, to read the entire post, please follow this link

strawberry tea-ramisu; a no bake summer recipe

if you give a pastry chef a bottle of pennington's strawberry rye, chances are she will whip up a dessert.  and if said pastry chef is feeling a little daring, she might just reinvent the classic tiramisu into something totally southern.  guess what, this happened, it really, really happened!  to read the entire post and see the full recipe, visit my new blog page by following this link

sunday mornings are perfect for gardening.  there is a certain sense of peace that the demonstration garden has early in the day which i find comforting.  today i went out to the garden with a chocolate chip bundt cake and spent a few hours weeding the beds and chatting with my fellow master gardeners. as master gardeners, we spend time preparing gardens for tours and on occasion,  those gardens are our own.  it is a chance to share our most prized possession with fellow gardeners.  this afternoon, i had the pleasure of visiting the garden of one of my fellow demonstration garden volunteers.

to read the whole post, visit my new blog page

roasted radishes with wilted greens

spring gardening means lots of radishes.  the familiar red spheres are so pretty and colorful; a perfect accent or garnish.  radishes are enjoying a moment now and there is no shortage of shapes or colors available to dress up your salad or hors d'oeurves .  the entire plant is edible though so think twice about discarding the leaves and flower stalks as you pick them from the garden.  

to read the whole post, visit my new blog page

let the broccoli harvest begin!

we plant broccoli in the garden for the spring and fall seasons.  it is one of the few plants that we purchase without considering the variety.  whether it is a hybrid or an heirloom, we aren't concerned; we just want healthy plants to give us a head start since both spring and fall are pretty short seasons here in nashville.  this is especially true for the spring season.  while this past winter seemed like it would never end and as cool as the spring was, the cold weather crops began bolting quickly.  we were late getting plants into the ground because of the unusually colder weather and by the time we got things going, the days began getting longer and some plants began bolting.

to read the entire post, follow this link to my new blog page

strawberry cake

strawberry season sneaks up on us and does not linger; it is sensitive to the cold and it is fleeting.   the berries can be quickly saturated, left waterlogged and tasteless by a day of rain.  gardeners with strawberries generally keep close watch on the berries as they ripen with daily trips to the bed to gather the ripest, reddest, plumpest fruits.  those that make it back to the kitchen may become any number of treats.  sorbet, ice cream, jam or cake-too many choices and honestly, most are consumed as they are picked; who can resist just picked berries?  not me, that is a fact.

to read the entire post, follow this link to my new blog page

pussycat, pussycat, where have you been???

well, i can assure you that i haven't been in london visiting the queen.  where i have been is the garden, the demonstration garden to be exact.  those of you that know me, know all about my involvement with the master gardeners and this past weekend we held our annual festival which is also our main fundraiser for the year.  to see some photos, check out the blog page i keep for the garden, the view from the demo garden.  for additional photos, check out the facebook page.

between my full time job and my involvement with the garden and festival, i have had little time to post things here.  it also seems that most of the gardening topics are out of place on this page so i tend to leave them out.  for a while, i kept two separate pages; one on gardening, one primarily on baking with a little cooking thrown in.  it just did not work.  one page would get updated, one neglected.  then came an idea-merge the two in a new page and let the others become archives for now.  so that is where i am headed-to a new page.  a blog page that combines the two things i love to do; bake and garden.

allow me to introduce my new page, will garden for cake.  stop by and see what i am up to in the garden and whether or not a cake has just come out of the oven.  and if you need to find me, visit the garden where you will most likely find me with a slice of cake in one hand and a camera in the other!