Despite needing to firm up in the fridge for 30 minutes, these guys come together pretty fast. They start out by following the familiar pattern of creaming sugar and butter together.

Beat in the egg and a little vanilla to get a nice creamy mixture. Then the flour mixture gets mixed in.

And there you have it. Your base dough. Now this is the point where you stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes. No biggie. Prep the walnut-cinnamon-sugar for rolling, pre-heat your oven, and clean the dishes you just dirtied.

Give them a roll and line them up.

10 minutes later you have a perfectly shaped, cinnamon crackled cookie.

Swedish Walnut Cinnamon Cookies

Recipe adapted from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book

• 1/3 cup butter, at room temp
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons sugar

In a medium size bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and beat till light and fluffy. You can do this by hand, no need for an electric mixer.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Then add the sifted mixture to the cream mixture and mix well.

Set the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes so it can firm up.

Meanwhile, pre-heat oven 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Then mix together the finely chopped walnuts, cinnamon, and sugar in a small bowl.

Form the dough into small balls, about 2 teaspoons worth of dough. Then roll the dough balls in the walnut/cinnamon/sugar mixture and place prepared baking pans. Bake for 10 minutes. Do not over bake, you want these to be soft and pillowy. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 2 dozen cookies

• Green garlic ( I can’t seem to get enough of this stuff!)
• Yellow onions
• Red potatoes
• English peas
• Zucchini & yellow squash
• Chinese broccoli

Cherries!!

Salad dressing will not stick to wet lettuce. So after washing, lay the leaves down on a large light towel and gently roll it up. Then place the rolled up lettuce in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Then use as needed.

Salad oil

The French don’t use olive oil for their dressings but instead peanut oil. The thinking is that if you use a heavy oil it will coat your palate and mask the delicateness of the cuisine.

Mimosa as a salad topper

Take 1 hard boiled egg yolk and press it through a sieve with the back of a spoon. Toss with some chopped herbs. Then sprinkle over your salad.

The 3 conditions of egg yolks

When making mayonnaise from scratch, the yolks will accept the oil under these 3 conditions:

• Before adding the oil, you must beat the egg yolks till they are thick and sticky
• When you start adding the oil you do it by adding drop by drop by drop
• Each yolk will hold a maximum of 3/4 cup of oil.

Evenly coating

If your salad contains lots of add-ins and you don’t want them to all fall to the bottom of the bowl when you toss the salad. Try individually tossing each add-in with dressing in a small bowl before adding to greens that have already been tossed with dressing.

I was excited when Joy’s cookbook released. Joy has an amazing skill for harmonizing butter and sugar so I knew it truly would be a celebration of butter and sugar. But sadly, her book has been sitting on the shelf. See I have this struggle… I love all things sugar, butter, and flour. But I also know that I can’t eat that stuff as my cravings would like. What is a girl to do?

Feed the church! See we have coffee and sweets at church before and after the Sunday morning service. It’s a volunteer thing and they have been needing volunteers. Now I’m not quite sure why I didn’t think about this before. If I volunteer to bring something each week, it is guaranteed way to let me bake/explore, have a taste, photograph, and then get it out of the house. All while being able to bless others with a sweet treat. Win win.

With today being Mother’s day I wanted to make something simple and traditional. Something that on it’s own perfectly pairs with a cup of tea or coffee. Not a recipe that has 4 odd ingredients all of which are in the 10 word title of the recipe. Cream cheese pound cake.

Cream cheese, butter and sugar get whipped together.

Vanilla for a little distinction. I <3 Penzys Spices.

The dry ingredients bring it all together.

Ready to bake. Even though I used the right size pan, I feel like I had just a little too much batter in the pan. I think next time I may pull a little out so it doesn’t go over the sides.

Perfectly golden.

The cream cheese totally steps up to the plate and creates an incredibly moist pound cake. I enjoyed mine plain with a cup of Earl Grey. Though I would love to pour some berries over top and maybe even dollop some whipped cream on top.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Recipe adapted from: Joy the Baker Cookbook

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 8oz package cream cheese, at room temp
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium size bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer till soft and semi-fluffy. Add the butter and sugar and beat till light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Then stir in the vanilla.

Add 1 egg and beat till completely completely mixed in. A good minute or so. Repeat process with each additional egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add half of the flour mixture and mix in by hand. Once thoroughly combined, add in the remaining flour mixture and mix well.

Pour in to prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes. Once the time goes off, rotate the pan and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Cake is done when a wooden skewer/tooth pick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. If it doesn’t come out clean, return the cake to the oven and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Repeat to check for doneness.

Remove cake from oven and let cool in pan for 20 minutes. Then remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes 1 hefty loaf

• Green beans
• Tomatoes
• Green garlic
• Okinawan sweet potatoes
• Young summer squash/Patty pan squash
• Red garlic
• Jalapeños
• Yellow onions

• Cara cara oranges
• Lemons
• Cosmetically challenged apricots

I quite love the cosmetically challenged fruits. Not only do they make for great photographs (not in this case) but they are usually a fraction of the cost. In this case they were only .88 cents a pound verses the $2.50 a pound for the full grown pretty ones. Though because they are the first of the season they are not very sweet. Oh well, not much of a loss when I only purchased half a pound.

• Green onions
• Kale
• Garnet yams
• Cabbage
• Radishes
• Asparagus
• Golden beets
• Green garlic
• Leeks

• Pomelos
• Orchid

But here we are. Finally talking about polenta and spicy salsa. Did you know it is an amazing combination? I had no idea. This another one of those recipes that came together after rummaging through the fridge. Leftover polenta from beef stew the night before, salsa for chips, eggs well, they are always on hand, and avocados that keep making their way home with me from the market. No polenta on hand? Make up a batch like I did to photograph this dish for you or buy it pre-made in the grocery store.

The key to this dish being awesome? Spicy salsa. I know, know. I am all for you deciding how spicy you want the dish. So you can use a mild salsa. But I’ve tried it both ways, with a hot (for me) habanero salsa and a very mild salsa. The mild salsa simply didn’t bring the right flavor to the table. No flavorless dishes here.

Putting the dish together is all about layering. Bring a pot of water up to a boil while you layer the polenta, salsa, and avocado. Sprinkle a little kosher salt atop the avocado. Poach your egg. Season again with kosher salt and viola! Chives are always optional but I love the flavor they bring.

It’s creamy, it’s spicy, and it has an oozy yolk. Try it.

Spicy Polenta and Egg

Recipe by: Elisabeth Norris

• 3/4 cup cooked polenta, warmed
• 2 Tablespoons spicy salsa
• 1/4 of an avocado, diced
• 1 egg, poached
• Kosher salt
• Chives, optional

Fill a medium sized pot with water and set on high heat.

While your water comes to a boil, warm the polenta in the microwave for 1 minute or so on high.

Place warmed polenta in the bottom of a bowl. Top with salsa. Then put the avocado on top of the salsa. Sprinkle avocado with a pinch of kosher salt.

When the water comes to a boil, poach the egg. Drain poached egg and place egg on top of the avocado. Season poached egg with a pinch of kosher salt.

Garnish with snipped chives over top.

Serves 1

• Romanesco
• Butter lettuce
• Artichokes
• Leeks
• Kale
• Russet potatoes
• Avocado
• Tomatoes

• Tangerines
• Mandarins

Well Satsumas are officially on their way out. My citrus lady doesn’t have anymore for the season. I’m not quite ready to give them up so I bought a few from another farmer.

Escalope = scallop = thin slice of meat.

Don’t burn the fat!

Keep your fat hot but not burning. You can tell it is burning if it turns dark brown. Remember, always regulate your heat!