You can't keep a good griot down! It's been a rough 2014 with lots going on. I've been trying to keep in the kitschen but, it's been hard to document my work. There's been some successes and some flops. I've learned, laughed and eaten with those I love and that's the most important thing. Most recently I organized a meeting of the minds. I had me sweetie over (yes, I've got one of those now) to meet my PaPa. Now, if you follow my life, you know that my PaPa is a big deal around these parts. So I thought I'd give the occasion the sweetness it deserved with a new cake recipe. Since my PaPa loves strawberries so much I decided to try this upside down strawberry cake recipe.

The cake was simple enough.... but it called for making a strawberry syrup reduction and a meringue. Ya'll know I'm not a fan of egg whites but, with the help of my kitchen aid mixer and some creme of tartar I made it through. Check out the process!

'Tis that time of year again... when I take a weekend out of my so busy life and dedicate a few days to creating edible gifts to express my love and appreciation for those close to me. This year made a set of four flavored salts:

- Pomogranete
- Vanilla
- Sriricha
- Lemon Lavendar

I also handmade cards to send with these small tokens of affection. Unfortunately, I was so busy drying salt that I forgot to take pictures of the process. I am out of practice on the food blogging front. I've been a busy bee outside of the kitschen! However, the whole thing is pretty simple. Take some salt, add the flavor you want into it and (if needed) dry it out in the oven. The times when you need to dry out the salt mixture is when you add a liquid (duh!!!). Making vanilla salt is similar to making vanilla sugar... take a bean, split, scrape and mix. No drying required. When drying the other salts I pre-heated the oven to 350, spread the mixture on a baking sheet and then turned off the oven once I placed the salt inside. It usually takes less than 10 minutes in the oven but, be sure to check because you don't want your salt mixture to burn!

On the home front I tried to keep things simple. I decided to make the no knead sticky buns I made a year or so ago. I am happy to report my continued attempts to use yeast has resulted in improvement in making bread! Also, this basic dough is a gift that keeps on giving! You can find the recipe here.

First up... sticky buns! I pre-made the dough and let it sit in the fridge for a day. Then the afternoon before Christmas day I rolled out the dough and prepped the buns into a pan. This way on Christmas morning I could pull them out of the fridge to rise while we opened presents.

To bring some balance to this decadent treat I pulled out my inherited cast iron skillet and made a frittata!






I had some left over dough so I took it and made some mini-loaves of cinnamon swirl bread.





Next up for me is using my new spherical cake pan to make a pinata cake stuffed with candy! My prior attempt failed b/c I over filled the pans. Also, on my wish list is this message cookie cutter set. Happy new year and happy cooking!

So how does one really know when it's fall? Well, this year I learned fall is marked by the re-release of Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. Or at least that's what their campaign led me to believe. Seriously folks... what is up with the pumpkin craze? I like a gourd just as much as the next lady but we all do realize most of these pumpkin drinks and foods don't include actual pumpkin. Just the spice... Right?

All that said, I did fall for it again this year. I spied some pumpkin spice body butter at Trader Joe's and thought, "I want to smell like pie." Bought it. I also got myself some of their frozen pumpkin waffles. Sadly, I have not been as happy with that purchase as the former. I keep trying to get my nephew to eat them. But, as I am his Aunt he's been spoiled and doesn't enjoy frozen waffles as much as other 10 year old kid. He just looks at me, "Ummm... where's the griddle? I want more of those cinnamon roll pancakes you made 2 week ago."

Sometimes I think I need to lay off the carbs and refined sugar. But then a recipe like this falls into my lap! Suddenly, all that attempt to be more disciplined disappears. I know it's been a while but I have been busy! Post BaByQ I took a mini-vacay with some friends up North for the 4th. Before I knew it fall was calling and school began again. I took the ghosts of summers past and used them in this recipe for a s'more bundt cake.

Yes, that's right. All the flavors of a campfire baked into a cake with a hole in the middle!!!!

I found this recipe over on thecakeblog.com and it liked the idea of adding crushed graham crackers into the cake batter. Also, can you say oats?! Who doesn't like a little oatmeal in the fall? I did a little more tweeking and just used regular old powdered sugar glaze instead of topping it with a thinned out marshmallow fluff.

And it was good! I think I ended up eating maybe 2 pieces out of the whole cake. My mom and gramps wouldn't even wait for it to cool enough to glaze. They wanted to taste test while it was still warm. That food close-up is from a day later when I went to get a piece and realized it was almost gone!

Another year... another birthday for my gramps. This year he turned the big 90!!! Almost a century old. My PaPa started from the bottom and is now livin' on top. It amazes me to think he's seen so many changes, from indoor plumbing to Skype! It is because of him I have the Lotto app on my phone! He might not like being on the computer (what he said about using Skype) but he does love it's convenience. Initially he was adamant about not having a party. But, when you turn 90 decades young people gonna turn up and do it big. In the end it was just family but, my family is BIG...the final headcount was 57 people!

As usual I was in charge of baking the cake. I started looking up recipes and decided to do a tea flavored cake. My gramps loves a cuppa tea- specifically Black tea with citrus. So I did some research (thanks Google) and found out the BEST way to infuse tea flavor is to steep it into the butter. But, if you use a recipe with milk you can also steep the tea in milk. BUT, the catch is to make it concentrated. So double up on those tea bags buddy! As the plan for this non-party changed and more people from both sides of the Mason Dixie line RSVPed we figure one double decker 9 inch cake couldn't cut it. So I put that cake batter into muffin tins and made cupcakes instead. Then I called Sam's an order a full sheet cake.

I also made my two favorite non-alcoholic summertime drinks: vanilla lemonade and ginger limeade. A simple syrup is this crafty mofos best friend! How do I make it? Simple a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water. Add flavor (ginger slices, lemon/lime rind, vanilla bean, etc.) and set it on the stove at medium low heat. Let that sucker simmer for about 20 minutes. Boom! Flavored sugar water LITERALLY!!!

But we cannot live on baked goods and citrus drinks alone. This meant it was time for tapas/appetizers/horsedevous. As you may no I never ever do anything nice and easy... I like to do it nice and complex! So I took some in season ingredients and some old flavor favorites of my PaPa and but a twist on them.

• corn and zucchini fritters with jalepeno infused cream dip
• black eyed pea dip
• baked ravioli squares with marinara dipping sauce

My apologies folks... I didn't do this spread justice with photojournalism. I was too busy having a not-party party to take a bunch of foodie pictures. There was so much family and a lot of gossiping catching up to do!