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The Ginger Snap Obsession

Ginger Snaps

All the cookies

“He cooked for Cathy, going through recipes used by his mother and his stepmother.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

When I met up with my friend and mentor, Andrea, she brought cookies! We had lost track of each other, it had been 20 years since we last connected. She lives in Sacramento, I live in Salinas. We decided to meet at the half way point, in Fremont. We had a lunch of Thai crepes stuffed with curry and a long wonderful chat. So much has happened! When I started driving home I couldn’t stop thinking about the pink pastry box filled with homemade cookies. Andy had said she labeled each kind of cookie. What kind of cookies were in the box? When I couldn’t stand the cookie suspense any longer I convinced myself that I needed to take a break from driving and stopped at Starbucks and took a peek inside the pink box. I was just going to look in the box to see what was inside but as I picked up each sweet package the temptation was too great. I sat in my car and greedily sampled one of each. I began with the rugelach, then I found the ginger snaps. There were coconut macaroons, amaretti, mandelbrot and schnecken. I had to try all the cookies. I drove home in a blissful cookie coma. READ MORE . . .

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Little Biscoff Cheesecakes

Biscoff Cheesecake

Performance Art

“You know, Lee I think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but still having form and melody.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

Cooking and baking is live performance art. If you never thought you were an artist, I’m taking this opportunity to say that yes you are! We create and share and then it all disappears. Each individual act of cooking and baking is never repeated. Like a long running Broadway show, the more practice, the more consistent the performance. There are so many variables—timing, ingredients, attention to detail, experience, technique, equipment. Some performances are better than others, its real theatre. There are days when my performance is dismal. Even when I’m totally submerged in the process, it can fail. It’s a smooth performance in my kitchen theatre when a new recipe comes together easily. Little Biscoff Cheesecakes are from one such performance. READ MORE . . .