The day before Mother's Day, my first book event for Pavlova in a Hat Box, Sweet Memories & Desserts was hosted by Freshwater Farms in Atkinson, New Hampshire. Pavlova in a Hat Box is a collection of essays/meditations that have been wrested from a country childhood and a writing life. Accompanying these vignettes are classic and new sumptuous dessert recipes redolent of the comfort of old-fashioned fare, but with a fresh twist. The cheerful and whimsical illustrations and art work by Maggie Martin are accented throughout the book and give heed to celebrate the simple and the grand days of our lives, and to do so with dessert. There is a cd of piano improvisations composed by Linn Brown that puts you in the right mood for the kitchen. It is more than a dessert cookbook. It is a sensory experience and one that makes you feel all is right with the world when you look at the watercolors, read the stories, and dream of baking for love. Yes, baking for love!
Many of us are anxious over everything we eat or else we give up and eat everything. It's true that we are what we eat! It is my belief that creating sweet desserts for beginnings or endings with fresh, local, and organic (if possible) ingredients does so much for the soul that the body is made healthier. But there is a secret ingredient in each recipe in my book! While stirring, patting, and molding, the baker must bless and meditate on the goodness of life. Turn off the news and gather your dreams into the kitchen and bake love into your desserts. I promise that you will not gain weight or feel guilty over eating my desserts made this way. And while waiting to take the cookie sheets out of the oven, dance in the kitchen. Soul desserts and soul living is what we need to return to in our daily lives.
Until May 30th, I will make a donation to Oxfam for Nepal relief from the sale of each book ordered from my web site.
"Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not?"
