Warm Gingerbread, scented with molasses, ginger, cinnamon and cloves, with sweet cold Cider Sabayon gracefully flowing down its side, was what I made for our Thanksgiving dessert this year. It was a not-too-heavy, but lovely end to our feast. Our groaning board held the traditional turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, plus my Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad, and Beet and Carrot Salad with Pomegranate Molasses. Oh, and don’t forget the Sweet Buttery Cornbread. We were all pretty much groaning ourselves by the end. But it was worth it!

I made this Gingerbread for my final test for my first pastry and baking class in culinary school. The test was really about the Sabayon, which we had learned to make in that class. My finished dish also included some warm apple slices that had been sautéed in butter and finished with Calvados. They were spooned around the base of the Gingerbread and added another apple flavored layer to the whole dish.

I also made this Sabayon for a culinary school banquet dessert for 100 people. You can read the whole story of that banquet, with photos of the event. Below is a photo of the dessert with the Sabayon, Raspberry Coulis, Berries and cookies that I made for that banquet. It’s from a film camera and scanned into digital, but you get the idea. I have also served this Sabayon in pretty glasses layered with berries for a light summer dessert.

Hi everybody! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and your waistband is still the same size. My holiday was fantastic because I got to see my brother, who lives in San Francisco, and my older son, who lives in Davis, California. They came to our feast with their wives and it was so much fun. I hadn’t seen my brother for two years, so it was very special for me.

I made these White Chocolate Chunk and Pecan Cookies to set out on a plate with the other hors d’oeuvres in case someone wanted something sweet. I also made the Kalamata Olive and Sun-Dried Tomato Toasts, and little garlic butter crostini topped with Boursin cheese for our appetizers. Alas, there were no leftovers.

The first time I made these cookies was about a month ago. I woke up one morning craving the original Chocolate Chip Cookies. I came home from work, after thinking about them all day, ready to mix and bake, only to discover I had no chocolate chips! Darn! Not to be deterred, I checked my pantry and discovered I had some Callebaut white chocolate. Ah ha! The project continued on. I threw in the pecans for textural interest. Actually, they don’t look like much, but all the little crumbs of white chocolate get mixed in and melt into the dough, making them so rich, you cannot eat just one. Truly.

My Cookie Monster sons, Brian and David

My original intent was to freeze those cookies and keep them for Thanksgiving. I made the mistake of leaving them in a container on the kitchen counter and not telling my younger son, Brian, not to eat them. So he did, plus he has friends. I ended up with five cookies, which I fully intended to photograph. I even put a note on them saying “Do Not Eat!” A couple of days later there were three cookies. I just threw up my hands and said to myself, forget it. So I made another batch a couple of days before Thanksgiving and hid them. And I hid the last dozen in order to take these photos. They are so good. Buttery. Nutty. Chocolate-y. Melt in your mouth. You get the idea.

In September I attended Grace-Marie’s Sizzlin’ Spanish Paella cooking class, which culminated with this Sangria Glazed Caramelized Pear & Honey Almond Cream dessert. I love to go to her classes because the food is so beautiful and I get to take marvelous photographs. It helps that my camera is a wizard, I realize. I am just the finger that pushes the button.

First the cut side of the pear halves are caramelized in butter and brown sugar, leaving the pear still firm to the touch. The caramelized brown sugar butter will later be poured over the cooked pears, as you can see in the top photograph.

Meanwhile the Sangria Glaze is cooked to a syrup from Spanish red wine, pomegranate juice, sugar, sherry, orange and lemon slices and seasoned with a cinnamon stick and whole cloves. Can’t you just smell it?

The plates are sauced with the Sangria Glaze and a Vanilla Honey Almond Cream. You could make your own Crème Anglais, or this wonderful adaptation with fine Vanilla ice cream mixed with honey and almond extract. The final plate has the caramelized pear framed with the sauces and garnished with mint and Marcona almonds. This would be a beautiful dessert for your holiday celebrations. And everything could be made ahead of time and quickly assembled. What could be better?

For additional recipes from Grace-Marie’s Kitchen, look under Categories in the right-hand column.

Grace-Marie Johnston

For more information about the new schedule of cooking classes, visit Grace-Marie online at Bristol Farms or email her at gmj@bristolfarms.com.

The last time I was at my book store, I was so delighted to discover Nancy Silverton’s fabulous new creation, The Mozza Cookbook, was now on the shelf.  When I paged through it, I found that there were recipes for each of the dishes my friend Michele and I had eaten at Osteria Mozza a year ago for our birthdays. I wrote an entire post about our fabulous meal with fuzzy photos, because I had just gotten my camera. Grilled Beef Tagliata, Rucola and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Lamb Chops Scottadito with Insalata di Fregola Sarda, Mint and Yogurt. Burrata with Leeks Vinaigrette and Mustard Bread Crumbs. Burricotta with Braised Artichokes, Pine Nuts, Currants and Mint Pesto. I had to buy it, of course.

When I got home, I was absolutely submersed for about four hours. These recipes are so reminiscent of the food I was helping prepare at Campanile when I did my internship there for culinary school. Nancy Silverton would usually wander through the prep area with her toddler son on her hip, talking to the kitchen manager on her way to the pastry kitchen on the second floor. In the early ‘90’s, she was the premier pastry chef in the nation, and I watched and listened to everything she said and did. Her desserts were known for their subtlety and perfection, and for not being too sweet. She was my idol.

These Crostate are so Nancy Silverton. Subtle sweetness; a hidden surprise under the almond hat in the filling with cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg; and the visual beauty of the sugar dusted almonds and glistening marmalade. Perfect. They are really good with your afternoon or after dinner coffee. These are a cross between a cookie and a crostata, so they are big enough that I could share half with a friend and still be happy. Just saying.

The dough circles are rolled out, cut and the edges turned over to make a rim. A tablespoon of orange marmalade is spread to the rim.

A teaspoon of the spiced almond filling is spread on the marmalade. The dough is rolled out and smaller circles are cut out to top the filling.

The dough hats are brushed with egg white and sprinkled with almonds. I was so pleased with how beautifully they turned out. Good enough to be served at Osteria Mozza.

The 2011 Holiday Season is upon us and it is time to start thinking about what desserts we are going to be serving at our feasts, buffets and cookie exchanges, and to give as gifts. That is why I love these cookies, because they can be make 3 days ahead and kept at room temperature. They don’t need to be taking up precious space in your fridge.

Another reason I adore Maple Pecan Pie Bars is you can cut them into small squares to serve. So instead of having to eat a big piece of  really sweet Pecan Pie loaded with corn syrup, your guests can get the same great pecan flavor in a one-inch square sweetened with maple syrup. These are perfect for a buffet or brunch table. Or for taking as a hostess gift. And at home, you can cut the pieces as big as you want for yourself, of course. Who will know?

Cookies are nice. Cake is good. So is ice cream. But sometimes I want something really rich and intense, where only a small piece is enough to satisfy my craving. Well, this plum tart is the perfect antidote. A buttery crust, rich custard, intensely sweet fruit and crunchy brown sugar crumb topping. Oh yes. This is the one.

The dough is processed until it looks like meal.

Then it is pressed into the bottom and sides of the tart pan.

This is an opportunity for OCD me to make it as perfect as possible. So satisfying.

These are the Black Plums I bought at the Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago. I got them at the same time as the beets for the Beet, Red Cabbage and Carrot Salad, the green tomatoes for the Fried Green Tomatoes with Tomato Chutney and the eggplant I grilled on the Fourth of July. I had never seen plums with such a deep rich purple color and I had to buy them. Had to.

The plums are cut in wedges and arranged in a nice pattern. You can make up your own pattern. Or just dump them in and make sure they’re evenly distributed.

Then the crumb mixture is sprinkled on top. While it is baking, the whole house fills up with this incredible smell of ginger from the crust.

Then it comes out of the oven and the way it smells is so divine. Buttery. Plum-y. Ginger-y. You will have to restrain yourself from cutting into it until is has cooled down to just warm. You can eat it with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, maybe garnished with a little mint sprig for beauty. But I like mine pristine, so I can savor each bite. Those plums were amazing.

Ok, ok, I know everybody and their brother has a recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies on their blog, and they’re all pretty much the same recipe, but I want to have it here for myself. My go-to place, you know. Peanut Butter Cookies are one of the four cookie recipes I brought from my childhood, along with Chocolate Chips, Snickerdoodles and Gingersnaps. We mixed them up in a big bowl with a fork and we used salted butter. This was in the 1950’s, and even though the KitchenAid stand mixer came on the market in 1919, we didn’t have one. A fork and muscle power, and we did just fine.

Peanuts are native to the tropics of the Americas and were mashed to a paste by the Aztecs hundreds of years ago. J.H. Kellogg, of breakfast cereal fame, invented an early version of peanut butter which was patented in 1897. George Washington Carver is the most well known promoter of the peanut and in 1916 he compiled 105 recipes for its use. Included were 3 peanut cookie recipes using crushed or chopped peanuts. In the 1920’s peanut butter began to be listed as an ingredient in recipes, and sugar and molasses were added to it for sweetness.

Early peanut butter cookies did not have fork marks; they were rolled and cut into shapes. The first reference to the famous criss-cross marks created with fork tines was in a Peanut Butter Cookie recipe published in the Schenectady Gazette on July 1, 1932. Pillsbury, one of the large flour producers, popularized the use of the fork in the 1930’s. The 1932 or 1933 recipes do not explain why a fork is used, though: peanut butter cookie dough is dense, and without being pressed, it will not cook evenly. Using a fork is the perfect tool, plus it makes a distinctive decoration that is instantly recognizable.

And just in case you might need this information, the oil in peanut butter is known to allow chewing gum to be removed from hair. A good thing to know. Just saying.

I have been thinking about making cookies for about a week, because I have been craving a sweet little treat and we had nothing dessert-like in the house. I didn’t feel like making your standard drop cookies either. I wanted to make something special, something different, intriguing and unusual. Something that would elicit a “How in the heck did you do that?” response. Well, I think these cookies fit that description to a tee. It was so much fun to follow the various steps and see those neat little checkerboards appear at the end. And they taste so good, too. Yummy.

The vanilla and chocolate dough are each rolled out into an 8×12-inch rectangle. One is painted with beaten egg whites and the other dough rectangle is placed on top. This is then cut in half into two 6×8-inch rectangles. Which, again, is painted with egg white and the other half placed on top, creating a four layer block of dough.

The four layer block of dough is sliced into 3/8-inch slices. These are brushed with egg white and four are stacked together.

Each slice is turned over so the dark squares alternate and the end looks like a checkerboard. The remaining slices are formed into four layer stacks and wrapped in plastic wrap.

Then they are chilled for several hours and up to three days. Or frozen for future use.

Each stack is sliced into ¼-inch slices. I think these look so… cool!

The dough slices make an excellent pattern on the cookie sheet.

And then there are beautiful little goodies to eat and share.  This is the best part.
Oh yes.

I was so happy for the 4^th of July to roll around, because we were having our first holiday feast in our new house. I actually cooked in my new kitchen  and our guests got to see the new place for the first time. It’s so much fun to give the grand tour. It was also the first time I grilled outside this summer, so I was really happy to see that black char on all the meats and vegetables. You know how good it makes everything taste. I made a charmoula sauce to drizzle over everything, which is similar to a chimichuri, adding the herbal notes of Italian parsley and cilantro. And to top it all off, a Blueberry Pudding Cake. To me, the 4^th of July wouldn’t be complete without blueberries. Oh yeah!

Ready and waiting in all their colorful and beautiful glory.

A big platter of grilled  veggies. I love those black-edged red onions, soft and sweet in the center and the crusty little red potatoes. The veggies were simply brushed with olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled. The potatoes were boiled  until done, cooled, cut in half, skewered, brushed with olive oil and then BBQ heaven. With grill marks.

Grilled Rib Eye, black on the outside and red in the middle. Yes!

Grilled shrimp, which was marinated in the sauce from my Bacon Wrapped Shrimp recipe, and grilled pineapple. I love that sweet caramelized stuff.

My plate of grilled deliciousness, with charmoula spooned over all. Perfect.

I hope your summer is filled with family, friends, BBQ’s and charred grilled food. Hooray!

Click here for Blueberry Pudding Cake and Charmoula Recipes

The theme for my recent visit to Grace-Marie’s Kitchen Cooking School was Italian Cucina Sunday Supper, which I was looking forward to very much, because Grace-Marie grew up in an Italian American family and has been to Italy five times eating her way through the Northern half of the country, so she knows her Italian food. The Chicken, Sausage, Asparagus and Mushroom Pasta we had was very similar to a dish she had in Italy, but instead of asparagus, the original had fresh artichoke hearts.

“I always try to explain to the students that my dishes may not be 100% authentic,” Grace-Marie said, “but they are my version of what I’ve experienced based on what is fresh and available where we live, thereby, ‘making it my own’ … something I encourage them to do — change the recipe however they like, making it their own version, but most importantly, inspiring them to get in the kitchen and cook!”

Here you can see Grace-Marie using a microplane to zest the lemon to flavor the cheesecake. She gave a demonstration on how she separates the egg yolks from the whites, before mixing the yolks with the ricotta, sugar and zest in the food processor. The heavy cream is beaten with cream cheese and sugar until thick, and a cup folded into the ricotta mixture. Then the egg whites are beaten with sugar until thick and also folded into the ricotta mixture. It is poured into the cookie crumb coated pan and baked until the top is barely browned and the center is a bit “jiggly.” Before serving, the sliced strawberries were mixed with fruit preserves, then spooned over the cheese cake with a dollop of whipped cream. It was divine!

Our starter salad for the luncheon was a Provolone Bruschetta topped with Spring Cucumber & Roasted Red Pepper Salad. The crusty Italian bread was first spread with garlic that had been simmered in olive oil and then mashed into the oil. This was topped with slices of Provolone cheese and baked until melted. Over this bruschetta went the roasted red pepper, cucumber, parsley and caper salad which was dressed with an olive oil and lemon juice vinaigrette. This salad was so beautiful with shards of Parmesan cheese on top for garnish.

An exciting thing that happened in January was that I had one of my photos on the cover of a magazine! You can see that the photo is of Grace-Marie’s Fiesta Papaya, Pineapple and Avocado Salad which I posted about in May 2010 and had also been in the Beach Magazine. The editor liked the photo so much he decided to use it for the South Bay 2011 Menu Guide cover. Grace-Marie and I were very proud of ourselves, let me tell you.

Here are the friends who came to the Italian Cucina Sunday Supper cooking class. Thank you for coming and sharing this wonderful food from Grace-Marie’s Kitchen at Bristol Farms.

For additional recipes from Grace-Marie’s Kitchen, look under Categories in the right-hand column.

Grace-Marie Johnston

For more information about the new schedule of cooking classes, visit Grace-Marie online at Bristol Farms or email her at gmj@bristolfarms.com.

Click for the Italian Cheesecake Recipe

From the time I learned to cook as a kid until I started culinary school, all my food was cooked and served family style, in big bowls and on big platters. No matter how many I was feeding, that is how it was done. That was how my Mom did it, and thus, so did I.

Then I went to culinary school and my whole cooking and serving world was turned up-side-down. In culinary school you are learning how to cook in a restaurant, where each dish is plated separately and garnished artistically. I threw myself into it enthusiastically, but as a consequence my home cooked meals became hodge-podge. I almost became unable to cook at home, especially using my old tried and true recipes.

Now, the only time I serve family style is for a buffet, BBQ or picnic. If you come to dinner at my house these days, I will plate each course separately in the kitchen and get one of the guests to play waiter.

One of the useful tools I learned to use in culinary school was the bottomless ring mold, which was used for plating savory entrees and also desserts. You can see one way I used it for plating the Chinese Pork and Eggplant Chow recipe. It is good for packing an ingredient so it sticks together, and other ingredients can be stacked upon it. Or if you have a garnish in the middle of a soup plate, you can put it in the ring mold, pour the soup around it, then remove the mold. The garnish stays neatly in the center.  It makes such a trick presentation.

I made and photographed this Mascarpone Tart around 1996. I took the photo with a Canon Rebel EOS film camera I had at the time. Thanks to modern electronics, I was able to scan the photo and make it digital. Hooray for technology!

The dough for this tart can get really soft in a warm room, but it is very forgiving, so just press it together with your fingers if it splits. It is the most melt-in-your-mouth dough I have ever eaten.

A few posts back we made these terrific little tartlet shells, and proceeded to fill them with lemon curd with little bee decorations. I had quite a few tart shells left over that I froze, so they were already made and waiting expectantly for their next incarnation.

In those posts I suggested several other options for filling the tartlet shells, one of which was banana slices and whipped cream. Sort of a banana cream pie, Lilliputian size. I wanted them to be sort of fancy and whimsical, so I decided to pipe some white chocolate in silly little shapes to enhance them. You may notice that the intricate shapes have a “tongue” piped on the bottom for inserting into whatever you are decorating.

First I drew some designs with a pen on the back of some parchment paper. I turned it over and put it on a cookie sheet. I put about an inch of water in a sauce pan and got it simmering and put a stainless steel bowl on top. I put about a cup of Ghirardelli’s white chocolate chips in the bowl and stirred for about 5 minutes until it was melted. I made a piping cone from a 9-inch square, which is a couple of inches bigger than the one used for the bees. Then I scooped the chocolate into the piping cone, cut off the tiniest point and traced over the penned designs. I still had quite a bit of white chocolate left in the piping cone, so I piped a bunch of free form shapes in between the original ones.

The chocolate took about two hours to set, but still wasn’t really hard. It has been about 90 degrees and it was affecting the chocolate. So I put it in the refrigerator to get really hard. Removing the chocolate from the parchment paper was sort of tricky. You have to peel the parchment away from the chocolate, not peel the chocolate away from the parchment. By this I mean, don’t have the parchment flat and try to lift the chocolate off. It will break. Hold the parchment in your hands and slowly peel it away from the chocolate pieces. Keep the gewgaws on the sheet in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them.

Next I whipped the cream to stiff peaks with a little sugar and put it in a piping bag with a star tip. I sliced a banana in thin slices and piped some of the cream in the tart shells. The banana slices were inserted in the cream and more whipped cream piped in between. And then the white chocolate gewgaws were inserted into the whipped cream. Voila.

Now that the Holidays are coming, I’m getting out all of my recipes that I only make at this time of year, such as these Linzer cookies. I love having these baking traditions that mean so much to me and my family. When they come for our Holiday gatherings, they can count on finding these little pastries that help connect all the memories of our shared past. This is my absolute favorite time of the year.

These Linzer Cookies are actually a riff on the famous Linzer Torte, which is named for the city of Linz, Austria and is the oldest-known torte in the world. The recipe was found in 1653 in the archive of the Admont Abbey in Austria. The Linzer Torte has a lattice design on top of the pastry and the dough is made with ground nuts, usually hazelnuts, sometimes almonds or walnuts and is filled with black currant preserves. It is a Christmas classic in Austrian, Hungarian, Swiss and German traditions.

Unlike a cake, a torte replaces all or most of the flour with ground nuts. White torte dough is made with blanched almonds, and brown torte dough with toasted hazelnuts. In North America the same torte dough is used to make these cookies and they’re filled with raspberry jam. The top cookie has a small cutout in its center (known as Linzer eyes), through which you can see the shiny jam which adds to the visual appeal. While the traditional cutout is circular, all sorts of shapes, such as hearts, are also popular.

When you have your dough rolled out between plastic wrap, use an offset spatula to loosen the dough rounds from the bottom wrap and to place them on the baking sheet.

I like to make my cookie dough with hazelnuts, because I love their flavor and the way they complement the raspberry jam. If you can’t get hazelnuts, you can certainly use almonds or walnuts. Your dough will still have that wonderful nuttiness to go with the jam. Be sure to process your nuts very finely, so you will have no trouble pushing the cookie cutter through the dough. I like to use a fluted cutter, but a plain round one is fine, or any other shapes you choose. Just make sure to make a cutout in the middle.

I would love to hear what you bake for your traditional Holiday gatherings.

By the end of March 1995 I had completed eight out of ten quarter classes required to receive my Certificate in Professional Cooking and my Certificate for Pastry and Baking at UCLA. I had also completed the nine month 185 hour internship for Cooking at Campanile and another 150 hours internship at another restaurant for Pastry. I had been going to school at night for four years and it had become a way of life. I didn’t want it to be over, so I decided to take the cooking class that was part of the Catering Certificate Program. Just to keep my hand in.

The Catering cooking class was held upstairs in the Tea Room at Bullocks Wilshire near UCLA. No longer used as a restaurant, it was rented out for events and classes like ours. It had a huge professional kitchen and a dining area with a very 1930’s feel. This class was taught by Denise Vivaldo, who at the time owned a very successful catering company. I never would have imagined that almost 20 years later, she would be the most preeminent food stylist on the planet and I would be a food blogger who would once again be taking classes from her about food styling.

Here is our Class Photo taken after the banquet. We were so proud and happy! That’s me on the front left.

The first night, Denise explained that the first hour of class would be devoted to how to run a catering business. The estimating, costing, paper work. She gave us handouts and we took notes. The rest of the class time in the kitchen would be devoted to deciding what we would be cooking for our final, which would be a banquet for 100 friends and family. We would be trying dishes that we brought from home or cooked in class. If there were some ingredients we wanted, she would make a list and bring them to the next class.

Next she explained that we would be working on a brigade system and now we were going to pick the people we wanted to fill those roles. The other students were all in the Catering Certificate Program and had taken their first cooking class together, so they knew each other and what their cooking skill levels were. Nobody knew me from Adam. So Denise asked who they wanted to be our Executive Chef. Everyone started yelling,”Brian! Brian! Brian for Executive Chef!” He was a line cook in a hotel restaurant and their hero. They went on picking people for Sous Chef, Purchasing Agent, Event Planner and Publicist. All the positions were filled and everyone was looking happy and satisfied.

Well, then I raised my hand. Denise gave me the nod and I said, “I also want to be the Executive Chef.” Everyone turned around and looked at me like I was an alien. A big purple one with eyes on stalks.

Poor Denise thought this part had been solved so easily. She rubbed her nose and said, “Well, why don’t you and Brian both be Executive Chefs and you can divide up the duties between you.” So that was arranged. I really wanted to run the show and make sure everything happened the way it should. OCD.

Here I am the day of the banquet. Very Serious. Long ponytail.

Their reaction to me made perfect sense. They didn’t even know if I could cook. So I devised a plan to win them over, show my cooking skills and cook my recipes at the banquet. The next class I made some of my famous Twisted Cookies and brought them with me to share. I put the box in the middle of the table and told everyone to help themselves. No pressure. Well, pretty soon they were all scarfing them down and telling Denise that we had to have these cookies at our banquet. The next week I brought some little sourdough toasts and a white bean spread, Kalamata olive tapenade and a kale pesto. They were munching all through the lecture. Finally someone said, “Will you give us the recipe for these for the banquet?” Sure no problem. This went on for every class, plus I was creating dishes during the cooking part of the class.

Our final menu looked like this:

Taste the Future of Los Angeles

Sunday, June 4th, 1995

Crudités with Dips, and Crostini with White Bean Spread, Olive Tapenade and Kale Pesto

Spring Asparagus Scented in a pink Peppercorn and Lime vinaigrette Accompanied by a Spinach Crepe Roulade

Medallions of Gingered Salmon on Cous Cous Served with a Veal/Pear Demi-Glace and a Beggar’s Purse of Butternut Squash

A Chilled Puree of Honeydew and Canteloupe Accented with a Strawberry Coulis

Tender Breast of Herbed Chicken Served with Parsnip Potatoes, Beurre Blanc and a Selection of Seasonal Vegetables

Cider Sabayon, Fresh Summer Berries and a Raspberry Coulis with Little Pastries

The only recipes that weren’t mine were the Crudités, Dips, Asparagus Salad and Melon Soup. I ended up making Beurre Blanc white wine sauce for a hundred people that used seven pounds of butter, and the red wine Demi-Glace sauce. Also the chicken recipe with the parsnip mashed potatoes was one of Campanile’s signature dishes. I always chuckle to myself when I think about how the kitchen manager and other prep cooks at Campanile thought I had no skills, and here I was duplicating their famous dish for 100 people.

I made the Sabayon and Raspberry Coulis there the day of the banquet. Also on the plate were a Twisted Cookie, Gingersnap Cookie (underneath) and a Mini Lemon Tartlet with the Buttercream Bee, all of which I made at home for 100 people and brought with me.

After the dinner was finished and the dessert served, all of us students were asked to come out into the dining room and take a bow. They wanted me to walk out first and all of a sudden somebody handed me a microphone and told me to make a speech. I don’t remember what I said, although I recall it was something lame about thanks for coming and I hoped they enjoyed it. The Dean of the Hospitality Department stood up and made a congratulatory speech and then he said he thought the dessert was magnificent. All of the guests stood up and started clapping and cheering. I almost fainted. Everyone was patting me on the back and saying how they loved the little bees. One lady said she was taking the bee home to give to her little daughter. I felt so happy!

A disclaimer on the photos: These were taken by someone who had been drinking wine, with a film camera, and recently I scanned them into my computer so they are now digital. Not the best, but they give you the idea.

There are two additional posts on how to make the little buttercream bees and how to make the mini tartlet shells. The recipe for my favorite lemon-lime curd is below, but you could fill the tartlet shells with any flavor curd, chocolate pudding or mousse, ganache, banana slice with vanilla custard, sweetened cream cheese and berries. The list is endless. Feel free to be creative.