The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

The busy past few months have meant that I haven’t been able to fully participate in the Daring Bakers’ or the Daring Cooks’ challenges.

That’s okay. I’m allowed. Foundership (not just membership) has its priviledges!

Having said that, however, I don’t plan on slacking off and the first order of business was to complete the March 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge hosted by Jen of Chocolate Shavings.

Jen chose a dessert called Orange Tian as the challenge for the month.

The dessert consists of a pastry base, orange marmalade, a cream (stablized with gelatine) filling and segmented oranges in a caramel sauce.

To be quite honest, I’m not sure I would ever have tried this dessert had I come across it on my own.

It’s not that it was difficult, just time-consuming. And while I do like orange, I don’t necessarily like desserts that are predominantly orange-flavoured.

Plus I really dislike orange marmalade. I’m just not a fan of candied orange and the marmalade was too reminiscent of that.

Nevertheless, I am a Daring Baker so I perservered with all elements of the recipe, including the marmalade, and knocked out a fairly nice dessert if I may say so myself.

Actually, I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought. The frozen cream part of the dessert definitely has potential. I imagined making something similar in the summer with fresh berries.

For those of you interested in giving the recipe a go, you can find it here.

Be sure to check out the other Daring Bakers’ and their efforts with the Orange Tian.

Ciao!

As March draws to an end I find myself slowly emerging from the last two months. I can very clearly recall the beginning of January, but everthing between that first week of 2010 to now is a blur.

Work. Work. Work.

It’s been challenging, fun, stressful, difficult, exciting and so very busy. As always, I feel so happy and relieved at this time of year (biggest work project of the year is done), but I also feel tired and a bit drained.

As much as I enjoy winter, I was so very happy to answer the door when Spring rang the bell.

Bring on the warm weather, the flowers, the open-toed shoes and of course, the return to baking and cooking for me.

Prior to this weekend, I had not baked in over a month.

Ridiculous!

As I contemplated another Monday with no post, I remembered that I had one Magazine Mondays recipe in the bank: Classic White Bread from the February 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

While I have certainly had my issues with some Martha Stewart recipes in the past, this one was a winner from start to finish. And best of all I had the pleasureable experience of kneading bread dough.

This is a sturdy, delicious bread that can be used for numerous purposes. My own favourite was to smother it with salted butter and cherry jam.

It’s been awhile since my last Magazine Mondays post so this is just a little reminder that if you post a magazine recipe, send me the link and I’ll include it in my next MM round-up. Here’s who joined me for this edition:

Tia of Buttercream Barbie made Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies from Bon Appétit and Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars from a 2001 Issue of Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies and she also made Blueberry Peach Yogurt Muffins from Canadian Living.

Tamy of Always Eat on the Good China made Blend in the Bayou from Taste of Home.

Dawn of Doable and Delicious made Herbed Balsamic Chicken with Blue Cheese from Bon Appétit.

Janie of Panini Girl made Hazelnut Cinnmaon Crescents from Bon Appétit.

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Ciao!

I shall be back to baking!

Ciao!

Note: Pictured above is a Marbled Bundt Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours.

My goodness I don’t even know how long it’s been since I’ve updated my blog! Two weeks? A year? I no longer remember.

I’ve been a busy bee thanks to a work project and some other events. However, I could no longer bear to hear my blog weeping in the corner as the days of neglect stretched into weeks. I’m back for a very quick Magazine Mondays post that perfectly captures my eating habits of late: lots of fat, lots of carbs and almost no fruits or vegetables (long workdays and even longer work nights do not make for healthy eating …).

Having said that, if I have to indulge once and awhile, I’m happy to do so with these ridiculously good chicken wings. I made them for a family dinner we had that happened to fall on Super Bowl Sunday. While lugging out the deep fryer wasn’t exactly the most enjoyable exercise (nor was cleaning it afterwards although the credit for that goes to Mamma Cream Puff), I have to say these were ridiculously good and worth every calorie and gram of fat.

Just try them. They’re worth it.

Here are some folks who have joined me in the ongoing and epic battle to control that stack of food magazines we all have:

Dawn of Doable and Delicious made Turkish Coffee Pudding from Bon Appétit and Gnocchi with Tomato, Onion and Pancetta from Gourmet.

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Creamy Parmesan Polenta from Cook’s Illustrated.

Margaret of Tea and Scones made Crawfish and Chicken Étouffée from the Food Network magazine.

The Food Hunter made Veal Stew with Vegetables from La Cucina Italiana.

Wizzy of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner & Punch made Cornmeal Rosemary Cake with Pine Nuts and Orange Glaze from The Best of Fine Cooking (Fall 2007).

Have a great week everyone!

Ciao!

This recipe is from Sunny Anderson of The Food Network. I saw a program where she prepared chicken wings three separate ways. I made the wings with the Spicy Butter Sauce. Delicious!