Honey Cake

Today, I made honey cake. I posted the recipe here.
It turned out really good. I used Virginia honey and instant Italian espresso coffee, the recipe calls for strong coffee, and organic flour and eggs from free range chickens. The cakes were baked in loaf pans and one got this strange shape on top, oval within a rectangle. The texture was really nice and the taste, okay, I cut up one of the cakes already, delicious. Try this, you'll like it and it'll lead to a sweet year ahead, so they say.

Toile-la-la purse for change

I had some of that cute toile print fabric left from the purse I made so I made a purse for change. I just posted it and a couple other new ones in Fritzi, my Etsy shop. I just love toile!! What is it about this type of print and me? Check out my shop and see what's new. I had a private sale yesterday when my friend J came by to do some shopping for gifts. It was fun to show her all of my totes and purses and get her reaction, which I must say was, POSITIVE! yay! An afternoon of sharing, drinking tea, eating banana bread, how perfect.

Veggies

As I approached the Victory Farms Market stall, where I sell organic produce on Thursday mornings, I was greeted by this beautiful table. We had gorgeous produce today and it was a very windy, chilly and rainy day. Far fewer folks came out to shop, but we still managed to sell out of a few things, like carrots, cucumbers and radishes. I brought home sweet potatoes, an eggplant and a butternut squash, which I've now baked. I'll use the eggplant to make my Thai spread, the squash to make a nice creamy soup, and I'll mash the sweet potatoes. What a yummy meal on a chilly night.

My Design Class #2

I'm having the best time with my basic design class at VMFA studio school. These adult students are terrific! Guess what their assignment was?

SKULLS

This is so exciting. My son's book will out in the stores in the U.S. the first week of October! Skulls!
You can order from the usual sources but he hopes that you'll buy it at your local indie bookstore if there is still one in your area. He'll be doing some book signings, too. Go to Skull-a-day for updates on those. This is SO exciting!

My yard

With the coming of cooler weather, I've been enjoying sitting in my yard again. It's so peaceful. Though the view from my bench isn't much of a vista, that I get when I sit at the table and look east at a more open space with lots of trees, it is a quiet and restful yard. I put apple core into a place on my tree trunk where a small branch had been trimmed off. Squirrels come to get their treat. We haven't had many squirrels this summer because there've been a lot of hawks, but the ones that do come by really amuse me.

Sweet Potato Pound Cake

We had sweet potatoes at the Farmers' Market yesterday so today I made a sweet potato pound cake using a recipe from our former CSA farmer, Caryn Phillips. This is a very delicious cake. I posted it here. You can get the recipe and see more photos of the process of getting from the potato to the cake. Enjoy.