All posts tagged: cake

a fool-proof plum cake, a new audiobook, and my falcon’s shawl

Published by fairfaxhill

I love Marin in September. The mornings slowly get darker and the air crisper, but the afternoons are still warm. Late summer fruits and vegetables are also at their peak and their fall successors are getting ready to be harvested — just look at the grapes I spotted in my neighbor’s front yard on a recent walk! (It was so hard not to take one and try it. I didn’t. I couldn’t.) After admiring my neighbor’s gorgeous grapes, a couple more minutes into my walk, I saw a plum tree growing on the side of the road. This is the main road that leads to downtown. The tree was full of plums, and this time I couldn’t resist the urge to taste one. The tree was so full of fruit that the branches were hanging a bit low. This tree wasn’t planted in anyone’s yard, it was planted outside a fence on a hill that seemed like public land, at least that’s what I hoped! So I ignored the cars driving past me and what …

bring lemon cake to the party

Published by fairfaxhill

I’m not sure what it is about lemons, the color, the flavor, the scent… I love it all. Things may be different now, but when I was growing up in Costa Rica, you couldn’t find lemons anywhere in San José. We had limes — tons of limes — and at our house, we drank limeade almost daily with lunch, dinner, and with pretty much everything in between. I loved that, too! It wasn’t until I lived abroad that I finally got to taste lemons — and then, quickly, I fell in love with them. For me, lemons symbolize spring and the start of warmer weather. So, as soon as spring gets near, I start to crave lemon everything (even in the color of the clothes I wear). Since the beginning of February, yellow colors are popping up everywhere: daffodils, acacia trees, spring fashion in store windows, and all sorts of lemony cravings in my head! So, when about two weekends ago, I was asked to bring some dessert to one of our family dinners, understandably, …