Vanilla Sky

My new purchase, on sale @ Anthropologie.

I already own this book, and love it.

So today I met Amy--one of my editors--for lunch @ Raymond's on Church Street. We brainstormed, caught up, went through story ideas. And had a delicious meal! It was good to see her. Then, since I was over on Church Street, I popped into Anthropologie, with its nice sale room on the second floor.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear but Pure Vanilla, a beautiful cookbook of vanilla recipes by Shauna Sever [author of Marshmallow Madness!, which I don't own but would like to, and blogger @ Piece of Cake]. The gorgeous photos are by Leigh Beisch. [Cover price $22.95 but marked down to $14.95, then the sales associate took off another 20 percent b/c for some reason, the ingredient list for Creamy Vanilla Rice Pudding recipe is half blanked out. And rice pudding is one of H.'s favorites. So my price was $11.96.]

I have folded over SO MANY pages of recipes I want to make, especially Tuxedo Crème Cookie Sandwiches; Vanilla Cream Pie; and Vanilla Cloud Cake [a lofty angel food cake with a frosting made of cream cheese, melted white chocolate, whipped cream and two kinds of vanilla]; and Big Mama Vanilla Cheesecake. One of my latest plans is, once again, to return mostly to baking for others--parties, events, etc. And there's a big fundraiser March 22 for Montclair High School Project Graduation. It's a New Orleans theme, so I've volunteered to make a New Orleans recipe for Lemon Icebox Pie [it's really good, from a cookbook called Dam Good Sweet] in small tart sizes, and now I think I'll do some Vanilla Cream Pies in smaller, pick-up sizes, too. I love little pies. So comforting to look at...and to eat.

Tonight I'm making the author's Slow-Cooked Vanilla Spice Oatmeal with steel-cut Irish oats.. a little brown sugar and nutmeg...it cooks overnight...should be nice to wake up to in the morning.....unfortunately, I don't have a vanilla bean, which I'm sure would make it fabulous...those were out of my budget tonight....but I have everything else. And it should be yum with a splash of half and half, sprinkle of sea salt and toasted pecans.

Let's all drift off to sleep on a vanilla marshmallow pillow, like fairies must do. Good night.

P.S. Yes, others may emerge from Anthropologie with a soft vanilla-white sweater, but me, I come out with a vanilla cookbook. 

TCOY

1. Boot camp in the dome.
2. Faced music after poor food choices. Logged in, moved on best I could.
3. Walked Fluff around the block.
4. Made nice tomato sauce for supper, with ground turkey for me and Figgy.