I'm going to join Tuesday with Dorie

"..whatever is true, 

whatever is noble, 

whatever is right, 

whatever is pure, 

whatever is lovely, 

whatever is admirable

—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy

—think about such things."
Philippians 4:8

I've been a fan of Dorie Greenspan for quite a while now. I'm also rather jealous of her. For starters she lives in both New York and Paris. How does anyone get that lucky?! Next, she has been privileged to work with both Pierre Herme and Julia Child. And then there's the fact that she's been involved in several really good cookbooks. But despite how many reasons one can have to be jealous of her, she seems like a very nice person, and her recipes are very good.

I first bought her book "Paris Sweets" because it was so cute. But since I've made her l'Opera, and that was the best cake I've ever eaten, even if I did make it myself.


And then I bought "Desserts" by Dorie and Pierre Herme. The recipes are Pierre's, but the writing and maybe adjustments are Dorie's. The really big hit of a dessert that I made from that book is the Ligurian Raspberry Gateau. And I have recently procured Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme by Dorie Greenspan.

I also have Baking with Julia, a book she wrote in collaboration with Julia Child. This lady lives a charmed life.

But the book that Tuesday with Dorie is all about is "Baking: from my house to yours" by Dorie Greenspan. The group was started with the idea of baking all the way through the book, one week and one recipe at a time. I think that it was started by Laurie of Quirky Cupcakes. I do not know how many people are doing this, but I've seen the little badge of Tuesdays with Dorie on many blogs.

You know, not to sound like just a jealous person, I've got lots of things in my life that make me a lucky person.  I have a wonderful husband, and four lovely daughters who I see all the time.  I've got the cutest grand-daughter in the world who loves me very much.  My grand-son finds me annoying at times, but he and I get along very well on many points.  We talk math and play cards and drink Italian sodas.  I live in a really great house, with the entire third floor as my bedroom, enough room for all my dishes and baking pans, a fantastic kitchen with the best stove in the world.  My back yard is the best one in the entire neighborhood, and I live in a really great neighborhood, and I've lived here for all but 14 years of my life.  The back end of my yard is about 50ft x 20ft and it contains a kidney-shaped pool measuring about 18ft by 38ft.  I love this.  There is lots of things growing all around the pool in a rather wild fashion. It's amazing what can grow in cracks of concrete or actually on concrete.  I love my backyard.  Now I do have a deck on the side yard that is totally decaying and we need to fix, but we're having lots of opportunity to imagine what we could do and how we can do it.  And I live in a beautiful part of the world, even though Portlanders are very weird.  But since I've lived here most of my life, maybe I'm weird too.

"Nothing happens until something moves." 

Albert Einstein