One of my faves - Blackbird Baking

 A co-worker of Tom's turned us on to Blackbird Baking last fall. This one-woman baking company is located in South Portland Me, offering "the simple goodness you've been craving." Stacy posts and/or emails her menus regularly. You order and then later in the week,  voila!  A pie is delivered unto you. It is like pie magic.

We've had a couple of different pies, most recently a delicious 3 Berry Pie with blackberries, blueberries and raspberries, topped with a butter-oat-sugar crumble. Since the menu noted this pie was ice-cream worthy we had to oblige. We paired this local pie with some locally made ginger gelato.

She also makes muffins, quickbreads, cookies, and baked squares. We've only tried the pies, but I have no doubt the rest of her treats are just as good.

I'm not absolutely sure of her pie delivery range, but definitely in the Portland / South Portland area. When she dropped off our most recent pie she told Tom she is trying to get in to some local markets and restaurants, so it looks like we'll have more access to her treats.

Connect with Stacy on Facebook or via email at blackbirdbaking@gmail.com

A Yummy Birthday Cake

Over the weekend I was trolling around different sites, looking for a tasty birthday cake option for Molly's b-day. I didn't want a standard layer-frosting-layer-frosting kind of cake, but was looking for something a bit different.

My go-to site for this search was Smitten Kitchen. One of my favorite cooking blogs - great recipes, great pictures and an approach to food that I can relate to - good food, cooked well and deeply appreciated. I quickly came across this recipe for strawberry summer cake. Up here in Maine, our strawberry plants still have flowers on them, while down south in NY they have fresh berries at the Farmer's Market already. Even though we are a few weeks from berries, this recipe had me, well, smitten.

I can only imagine how this would be with late season Maine strawberries, oozing with juicy-goodness. While I'm decidedly biased about most things Maine (except maybe February), close, if not at the top of my list of "things that are better in Maine," are strawberries. Our berries work hard up here in the slow, often cold spring. You can taste their hard work in the concentrated flavors, that are just sweet enough and just tart enough.

Since I knew I'd be going with store-bought berries, I decided to go with a berry mix instead of just strawberries. I landed on strawberries, blackberries and raspberries for my mix. I also decided to try SK's suggestion of using some barley flour.

As described at SK, this recipe is "short on steps." Easy to make and delicious to eat. Served with some brown sugar whipped cream we had unanimous yums all around.

I'd like to try it with some other summer fruit combinations - peaches & blueberries, strawberry & rhubarb - I think most any juicy summer fruit would work.

I going to send you over to Smitten Kitchen for the recipe, cause I think you'll love her site.
Enjoy!

S'mores!

This is not baking.

It barely involves fire, but it is very good.

Years ago in my house we were on a microwave s'mores kick. Don't know how we got off this kick, or why because a microwave s'more is really a very a good thing.

From a variety of different baking I've done recently, including Congo Bars and Coca Cola Cake, I found myself with the appropriate fixings for these easy tasty bites.

What you need:
Chocolate chips (or a thin-ish chocolate square would do)
Mini Marshmallows (or Fluff would do)
Graham crackers

What you do:
Put chips on graham cracker and microwave on high about 30 seconds.
Check how melty the chips are, and microwave another 30 seconds if needed.
Put mini mallows on top of chips and microwave about 20 seconds or until the marshmallows puff up so much that they scare you.
Optional: If you have a kitchen torch, torch the marshmallows to the desired level of brownness (or burnt if that's how you roll).
Another option - top with another graham cracker. Personally, I like mine open face.

Tasty adds:
Peanut butter under the chips
Banana on the chips, under the marshmallow

The best thing about these - no large fire required, no risk of the whole thing dropping in the sand because you've been sitting around the bonfire drinking way too many sombrero's, nice melted chocolate. I'm sure there are s'more purists out there completely aghast that one should make a s'more in a less than authentic way. All I'm saying is that I can enjoy s'mores in February in Maine, barefoot in my kitchen this way. Can you?