On Baking and Randomness

It's interesting, I had so much to post about today, and yet what I've wound up writing has nothing to do with what I thought I would write about. Topics included: the ridiculous Rochester spring weather - seriously, you wish you were here! - the personality types one encounters in specialty medicine (gynecology is a much more rewarding experience than I ever anticipated), my burgeoning Bridezilla tendencies, wedding dresses and cakes I love. As Tom and I narrow down a venue, I'll begin to post on more concrete ideas of mine that fit the lucky/unfortunate space. That's quite an organizational project, as I have zillions of centerpiece images alone.

Instead, what I'm writing about is baking, and pies to be specific. I'm not sure where I encountered this idea first, but I adore the idea of a pie table instead of wedding cake. Imagine my delight when I discovered this image of a pie table from Style Me Pretty:



One would think wedding pie would be an affordable option. Think again. In my cursory research - okay, I only looked at The Little Pie Co., in New York because that's all I could think of, and Zabar's pies, while cheap are not attractive - and found that pies can cost upwards of $60. Next idea.

A bit of background: the women in my family are terrific, humble bakers. I have no idea how or why this started, but I grew up inspired by my mother's, aunt's, grandmother's, and even father's, confections. Their results are just good, old fashioned New England baking - not too sweet with a very refined palette. It's really hard to find that style of baking commercially, so I've begun to teach myself baking to recreate the magic. The one thing in particular that the Herter women are known for, and Mom in particular, is pie. In fact, we have a theme song, "Making Pies," by Patty Griffin:



Pies frighten me because I tend to think of them as difficult. I've recently begun to appreciate the magic of my food processor, and am planning on trying my hand at a plum pie in the near future. In the meantime, I cut my teeth on cakes. While I have had some failures, in general my cake abilities have surprised me. All of this is leading up to the punchline of this post - Lemon Bread.



I love lemons so much one of my classmate's jokes about it. This recipe, by way of Williams-Sonoma, is a classic, one of my all time favorite comfort foods. Please make it. It's a little slice of Rochester sunshine in your day.