they say that bread is life

First fruit pie of the season, blueberry apple with ginger oatmeal crumb. Recipe one part Magpie, one part Metropolitan Bakery.

Almond syrup is homemade simple syrup with almond extract added to taste. Right now the rum I'm using is Mount Gay Eclipse.

Prepared a coconut this morning (yes, after coffee), of course inspired by the Almond Joy and Snoballs episodes of Gourmet Makes. This is the method I used, though I did not heat the coconut to separate the shell and the meat - I just hit it more with the cleaver, and used an oyster knife where needed (apparently it's useful for all things shelled). The coconut cost $1 at Cousins and it was fresh, the water tasted great.

The best part of making shrimp etouffe is eating it, no doubt. But making a proper stock from the leftover shells, plus onion, celery, lemon, bay leaves, thyme, and peppercorns is also a great pleasure.

Pistachio nutmeg brownies for a two year birthday party.

This apple pie had goose fat and cheddar cheese in the crust. It was delicious.

Recipe for Nina's cake. It wasn't bad!

Chocolate babka (krantz cake) from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem.

Continuing adventures in sourdough (this starter is fantastic, thanks Philly Bread Co).

For Fathers' Day, E gave me a sourdough bread baking class at Greensgrow taught by the guy who started and runs Philly Bread Co. He gave everyone a little bit of starter. This is what I made with mine.

Colorado crumpets! Lara, who spent last summer in Scotland eating the real thing, said she was "impressed with the authenticity". One inauthentic detail: we didn't have rings, so we used cookie cutters. Clockwise from right: lower peninsula of MI, coyote or pig, upper peninsula of MI. They came out wonderfully, I'll make them again. I followed the Guardian's recipe.