Sugar & Spice by Celeste

*** There are certain foods that are worth dreaming about, and artisan cheeses certainly deserve a spot on that list.  I was recently contacted by the awesome folks at Belle Chevre Creamery , who wanted to feature my blog on their website as part of a four week series spotlighting healthy summer recipes by none other than Chef Marvin Woods .  I was so thrilled about the opportunity! Take a look at the article HERE! Chef Marvin Woods is an Emmy Award-Nominated television host, celebrity chef, and cookbook author.  In addition, Chef Woods was chosen as the very first chef to kick off Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign.   Pretty amazing stuff, huh?? I was equally excited to find out that Belle Chevre Creamery, a company that has produced internationally acclaimed chevre cheeses for over 20 years, is located right here in my home-state of Alabama!  Belle Chevre has teamed up with Chef Woods to create a new e-Cookbook filled with wonderful and HEALT...

  ***Fig season is a glorious thing, my friends!  For months now, I have been looking forward to getting my hands on some fresh figs.  Here in the South, figs are just starting to come into season, and I'm pretty excited about it.  Can't you tell?   :) As it turns out, figs can be hard to find in grocery stores right now.  I had to call several stores around town before I found one that had some still in stock.  I bought 3 lbs. of the yummy fruit and headed home to make fig jam. The recipe below is incredibly addictive.  It's great on a cracker or straight out of the jar!  One of my favorite snacks is a whole wheat cracker with a slice of good quality French Brie cheese and a dollop of fig preserves.  Mmm, Mmm!! I tweaked amounts in the original recipe a little to suit my tastes.  I was so pleased with the way this jam turned out.  So much so, that I will only use this recipe in the future.  It's wonderfully...

  I am so excited to share this recipe for an exquisitely delicious Blueberry Tart with you all.  One bite of this dessert transported me right back to the boulangeries in Paris, France, with their shelves and shelves of gorgeous tarts and other expertly-made decadent desserts.  Each one beckoning you to try a bite!  But wait...They are almost too pretty to eat! A pic from our trip to Paris in 2009...This boulangerie was right down the street from our hotel. Check out those gorgeous tarts!  Don't you want one? The flavor of this Blueberry Tart is exceptional...I'm at a loss of words to even describe it to you!  Between the fresh orange zest, vanilla beans and nutmeg...I am speechless! Suzanne and Maranne made this tart for me while they were here a few weeks ago.  I knew something special was in the works with one look into the kitchen.  They were hard at work kneading, mixing and stirring.  I was so impressed ...

***Don't you just absolutely love waking up on a weekend to the smell of something delicious baking in the oven?  A few days after my recent surgery, my sister - Suzanne - got up early and baked these A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. blueberry muffins.  Honestly, one of my favorite moments during the week my two sisters were staying with us was being woken up by the wonderfully scrumptious smell of these muffins slowly wafting into my bedroom.  That sort of thing just makes you feel super loved and taken care of.  :) It's actually really funny, because when Suzanne was looking for a blueberry muffin recipe the night before, she picked this recipe before realizing I already had it on my blog.  I guess great minds think alike...lol.  It's not often that I post the same recipe twice, but these muffins are worth the extra attention.  They bake up nice and big, are packed with beautiful blueberries, and the cinnamon-sugar crumble on top makes these unforgettable.  I ...

***Folks, it's been quite a week around our house.  It all started last Friday when I had laparoscopic surgery.  Even though it was considered a pretty minor surgery, I was still REALLY nervous.  This was the first time that I had ever been put under general anesthesia, so I was extremely uncertain about that whole concept.  Luckily, I was blessed with an amazing team of doctors and nurses, and everything went perfectly. The day after my surgery, Brad had a serious kidney stone attack.  He ended up in the ER later that day, and was eventually scheduled for surgery a few days later.  Fortunately, his surgery also went well. So, after making it through two surgeries in one week, we are both recovering well...thank goodness!  I mean, WHAT ARE THE ODDS?  I still can't believe we both had surgery within a six day period. I don't know what we would have done without my little sisters here to help us through this terrible week.  They were ...

***I know it's officially summer when fresh, juicy peaches abound at all the farmers markets and groceries stores.  Piled high into perfectly peachy piles, I can't possibly pass by them without stowing a few away in my grocery cart.  This tart is a beautiful way to show off the season's prettiest fruit.   When my sisters were recently in town, one of Maranne's main missions was to find a tart pan, so we made a trip to Williams-Sonoma so that she could purchase a pan like my own.  This recipe is the first one she tried when she got home, and the photo of her Blueberry-Peach Tart was so delicious-looking that I had to try it too!   She emailed the recipe to me, and within minutes I was in the kitchen!  One of the only changes that I made was substituting the fresh blueberries for cherries.  Now, I don't have something against blueberries, in fact they are one of my favorites!  The truth is, I didn't have any fresh blueberries on-hand, ...

  ***Every year, Brad's mom gives me a new "birthday cake challenge" for her birthday.  This year, she requested a cake that combined orange, pecan and coconut flavors.  It sounded like a perfectly decadent cake for these hot summer days, so I was excited for the new challenge. I searched the internet and my collection of cookbooks for inspiration.  I came across THIS recipe over at "Your Homebased Mom" and thought it looked like the perfect place to start.  It even won a blue ribbon at a fair once, so it sounded really promising! The only change that I made was to the icing.  The original recipe already included wonderful orange flavors, but the coconut and pecans still needed to make an appearance somehow.  I added both the shredded coconut and pecans directly into the icing recipe.   The pecans ended up really making this cake over-the-top delicious.  They brought the entire cake together, and the combination of flavors was incre...