Fancy Feasts: Sunday Brunch

I love to cook and bake. There is nothing more satisfying than enjoying something that you've made yourself, whether that item be edible or wearable. Recently I picked up Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess, one of her first cookbooks. My sister had this cookbook a while back, but it seems to have gone missing, so I was determined to replace it last weekend, easily finding a copy at Barnes & Noble (and using mom's membership card for a fabulous 10% off, thank you very much!). It quickly became my goal to cook just about every recipe in the book, which is going to mean hours and hours of upcoming baking. Thankfully work starts up again soon and that means I can pawn all these cakes, cookies and brownies that are detrimental to my own new healthy eating lifestyle (though there's room for everything in moderation)!

On Sunday afternoon we had old family friends over for brunch (another fabulously fancy concept!). I had planned to make Nigella's 'Simple Almond Cake,' but - alas - did not read the recipe beforehand and therefore didn't notice that it called for marzipan, instead of just ground almonds (as I assumed). I flipped a few pages until I found a recipe that did use ground almonds (aptly named the Lemon & Almond cake) and proceeded with my baking. The fabulous results:





While we're on the subject, here are some other photos from the brunch, showing off yet another fancy, satisfying thing to do to take your table from mundane to special. Plating your food in a beautiful and creative way not only makes the table lovely, it somehow makes all the food taste better. It's not scientific, but it's true!



Perhaps I'll embark on a Julie & Julie-esque project as I bake my way through this cookbook. I've never actually cooked my way through an entire cookbook, but as I'm not a person who get easily frustrated by cooking (and who, in fact, finds it incredibly relaxing), I can't imagine that a blog about me cooking would interest too many people very much. So I'll save the posts for when I create something particularly pretty (for I also love photography, just to add to the growing list of things I like to do!), and for those times when we take meals and we make them extra-special!

On that note, be sure to stay tuned for Friday afternoons, when I will try and post "Fancy Feast Thursdays." Family members and I will be getting together on Thursday evenings for a homecooked meal (made by either yours truly or yours truly's little sister) and a not-so-fancy viewing of The Office.