Berries Jubilee (Shortcakes with Mixed Berry Flambé)

Strawberry shortcake is a classic dessert, and I've been obsessed with it for as long as I can remember. As a child, I'd wait with bated breath for dessert-time, ever irked when my mother insisted it was so-named because the table is "deserted" from having cleaned one's dinner plate and cleared the way. Even when I was little, I knew the difference between a sponge cake and a shortcake and, despite how groceries dutifully place the spongy yellow pucks next to the strawberries every summer, I would accept no substitutions. Proper shortcake should be like a biscuit or a scone. Not spongy, but crumblingly delicious, at once dry and yet delectably saturated with oil; with flaking crumbs that melt away on the tongue and leave nothing but happiness in their wake.

Pictured: happiness

The Scone Guy (Raspberry Lemon Scones)

It started out simply enough, I baked Aaron some raspberry lemon scones to bring to work. I figured he and his officemates could use a treat. Heady on the train of requests and compliments that followed, more scones were suddenly in the works. Blueberry one day, lavender another... then came peanut butter chocolate banana, a batch of my original very vanilla bean scones, and, most recently, a double batch flavored with jewel-like dried apricots and slivered almonds. I'm not sure what's wrong with me, exactly, but somehow I just can't stop making scones. I could try making muffins, or cinnamon buns, or a banana bread but, to me, the scone is the undisputed king of the breakfast table. I'm soon going to have to declare a moratorium, as I don't want to just be known as "the scone guy." I'm so much more than that. Regardless, this week found me patting out the dough for scones again.

Habit-forming substances

Baking a Better Biscuit (Fontina, Sage, and Spelt Biscuits)

As I mentioned before, I grew up surrounded by a big family and we'd regularly get together, almost always involving food. One thing my great-grandmother always made for Saturday breakfasts were her delicious, fluffy, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth perfect biscuits. How she did it I will never know.

Glowing with pride

Monkeying Around (Monkey Bread, Walnuts, Maple-Cream Cheese Icing)

Once upon a time, all of our family in Montoursville would gather round the table on Sunday mornings for family brunch. Come to think of it, I think that time was so long ago our nephew Dylan wasn't even born, yet, but the point is that it's been a while. I wanted to get everyone back together to spend some quality time, breakfast-style, so monkey bread was definitely in order.

Have a bite