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Pound cake is not the first treat that comes to most people's minds when their sweet tooth starts calling out, probably because most pound cakes are bland in flavor, dense without being rich or just plain bad. But for my English, sweets loving husband, pound cake, specifically a lemon pound cake, is a revelation. He thinks it's perfect with afternoon tea (of course), after dinner with berries and ice cream, even for breakfast (I told you he has a sweet tooth).
 
Lemon pound cakes make my husband happy and since they are easy to make (and because I love the way his eyes light up upon smelling one when he walks in the door) I make them more than any other treat or, puddings, as he calls desserts. Last week I didn't have lemons around and instead used some limes and the result was just as delicious. So, here's my favorite lemon (or lime) pound cake recipe, one I adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible. The method may seem a bit counter intuitive at first (there's no creaming of the butter and sugar) but the result is a tender, delicious lemon pound cake.
 

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The solutions to yesterday's puzzles:

1. PARROT and SPARROW
2. TOOTH and FOOT
3. Pop Goes the Weasel
4. Paris Hilton
5. North East West South
6. Tomato
7. Eagle and Beagle
8. David Letterman
9. Eggnog.
10. Rome Oslo Geneva Athens

Eric Berlin, The Potato Chip Puzzles, YR mystery, Penguin Books

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Hi There!

Well, they tell me it's spring, but to look out the window at the grey, rainy day...again...as I sit here typing as I shiver in my winter sweater, I wonder.

All I can say is these April showers had best yield some slam-bang May flowers!

All kidding aside, I write this after just watching a brilliant video about what's wrong with the way we eat...and how our food choices are killing us and the planet. The speaker was Mark Bittman, food writer for the New York Times and self-proclaimed foodie. He had his own epiphany about food several years ago when he went through a health scare and was introduced to the concept of ‘lifestyle diseases.' Prior to his own crisis, he says he went happily along, eating unconsciously and not giving a thought to the impact his choices were making on his own health...and the planet.