By now perhaps you're starting to realize that I get passionately obsessed about things. Yes, certainly things happening in my kitchen.  That's a given.  However , what you may not know is that I'm also obsessed with my garden.  And, just like in the kitchen, I'm a completely (well, almost completely) self-taught gardener.  I must acknowledge, however,  that my mother took great pains in teaching me how to properly prune roses, always on President's day.

This week I've been spending lots of time outside the window of my kitchen in my garden and am particularly pleased with my peonies which are just starting to bloom.

I'm always on the lookout for something new to grace my grandmother's cookie tin.  Said cookie's starring role in Jeff's lunch sack every day means it needs to be tasty and portable too. I struck the mother lode the other day when I stumbled upon this great recipe in theGourmet Cookbook edited by Ruth Reichl in 2004.  I'm very much inclined to try things I find in this estimable yellow tome--because I miss Gourmet, because I'm a Ruth Reichl fan and because seldom does it steer me wrong.