ABC: Raspberry-Almond Braided Bread

Hello ABC-er! I'm sorry I've been so absent lately. I actually made the Blueberry Hand Pies last month but never got around to processing the photos and posting! I will add the photos to my next ABC post.

For this bread, the recipe yield 2 breads and they looked huge! So I made 1/2. I was so excited about it. It looked and sounded so good and I figured I could use my stash of homemade lemon curd that I made earlier this year. Except, the lemon curd had turned bad. The top part has turned brown and the consistency is more like lemon butter. Also, the lemon smell is totally gone. So I had to throw it away. Sniff sniff....

I didn't feel like going to the store just to get lemon curd, so I improvised. I cooked a couple of handfuls of frozen raspberries with some sugar. I didn't measure any of them, just sort of eye-balled it.

Golden Cola Syrup

I had this idea that I want to try making homemade soda. I don't drink soda on a regular basis but every now and then I have a craving so I'd have a glass of coke/pepsi or buy one of those fancier and "supposedly" healthier soda from fancy grocery stores.

So I borrowed The Artisan Soda Workshop and Homemade Soda from the library. Flipping through both cookbooks, I opted to try the Golden Cola Syrup from Homemade Soda.

Open-Faced Designer Apple Pie

Man, I have been slacking lately! Has it really been over a month since my latest post?

I am having a writer's block. I have several draft posts pending. They are populated with the photos. All I need is the words. But that's the problem. The words. I don't know what to write and don't feel like writing. Today I saw a post on The Kitchn on a new cookbook, Plum. The few pictures there look so yummy and makes me want to eat and take pictures and heck, I remember I haven't blogged for a while (do you follow the train of thought there? :)). So here is a new post - sort of.

I made this yummy pie back in February (!) for a potluck at a friend's house. The recipe is from The Pie & Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I bake a lot from Rose's recipes. Her books are my go-to recipe. Not because they are easy. In fact, Rose's recipes usually requires extra step, more time, and more dishes - sometime of them produce a lot of dishes. I go to Rose because her recipes are stellar in taste and very detailed in instruction.