Good Things by David

One of the nice things about crafting decorated sugar cookies is thinking about how the recipient is going to react when they behold their treats.  Whether I'm creating cookies for a friend, a family member or for customers, I like to know what colors people like, what shapes they adore and what will make them smile if given one or two of my cookies.  It's all about designing the right mood and look.   A dear neighbor of mine whose daughter is going to be two years old this week, asked if I would make her some acorn cookies to celebrate.  What you must understand is that little Lillian has a fascination with acorns.  Most mornings, you will find her coming into the cafe with a small bucket of them that she's collected on her walk with her mother.  Naturally, a few acorn sugar cookies seemed to be the right thing for her second birthday.  For this birthday project, I knew which cookie cutters I wanted to use.  A set of graduated acor...

It doesn't take much to make whimsical and adorable sugar cookies for Halloween.  With a few cookie cutters, a reliable sugar cookie dough recipe and some tinted royal icing, your Halloween treats will be the talk of the town as soon as neighbors get wind of them.  It's a guarantee that these will fly off the racks and into loot pails in no time. For the people around town, I looked to a variation of a cookie that I made for my niece and nephew last year, and I made another variation of a ghost cookie that my friend Janet created several years ago.  Chubby pumpkins with smiley faces, some trick-o-treater ghosts that are very cute, and a few spiderwebs with creepy spiders, are what I made for my neighbors this year. Take a look at the easy patterns and make some in the next few days for your Halloween party or for the trick-or-treaters in your neighborhood.  Everyone is going to want one or two of these sugar cookies. The royal icing colors are: pumpk...

Lingonberries, also known as mountain cranberries, cowberries and partridgeberries, are small red fruits native to Scandinavian countries, areas of Canada and in parts of Alaska.  Recognized for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, these tiny berries grow wild on an evergreen bush called Vaccinium vitis-idaea , a member of the heath family.  At first glance they are very reminiscent of cranberries, and yet, they are less tart, a bit more delicate in aroma and infinitely edible.   I had the pleasure of using wild lingonberries (I used frozen) a few days ago to make an upside down cake for a gathering at a neighbor's house.  The results were well worth the effort of tracking down wild lingonberries.   Click here to buy the exact berries that I used from Northwest Wild Foods.   For the recipe itself, I turned to the trusted experts at King Arthur Flour.  Their Harvest Apple Cranberry Cake looked like the perfect base to use...

The trees this year have taken their sweet time turning, but I'll have whatever they give us because it's my favorite season.  For some reason the Beech trees seem to be some of the most beautiful specimens around the property.  Tall, healthy and long-lived, each tree is absolutely perfect.  The landscape would be incomplete without them.     I was having a long discussion with a loved one about old-growth trees and how vital they are to the ecosystem.  We recently noticed that a couple of neighbors have had the impudence to cut down such trees on their properties, much to our horror.  There is nothing worse than seeing large healthy trees being cut down, and left sitting in great, big heaps waiting to be chipped.  I can't think of any good reason, other than having a diseased or dead tree, to remove an old-growth tree just to tear down a home and perhaps erect a larger "stately" home.  It's extremely unsightly.  Alas, not eve...

This year's Thanksgiving table has so much of what I love, and I'd like to take a moment to share it with you.  After recently finding some wonderful transferware that I knew I'd want to use for this year's holiday table, I then decided to add some items from my collections of glassware, flatware and vintage linens.  The results are very autumnal, festive and, to my mind, beautiful.  Here is where I'll be sitting this afternoon to feast on roast turkey, butternut squash soup and several tempting sides. I knew the moment I laid my eyes on this vintage Spode pattern that it would be perfect for Thanksgiving.  I love the creaminess of the shapely plates which have a brown and burnt-orange transferware motif.   The caramel glass pumpkin dish was made for Martha by Mail, by the L.E. Smith Glass Company back in the 1990s.  These vessels are just the thing to use for savory butternut squash soup. I can't honestly remember when I purchase...

Let's not lose sight of the little things that make our lives better, the things give us comfort and the people that make us happy.  There is always something to be grateful for no matter how small, and this year is no different.   I would like to wish every single one of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. May you be surrounded by loved ones this holiday!

You wouldn't know it from the warm weather we're having at the moment, but Fall is certainly here.  Everywhere I look there are warm browns, yellows, shades of orange and dark crimson tones.  Yes, autumn is here and if the weather behaves, the deciduous trees promise to give us a splendid show of color. I took a few photographs this past afternoon so that you could see the hints of autumn we're experiencing in our area.  Although I did not do a long photo shoot, because I was on a lunch break, I did capture what I think are the best views around our home. The photo of our group of beech trees was taken from the second floor of the center hall.  If the time is right and the weather has been kind to the trees, I literally gasp the first time I notice the splendor of that giant beech that is front and center.  So many leaves fall from this area that our driveway is completely covered for days.  Someone is going to be busy clearing them next week. ...