a sweet party!

My professional pastry students at Tante Marie's Cooking School are half way through their six month course, so it was time to celebrate with a party!

They created a buffet of sweets, invited their families and friends, and showed off their talents!

Above, a mini hazelnut cupcake with caramel buttercream and a spun sugar garnish. At right, a delicious cookie plate with cornmeal, currant and rosemary cookies, linzer cookies and whole wheat cocoa nib sables.

Everyone loved the coconut frangipane petits four (above) and the raspberry ganache tartlets.

Porcelain spoons with a luscious bite of passion fruit bavarian, white chocolate mousse and chocolate mousse!

Little buttermilk cupcakes with sugared flowers were beautiful....

Mini pavlovas in two flavors. The chocolate pavlova with ginger cream and cherries was a big hit.

There were miniature choux treats, like the Gateau Paris-Brest above,

gorgeous lemon and passion fruit meringue tartlets, and TKOs (Thomas Keller Oreos) and meyer lemon sandwich cookies that I wanted to slip into my purse for a midnight snack!

The students have a two-week vacation (hope they're practicing!) then it's on to laminated doughs!

earth mother

It could be the perfect June day... when I get to go out to my tiny garden and plant lemon verbena.

I had the best tea of my life after a dinner party of cooking teachers at Mary Risley's home in San Francisco. Someone went into Mary's awe-inspiring garden, plucked a handful of lemon verbena leaves, put them in a clear glass teapot and added boiling water. The bright green leaves floating in the water and the herbal, lemony scent and flavor of that tea were memorable!

Or try this amazing ice cream....

Lemon Verbena Ice Cream

2 cups cream

2 cups milk

1vanilla bean, halved and scraped

30 lemon verbena leaves, chopped
10 egg yolks (you can use fewer for a less rich ice cream)

1 cup sugar

Heat the cream, milk, vanilla bean and lemon verbena leaves. Let this mixture steep for about 2 hours, or until you love the flavor. Reheat until hot.

In a separate bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar until well blended. Temper the eggs by whisking some of the hot cream into them, then pour the mixture back into the pot.

Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Don't boil or let it reach over 180F. Strain into a container and chill until cold.

Pour into ice cream freezer and freeze.

It's so effortless to grow herbs, and takes so little space. A tiny plot in your backyard, a sunny pot on a deck....they are very forgiving. It's so lovely to leave the world of technology and pick a handful of your very own herbs for a delicious salsa verde to drizzle over the grilled chicken for dinner. It's a connection to the earth that we can all have.