The ruse is over! I actually made pie.

Yes! I finally did it.

My inspiration? The Ratty. What on God's green Earth is that, you ask? It's our affectionate name for our main dining hall here on campus. While having lunch there one day I saw that one of the oversized wicker fruit baskets was overflowing with lovely, plump red  d'Anjou pears.

So I was hit with a brilliant idea, like in one of those Windows 7 commercials: I must make a pie! Then without hesitation, I broke Ratty protocol and took quite a handful (and bagful...) of pears. But I had to, look at them!

Pear pie, c'était mon idée!

Lemon Bars

Lemon bars - the staple of bake sales, church functions and cookie exchanges... unless you're me. Gasp! I know. Several of my friends looked at me with wide eyes when I said I'd never, ever had a lemon bar before making these. Somehow these sweet and tangy treats managed to elude me for 20 years. Luckily, my friend Trent (I swear, I have other friends too.) asked if I could whip some up, thereby ending the two decade drought of lemony goodness.

So I turned to Tastespotting, and again was brought to the perfect recipe by the perfect picture. Smitten Kitchen's reworking of Ina Garten's lemon bars looked and sounded amazing. You should take a look- her pics blow mine out of the water. Granted, I didn't have any powdered sugar on hand to prettify the bars... but her photo skills are still light-years ahead of mine. And beyond all that, she even came up with an option for increasing the "lemoniness" of the bars. Great success. I needed to recreate these to fix this gaping hole in my life.

Hungarian Kuglóf

 kuglóf, kougelhopf, Gugelhupf,  bábovka, babka...

There are many names for this  airy and buttery yeast cake that's swirled with either a chocolate or cinnamon filling, but let's just say that no matter what language you speak, you can call this pastry a little piece of heaven.

Usually known as babka (like in the Seinfeld episode) in the U.S., kuglóf originated in Central and Eastern Europe, and, depending on your baking heritage, can take many slightly different forms. The variety found in America-- often made with a streusel topping--can be very rich, and usually has either a chocolate or a cinnamon (raisin) filling. While I prefer the former by far, my family is divided on the issue. And what a polemical issue it is, given the great social significance of babka:

JERRY: That's the last babka. They got the last babka.

ELAINE: I know. They're going in first with the last babka.

JERRY: That was our babka.

ELAINE: You can't beat a babka.

JERRY: We should have had that babka.

ELAINE: They're going to be heroes.

JERRY: What are we going to do now. If we can't get the babka the whole thing's useless.

ELAINE: Well how about a carrot cake?

JERRY: Carrot cake? Now why is that a cake? You don't make carrots into a cake. I'm sorry.

ELAINE: Black Forest?

JERRY: Black Forest? Too scary. You're in the Forest, oohh. That was our babka. We had that babka!

ELAINE: What's this one?

CLERK: That's cinnamon babka.

JERRY: Another babka?

CLERK: There's chocolate and there's cinnamon.

JERRY: Well, we've got to get the cinnamon.

ELAINE: No, but they got the chocolate. We'll be going in with a lesser babka.

JERRY: I beg your pardon? Cinnamon takes a back seat to no babka. People love cinnamon. It should be on tables at restaurants along with salt and pepper. Anytime anyone says, "Oh This is so good. What's in it?" The answer invariably comes back, Cinnamon. Cinnamon. Again and again. Lesser babka - I think not.
(Thanks, Seinfeld Scripts)