One of the best gifts (they were all fantastic and thoughtful) I received this Christmas was The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook – Sweetness in Seattle the latest 2012 tome by Tom Douglas. My Seattle connection, aka J and M, were kind enough to lug the volume (with 125 recipes and a bounty of pictures) home for me.

I have over 300 cookbooks and have read them all. From cover to cover.  In fact, I am an incessant and varied reader. I am not fast, but I am extensive and have a wide range of interests, that I take seriously at one time or another and love to delve into deeply.

As you know from past posts, I have been everything from low-carb to gourmet to vegetarian to basic to raw to vegan and the one important belief I have held on to is that it should be organic and of course, delicious.

The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook  is about the sinful.  It is decadent and I am salivating as I write.  The scrumptious prizewinning pecan brownie recipe is here!! Famous “Nora Ephron” peanut butter sandwich cookies!  English muffin sammies filled with savory fixings, sweet notes, tips, photos and a well- written introduction!!!Heaven! Crostatas, cookies, cakes, cupcakes and creams!  Help!

There’s a recipe from the book I will be adapting because I am thinking of bringing it to our annual New Year’s Eve soiree at my sister’s. We can all start watching our waistlines the next day.  The original recipe calls for the addition of bananas but not everyone likes them so it is suggested I omit them.  It also calls for homemade pralines but I will use my gift of roasted sugared pecans from Seattle.  Pralines/pecans can be purchased at Trader Jo’s most of the year. This Maple Cream Pie calls for a pre-baked pecan pastry shell filled with Maple Pastry Cream and then topped with more fresh cream and sprinkled with Caramelized Pecans.

Undoubtedly my daughter the baker/chef will try a few of these recipes while she is home from college.  I guess I need to wait till after she leaves to detox.