Singer-songwriter (and former OGC holiday employee) Risa Binder has two loves: music and sweets.  When she approached us about shooting a video for a song off her new album "Paper Heart" here at our Cobble Hill shop, we were happy to oblige!  Check out this acoustic performance of "You Made It Rain"... a great song for a rainy May day.

http://risabinder.com/

As I entered our walk in refrigerator this morning to stow away my lunch (leftover lentil soup with chicory, for those who are interested). I was met with the most glorious site.

We just received our first box of farm fresh rhubarb. This makes me happy for two reasons. First, it has restored my hope that spring has not abandoned us. Second, look at how gosh darn pretty it is! Those ruby red stalks, with the perfect little leafy fringe wrapped in paper that is coincidentally (or not)< One Girl Cookies aqua blue. I couldn't have styled this better.

You may wonder what sort of delicious treat we will transform this rhubarb into.  Strawberry rhubarb hand pies, anyone? Oh yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. A little fruit filled pie that you can hold in your hand and savor as you walk through the lovely streets of Cobble Hill or Dumbo. Your mind may take you to the place of the golden arches and their famous apple pie. Quite similar, yet a world away. I am pretty sure that clown is not filling his hand pies with the likes of rhubarb. Available this weekend at both OGC locations.

I am a pescatarian. That sounds oddly like some sort of admission, but I rarely need to make apologies for the food choices I’ve made. Most often, eating fish, but not meat,doesn't pose a problem when I am a guest at either someone’s home or restaurant. I’m pretty easy to please otherwise and have found that this lifestyle has served me well for the past 15 years or so. Sure, I miss certain things, but I am not so strict about my non-meat eating that I won’t have a bite of something that looks really appealing to me. That something usually takes the form of prosciutto or sopressata or some other cured pork product.

The point is, that I am pretty relaxed about all of it, so when the discussion of whether or not Dave and I would let Nate eat meat came up, it was an open topic. The final decision was that it was okay, but not in abundance and always (okay, more realistically, almost always), friendly meat. You know what I mean. Farmed, organic, humane and all of those other terms that refer to meat coming from animals that have been treated well.

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A couple of weeks ago, it seemed as though Old Man Winter had dug in his heels and had no intentions of going anywhere. Cabin fever was running rampant in our house. I found myself dreaming up interesting activities for an almost three year old every Friday (the day Nate doesn’t have school). These activities typically involve a big mess to clean up after the fact and this was no exception. I decided that we would bake muffins and since Nate enjoys our baking adventures so much, I didn’t much care about the messy aftermath.

The point of this post, actually, was to share the recipe with you because we made some darn good muffins. I found a recipe for pumpkin muffins (on one of my fave sites, Smitten Kitchen) and then made it my own. First off, the pumpkin fell by the wayside because I had some leftover squash puree that I wanted to use. I reduced the amount of sugar because Lord knows that last thing my kid needs is more of that (his parents own a bakery, for crying out loud). Then, because my newest obsession is whole grain flours, I replaced the all purpose with a mix of amaranth, whole wheat and spelt flours (plus, I threw it some oat bran, because who couldn’t use more fiber in their life?) All of these healthy measures were actually to make me feel better about the fact that I added in some chocolate chips.

If a testimonial from a three year old means anything to you, Nate ate three, warm from the oven.

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And I am so thankful that you are virtuous people! We've had some little techie difficulties with this here blog, so our apologies. But now we are back in the saddle and ready to share all of our thoughts and goings on! Stay tuned!

I have often told the fig cookie story to our One Girl fans. I speak about it on our site, in our forthcoming book and to lots of people in the shop. That is because it's a special story and one of my favorites. If you've heard it before, I hope you'll indulge me. If not, grab a fig newton (a fig cookie stand in until our book comes out and you can actually make them yourself) and sit down for story time.

Each year, for as long as I can remember, on a Saturday shortly after Thanksgiving, all of the ladies in my family get together for the annual fig cookie bake off. It happens only once a year and is no small feat. It requires hours of preparation, weeks ahead of time, including the grinding of the figs and the mixing of the dough (for which we used 28 lbs of flour this year!). On "the day" we spend hours forming, filling, cutting and baking mounds of these fig filled, chocolate & orange studded gems.

This year, the fig fest took place on November 27 and here is a glimpse into the whole thing (yes, those are razor blades):

Here's how it goes down: my mom and Aunt Tina, the "Fig Matriarchs" are committed to getting the younger generation to learn how to make the perfect fig cookie so they watch our children and prepare our lunch so that we can get as much practice as possible. The rolling and filling are not the issue, but instead, cutting the intricate designs with a razor blade (don't ask who came up with that idea). After years of doing this, under the watchful eyes of "The Matriarchs" ours do not look nearly as lovely as theirs. Each year, improvements are made, but I fear we will never quite get there.

In the end, it doesn't much matter because isn't it true that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder?

Hello World!

Please meet our blog. I'll admit that, initially, I wasn't so excited about doing one. I figured it would be a whole lot of work and I wasn't sure what fascinating things I could tell people that  they didn't already know. But now, watch out! I've got the fever and I just might type until my fingers fall off. This is the place to find out what we're excited about, what's going on at One Girl and just some sweet musings for fun. Among other things, Dave will share his culinary experiments, Francina will share stories about her monthly baking classes, and Rebecca will enlighten you with wedding trends & tips. .

We hope to see lots of you!