Eat Laugh Love

One of my favorite bestsellers is Eat Pray Love. It's not a classic, and perhaps will never be, but it speaks to the heart of women, and it simply lightens up your mind. I read the book two years ago, and I can still remember the humorous language and the delightful tales along her way of self-searching across the globe. It may seem a little too unrealistic for some people's taste, especially the part where she finds her love in Bali. No one wants to believe in fairytales anymore, come on. But dreams do come true, and you should never stop believing in them and in yourself. And when you find yourself lost in faith, go find it; it's never far away.

I don't pray, I laugh: that's how I keep my faith. I believe in food and love.

Just as sweet as the freh strawberries and pears.

Yes, I have been making desserts these days. One should never stop baking!

With the new iron skillet I bought myself, I decided to finally venture on the Tarte Tatin: a French pie that was originally made with apples, but I replaced them with pears. The pears are cooked in melted butter and caramelized sugar in the skillet till the juice is thick and you cover the pie crust on top then bake it till the crust is golden brown. Once out of the oven, you simply turn it upside down. Everything about Tarte Tatin is delicate and complicated, so needless to say I didn't totally succeed. But it did turn out okay flavor wise; I mean, after all, Chris did manage to eat two slices before our steak dinner with his mother. God only knows why I wanted to stress myself out even more by making such a difficult dessert before meeting my boyfriend's mother for the first time!

Oh La Tarte Tatin! There's still so much to learn in the pastry making and caramelizing process.

I will not be providing the recipes until I feel confident I can make this right.

Baking is science; it really is.

The strawberry shortcake I made two days ago, on the other hand, is not too hard, although to make it perfect, espcially to cut the cake in half evenly, is still out of my league at this point.

If you go to the source of this recipe, If You Give a Girl a Cookie, you will see how different my cake looks from hers. Sometimes it's all about presentation when you can't taste it, isn't it? Although I'm pretty sure her cake would taste better than mine too: I just tend to make my frosting less sweet what can I say.

I burned the iron skillet, my cake layers fell apart when I ate it with a fork, but I've been eating them for breakfast everyday and I laugh at myself and I found love in Chris's non-stop fork movement. And that, is all that matters.