Alexandra makes Rhubarb Jam and Rhubarb Ice Cream.

Alexandra does English Muffins with Strawberry Jam. Course she makes them both from scratch cause that’s how she rolls.

Alexandra gives Lemon Ricotta Pound Cake for Mother’s Day.

Hungry Ghost Food + Travel gives a winter citrus coffee cake.

Because you can’t get enough of a good thing. Thank you, Noel Barnhurst.

Alexandra’s big apple pancake. Drool.

Serious about breakfast.

Saturday morning I’m in a dentist office on the east side flipping through the pages of New York Magazine when I see a blurb on Maison Kayser a newly-opened bakery on the Upper East Side. It is the 80th location of the bakery worldwide but the first in the States. So when I finished the appointment I paid a visit, bought a baguette, a sugar brioche, and a pain au chocolat. They were all wonderful so I went back yesterday with my sister and The Wife for brunch.

My sister, whose been to Paris many times, walked in and said, “It smells right.”

We were in heaven. Maison Keyser is a bakery and a sit down restaurant. They are still getting their bearings in terms of service but nothing was egregiously bad and here’s the beauty part…I recognized a blond haired woman from the day before. She’d been working behind the cash register in the bakery, was friendly and had an open face.  Her name is Marine. I introduced her to my sister and The Wife and she asked us if we’d tried the white chocolate brioche (I think it’s called a Vin Blanc, but I could be wrong). We had not and she brought us one and explained that it is from Lyon, where she is from, a combination of a baguette and brioche.

We flipped over it and for $4.95 it might be one of the best greatest values bite-for-bite in the city. We wouldn’t have tried it if Marine didn’t offer us a sample. Eric Kayser’s breads and pastries are reason enough to trek over to the east side but he’s  fortunate to have someone like Marine working for him. She took great pride in their food and was eager to share it.  It’s that kind of care, warmth, and attentiveness that will keep us coming back.

Serious Eats gives us Pearl Sugar Brioche Buns.

[Photo Credit: Carrie Vasios]

Doughnuts and fried chicken. Three to One goes to Philly and brings us joy.

[Photo Credit: Jason Varney]

Sometimes, simple is good.

[Photo Credit: A Spoon Full of Sugar]

Check out this basil pear cake over at Hungry Ghost Food+Travel.

Thanks for the French food pern, Davey Dave.

Yeah, I know it’s Monday but who says we can’t have waffles today? Check out this recipe for sour cream waffles over at the tasty site, 101 Cookbooks.

Serious Eats shows us how to make something good and delicious.

In 1974, when I was three years old, my grandparents returned from a trip to Florida with a gift for my mother and my aunt. They carried it in a box, a few small branches of an orange tree. My aunt planted hers and it died immediately but mom, who has a way with plants and flowers, potted the branch and it  grew into a small bush. For years, it didn’t produce any fruit. Then, a few, small yellowish oranges appeared, too sour to eat.

Still, mom brought the orange tree with us when we left Manhattan and it survived a divorce, a new marriage, and five homes.

In a recent e-mail, she explained:

I had close-to-death encounters with this one: once going on vacation and finding it all dried up, I put a plastic tent over it and misted it to bring it back to life. Another time one of the cats peed in the dirt and nearly killed it. I had to wash the roots and repot the tree. I kept my fingers crossed on that one, I can tell you. Before we left Croton, a bug infestation, the tree got covered with scales. I hand picked the bugs and spay each leave on the top and on the bottom…

The tree survived and then flourished once mom moved up to Vermont two years ago.

I never knew you could eat the fruits. Then in a catalog recently, I read that a calamondin is a cross between a clementine and a kumquat.

This fall, as by conspiracy, the tree was covered with the biggest fruits ever. (The Vermont air and the Vermont compost…) So I decided to try to make marmalade. I added an orange to brake down the tartness of the calamondin, and bingo. Delicious, tart but nor sour, clementine-parfumed marmalade. The natural pectin in the fruit worked like a charm. All I needed was sugar and cute little pots.

She needed more than that. Patience, devotion, love. Mom’s got it. Got it in spades. It took close to forty years but she never gave up on her little plant, and I can’t wait to taste the marmalade.

There are few things in this world that I love more than quality prosciutto and a good croissant is something to savor.  Yes, please.

Awww, bacon, via Three to One.

You can now get Speculoos here in the States. It’s called Biscoff spread. Gread news for us Belgian-minded Americans. Now, the questions is: Speculoos or Nutella? Aw, hell, why not one of each?

Then again, some of the most delicious crap, won’t.