Friday Favorites from Cafe Sucre Farine, The Recipe Runner, Taste, Country Cleaver and More.

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Good morning, a very happy Friday to you. Thank you again for all of your emails, and comments about the passing of my father-in-law and the health of my mother-in-law, your thoughts, prayers and comments have uplifted our spirits this week. I hope that you enjoy my favorites from this week. 

Food

Image Cafe Sucre Farine

This Honey Lime Chicken from Cafe Sucre Farine looks easy and delicious! 

Image The REcipe Runner

Peaches are in season and while I typically like to eat them by themselves I may try this Chicken Peach Ricotta Pizza with Balsamic Glaze.

Doesn’t this Gypsy Passion Tea Lemonadefrom Country Cleaver look refreshing?

Chocolate Filled Cherry Cake with Chocolate Covered Cherries is a great way to use up some of your summer cherries if you buy to many, as I often do. 

Articles

If you are a Grey Gardens fan than you might be interested in this article about the “New” Grey Gardens.

The Best Cookbooks of this Century, so far.

Collective Sweat, The Future of Fitness.

What Happens to Your Brain When You Eat Junk Food. 

Giving Yourself Permission to Cook REgular Food.

Looking for Cookies in All the Wrong Places.

Books

These are the books that I read the past two weeks.

The Sakura Obsession

The incredible—and improbable—story of how an English eccentric saved Japan’s beloved cherry blossoms from extinction.

Collingwood Ingram—known as “Cherry” for his defining passion—was born in 1880 and lived until he was a hundred, witnessing a fraught century of conflict and change. Visiting Japan in 1902 and again in 1907, he fell in love with the country’s distinctive cherry blossoms, or sakura, and brought back hundreds of cuttings with him to England, where he created a garden of cherry varieties.

On a 1926 trip to Japan to search for new specimens, Ingram was shocked to find a dramatic decline in local cherry diversity. A cloned variety was taking over the landscape and becoming the symbol of Japan’s expansionist ambitions, while the rare and spectacular Taihaku, or “Great White Cherry,” had disappeared entirely. 

But thousands of miles away, at Ingram’s country estate, the Taihaku still prospered. After returning to Britain, the amateur botanist buried a living cutting from his own collection into a potato and repatriated it to Japan via the Trans-Siberian Express. Over the decades that followed, Ingram became one of the world’s leading cherry experts and shared the joy of sakura both nationally and internationally, sending more than a hundred varieties of cherry tree to new homes around the globe, from Auckland, New Zealand to Washington, D.C.

As much a history of the cherry blossom in Japan as it is the story of one remarkable man, The Sakura Obsession follows the flower from its significance as a symbol of the imperial court, through the dark days of the Second World War, and up to the present-day worldwide fascination with this iconic blossom.

Wunderland 

East Village, 1989

Things had never been easy between Ava Fisher and her estranged mother Ilse. Too many questions hovered between them: Who was Ava’s father? Where had Ilse been during the war? Why had she left her only child in a German orphanage during the war’s final months? But now Ilse’s ashes have arrived from Germany, and with them, a trove of unsent letters addressed to someone else unknown to Ava: Renate Bauer, a childhood friend. As her mother’s letters unfurl a dark past, Ava spirals deep into the shocking history of a woman she never truly knew. 

Berlin, 1933

As the Nazi party tightens its grip on the city, Ilse and Renate find their friendship under siege—and Ilse’s increasing involvement in the Hitler Youth movement leaves them on opposing sides of the gathering storm. Then the Nuremburg Laws force Renate to confront a long-buried past, and a catastrophic betrayal is set in motion. . . . 

An unflinching exploration of Nazi Germany and its legacy, Wunderland is at once a powerful portrait of an unspeakable crime history and a page-turning contemplation of womanhood, wartime, and just how far we might go in order to belong. 

Roar 

In this singular and imaginative story collection, Cecelia Ahern explores the endless ways in which women blaze through adversity with wit, resourcefulness, and compassion. Ahern takes the familiar aspects of women’s lives–the routines, the embarrassments, the desires–and elevates these moments to the outlandish and hilarious with her astute blend of magical realism and social insight.

One woman is tortured by sinister bite marks that appear on her skin; another is swallowed up by the floor during a mortifying presentation; yet another resolves to return and exchange her boring husband at the store where she originally acquired him. The women at the center of this curious universe learn that their reality is shaped not only by how others perceive them, but also how they perceive the power within themselves. 

By turns sly, whimsical, and affecting, these thirty short stories are a dynamic examination of what it means to be a woman in this very moment. Like women themselves, each story can stand alone; yet together, they have a combined power to shift consciousness, inspire others, and create a multi-voiced ROAR that will not be ignored. 

The Longevity Paradox 

From the moment we are born, our cells begin to age. But aging does not have to mean decline. World-renowned surgeon Dr. Steven Gundry has been treating mature patients for most of his career. He knows that everyone thinks they want to live forever, until they hit middle age and witness the suffering of their parents and even their peers. So how do we solve the paradox of wanting to live to a ripe old age—but enjoy the benefits of youth?

This groundbreaking book holds the answer. Working with thousands of patients, Dr. Gundry has discovered that the “diseases of aging” we most fear are not simply a function of age; rather, they are a byproduct of the way we have lived over the decades. In The Longevity Paradox, he maps out a new approach to aging well—one that is based on supporting the health of the “oldest” parts of us: the microorganisms that live within our bodies.

Our gut bugs—the bacteria that make up the microbiome—largely determine our health over the years. From diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s to common ailments like arthritis to our weight and the appearance of our skin, these bugs are in the driver’s seat, controlling our quality of life as we age.

The good news is, it’s never too late to support these microbes and give them what they need to help them—and you—thrive. In The Longevity Paradox, Dr. Gundry outlines a nutrition and lifestyle plan to support gut health and live well for decades to come. A progressive take on the new science of aging, The Longevity Paradox offers an action plan to prevent and reverse disease as well as simple hacks to help anyone look and feel younger and more vital.

Bake It and Mean It

Gesine Bullock-Prado says it’s what’s inside that really counts, and in this visually sumptuous book, the author of Sugar Baby and Pie It Forward showcases cakes that are beautiful from the inside out. Each chapter is devoted to a technique of making different types of cake, beginning with the easiest recipe and moving to more technically difficult as the chapters progress. When the cakes are cut, they will reveal intricate layers of patterns and designs—such as hearts, checkerboards, helixes, and colorful stripes—that will bring a smile to everyone who enjoys them. This compendium of gorgeous cake recipes and techniques will yield glorious meringues, sponge cakes, pound cakes, cheesecakes, and tarts for all levels of bakers. With her trademark wit and enthusiasm for the world of confections and baking, Bullock-Prado’s latest book will delight her fans.

Carrier and Company Positively Chic Interiors

Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller, the principals of Carrier and Company Interiors, create rooms that are a confident mix of timeless and contemporary design—familiar and fresh at once. Always refined and sophisticated, the Carriers’ rooms often feature subtle patterns and neutral palettes punctuated by bursts of exuberance and unexpected mixes of high and low, old and new. Whether decorating a sprawling country house or a Tribeca loft, a winter home in Florida or an apartment in a converted New York printing house, the Carriers connect people with place and combine their tailored, carefully edited approach with the clients’ collections, taste, and personality, creating exquisitely detailed yet comfortable and personalized spaces. This beautifully illustrated new book shows why the Carriers are the designers of choice for so many of the country’s most discriminating arbiters of taste.

Finds

I love Soludos espadrilles and just got this pair this week. 

juice glasses

I just purchased these glasses from Anthropologie, I love the illustrations and think they make the perfect glass for juice or a small cocktail. I did get mine on sale for 25% off.

A friend gave me this mug because she knows that I love donuts. You can get one for the donut lover in your life at Target.

I know that many blogs this week featured their Nordstrom Anniversary sale picks, these are the three things that I purchased,  a pair of Melissa Frye Boots,  a pair of Leopard Mules and Chuck Taylors Sneakers.

I hope that you share your favorite books, recipes, articles, podcasts and more form tis week.

Have a great weekend.