Kitchen Sink Links {5}

This Saturday food blogger across the country will be joining forces (selling sweets) to raise money for Share Our Strength. I've been making goodies for the Atlanta event, which will be at Cook's Warehouse Ansley Mall location from 9 am to 1 pm. Check here to see if there's a sale in your city.

If you can't make the sale, consider making a donation online here.

I also decided to give up sugar for a week (great timing, right?).  I have a pretty serious sweet tooth, which seems to have taken a turn for the worst. My body (and my palate) need a little break from sweetness to recover and reset.

But, of course, I can (and do) dream about sweet things all day long, right? So here are a few things I'm lusting for:

Joy's Coffee Coffee Cake Muffins . I've been craving streusel lately (totally normal huh?) and the combo of vanilla and espresso is righteous. Bookmarking these guys for Mother's Day brunch.

I'm so in love with Ashley's words on the seasons of life. We are in a planting and weeding season right now and I'm trying to be present in that, which is always a challenge for me. Her Rhubarb Mojito will probably help though.

Megan makes a mean goat's milk caramel, I mean Cajeta.

I just subscribed to Remedy Quarterly and the back issues arrived this week. I'm so excited to dig in!

Love this info-graphic from Grist (via Good) and this twitter, PicturelessPins!

Wishing you a very sweet weekend!

Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes

Who doesn't love strawberry shortcake? You've probably had every incarnation under the sun of this dessert - with true shortcakes, with sponge cake, maybe even with pound cake. But have you ever had it with chocolate biscuits? 

Vanilla Roasted Strawberries

Keep it simple. That's what spring and summer cooking is for. Little ripe berries don't need a lot of fuss, so I won't muck them up with word upon words. Here are the only two things I feel compelled to say:

Heaven must smell like roasted strawberries. 

And roasting berries is pretty much like making instant sauce with absolutely no work. 

Kitchen Sink Links {4}

The internet is so crowded! I think I read that on Twitter, but, geeze, it sure felt crowded this week!

Instagram got bought for one billion dollars. 

The Department of Justice is suing Apple and publishers over e-books

Hillary Clinton is Texting Everybody

I know, I know, none of that is really food related but there's also turkey dome and a butter-dish shoe.

What was good on the webernet this week?
Amanda Hesser's Advice to Aspiring Food Writers  is solid.

Inside the Matzo Factory  is interesting.

There Will Be Cookies  is sweet and touching.

Frank Burni's piece on Craig Claiborne via the NYT is charming.

I think I'm staying away from the internet this weekend, but I'll miss you.

Have a fun Friday!

p.s. There is still a book to be won. 

{Cook the Book}: Marshmallow Madness

{I'm so excited to finally be sharing a regular feature I've been wanting to create for months - welcome to 'Cook the Book'! Each month I'll be feature a favorite new (or classic) cookbook and giving a copy away! I've created a pinterest board of my favorites - feel free to follow along.}

Shauna Sever was quite right to open her new book Marshmallow Madness!: Dozens of Puffalicious Recipes with an antidote about folk's disbelief that a marshmallow is something anyone can make. The day her book arrived my brother actually declared: "You can't make marshmallows!", this led to a deep discuss about how really, you can make or grow all edibles, if your just willing to try.

Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs

Pimento cheese is my hero, but you already knew that. I don't like deviled eggs which might surprise y'all given how much I love an egg in any form.  The textures and flavors are always weird to me - I'd rather just have a hard cooked egg.

Baked Eggs

Easter is my favorite holiday.

It has nothing to do with the sweet pastels and welcoming of spring, I'm in it for the chocolate bunnies and the jelly beans. Oh, and I absolutely love eggs!

Somehow I almost completely forgot about Easter this year. I'd been doodling ideas of bringing you eggs dyed with kitchen staples, but alas, here we are on the eve of Easter weekend and I am without dyed eggs.

Maybe you are too? That's awesome! Because it gives us a chance to celebrate the egg for being perfectly beautiful without some silly dye. There's less mess! And we don't have to buy one of those egg dyeing kits or spend hours cooking down beets for naturally dyed eggs.

Thirsty Thursday | Meyer Lemon Mojito

Spring has come and gone in the South. No, really, we seemed to have bypassed winter and spring entirely and gone straight from fall to full on summer. Highs in the eighties, massive pollen, and thunder storms all before Easter.

This doesn't mean we should neglect the lovely edibles that brighten winter into spring: asparagus, ramps, strawberries, and sunny citrus. Oranges, clementines, lemons, and kumquats are all enjoying the would-be-spring at my house.

I first discovered Meyer lemons while baking at Colombia City Bakery, my first internship in culinary school. We whipped the juice into curd for filling danishes and tiny tarts. A Meyer lemon, supposedly a hybrid of a Eureka lemon and a mandarin, has a sweeter, more mellow juice than a lemon. Their thin fragrant skin has a slight orange tint and is lovely for zesting and saving for syrups or salad dressings. These little gems of the citrus family have a short season and are worth the extra money if you can get your hand on them.

I bought a few over the weekend in hopes of turning them into curd, but the days got away from me. Last night, we put a few to use in one of our favorite spring cocktail: the mojito. A lovely muddle of mint, sugar and citrus mixed with rum and a little seltzer, these Meyer lemon Mojitos are sweeter than their lime counterparts.

Meyer Lemon Mojito 

makes 1 lovely beverage

3 fresh mint leaves
1 Meyer lemon, juiced 

1 ounce muscovado simple syrup (see below)

1 1/2 ounces dark rum 

ice

soda water 

Put the mint leaves in a old fashioned glass and gently muddle (a muddle works well, but a mortar or even a wooden spoon will too) - you want to bruise the mint and release some of its oils, but not smash to smithereens. As soon as the kitchen smells like mint, stop. Add a handful of ice, the Meyer lemon juice, simple syrup and rum and stir to combine. Top with soda water and enjoy.

Muscovado Simple Syrup: Combine 2/3 cup muscovado sugar with 2/3 cup water and bring to a simmer, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Cool before using. Dark brown sugar can easily be substituted.

For More Fun with Meyer Lemons, check out:

Meyer Lemon Donut Holes at Matchbook Kitchen 

Meyer Lemon Vodka, Oh, makes me want want to make Meyer Limoncello!

Meyer Lemon Aioli {with Green Bean Fries!}