I wish...

I wish I was as good at woodworking as baking. In the last two weeks, I've made French butter pastries, Far Breton, cheesecake (twice), sauerkraut cake, blueberry muffins, and cream cheese tarts. Let's not even start with the regular cooking (chateaubriand, anyone?).

That is a 100% crack-free almond cheesecake. For the bakers out there, we all know how hard it is to make one without even a little crack somewhere.

My tart crust didn't stretch out quite enough for six tarts, so one was a little rough looking. I always pull the worst out of a batch of whatever I'm making for myself. The rest I try and pawn off on friends and neighbors. Which is getting harder to do, because everyone's going all vegan or gluten free. I wish I knew what that was all about. I live to eat, not the other way around!

So, why am I showing you baking pictures? To show off, of course. I like to think I'm pretty good.

On a more woodworking oriented note, after weeks without working on anything I decided I needed to practice some dovetailing...

Not too shabby. For me, it's pretty good, actually.

Anyway, hope everyone has the new year off to a good start. It was nice and sunny today, and I managed to beat the flu a few days ago. Two weeks off of work probably doesn't hurt either!