Best Ever Caramel Sauce

Brace yourself for insurmountable amounts of wit, y'all. I started a Twitter yesterday. Or is the proper lingo "I'm on Twitter"? I'm Twittering? Tweeting? I'm still not sure, but whatever you call it, it's happening. Hashtags and @s will abound outside of my normal Instagram comfort-zone.

It was a mildly horrifying moment, realizing I had no idea how Twitter actually worked. How long has Twitter been a thing anyway?

Ok, just wikipediaed that--6 years. What the hell. I'm still trying to figure out the source of my aversion to social media. I am overcoming it though, one step at a time. First Pinterest, then Instagram, now Twitter. Things are happening. For real.

On a related note, this caramel. This caramel is happening on some vanilla ice cream on its way to my belly right now. #breakfastfood (see what I did there?).

This really might be the best caramel ever. Scratch that. It is the best caramel ever. And so easy too! You know what else I think should happen with this caramel? Pretzels. Good. Nilla wafers. So good. Peanut butter pie. Unreal!

Mini Lemon Scented Strawberry Rhubarb Buckles

I remember the first time my mum made rhubarb crisp when I was kid. I stood in the kitchen watching her sprinkle butter and sugar over top of the rhubarb, thinking, "Uh, I'm pretty sure she's putting celery in my dessert. Gross." Oh how wrong that child was.

My mum is one of those weirdos (albeit a beautiful one) who doesn't like strawberries (or raspberries or coconut or pineapple...), so I never had the heavenly combination of rhubarb and strawberry until much later in life. And well, the two were pretty much meant to be together.

I had been itching to bake something with rhubarb, so when I finally found some good strawberries at the farmer's market (they've been a little rusty this season), I knew something delicious was about to happen. I wanted a self-contained pastry, but I didn't want a muffin or a tart. So these mini buckles were born. They're probably not buckles in the strictest sense of the term, what with the shortbread like dough that makes up the bottom and sides. In any case, they might be some of the most delicious baked fruit desserts I've made. Truth.

Sweet Steps

Not too long ago, I acquired a truly massive pastry book. Did you know that pound cake was traditionally made with one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour? You probably knew that, but I think that's pretty cool. Other things I've received lately: a ton of encouragement from some of the lovely people around me and a true understanding that I love something and might also be pretty good at it.

So naturally, here we are. A floor dusted with flour. A camera donning smears of dough. A massive pastry book with scribbles and notes. A kitchen full of cookie-sheet-muffin-pan-mixing-bowl stuffed cabinets. For a little while, this will be a work in progress and will probably change as I get my bearings and figure out what works for me. I realize that not everyone I know will be on board, and I've decided I'm ok with that. But for those that are, I hope you enjoy all the sweet steps, and if nothing else, at least my (and hopefully your) sweet tooth will be satisfied.