Sweet Eats:: The sweetest surprise...

On Sunday we caught up with some good friends Soo & Jono and their kids for lunch. Soo had recently mentioned to me that thanks to trawling all those crafty blogs out there...her old passion for sewing had been rekindled and she had been gradually amassing some fabrics and whipping things up with her sewing machine.

Well, nothing quite prepared me for the sweetest surprise Soo presented me with. Tied up with stripey ribbon was a copy of Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme (!!) and a lovely oven mitt she made from a quilting book by Denyse Schmidt. I was absolutely gobsmacked by her generosity....and her sewing skills! She obviously knew about our reverence for the master patissier that is Pierre Herme...and maybe even my fixation with spotty fabric?! It was the most perfect and unexpected gift in every way. I love them...thank you so much Soo! You've really inspired me to get going on my sewing...

Here is some spotty detail on the oven mitt....


The cover of the book...

And here are some of the delectable goodies inside (Warning: do not view if your tummy is rumbling even the slightest!):

Chocolate macaroons...

Chocolate-filled millefeuille (& you know how obsessed we are with these)...

Chocolate cigarettes (I see more tuile-rolling in my future!)...

Warm chocolate & raspberry tart...

The Concorde (you gotta love a cake with a name like that!)...

....And so it goes on....pages after pages of choccy recipes, some of which look reasonably do-able & others that are in another league!! I don't know where to start...licking the pages is not an option! N