OSI: Barb of Babette Feasts

This week, we’re privileged to have Barb of Babette Feasts choose TWD’s recipe. Although Barb totally LOVES chocolate, she picked out Dorie’s Tartest Lemon Tart. Everyone seems to agree Barb, thanks for the great pick! Go check out her blog, her photos and Dorie’s recipe.  And poke around while you’re there too. You won’t be sorry!

In addition to her own blog, Barb is also the Dining Expert at VisitFlorida.com. She’s obviouslyone very busy girl, as she’s been writing there for about a year! Here’s her bio:  “A former professional chef and life-long foodie, Barb is currently consulting food editor at Florida Table, a South Florida food magazine.” Who wouldn’t want her job, right? Barb admits, “I am an expert at eating…heh. Imagine that…This? This is my work. I am one lucky dining expert.” She sure is!

1.  When did you start baking?
I guess pretty young. I remember that Betty Crocker cookies cookbook. Nothing was cooler than the red and white twist cookies bent into a candy cane shape and dusted with crushed peppermints. The thing is–I never really got good at it. I’m a lazy baker. An imprecise baker. That is not really a good baker. Although I actually got hired as a pastry chef (I gave 2 weeks notice after 2 weeks)….I remember really being worried if I was the best they could get.

2.  What is your favorite kitchen tool?
Spring-back tongs. I grab everything with them.

3.  Which TWD blog is your favorite?
I love ChocolateChic for her humor and her photos and because she often reads me–which means Pinkstripes, Leslie, Tracy also get props. I love my readers. And love Kara Cooks (One Recipe at a Time) because of her photos.

4.  What has been your favorite TWD recipe so far?
World Peace Cookies. Aside from the great name, it perfectly combines my love of sweet/salty and …well, chocolate.

5.  What TWD recipe has been a dud for you?
I didn’t like my savory corn and cheddar muffins …used too much chile powder…I think it’s down to me that they weren’t so great.

6.  Which recipe are you dying to make that no one has picked yet?
Rum-drenched Vanilla Cake…Because I love rum and I love pound cake. I like simple desserts.

7.  If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be?
Italy, hands down. Nothing fancy. Learning to speak perfect Italian. Cooking whatever I find in the market. Writing. Honing my photography skills. Cooking and having loads and loads of friends over for dinners and conversations that last hours. Did I  mention cooking?

8. If you knew could you try anything and not fail (and money was no object), what would you attempt?
Rock Star.

9.  If you could have a superpower, which one would it be, and why?
I’d want to fly. I’m an impatient traveler now that air travel stinks and train travel (here in the States) is too expensive. If I could just fly…or better still, beam myself places a la Star Trek.

10.  If you had a day to yourself, what would you do?
Be with my best friends from college and now, be outdoors doing something like hiking or boating, then finishing the day by cooking with friends and dancing to all the music we love, singing along as we dance, dancing until the sun came up –then I would sleep and it would be good sleep (I have a bit of insomnia and long for a good night’s sleep).

11.  What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
Rocky Mountain Oysters. I also ate grilled Sheep’s Head in Little Italy once.

12.  What kitchen tool would you purchase for yourself if money were no object?
A Viking Stove. Or an Aga. I almost bought a mediocre house once because it had an Aga. But I live in Florida now. An Aga would be stoooopit. The Aga I saw was in Minnesota.

13.  Give us three adjectives to describe yourself.
Easy-going. Open. Friendly.

14.  What spice do you use over and over again?
Nutmeg. I love it. Have plenty of whole nutmegs in my cupboard for a quick grating whenever I need it.

15.  When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An archeologist. I majored in Anthropology (and Spanish)–and find that cooking has opened up a world of cultures to me, so in a roundabout way, my love of the foreign and unknown is satisfied by what I do. Not exactly digging up bones and chipped pottery, but still…