Mais oui, why are you working out so much?

It's the French pastries. This week I finally visited (then revisited) a little treasure of a bakery in Salt Lake City - Les Madeleines. They have wonderful macarons, and pain au chocolat (my favorite). They're well known for their kouign-amann (and they ship those anywhere if you care to try them.)

Later in the week, while I was waiting to pick up my son from a gig for his school's jazz band, I stopped at Gourmandise for a little treat - some coffee and a cookie.

I'd call it a biscotti, except it was soft, not twice baked, and long and flat - as if it was individually shaped rather than cut from a log.  Whatever it was, it was tasty. I may have to stop on my way out for errands tomorrow morning to put a name to it.

 And last weekend, I went to The Wild Grape Bistro, at the bottom of the Avenues neighborhood, and shared a little brunch appetizer with a friend.

The donuts come with a lovely cream sauce as well as a blackberry sauce. This goes nicely with a blackberry mimosa.

That's a lot of indulgence for a week, non? I blame all of the lovely French cooking/baking blogs I've been reading. And the book, "Lunch in Paris," by Elizabeth Bard, which I'll review later this weekend.

For now, a little toast to spring - the apricot tree is blooming.

That means apricot butter and apricot tarte come August. Barring a late spring freeze like we had last year.

G'night my sweets.

Review of "Lunch in Paris: a Love Story with Recipes"

Birthday Cake-ing for Mr. Poppycakes: Thoughts on Cooking Lite