Don’t think I can’t see you rolling your eyes there. Another cherry item? Yes but you see, I am besotted by cherries – the black or the sour kind and when I had to select a jam to use in the Bakewell tart for this month’s Daring Bakers challenge I chose to make a Cherry Jam. Of course you might say smirkingly.

Of course you could use any flavour jam. I had intended to make a Wild Hibiscus jam but when I enquired and found it at $80 a kilo I realised that it was price prohibitive. So I tried to modify it by replacing the almond flavour with a rose water in both the pastry and the frangipane which is essentially an almond, egg, butter and sugar mix. The smell of this baking was wonderful. Tastewise, I am not a huge frangipane lover finding it a touch dry so I didn’t love this as much as others did. However, for the recipients, it was soon eaten in record time.

As I speak best through baking I decided to bake this for the nurses and doctors at Manly Hospital who looked after my husband so well on his recent stay. I figured renaming the Bakewell tart as Getwell tart was appropriate. Because I knew you’d like to see a cross section slice, I knew I couldn’t cut one slice out and then give to them so I sliced the whole thing up.

While we’re on the subject of hospitals, the night my husband went in, I was supposed to attend the launch of Table4Ten, a charity dinner held simultaneously across 50 of Sydney’s best restaurants in aid of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. It will be held at 7pm on the 22nd of September 2009 and the lineup of restaurants includes ARIA, Astral, Australian Museum, Bécasse, Beppi’s, Bilson’s, Bistro Moncur, Bistro Ortolan, Buon Ricordo, Buzo, Cafe Sydney, Catalina, Cato’s Fine Foods, China Doll, Cooking for Blokes, Essence, Flying Fish, Fort Denison, Forty-One Restaurant, Four in Hand, Grand National, Guillaume @ Bennelong, Light Brigade, L’incontro, Longrain, Machiavelli, Marque, Mezzaluna, Otto Ristorante, Quay, Restaurant Associates, Rockpool, Sean‘s Kitchen, Steel Bar & Grill, Summit Restaurant, Tetsuya’s, The Beresford Hotel, The Pier, TOKO Restaurant & Bar, Verandah, Wildfire and more.

Each lucky diner will be served a special menu including beverages and the most exciting part apart from the food? The after party at the end at a top secret location for all 500 guests to celebrate together. Tickets are $195 per head (with the option of an additional voluntary tax deductible donation of $55). See the Table4ten website for details.

So tell me Dear Reader, which charity is your favourite and why?

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Does the Log Lady means anything to you? If so, you were probably a Twin Peaks fan from way back. Not everyone tuned in to watch David Lynch’s dark, disturbing but also very comical and sensual TV series called Twin Peaks. However I was most definitely a Peakie or Peaker and stayed until the very end never missing an episode and would float away to the fictional smalltown in Washington to the strains of the haunting and evocative song “Falling” (and as I write this, I am listening to it).

The one dish that always had me salivating was the Cherry Pie at Norma’s RR Diner. FBI Agent Cooper  would always order a cup of coffee and a slice of Cherry Pie whenever he’d visit the diner. “Coop” was one of my favourite TV characters ever and I like to pretend that Kyle McLachlan stopped acting after Twin Peaks. His roles as the impotent Trey McDougal and emasculated Orson Hodge completely lack any sort of sex appeal.

As for this tea set, I brought up the Log Lady earlier for a reason. I received this tea set from my parents for my birthday. The minute I saw it, I knew it had to be mine and when they asked me what I wanted I pointed them squarely in this direction. They’re from an online store called Have You Met Miss Jones and are made of the most gorgeous bone china with a detailed “driftwood” pattern although I just thought of the Log Lady and Snow White in the forest when I saw it. And of course another item that I got for my birthday was from Suze - an adorable stand Mixer timer (which I feel Norma would have used).

Now that Twin Peaks has been released on DVD I can dance dreamily to the music in the privacy of my imaginary Great Northern Hotel room accompanied by the Agent Cooper, Audrey, Andy, Donna, the log lady, the giant and the dwarf. And we’re all eating Cherry Pie.

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There’s something I know for certain: it’s pie season. The cooler temperature and shorter days signal to me, the need for comfort food and even thought the temperature itself hasn’t dipped that much, it’s low enough for me to yearn for the heat of the oven. I’m a different creature in Winter. During Summer it’s all about salads and water but in Winter, it’s a pastry and soup fest.  And this comparatively cool Sydney evening made me hanker for some pies.

We try and eat vegetarian a few nights a week for health reasons and to reduce our reliance on meat. That’s not a sign that I am about to go full time vegetarian – I tried that once and it wasn’t for me but it feels healthier and better for the environment to do so three to four nights a week. It also lightens our grocery bill which is a nice bonus for my husband who tears his hair out at the things I like to put in my trolley.

If you’re a hardened carnivore, you could certainly add some chicken to these but I do think that they are perfect as is although by all means substitute it with whatever vegetables you have to hand – 3.5 cups will do. One thing that I never really saw any point to was making your own pastry. That is, until I found an amazing Pâte Brisée shortcrust pastry recipe. I will say that if you are not so inclined to make your own, you can use store bought but this Pâte Brisée pastry is to die for. But don’t worry I haven’t lost the entire plot, I still bought the puff pastry. That would probably signal a descent into utter madness if I were to make my own puff pastry. Feel free to call the authorities to pick me up should that ever happen.

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