An invitation to join me in my kitchen adventures...

The holiday season is probably the only time most people even think about Austria--The Sound of Music is usually on TV around Christmas and then PBS airs the annual Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Day Concert.  I, however, have an obsession with Viennese coffeehouses (Kaffeehäuser) and all things Alpine (I blame The Lawrence Welk Show* and, of course, The Sound of Music).  My first Foods of the World purchase was The Cooking of Vienna's Empire, I have a copy of Lilly Joss Reich's sadly-out-of-print The Viennese Pastry Cookbook on order from Amazon and I've checked out  Kaffeehaus and The Classic Art of Viennese Pastry from the library.  On Friday, I bought a springform cake tin.  I'm ready to go!

CONTEST ALERT!!!

After Christmas, I'm going to start baking my way through The Viennese Pastry Cookbook.  I hope you'll join me!  If you do decide to make one of the recipes, leave a comment on the post for the recipe you chose (and tell me why you chose that particular recipe) and how it turned out (and why).  If you take a photo or write a blog entry, be sure to include a link.  You can sign up for one of the photo-sharing websites for free.  At the end of each month (starting with January), I'll randomly select a "hey-I-tried-that" comment from that month's posts and the person who wrote the selected comment will receive a Viennese-baking-related prize.  The more recipes you try, the more chances to win!  You don't have to have an account to comment, either, just be sure to leave your name!  I don't generally get many comments, so there's a good statistical chance of winning.

Stay tuned for the first baking assignment!

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