Feeding the Muse

My friend Victoria Janssen has a new book contract! As I have done for years, I celebrated this by baking a pie today to feed her muse, an apple tarte tatin. She generously dedicated her first book -- something most definitely made in Philly -- to me (see cover image), and even mentioned the pies in her dedication.

Sorry; I'm a terrible photographer. The photo doesn't capture the caramelized deliciousness of this dessert.

The husband wrote a book in Philly as well, Higher-Order Perl (2005), and here's a pie I baked for that one years ago, when he was working on Chapter 9. He incorporated our wedding quilt into the cover for that book. His design for that quilt was his first-ever gift to me and I hand-quilted the whole enormous king-sized monstrosity as my nuptial gift to him.