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    Donna Bell's Bake Shop: Recipes and Stories of Family, Friends, and Food
    Donna Bell's Bake Shop: Recipes and Stories of Family, Friends, and Food
    Donna Bell's Bake Shop: Recipes and Stories of Family, Friends, and Food
    Ebook267 pages1 hour

    Donna Bell's Bake Shop: Recipes and Stories of Family, Friends, and Food

    By Pauley Perrette, Darren Greenblatt and Matthew Sandusky

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    The heartwarming story of how NCIS star Pauley Perrette and her two best friends created a Southern-style bake shop in Manhattan—a celebration of love and friendship with gorgeous photographs and delicious recipes.

    Nestled in the heart of midtown New York is a little shop with a big story. An all-natural bake shop that specializes in Southern baked goods, Donna Bell’s is owned by Pauley Perrette, the actress who plays Abby Sciuto on CBS’s NCIS, and her two best friends, Darren Greenblatt and Matthew Sandusky. It was named in honor of Pauley’s late mother, who is the beloved inspiration for everything they bake.

    It all started in 1993, when Pauley met Darren in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen, just blocks away from where the shop is currently located. The two became inseparable friends and Pauley’s Southern mom would welcome Darren to their home with mouthwatering treats. Darren loved this food and soon left his successful career in fashion to open a food truck that sold Southern desserts at the Jersey Shore. Eventually he wanted to expand and turned to Pauley and their friend Matthew—who worked in the Los Angeles food industry—for help. Soon Matthew was on his way to New York to open Donna Bell’s Bake Shop with Pauley and Darren.

    With recipes for favorites like buttermilk biscuits, chocolate chip-almond scones, and peach streusel muffins; personal photographs from Pauley, Darren, Matthew, and Donna Bell herself; this is the story how one fantastic bake shop brings warmth and happiness—one treat at a time—to the urban jungle that is New York City.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateApr 14, 2015
    ISBN9781476771182
    Donna Bell's Bake Shop: Recipes and Stories of Family, Friends, and Food
    Author

    Pauley Perrette

    Pauley Perrette is one of the top Q-rated actors in television and film and is on her twelfth season playing Abby on the #1 TV show NCIS. She is also a producer, director, philanthropist, activist, songwriter, singer, and writer. She is a lifelong civil rights advocate and has been awarded many prestigious humanitarian awards for her efforts. Pauley was raised all over the south but considers Alabama her home town. She studied Sociology, Psychology, and Criminal Science, graduating cum laude. Later, in NYC, she tended bar, modeled, did commercials, voice-overs, music videos and short film work. She later moved to Los Angeles, and has since worked steadily in film and television while continuing her work as a social activist.

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    • 5/5
      As soon as I saw this book I knew I wanted to read it. NCIS is one of my favorite tv shows and Pauley’s character Abby has such a quirky fashion style and personality that makes the show a lot of fun to watch! I loved reading how the bake shop came to be, the relationships between the authors, and the authors and their families.The recipes look easy enough and the ingredients easy to find. But, the one recipe my son wanted me to make uses frozen cranberries, and I can’t find them anywhere.The photos are great and make the book come “alive”. It is very well written and I enjoyed it from the first word to the last.If you love to bake, love bake shops or just love Pauley, get a copy of this book!I’m going to NYC later this year with my oldest son and his family and my youngest son. Donna Bell’s Bake Shop will definitely be one of the places I visit.

    Book preview

    Donna Bell's Bake Shop - Pauley Perrette

    Donna Bell.

    Introduction

    Welcome to Donna Bell’s Bake Shop!

    This book is the story of three friends, our journeys, and how we created a special place in honor of my mother, Donna Bell.

    My mother was a lovely Southern gal with sparkling blue eyes, the sweetest smile, and a true love of Southern baking and cooking. Donna Bell was born and raised in Alabama. She first saw my dad when he drove the truck for her Tri-Hi-Y hay ride. She was twelve years old and he was seventeen. He then saw her dressed as an angel in the church Easter parade. A few years later, they met at a teenage hangout, the Sugar and Spice. He wrote her number on his friend’s dusty dashboard so he could call her. It all sounds like a Southern fairy tale, but it’s true. When he called her, he said, You want to go see a flick? At first, my mom didn’t know who it was, and since they were from different sides of the Alabama tracks, she didn’t know exactly what he was asking her. But she soon figured it out. It was that crazy redhead, Paul, that she’d met at the Sugar and Spice. She went to see that flick with him.

    They were soon married and were together until my mom passed away from breast cancer in 2002. My sister and I are so lucky that my mom decided to go see that flick with that crazy redhead from the wrong side of the Alabama tracks.

    Ever since my mother passed, my friends and family and I have been dedicated to keeping her memory alive. At the bake shop, we do this by offering customers delicious treats, and also by conveying the warmth in which she lived her life. My mom was the kindest, most sensitive person I have ever known. Her concern for the well-being of all people and animals is a big part of me. And her love of baking and cooking shaped my childhood. Although we constantly moved, I have fond memories of each kitchen of my childhood. I remember my sister Andi’s beautiful, long hair getting caught up in the cake beaters while we were making a cake for someone’s birthday. I remember the wafting scent from the Crock-Pot, always filled with delicious chicken and noodles. I remember the smell of unleavened bread every Saturday as my mother baked the Communion for Sunday church. I always remember the kitchens.

    Our bakery in the heart of Manhattan is our newest kitchen, Donna Bell’s Bake Shop. It brings old charm to the big city. We’d love for you to drop in and see us sometime, but for now this book can be your way of doing that. We hope you enjoy reading the history of the bakery and have fun trying out all the recipes!

    PAULEY PERRETTE

    Los Angeles, 2015

    Pauley’s parents, Donna Bell and Paul, on their wedding day.

    Growing Up

    I was born in Louisiana, twenty months after my big sister, Andi. My parents, Donna and Paul, had known each other since they were teenagers in Alabama. After serving in the Air Force for years my dad was working his way up in the phone company, so our family moved often because of his job. We lived in almost every Southern state. During the rather chaotic nature of this perpetual displacement, we spent all of our vacations and holidays at a tiny lake house in the middle of the woods in Alabama. My folks had named it Pauper’s Paradise. That little place became the one constant in our lives.

    Pauley’s school photo.

    When we spent time at this house, all the cousins would swim in the lake, fish off the pier, climb trees, and make rope swings. And there would always be food. We would wake up to eggs, grits, biscuits, and gravy. There was something cooking all day long and then dinner would often consist of whatever fish was caught that day. My maternal grandmother, Granny Bell, had moved one cabin down so there were two kitchens going. The scents of a Southern kitchen are in every fiber of my memory. To this day, wherever I am, if I smell a ham cooking, it puts me right back in my Granny Bell’s house. My sister Andi recalled these times: From Sunday lunches, potlucks, cookouts, and holiday feasts, everyone played a part and usually had their own ‘specialty’ claimed as their own. Everyone willing had a job suited to their age or ability. Children stirred the sugar into the tea and happily volunteered to be ‘taste testers.’ Unsure adolescents were given well-worn, proven dishes until their confidence grew to where their suggestions for a change could be courageously voiced to the group. All steps led to that bittersweet coronation moment of preparing your first Thanksgiving turkey, with the realization that a generational scepter had been both earned and passed and your role had forever changed.

    Young Pauley with her cat, Delta Dawn.

    My family moved to Roswell, Georgia, which became the place we lived the longest. When you move many times as a child, you adopt coping mechanisms. My sister would lock herself in her room and read endlessly so I didn’t see her much. I was an awkward kid, but friendly and funny: I was able to make people laugh. My mom and my cat were my best audience. When I was around two years old, my family found a scruffy kitten at my Aunt Daisy’s farm that had been attacked by some critter and was mute. We named her Delta Dawn. I fell in love with that cat, and she became my constant companion and confidante for more than twenty years. When I was thirteen, I finally was allowed to get a dog, Tasha, and later acquired another named Jesse. I loved my pets more than anything in the world. They were my best friends. I spent my time building dams in the creek behind my house, playing with my dogs, or singing to my cat in my room.

    We were very much a church family, in church at least three times a week. My dad was a deacon and elder and my mom was always baking and cooking cakes and dishes for church. My mom even baked our congregation’s Communion bread. Home and church were always places to enjoy cooking, baking, and eating. To this day, no meal tastes better than a good ol’ fashioned church potluck dinner. There was always the aftermath of an array of mismatched dishes with people’s names written on them so you wouldn’t leave with the wrong casserole pan. Cooking and baking down South were a part of every day and every experience.

    I was a restless and confused teenager, like most. After graduating from high school, I enrolled in college in South Georgia. I hated being away from Delta Dawn and my dogs. I would drive home five hours each way to see them (and do my laundry). I found college to be a perfect fit for me. It was probably the most focused I have ever been in my life. I did very well in school, studying sociology, psychology, and criminal science. I graduated early and with honors. I then went back to Roswell and pursued a master’s degree at Georgia State University. But that didn’t last for very long, as my restlessness and curiosity led me much farther from home.

    Pauley with her dogs, Tasha and Jesse.

    Buttermilk Biscuits

    Makes 10–12 biscuits

    3 cups all-purpose flour

    1 Tablespoon baking powder

    2 teaspoons baking soda

    2 teaspoons kosher salt

    4 teaspoons granulated sugar

    1¹/4 cups (2¹/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into very small pieces

    1¹/2 cups buttermilk

    Heat the oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Toss the cold butter pieces into the flour mixture and roughly mix with a wooden spoon, making sure not to break

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