Cliches ... Nothing like visiting family members to excite that old familiar impulse to get going and do some baking. It may be a hilariously-referenced item in society's album of familial characteristics, but there is truth to the emotional response recognized as a cartoon of mother-child relations. So, anticipating just such a visit I set about satisfying the requirements of a pair of not-too-sweet tooth 'children' in their 50s whose own busy lifestyle precludes home baking for the most part.

Chocolate chip cookies were first on the agenda; short on the sugar and high on the chocolate chips. And for this occasion, special chocolate chips: 72% cocoa, intense dark chocolate sourced from Venezuela, "ideal for making fine mouldings, coatings, pastry and praline ganache, mousses, biscuits, sauces and cake decoration, ice cream and sorbets. They turned out just fine in the cookies.

One evening we were served with my husband's home-made vanilla ice cream, into which was dumped more of these chocolate chips. Not so fine, but edible; next time minus the chocolate chips.

I'd erred when baking some quite delicious carrot muffins, forgetting not to put walnuts in them; one of the duo is allergic to nuts, alas. Watermelon, sweet, cold and crisp more than made up for a good dessert that night. The moist, chewily spicy fruit-filled muffins with their creamy cheese-frosting went unselected but for us.

On the other hand, the still-warm-from-the-convection-oven blueberry pie baked with British Columbia berries was a decided hit with everyone, the crust good and flaky, the interior mouth-wateringly delicious. That was last week.

Today, grocery shopping day, I used left-over fresh fruit for a mixed-fruit pie. A cup of blueberries, a cupful of depitted fresh cherries and four large peaches for the interior. I always pre-cook the pie fillings, using about three-quarters of a cup of sugar to four cups of fruit. Mixing the sugar with about three tablespoons of cornstarch, mixing it with a quarter-cup of cranberry juice, dumping in the fruit, and slowly cook-stirring it all until the liquid becomes thick and glossy. Sometimes, depending on the fruit, I add a tiny bit of pure almond extract, sometimes plenty of cinnamon, and sometimes a tablespoon of butter is melted into the finished filling.

When it cools, it's time to prepare the pastry dough, and that's simple enough; a two-crust pie needs close to two cups of flour, a dash of salt, two-thirds cup of vegetable shortening (Crisco works best) worked into a rough crumble. To that I add a dash of lemon and enough cold water to knead the resulting dough into a ball to be divided and rolled out for a top and bottom crust. To be baked until it's brown and flaky.

Works like a charm.