Warm Buttermilk Cake with Strawberries

We have gotten to berry and stone fruit time. A great thing to have on hand to go with those fruits is a single layer, moist, easy cake. Add some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and fruit and it's impressive, too.

 This is a great cake for making strawberry shortcake, too. The recipe is HERE. It's pretty easy but quite delicious.

 You can also make a chocolate version like I did HERE. I served it with cherries and cream for a quick Black Forest style cake. As you can see, Sweetie really like whipped cream. Hard to see the cake, but I can tell you, it's great.

If you like you can also change it by adding a couple teaspoons of lemon zest (rubbed into the sugar before mixing with the eggs) for a Lemon Cake.

Yay for late spring! Summer will be here before you know it!

Landon's Wedding

Memorial Day Weekend is a great time for visiting family and for events. Sweetie and I spent some time in Phoenix at the wedding of Landon and Natalie.

Since I'm a step-grandmother, I've only know my grandson Landon since he was in high school. He's always been an extrovert, by all accounts, and he brings a lot of light and joy into people's lives at the same time. Sweetie and I have bedrooms in the farmhouse for family.  Landon and girlfriend Natalie stopped here for a night in each direction last fall when they were traveling from Phoenix to Oregon and then back. They were going there for Thanksgiving with his mother and brother and step-father. At that time Landon told us that they were almost engaged. Soon after, they announced their engagement and asked us to save the date for their wedding. They are a wonderful couple and seem to be well suited as well as very much in love.

The wedding was a few days ago, held at the church in Phoenix where Natalie's dad is pastor and Landon is in charge of Youth Ministry and at least some of the music. Dozens of their fellow church members transformed the church gym into a beautiful reception venue. The wedding itself was held in the inspiring church. Natalie's father both walked her down the aisle and conducted the ceremony. First grandson River was best man and youngest grandson Raine was a groomsman.

Because the groom's side of the family included a number of step-parents and half siblings as modern families often do, it was an interesting mix. Lots of group photos in the hot sun in the church garden, including one we were part of where we really didn't know half the people...all related to my daughter's husband's family. He was in the picture, too, plus his three sons and his wife and us. Not too happy with his oldest son because he probably spent a total of five minutes with us during the two days we were there, despite the fact that we were seated a few feet away for hours during the evening of the wedding. My guess is that he was just following the lead of the pastor.

I would love to say that the weekend was delightful, but the reality is that except for window dressing moments like the photos, we were shunned. Turns out that we were perceived to be 'unbelievers' and that, apparently, trumps manners in this conservative church. We never did meet the father of the bride/pastor.

Still, we are happy for our grandson and his bride. He was raised in a conservative religion and is immersed in this one. I doubt that he even knew that virtually no one spoke to any of us. Our son-in-law did go over and interact with his family members (also very conservative churchgoers), and when we left there were some hugs, mostly outside and away from most of the guests, but otherwise we were observers in a crowd of over 300 church goers who studiously ignored us. At one point when our son-in-law's family left because his Mom was worn out, I mentioned to one of the women standing by their table that they weren't returning, so the table and chairs were free to sit at (people were standing along the wall at this point because there weren't enough seats) and she looked startled that I had spoken to her, uncomfortable that I had, and she did thank me...but no smile and she didn't sit down right away but looked around with a bit of an anxious look on her face. I guess I broke through the shunning and she wasn't sure that it was OK to listen to me.

Highlights include a really wonderful song that Landon composed and sang to his bride, a beautiful choreographed dance the bride and groom did, followed by a dance Landon did with his mom that was lively and fun to music that included 'she's my Mom!' The Mexican food dinner was delicious. An interesting experience but one I hope to not repeat.

Early Peaches in a Pie

I've heard about the Dry Creek Peach stand for years, but it's up by Geyserville and I don't travel to that part of the county often, so I never visited. A few days ago I read that they already had peaches...about two weeks earlier than usual. I love peaches, but the ones that I get in the market are uninspiring. They tend to be hard and with little flavor. You can ripen them in a brown paper bag, but then they are ripe and still flavorless, plus they are often bruised with large dark areas from rough handling when they were hard.

So Sweetie and I found that we had the time, so we drove up the the Dry Creek Peach stand and purchased a flat of the first peaches of the season. The Dry Creek Peach folks were delightful and since they grow 30 varieties, we will likely be visiting them again and again. 

The peaches! They are heavenly! Because they were picked ripe, the skins come off easily...no need to dip them in boiling water to loosen the skins. They are also wonderfully juicy and full of peach flavor.

Of course we started eating them plain. Sweetie even ate his with the peel still on. I prefer them without the peel. Then I combined them with some other fresh fruit we had on hand...raspberries, pineapple and banana. Delicious!

The next day I made a peach pie with them and it is a really great pie. It took about 6 peaches to make the filling. I used a ready made pie dough crust for the bottom, made a filling with those slices peaches, freshly ground nutmeg, some flour and cornstarch mixed and a tablespoon of lemon juice. They were sweet enough that I didn't add any sugar. On top I put a streusel of brown sugar, flour, butter and chopped pecans. I'm afraid that the streusel  burned a bit during the first part of the baking, but I covered the whole top with foil for the 350 degree F part and it didn't burn any more. Next time I'll cover it sooner.

This is an exceptional pie, especially if you use tree ripened fruit. True peach season in most of the U.S is in June and July, so see if you can find some good peaches...and have some pie!

Peach Pie with Streusel Topping

5 cups peeled, sliced peaches, pits discarded

1/4 cup all-purpose flour mixed with 1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if possible

few grains of salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

8 oz. (1/2 cup, 1 stick) soft butter

one egg white

one 9” unbaked pie shell ( put into freezer until ready to fill the pie)

Mix peach slices with flour mixture,  lemon juice, nutmeg and salt. Pile into chilled pie shell that has been brushed with slightly beaten egg white. 

Make the streusel: In a medium bowl mix together the brown sugar, flour and pecans. Add the soft butter, cut into pieces, and use clean fingers to smoosh the butter into the flour mixture until combined. The mixture will be barely crumbly.

Break apart the streusel mixture into small-ish lumps and scatter evenly over the peach filling.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree F oven for 10 minutes. Place foil over edges of pie shell if they start to become too brown or if the top becomes too brown. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake about 45 minutes, or until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Let cool at least five minutes before serving. I served mine at room temperature.

My Mom's NOTES: The filling (without the streusel topping) can be frozen: Line 9” pie pan with heavy foil and put in peach mixture. Fold over and seal the foil. Put into a zip lock bag (gallon size) and freeze. When ready to bake, continue as above, putting frozen pie filling into an unbaked pie shell brushed with egg white as above. You can do the same thing with the apple pie filling. You may have to bake either pie with frozen filling 10 minutes or so longer.

Happy Mother's Day!

This has been an interesting fortnight (fourteen nights) for the Sebastopol Lachmans. We celebrate today, Mother's Day, that I'm finally sleeping in my own bed. Two weeks ago today Charlie and I celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary. The next day I noticed that I got a couple of bug bites when I sat in the chair near the fireplace. A day or two later that happened when I sat in my easy chair and also I seemed to have bites when I got up in the morning. By the 29th my sleep was poor and on the 30th I ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room. Turns out that a friend had visited with her dog, as she often does, a week or so before and the dog was carrying fleas which decided that I was a tasty person. Since my friend, Charlie, and the dog are not tasty, they had no idea. Neither did I, apparently, until I couldn't sleep much.

Long story short (well except for the stuff above) we spent most of this week doing damage control and eliminating the pests. Finally slept in my own bed last night and it was great! I now know what to do and not do (including things I can do to prevent being the vector that spreads the fleas!) and am ready to have a great Mother's Day with Charlie.

Katherine sent beautiful flowers. She and Aaron sent an even more beautiful card, especially because of what they wrote inside. We plan on talking on the phone today. I'm hoping that I can visit virtually with my siblings and other family this afternoon.

Soon I'll have time to return to the kitchen and garden and will share that with you here.

Hope that each of you celebrate Mother's day in your own way, including those who celebrate the memories of your mothers who have passed. My Mom, Nancy is the person in the photo at the top of the post. Love 'ya Mom!