Walking Through the Garden Pie

As I've mentioned before, summer is not my favorite season. This summer of 2007 has been such a lovely summer that I might have to change my tune. With the exception of the occasional heat spell, we have had beautiful days and cool nights, fog to clean and cool the air, and some of the best stone fruits and berries that I can remember. To top it off, my garden is one of the best in 20 years. The squash plants have been giving a steady harvest of tender green and yellow zucchini and rounded beige butternut squash, with one hardy crookneck producing a squash a week. I never grew cucumbers before, but will next year. It has been a joy to pick a nice green regualr cucumber for a mixed green salad, or to combine that with some round, prickly yellowish lemon cucumbers for a relish style salad with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and some chunks of tomato.

Best of all, the heirloom tomatoes that I started from seed are finally ripening. Red, deeply lobed Costellutos came first. They were not very large in size, but had a sweet tomato flavor.

Next I served our first Black Krim tomato sliced with a drizzle of olive oil and a dash of garlic salt, then scattered some chopped opal basil over the plate. Black Krim originate in the Black Sea reagion of Europe and have a dark, almost brown red flesh, shot through with bright red and spring leaf green. They have a very deep, delightful tomato flavor and are firm, but juicy. The little yellow pear tomatoes ripened just as the first Green Zebra tomato began to grow golden under the green stripes. I served chunks of marinated mozarella cheese on top of chunks of Black Krim and Green Zebra for a delicious taste of summer.

But what about the pie? It was a spur of the moment idea to make for dinner last weekend. Don't be too envious of my garden. This is the first time in almost 15 years that I've had more than about 6 food plants total in the garden. Finally this winter and spring I had the time to sow seeds for tomatoes, squash, and chard and, late, for cucumber. What really takes time is finding enough places to plant those seedlings that are not vulnerable to gophers and then finding the time to water every day. So these summer jewels are rare for me and very appreciated.

Imagine walking through the garden and picking some fresh chard, some of that dark opal basil, a few zucchini, a few tomatoes, and then heading for the kitchen to make a pie that tastes just like high summer. I blind baked a pie shell (using a round of parchment paper and my much-used and saved for pie baking kidney beans to keep the pastry from rising or forming big bubbles in the crust. Then I put chopped onions and mushrooms into a skillet with olive oil to saute'. While that was cooking, I made half moons of zucchini and cut tomatoes into chunks. I chopped basil and sliced well-washed chard into ribbons about 1 inch wide, after removing the stems. Once the onions and mushrooms were tender, I added the squash and tomatoes, let them cook until the squash were tender, then placed the chard on top, added a couple tablespoons water, and covered the pan to steam the chard.



While the chard steamed, I mixed 1/2 cup milk, egg substitute workth three eggs, 1/4 cup pesto, and a few grinds of pepper in a bowl. When the chard was tender, I mixed the vegetable mixture into the egg mixture and poured it all into the pie shell. After baking at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes until the pie filling was set and browned lightly, I let it cool just enough that it could be cut, then served it at our little eating place on the porch to Sweetie with those sliced tomatoes and some lemonade. Wish you could have joined us.

A Local Sweet Specialty

Gravenstein apples were once the mainstay of agriculture in Sonoma County, along with hops, chickens and eggs. They are suited to this area because they are drought tolerant and we get very little summer rain. They are a beautiful apple with a green skin streaked with red striation. The flesh is white and the apples don’t keep and bruise easily, so they don’t ship or store well like Red Delicious and Pippin, for example.

One of the things that Gravenstein apples are superior for is applesauce. They cook down easily and retain a nice tartness and strong apple flavor. You can purchase Gravenstein applesauce at some Trader Joe’s, but as wine grapes have been slowly taking over the county, the number of apple ranches has diminished to a very small number.

The Arc of Taste, a project of Slow Foods, which is preserving endangered food products, one species at a time, includes the Gravenstein apple among them. To read more about it, go to : http://www.slowfoodusa.org/ark/gravenstein.html

I am fortunate enough to have a large old Gravenstein apple tree on my property. I don’t spray, so the apples are not perfect and not for sale, but I do try to make some applesauce every year with the apples. This is my entry to the SHF event for August hosted this month by the Passionate Cook. The apples show in the photo above were early, (I couldn't wait for them to be fully ripe), so you don't see much red on the skin. The apple sauce was a bit tarter than when they are fully ripe as they are right now. This photo was taken right before I mashed them into a tasty, chunky sauce.

Gravensteins also make a stunning apple pie. Because they soften so much while cooking, even when you pile them high in the pie, by the time that you serve it the top crust arches over a space before you reach those lovely sweet tart cooked apples.

This weekend in Sebastopol is the annual Apple Fair, dedicated to the Gravenstein apple. If you get there, be sure to purchase one of the apple pies baked by the folks at the Community church. They have been making hundreds of pies for the fair for years and years. Also, look for Walker Apple Ranch apples. They are one of the handful of farmers still growing Gravensteins for sale. Then you can make your own authentic Gravenstein Applesauce.

Gravenstein Applesauce
4-5 large apples, peeled or unpeeled, stem and core removed, cut into 1” chunks
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon

In a heavy bottomed pot, combine the apple chunks, water, sugar and cinnamon, Bring to a boil, cover, and turn down to a simmer. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until the apples are soft and tender. If you like chunky apple sauce, mash with a potato masher. The applesauce is now ready to eat warm, or you can cool it. For smoother applesauce, put the apple mixture through a food mill. The smooth applesauce is now ready to eat warm or cooled.

Gravenstein Apple Fair
Ragle Ranch Park, Sebastopol, CA
Aug 11 (10 am – 6 pm) & Aug 12 (10 am – 5 pm)
Live music, free parking, no pets
Admission: Adults - $10, Seniors - $8, age 6-12 - $5, under 6 – free
Sponsored by Sonoma County Farm Trails

In Harmony and Friendship

It's been a while since I've seen Anna of Anna's Cool Finds. She has been consulting, going to school to get her Ph.D. and also dieting and exercising...something that I should be doing more of. We were finally able to get together this evening in Marin and Sweetie came with me and Anna's Dad came with her, so we had a great evening with good conversation and stories.

We ate at Harmony, a Chinese restaurant which is less than a year old. Harmony Restaurant is in Mill valley, in the Strawberry Village center, right off of Hwy. 101 and about an hour south of our home. It's a very elegant place with lovely stone tiles and highly polished bamboo tables. The serving pieces are beautiful to look at and functional, too. No paper wrapped chopsticks here. The elegant wood chopsticks looked like rosewood and were smooth and pleasant to use.

It was packed most of the night and for good reason. The dishes are prepared carefully and the cooks use fresh, high quality ingredients. The flavors really shine. This is some of the best Chinese food you are likely to eat outside of China (or Chinatown in a large city). They also have a busy take out section.

We started with dim sum. These small bites are traditionaly served for lunch and rarely after early afternoon. We were thrilled that at Harmony dim sum can be ordered all day and into the evening. The steamed dim sum are brought to the table in beautiful bamboo steamers. The morsels themselves provide taste and texture contrasts. Small dishes of soy sauce, sweet and sour sauce which includes Meyer lemon, and a medium hot red pepper sauce come with the dim sum.

Everyone seemd to enjoy the steamed scallop dumplings.

The shrimp gow have rice wrappers, succulent shrimp and some bamboo shoots. We also had the pea shoot gow which were my favorite. The shoots were very fresh and had a little crunch and there were also mushroom slivers. Sweetie liked the spinach dumplings and the buns with Peking duck.

Anna encouraged us to try the turnip cake. It was delicious and unlike anything I've ever had with turnip. The texture was creamy with a nice crust and it was slightly sweet, but the crust was slightly salty.

Next came calamari which had been quickly fried in a tempura type batter. It was tender and flavorful. It came dusted with a mixture of fried chopped garlic, green onion, jalapeno peppers and red peppers and garnished with lime slices The mixture was quite good; even when all of the calamari were gone it was eaten by itself and we noticed that the garlic bits were tasty all by themselves.

We had mu shu chicken accompanied by plum sauch and the thinest pancakes I've ever seen. The chicken was finely chopped and the mixture included fresh spinach, crisp bean sprouts, shitake mushrooms, and scrambled egg with wonderful seasoning.

The final dish was chow fun with barbq pork. The wide noodles held lots of a delicious savory sauce and the dish included lots of bean sprouts, onions, and tender pork slices.

We finished with a trio of hot teas. Oolong, Poy Nay black tea and jasmine tea provided contrasts in tastes and a fine way to enjoy more conversation and laughter.

As we were getting ready to leave, Sweetie and I were thinking of a few more friends in Marin who might enjoy meeting us at Harmony. It would be worth the drive.

Harmony Restaurant
800 Redwood Highway, Suite 401
Mill Valley, CA 94941
(415) 381-5300
Open Daily:
Lunch: 11:00 - 2:30 p.m.
Dinner: 5:00 - 9:30 p.m.

Getting To Be 13 Again

Just a week ago our cousins from Florida came to visit for a few days. We had never met until a year ago at Tom and Nora's 50th anniversary, but I had enjoyed their company a lot, so was excited that they could come across the country this summer.
Chuck is a true wine connoisseur, so being very close to hundreds of wineries let him pick and choose which ones he and Sharl would visit. We also took a visit to the county fair, to the old growth redwood grove near the Russian River,

the Bodega Bay where they took a dip into the Pacific ocean.

I even took the teenagers shopping and to see the new Simpsons movie. The best part was just being together, talking, laughing, and even playing board games. I got to be about 13 again and insisted that we play Scattergories by my house rules, which included letting Sean have 'lemon pepper chicken sandwich" for an 'L' menu item. I thought that was pretty good thinking. My 'L' item was lemonade...not very creative, now is it? Below is Sean and Xam.

We also had some great meals together. The first evening we grilled some zucchini from the garden and had grilled local Willie Bird Italian turkey sausages on rolls. Some red wines from our 'collection' were a good accompaniment.

The next night we were joined by Grandma L and enjoyed grilled leg of lamb. Sweetie boned it and I marinated it for a few hours in garlic, fresh rosemary, red wine and a little Dijon mustard before grilling. To go with we had mashed potatoes and a big salad with field greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and feta with a red wine dressing. Poizin zinfandel wine from Armida winery in Dry Creek valley complemented the lamb.

The next night we took it easy and had Round Table pizza. That was the day I'd gone shopping with Ashley and Sean, plus to the movies, so I was more than a little tired. Guess I'm not 13 after all :)

Happy Birthday August Daring Bakers

Better late than never, I guess. It's August third and there are a bunch of birthdays in August for Daring Bakers, so I made all of them one dessert...a Plum Bread Pudding. This is similar to Peabody's, but with fresh off our tree plums. Hers was so good that an encore seemed appropriate.

We have two deer who have decided to live under the plum tree, so I didn't get too many this year, but there were enough to add a sweet fruitness and tang to the mellow custard of the bread pudding.

Happy Birthday to:

Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry, Freya from Writing At The Kitchen Table, Tara from Should You Eat That?, Ahn from Food Lovers Journey, Janet from Janet Is Hungry, and Christina from Wishing On Clovers.

Gale’s Bread Pudding with Cherries

A recipe from 1971, from a Fredricksburg, Maryland friend

4 cups dry bread cubes
3 cups milk, scalded
1 tablespoon butter
4 slightly beaten eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup peeled, sliced sweet red plums. Cut into chunks if plums are large.

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Melt the butter in the milk. Add a little of the milk to the beaten eggs, then add eggs to rest of milk. Stir in the sugar, lemon zest, salt, and vanilla.
3) Put the bread cubes in a large bowl. Pour the egg/milk mixture over, stir gently, and let sit 15 minutes.
4) Butter a large baking pan. A deep one will give a softer center, a shallower one will give more crispy crust. Gently stir plum slices or chunks into bread mixture and pour into baking pan.
5) Bake in a pan of hot water until firm, about 1 hour. Serve warm.

Summery Daring Delight

In eight months, the daring Bakers have gone from two to eighty-nine members. Not all of them participate each month, but many do. We now, thanks to our founder Lis and Ivonne, have a website with a blogroll where you can link to other Daring Bakers' sites and see what they all have done with this challenge.

Strawberry Mirror Cake

Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody has given the Daring Bakers a challenge for July that produces a beautiful 10” cake, uses an awesome quantity of eggs and strawberries, and presented some new challenges for me. It’s called the Strawberry Mirror Cake - the perfect cake for summer. When it is unmolded from the spring form pan, the Bavarian cream forms a pale pink shell, topped with a glistening mirror of red tinted but clear strawberry gelatin. You can find the recipe on Peabody’s site here and at the bottom of this post. If you refer to it as you read through this post, it will make more sense.

First of all, I’ve never made a mirror cake before. I’ve never made a Bavarian cream either. My sponge cake skills were rusty since it’s been years since I made one. The good news is that I did have a small bottle of Kirsch (clear cherry brandy) in the cupboard, and some cake flour left over from the March challenge. Although I use it once in a blue moon, I also had some cream of tartar.

The first part, lining the jelly roll pan with parchment paper, was easy and fun and I was so glad that I let Sweetie talk me into buying some new 11 x 17 inch rimmed pans recently…sure I probably would have bought them anyway, but it was nice that he wanted me to…I think he enjoys the challenges as much as I do. Being the official taste tester has its advantages.

Since I knew that I would be doing separated eggs for both the cake and the Bavarian, I separated the eggs for both at the same time, then saved the Bavarian eggs in sealed containers for later. Separating the eggs while they were chilly, then letting them come to room temperature to bake with seems to work well. I also made the strawberry juice the day before I made the Mirror. Since I was processing strawberries for the Bavarian cream, it seemed like a good time to do it.

Sponge Cake
One of the key things about making the sponge cake is to beat the eggs and sugar for a looooong time to get the air incorporated. Because I only have one Kitchen Aid mixer mixing bowl, I actually beat my egg whites first, with sugar added as directed, almost to glossy stage, then transferred them to another bowl while I beat the eggs and sugar.

Once the eggs and sugar were light and thick and yummy looking, with vanilla incorporated, I whisked the whites in the non-mixer bowl for a while to bring them up to glossy stage, then followed the recipe by sifting flour over the egg sugar mixture and folding it in. I lightened the mixture with some of the whites, then folded in the rest of the whites gently, taking the spatula down the center, then up the side of the bowl, turning the bowl a bit, then repeating…center, side, turn, center, side, turn.

The most nerve wracking part was spreading the batter in that huge pan, trying to keep the air in the batter in the process. This batter bakes up into a fairly thin cake, but that’s OK. You need room for two layers and the Bavarian cream in that spring form pan.

I also found that leaving the parchment on the cake while cutting out the two layers was a good idea, but peel the parchment off fairly soon so it doesn’t stick when the cake cools the rest of the way. The diameter of the cake needs to be about ½ to 1 inch smaller than the spring form pan to allow the Bavarian cream to surround it.

Bavarian Cream
I made the Bavarian cream a couple of days later. The cake was in the fridge and it seemed like it would keep for a couple of days. We had invited guests for dinner on Saturday and I wanted to serve the cake to them. I left the mirror part for Saturday morning, but I did make the juice early…more on that later.

The first thing I did was prepare the puree. Since I had bought a large clamshell of strawberries at the grocery store…about 4 pounds of them!...I estimated how many would make 1 ½ cups of puree. After removing the caps and slicing them, I put them in the food processor and let it whirl until it looked like a puree, seeds and all. Then I left for lunch and put it in the fridge. When I came home, I put the puree in a bowl and sprinkled on the gelatin, stirred the gelatin in, then set it aside.

When the yolks that I had separated the day before were at room temperature, it was back to beating eggs and sugar a long time until light. I had no trouble with the hot milk, with adding it carefully to the sugar and yolk mixture (and yes, I did temper it), nor with cooking that mixture the proper amount.

No trouble with adding the puree/gelatin mixture, but the cooling over ice water was a problem. Turns out that my ice maker was not making much ice, so the cooling too forever.

I finally added a package of frozen limas that no one wanted to eat. That helped. In the end I put the bowl of gelatin mixture directly in the freezer and stirred it about every minute until it was almost the right consistency, then finished it in the ice bath. Unorthodox, but necessary. Here is how the gelled bavarian without cream looks:

Folding the whipped cream into the gelatin mixture was similar to folding the whipped whites into the cake batter. You get the idea.

Now that the cake has had plenty of time to cool in the fridge and the Bavarian cream is made, it’s time to assemble the cake, up to the Mirror part.

I put together the soaking sugar syrup flavored with the kirsch, then prepared the 10-inch spring form pan. Covering the circle of cardboard with foil was not as simple as I had thought it would be. I ended up going over the whole disc with a rolling pin to flatten everything nicely. I also made sure to coat the sides of the pan all the way up to the rim with the oil. Notice the space between the edge of the cake and the sides of the pan in the photo below. That's where the Bavarian goes.

The syrup went on the cake nicely, the Bavarian cream needed a little pushing down with the spatula to make sure it covered the space between the cake and the pan sides, but putting the cake together was simple. I had lots of Bavarian cream, but needed to restrain myself from using too much so that there would be room for the Mirror. In the photo that came with the recipe, it looked like the cream was supposed to be about the same depth as the cake. I almost forgot to use the soaking syrup on the second layer, but remembered right before I covered it with the cream.

The top was as even as I could make it, but not really level.

Into the fridge it all went to chill overnight. The kitchen looked like a cyclone had hit it. Even though I made the cake early, there were still an amazing number of bowls, pans, and spatulas to wash.

The official recipe puts the Mirror next, but you need to make the Juice before you can make the mirror, so here we go…

The strawberries need to be processed first, caps removed and sliced or chunked to make them easier to crush. While the berries and sugar were simmering, I discovered that I had no more cheesecloth, nor a jelly bag, so I improvised by using a coffee filter. Worked like a charm. It is important to not press on the fruit, just let the mixture drip. That way your juice is clear and your mirror will be lovely.

On to the Mirror. It’s Saturday, in the morning. I have a ton of things to do to get ready for the dinner party, but the mirror is first.

I stirred the gelatin into the lemon juice, kirsch and water mixture. The hardest part was deciding how red to color the mirror. I think I used 4 drops of red food coloring. The ice bath situation was not any better than it had been for the Bavarian, so I did some freezer time, stirring the mixture with my clean fingers to keep the heat level even as it cooled, then finished it in the ice bath. The layer I poured over the Bavarian, which had been chilling overnight, was more than 1/16 inch because the top was not even and I wanted to make sure that the mirror was over the whole cake. The limitation was that I didn’t want to have it go over the rim of the spring form pan. Tricky!

It’s Saturday afternoon. The Mirror has set, the house is clean, the dinner prep is underway and it’s time to finish the cake. Oh, yes, and take photos, too.

The towel I use to wrap around the pan is too short! I add some paper towels quickly doused in hot water and wrung out. While they sit on the outside of the pan, I take a small sharp knife and run it all around the edge at the rim, making sure that the tip of the knife hits the Bavarian cream and that I get all around without taking the knife out. Now for the most daring part. I take off the towels, slowly unlatch the pan and….ta da!...the cake is ready for the serving platter. Well, almost ready. The sides of the cake look pretty plain, although the mirror is lovely. Since I still have lots and lots of strawberries, I decide to slice them and march the slices around the side of the cake. When I plated the slices after dinner, I drizzled a spiral of strawberry puree on each dessert plate first, then put on the cake slice.

Thank you Peabody for picking a very good challenge for July. Making the cake increased my skills and the cake itself was certainly enjoyed by our guests and by Sweetie. It was pretty, sweet, light, and rich…prefect for a dinner party. I would probably make it again, but most likely with raspberries. I would also make sure that I had plenty of ice for the ice water baths. Now I only wish I could give you a piece of the Strawberry Mirror Cake.



Strawberry Mirror Cake

Daring Bakers Challenge #8: July 2007
Host: Peabody (Culinary Concoctions by Peabody)
Post Date: July 30th

Recipe Quantity: One (1) 10" Cake

Special Pans: 11 x 17" Jelly Roll Pan, 10" Springform Pan, 8 1/4" Cake Round or Tin (or pattern)

Ingredients/Steps:
A. Strawberry Mirror Cake
• 3 eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 egg whites
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 2 TBSP sugar
• 2/3 cup sifted cake flour
• ½ cup water
• 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 TBSP kirsch or strawberry liqueur

1.Preheat oven to 450F. Butter and flour the sides of an 11-by-17 inch jelly roll pan(rimmed baking sheet). Line bottom of pan with a sheet of parchment paper cut to fit bottom pan exactly.

2.Beat eggs, egg yolks and ¾ cup sugar together in a medium bowl until thick and light. Beat in the vanilla.

3.In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy, ad cream of tartar and beat until whites begin to form peaks. Add the 2 TBSP sugar and beat until the whites hold stiff, glossy peaks(do not over beat).

4.Sift flour over the egg yolk mixture and fold in . Stir in one fourth of the whites. Then carefully fold in the remaining whites.

5.Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake until light brown and springy to touch(7 to 10 minutes).

6. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Run a knife along edge to loosen. Invert cake tin to cut out 8 ¼ inch circles of cake. Wrap the cake layers, separated with waxed paper, and set aside. Cake may be frozen at this point.

B. Strawberry Bavarian Cream
• 2 ½ TBSP unflavored gelatin
• 1 ½ cups strained strawberry puree(1 ½ baskets)
• 5 egg yolks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 ½ cups milk
• 1 TBSP lemon juice
• several drops of red food coloring
• 1 ¾ cups whipping cream

1.Sprinkle the gelatin over the strawberry puree in a small bowl and set aside until spongy.

2.Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl' beat until light. Bring milk to a boil in sauce pan. Pour hot milk into yolk mixture ans stir with a wooden spoon(it doesn't say so but I would temper the egg mixture first to be safe). Return this mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until your finger leaves a clear trail in sauce when drawn across the back of the spoon.(Do not boil or mixture will curdle.) Immediately remove from heat and stir in softened gelatin mixture. Pour into a stainless steel bowl places over a bowl of ice water. Stir in lemon juice and a few drops of red food coloring. Cool over ice water, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens to the consistency of softly whipped cream.

3.While gelatin mixture is cooling, whip the whipping cream until it holds soft peaks. When the gelatin mixture resembles softly whipped cream, fold the whipped cream into the gelatin mixture.


Strawberry Mirror
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 TBSP kirsch
• 1 TBSP water
• 1 TBSP unflavored gelatin
• Few drops of red food coloring

1.Prepare strawberry juice.

2.Place lemon juice, kirsch, and water in a small bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over this mixture; set aside until spongy and soft.

3.Measure 1 ½ cups Strawberry juice into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer; pour over gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve gelatin. Tint to desired color with red food coloring. Place bowl over bowl of ice water and stir occasionally until the mixture is syrupy and just beings to thicken(do not let jell); remove from ice water.

4.When mixture is syrupy, pour a 1/16-inch layer over the top of cake. Refrigerate until set.

Strawberry Juice
• 1 ½ pints of strawberries(18 oz)
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup water

1. Wash and hull strawberries; coarsely chop.

2. Place strawberries in saucepan; crush to start juices flowing. Place over low heat; add sugar and water; simmer slowly 10 minutes.

3.Pour juice and pulp through damp jelly bag or cheesecloth-lined colander and drain into a bowl for 15 minutes(Do not press down on fruit).

Soaking Syrup
Combine water and the 1/3 cup sugar in saucepan; bring to a boil to dissolve sugar. Cool to room temperature; flavor with liqueur. Set aside or refrigerate in glass jar until ready to use.

To Assemble the Cake:
1. Brush sides of 10-inch springform pan lightly with flavorless salad oil or almond oil. Cut out a cardboard circle that is exactly the same size as the bottom inside of the pan; cover cardboard with aluminum foil and fit into bottom of pan. Center one layer of the cake bottom of pan. Brush the cake with some of the soaking syrup to just moisten(not drench) the cake; set aside.

2. Prepare Strawberry Bavarian Cream. Immediately pour about half of the Bavarian Cream over the first layer of cake in the pan. Set the next layer of cake on top of the cream. Pour remaining Bavarian Cream over cake and smooth top of the cream with spatula. Refrigerate until the cream sets(1 to 2 hours).

3.Prepare the Strawberry Mirror.

To serve:
Wrap a hot towel around the outside of springform pan for a few minutes. Run a small sharp knife tip around the edge of the Strawberry Mirror to separate it form the sides of pan. Mirror will tear when sides are unlatched if it is stuck at ANY point. Slowly unlatch the pan and slide it off the cake. Slice cake in wedges and serve in upright slices.

Crazy Gadgets

Yesterday I was invited to join some other PEO members for lunch and to go to see a wonderful antiques collection nearby. Sue has been collecting antiques, particularly gadgets, for over 30 years. Her kitchen gadgets were stunning. Walls were lined with graters, grinders, pudding molds, colanders and cast iron corn stick pans.

On hooks were dozens of egg beaters, lots of gadgets to hold canning jars, soap savers, whisks, and so much more.

She had a cute metal measuring cup that was a coffee measurer. A thin piece of metal for the bottom slid in and out of slots to move the bottom up or down depending on how strong you wanted your coffee.

She had bushel baskets full of cooking tools like spoons, forks, slotted spoons, potato mashers...and each basket had different colored handles. It was overwhelming. One item caught my eye and she agreed to let me photograph it for the one off event - That Crazy Kitchen Gadget hosted by Not Eating Out in New York. The photograph is above. Do you think you know what it is? Look below the next photo to see if you guessed right. Wish I had one of those myself.

It's a biscuit cutter. It rolls along and cuts a whole row of biscuits (or cookies, I guess) at a time. Did you guess correctly??

My Dad loved biscuits, so these quick and easy ones were baked often when I was growing up. Since I don't own the cutter, I'll be using a floured drinking glass. I'm also including a photo with jam and one with honey because I like eating them both ways. Mmmmmm.


Dad's Simple But Nutritionally Suspect Buttermilk Biscuits
3 cups sifted self-rising flour
1/2 cup shortening (Crisco was what we used)
1 cup buttermilk

Cut shortening into flour until consistency of coarse meal; add enough buttermilk to make a soft dough (you may need slightly more or less than 1 cup). Turn onto lightly floured surface; knead gently about ten strokes. Roll 1/2 of the thickness desired in finished biscuits. Fold over on itself and roll out again to same thickness. Cut with a floured biscuit cutter (or drinking glass OR crazy kitchen gadget if you have one). Place on a baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 400 degree F overn for 12-15 minutes. Makes about 14 - 2" biscuits.

What's on Your Desk?

Since this blog is about enthusiasms of all kinds, there will be a recipe at the end for the Grilled Peach Salad in the photo, but the meme I tagged some other blogger for led me to Peabody's blog, where she charmingly described items on her desk. That led me to wonder what people have on their desks. This will not be an official meme, just informal. If you want to post what is on your desk and link here, then e-mail me that you have done so, I might attempt to do a round up, say next weekend. If no one e-mails, I'll have less to do *grin*.

So my desk is, first of all, not very neat.
I have stacks of cookbooks (what a surprise!) and some printed out recipes,
cards because I use snail mail to send birthday cards, being a lover of all things birthday,
a stack of CDs which I use to download some of my photo files since they seem to multiply at an alarming rate,
old ZIP disks with older photo and graphics files (someday these need to be transferred to another storage medium - UGGHH - but for now they are a cheerful mix of gold, red, green, black and blue.
The usual office supplies are there, too, plus a spool of gold and silver ribbon...no idea why that ended up on the desk :)

I have a hand thrown and glazed pottery cup to hold pencils, pens, markers and a boning tool,
a couple of watercolor paintings I have done recently leaning up against the wall,
a photo of my daughter,
cheery magenta fake daisy like flowers in a pottery vase,
two printers (I own and use three...another enthusiasm obviously)
and my Dammit Doll.
On the wall, a poster that says, "Misery is Optional",
one that says, "We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden",
a framed needlepoint of the serenity prayer,
and a framed specimen sheet of Caslon type from Williamsburg.
Hanging from the window trim are a red dragonfly
and a green good luck elf.

So, what's on YOUR desk?

On to the salad. I'm certain that this is not an original idea, but earlier in the week I had a few ripe, perfect white peaches. I cut them in half, removed the pit (they were freestone peaches which makes it easy), sprinkled a bit of brown sugar on the cut sides, then grated a tiny bit of nutmeg on top of the brown sugar, then had Sweetie grill them briefly, just enough to carmelize the sugar and heat them through. When peeled, sliced, and added to the salad, they were such a treat. The grilling changes the flavor in much the same way that baking peaches in a pie does. I like fresh, uncooked peaches, too, but baked or grilled peaches have such a mellow juiciness.

Grilled Peach Salad
4 cups or more mixed field greens or mesclun or mixed salad greens of your choice
two ripe peaches - freestone variety preferred (I used white, but yellow peaches would also be good in this salad)
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg, freshly ground if possible
1/4 cup toasted pecans, broken into pieces
Balsamic Vinaigrette to taste (I added too much for my taste (about 1/2 cup) and will use about 1/4 cup next time. (see below)

Place field green or salad green, washed and dried, into a salad bowl. Set aside.
Cut peaches in half. Remove pits. On each cut face, sprinkle with the brown sugar and nutmeg, dividing among the 4 pieces. Grill cut face down 2-3 minutes or until sugar is carmelized and peaches are just heated through. Place peaches on a cutting board, peel off the skin, and slice each half into 4 or 5 slices, then cut crosswise into chunks. Drizzle peach chunks with 2 teaspoons of the vinaigrette. Add cut, dressed chunks to salad bowl.
Sprinkle top of salad with the nuts, then with the dressing. Grind a few grinds of fresh pepper over the salad. Toss to coat the lettuce leaves with the dressing and mix the fruit and nuts into the salad. Serve with more dressing on the side if desired. Serve cold.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/4 cup good balsamic vinegar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
Combine the vinegar, salt and thyme in a small bowl. Whisk in the olive oil to create an emulsion. Whisk in the water and keep whisking until fully emulsified.