Watercolor

Cover illustration for creative writing portfolio, Fall 2009.

Ginger-Pear Upside Down Cake

Notes: 

Uh, YUM. Highly recommended. I was surprised how well the pears' shape and flavor survived baking; I rather expected them to disappear into a bland mush. 

I made double the pear topping, 1.5 x the batter, and baked two 9-inch cakes, dropping about a cup of partly-baked cherry cheesecake chunks (leftover from Epic Cake) into one pan. This filled both pans (with a little batter still left over) so full they aaalmost overflowed in the oven. All this is to say that I don't know exactly how full the following recipe will fill one 9-inch cake pan. Pretty darn full, I would guess. And if you want to make two cakes, I think the cake recipe x 1.5 will give you enough. The good news is, even if the sides ooze over a bit, don't worry about the edges getting very brown and crisp; after unmolding, the cake's moisture will redistribute, making those edges nice and soft again. 

 

The cherries added tartness, which was a very nice touch. I'm ambivalent about the cheesecake, though -- it's good, but probably not worth the effort unless you happen to have some lying around (as I did). 

Ginger-Pear Upside Down Cake

TOPPING:

2 TB sliced almonds (optional)

2 anjou pears, barely ripe, sliced into circles, seeds poked out 

   (core will soften)

1 1/2 TB fresh lemon juice

2 TB candied ginger, finely diced 

   (or use 1 TB fresh grated ginger and add a little extra brown sugar)

4 TB butter, melted

1/3 cup brown sugar

CAKE:

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground ginger 

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

1 tsp cocoa powder

1 stick butter, melted and cooled to room temp

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup molasses

1 large egg

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup dried tart cherries, reconstituted and drained (optional)

Mix dry cake ingredients in medium bowl and set aside. Grease and flour the sides of a 9-inch cake pan and line bottom with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scatter almonds evenly along bottom of pan. Arrange pear slices, prettiest ones first, on top of almonds. Drizzle with lemon juice, then with butter. Sprinkle ginger and brown sugar evenly over pears. Set aside.

In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and molasses on low speed until combined. Beat in egg. Gradually add milks and beat on slow, then medium speed for about a minute, scraping bowl as needed. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined (do not overmix).

Carefully pour batter over pears. Drop cherries into batter, if using. Bake for 35-45 minutes until tester comes out almost clean (rotate pans halfway through if you make a double batch). Cool on wire rack for five minutes, then run knife along the edge, gently invert onto flat serving dish, and remove parchment paper. Let cool at least fifteen minutes before serving. A dollop of whipped cream on the side would complete this dessert, I think.

Wrapping Up

"Painting: the art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic." --Ambrose Bierce

Tomorrow morning, I turn in my creative writing portfolio. We were given the option of creating an illustrated cover. Because my longest and, reportedly, most promising piece of writing is about my summer job at an Alaskan fish cannery, this is what I came up with:

This is also a reference to frequent reminders in class to adhere to the Fish Head Principle of Editing, to wit, "cut it off!"

Baklava

My friend Julie Moore and I made baklava last night. It took four hours, including a trip to the grocery store in the middle of cooking to get more phyllo dough, and we were a little hysterical by the end, but we DID IT.

Behold:

Thanksgiving Notes

Liz, Jacob, and I had a lovely little feast on Wednesday (see Liz's blog or my food blog for details and photos) so that Jacob could be with his family on Thursday. I spent all Tuesday evening and the better part of Wednesday in the kitchen, and was so happy to have the time, money, and motivation to do so. I love, love, love cooking for myself and good friends.

Thursday morning at ten o'clock I attended the annual Thanksgiving Community Concert at the tabernacle. It was a joyful event in a handsome setting. The opening number was a choral arrangement of several phrases from the 55th chapter of Isaiah, the twelfth verse in particular:

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

This struck me quite forcefully because, a few weeks ago, I went on a prayer/meditation walk, culminating in a (tentative) Big Life Decision, which was greeted immediately by a sudden stiff breeze that sent the topmost leaves of a nearby birch tree into a noisy, frantic flapping. It startled me; the sound was so loud, and so unlike anything I'd ever heard out of a tree. I exclaimed to myself, "That tree! It's clapping its hands!" 

(Of course, I was very pleased with the poetic-ness of this idea, and thought myself very clever and original. Now I find out Isaiah was there 3,000 years ahead of me. Ah well.)

After the concert, I went to the Samuelsons' home. Brother Samuelson had invited me for Thanksgiving the previous week. I helped him and his wife with dinner, chatted with his mother, met their kids and grandkids and friend, Paula Soper, who is another professor in the English department, ate a wonderful, noisy meal on a clothed ping-pong table set for fourteen, petted cats, sang songs of praise, and sampled five kinds of pie. They are a beautiful family and it meant a lot to me to spend this holiday with them.

After the main festivities I was invited to stay and watch a Christmas movie. I wanted to, but was tired from three days of Thanksgiving-prep, so I took a rain check and was driven home where I walked into a sparkling clean kitchen -- courtesy of one golden-hearted LizAnne Whittaker. 

I think I was asleep by 8:45. And very cozily, happily, gratefully so. 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Epic Cake (recipe)

Notes: I still can't believe I pulled this off. It was very, very good. However, I do plan to make a few minor adjustments next time. The following recipe includes those changes. Scroll down to previous entry for luscious photos.

EQUIPMENT

3 9-inch cake layer pans

parchment paper

wire cooling rack

toothpicks

unflavored dental floss

large icing spatula

RECIPE

Cake:

1 German or Swiss chocolate cake mix

oil, water, and eggs as directed on box

12 oz cream cheese, cut into 1-inch squares, room temp

2/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup sour cream, room temp

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs, room temp

1 cup dried sour cherries, reconstituted, drained

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

1 can coconut milk

Line the bottoms of two cake pans with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake batter according to directions. Set aside. In separate bowl, cream sugar and cream cheese on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix on medium speed about two minutes. 

Pour as much of the chocolate batter into one cake pan as you think will fit without spilling over (aim for at least 3/4 of it). Pour remaining chocolate batter evenly into second cake pan. Pour cheesecake batter directly into center of pan, so that chocolate batter is pushed out on all sides, rimming the perimeter as evenly as possible. Drop cherries on top of cheesecake batter (they'll sink). The cheesecake won't rise much, or dome on top, so don't worry about the pan being full. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, checking both cakes for doneness at 30 minutes. My plain chocolate cake was done at 30 minutes; the cheesecake layer took another 8 minutes or so. But I'm at high elevation and our oven is old and senile, so... just keep an eye on them. 

Meanwhile, whisk together sweetened condensed, evaporated, and coconut milk. (You'll only be using half of it at most, so start thinking of ways to use the excess.)

Cool cakes in pans on wire rack for at least 45 minutes, then unmold cheesecake onto flat plate, bring to room temp, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.  Pierce chocolate cake layer about 50 times with toothpick, then pour milk mixture over cake, let it soak in, and repeat until cake is saturated. Cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours, checking once or twice to see if cake could absorb more milk. Wash and dry cheesecake pan for cherry custard phase.

Cherry Custard Filling:

2 1/2 cups pure cherry juice

3 TB fresh lemon juice

5 eggs, room temp

3 egg yolks, room temp

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp unflavored powdered gelatin

6 TB butter, cut into half-inch cubes, chilled

3 TB heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

pinch salt

red food coloring, if desired

Set aside 1/2 cup cherry juice. Heat remaining cherry and lemon juice at a brisk simmer until reduced by half. Whisk eggs, yolks, and sugar in medium bowl. Remove juice from heat for bout 30 seconds. Pour hot juice into egg mixture, whisking constantly. Add gelatin to reserved 1/2 cup cherry juice (this should stand undisturbed about five minutes before being stirred into the custard). Return egg/sugar/juice mixture to pot and set over medium-low heat. Stir steadily with spatula until mixture thickens enough to coat spoon (about 4 minutes). Remove from heat, stir in butter until melted, then stir in gelatin mixture, cream, vanilla, salt, and food coloring, if using. Divide custard between two parchment-lined cake pans. Refrigerate, transferring to freezer at least 40 minutes before commencing cake assembly.

Ganache Toppings:

1 12 oz package semisweet chocolate chips

1 4 oz bar Lindt milk chocolate, broken into small pieces

1 pint, minus 3 TB used in custard, heavy cream

~3 oz sliced almonds, toasted

Approximately one and a half hours before commencing cake assembly, place chocolate in medium heatproof bowl. Heat cream in small pot over medium-high heat until bubbling. Pour over chocolate. Cover and let sit five minutes. Whisk until smooth, let rest one minute, whisk again for one minute to fully emulsify. Pour a little more than half of ganache into separate container; cover and refrigerate both. After about an hour, remove smaller portion in original medium bowl and beat with electric mixer first on low, then medium speed until medium-stiff peaks form (took about five minutes for me). Set aside or refrigerate, whichever will make frosting easier for you.

CAKE ASSEMBLY

Invert soaked chocolate cake out of pan onto flat plate. Cut in half with dental floss. Place bottom half on cake platter. Run bottom of frozen custard pan under hot water for about 30 seconds, then tap frozen custard layer out of pan, invert onto first cake layer, remove paper. Place cheesecake layer upside-down on top of custard. Remove second frozen custard layer and place on top of cheesecake. Place domed second half of soaked chocolate cake on top. Frost cake with whipped ganache, thickly on sides and thinly on top. Press cooled toasted almond slices into sides. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes or so. Check unwhipped ganache; refrigerate longer or warm up to achieve desired consistency. Pour unwhipped ganache over top of cake, spreading and letting drip down sides as desired. Decorate top with almonds as desired. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours to allow custard to thaw.

Slice, serve, and ENJOY.

Epic Cake

This cake undoubtedly represents the pinnacle of my culinary endeavors. I really need to think of a name for it. Photos only, for now; I'll post the recipe later.

Thanksgiving!

Everything was absolutely wonderful! Liz decorated the dining room with festive cloth and candles, we loaded the table with goodies, and Jacob supplied Martinelli's and egg nog, which we sipped from champagne glasses.

A few prep photos...

Happy friends!

Clockwise from top:

Roasted rosemary carrots
Mashed potatoes with yam, garlic, parmesan, and fresh parsley

Steamed broccoli

Box stuffing with caramelized onions and a celery/apple/mushroom/chestnut saute

Pan-fried tilapia with a ginger-fennel-orange cream sauce

Below:

Potato rolls! From a great recipe I found online. Wonderful flavor, though the dough didn't rise much. 

Yay! 

Stay tuned; The Cake is getting its own personal entry.

Thai Fried Rice

Asian stir-fry is the perfect solution to leftover rice.


No time for details; on to Thanksgiving! However, did you know that if you put the bulbs of scallions in a jar of water after you've used the green part, they'll sprout up again for you? Eternal scallions! Awesome!

Well, it's finally snowing.

And though I'm sad to see autumn go, I'm grateful that it lasted as long as it did. I walked to WalMart and back on Friday, and thoroughly enjoyed it. That's pretty amazing. For Rexburg.

Saw Julie and Julia last night with Liz and her mom, and adored it. Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci are absolutely delightful. And the food -- ! I'm totally revved for Thanksgiving. It's Epicake Time.

Speaking of gratitude and Liz, I want to express how much of the former I feel for and toward the latter. I so admire her gentleness, brilliance, and generosity. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ghetto Delights, Take Two

I realized today that 24-Hour Salad is to me what macaroni and cheese is to so many other people. Except that it contains eight varieties of vegetable. Yeah, that's right. You eat mac 'n' cheese; I eat veggies. Judge me now, why dontcha?

Anyway, yes. 24-Hour Salad. It's cool, creamy, crunchy, and full of fat. (Oh, did I forget to mention the full cup of mayonnaise, up there in that self-righteous first paragraph? How silly of me.) It's total comfort food. One of the most blissful, satisfying meals I ever ate was a bowl of slow-simmered hambone soup, with a warm slice of homemade whole wheat bread, and a side of 24-Hour Salad. 

Notes: The original recipe calls for dressing the salad with straight mayonnaise. I prefer to gussy mine up, but it works just fine on its own. Be sure to layer the dressing between the chopped veggies; somehow this infuses the whole salad with flavor. If you have any way of keeping the salad from sitting in its liquid, such as placing a wire rack at the bottom of the bowl, or putting the whole thing in a salad spinner, do it. And yes, you must wait the whole durn 24 hours. Or at least 20, anyway. ;)

24-Hour Salad

1 cup mayonnaise

good dollop sour cream

bit of lemon zest and juice

black pepper and paprika to taste 

(dill might be nice, too)

1 head iceburg lettuce, chopped, rinsed, and dried

2 large carrots, grated

3 celery stalks, sliced thin

3-4 mushrooms, sliced thin

~1 1/2 cups frozen peas (still frozen; they'll thaw in the fridge)

2 scallions, sliced thin

1 large tomato, sliced

5 eggs, hard boiled, peeled, and quartered

salt and pepper

Combine dressing ingredients in small bowl and set aside. Place half the lettuce in large serving dish (a glass bowl is really pretty). Mix the carrot and celery and arrange evenly over lettuce. Spread half the dressing over the carrot/celery, sprinkle with half the sliced scallion, then add the peas. Add the rest of the lettuce, top with mushrooms, remaining scallions, and second half of dressing. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours, arranging egg quarters a few hours before serving. Add the tomatoes immediately before serving. Season with salt and pepper. Be sure to scoop deep to get all the layers.