It is perfectly quiet in my house this morning. My husband is off on a business trip and I have a few minutes to reflect on the weekend. Lots of things happened that changed my intended plans. Saturday, I had hoped to visit Stone Barns in Potantico Hills, NY. I have long wanted to go but found the property was totally closed as their sheep-sheering festival was sold out (note to self – go to this next year!). While we could have dined at Blue Hill on the earlier side, we’ll do it another time when we can tour the farm. So, we spent Saturday in the city and had dinner at Pesce Pasta on Bleecker St. with friends. I love to visit Murray’s Cheese, Rocco’s and many of the little shops along there. It is always fun to explore the streets and see the many beautful brownstones and rowhouses in the West Village. It was a nice night and it was fun.
Yesterday morning brought the sad news that my very good friend Sally’s husband lost his valiant battle with ALS. While this is a blessing for all involved it gave pause to reflect on how a sudden diagnosis can upset one’s expectations on a dime and change the course of a family’s life for a very long time, if not forever. I think the best thing I can say about watching this experience is that my friends gave their Dad and husband the absolute best care available and took every moment possible to share and “be” with him, capturing the best memories for themselves from this noble and courageous man and making him feel good about what a wonderful family he had. I bring this up in this venue because I am often at a loss of what to do when certain “situations” come up in life. Feeling basically helpless from my vantage point, I did what my dear Mom would have done and did for most of her adult life – I baked them a cake. Well, actually, I baked them many cakes and did some cooking to help out when I could. Over the course of the past two or so years, Sally and I would meet for lunch when she could get away for a quick hour or so and I’d deliver a cake and sometimes some soup, bread, wine, cheese and flowers. What else can you do? – so, yesterday was a cake and soup day. Anyway, this time period gave me the opportunity to try out a lot of different cakes. I stayed in the bundt category as they are easy travelers and can be enjoyed at breakfast, for snacks and desserts. So, while I don’t recommend going through this experience, with anyone, here are five excellent cakes to try for any occasion:
-Dorie Greenspan’s Double Apple Cake to which I added 1 tsp vanilla and instead of the apple butter, I added 1 cup creme fraiche
-Dorie Greenspan’s Classic Banana Bundt cake to which I added the zest of one orange, 1 tsp of ground ginger, 1 tsp of ground cinnamon and 1 cup of chopped pecans,
-Martha Stewart’s Lemon-Ginger Bundt Cake to which I added 1 cup of fresh blueberries
-Orange-Ginger Pumpkin Cake – adapted from Anna Pump to which I added Martha Stewart’s Maple Glaze
-Nick Malgieri’s High Ratio Fresh Ginger Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze – wow, I found no need to fiddle with this!
I will post all of these recipes shortly. I highly recommend all of these cakes. They are quick and easy, keep well and are excellent.
The two soups I make most often these days are Ina Garten’s Lentil-Vegetable, to which I add a little dry Sherry and Ellie Krieger’s Autumn Vegetable. If you haven’t been a big Kale eater and are looking to try it, the latter is a great soup to introduce yourself to Kale. I will post these also.
Anyway, making up a gift basket is a good way to try to feel useful when you’re at a loss of a good way to help someone out. It provides an opportunity to be creative and do some good work in the kitchen.
Last night I was looking for another project in the kitchen so I made a Raspberry-Cherry pie. This was after I had roamed around the grocery store looking for a nice little treat after a down day and decided that the pickings at the store were not up to par. I had some raspberries in the fridge and some canned cherries so I combined them and the pie came out very well. I am not a fan of using corn starch as a thickener in pie, actually I don’t like corn starch for much of anything, so I use tapioca for my cherry pies and so I did with this. Recipe coming.
This week I hope to do some more housekeeping on this site so I can try to go it alone very soon. My trip to Cape Cod is postponed for a week so I will hopefully get some good time outside and will try to post some pictures of my gardens. Everything is looking very good so far. I am glad we are getting to our frost date, which is May 15 so I can begin with some tomatoes and basil. Last year I grew some heirloom tomatoes for the first time and I am anxious to try this again. I am hoping to start a small raised-bed garden at the Cape this year. More on this later……..
Cookbook of the Day: Cooking in Provence by Alex MacKay and Peter Knab – this is a visually wonderful book – all sunny and delightful! Love their story and can’t wait to make the Tarte Aux Peches when the peaches come, but plan to try the Tarte Orange et Chocolat – maybe this week!!!! Also, plan to try out the Tarte Fine Aux Tomatoes on Ryan and Christin – maybe over Mother’s Day! Seriously, check out this book – even if you don’t ever make any of the recipes, it is worth a read and a perusal of the pics!!!!!
Below is a picture of the pie I made last night along with the Mauviel “cocottes” I mentioned last week. They will be used for salt and pepper cellars. I think they’re great.
Raspberry-Cherry Pie
Mauviel "cocottes"