Birthday Pie

Happy Birthday dear Lyle, happy birthday to yooooo!

Instead of cake, Lyle requested this for dessert. Man, these Scots and their sweet-tooths! If you're in the mood for sugar overload, this is the pie for you!

Crispy Apple Pie

9 inch single pastry crust, unbaked
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup butter
6 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup whipping cream

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in medium bowl and cut in butter til crumbly. Place one third of this mixture in the pie shell. Arrange apple slices evenly over it then sprinkle the remaining sugar-butter mix on top. Press it down a bit with the palm of your hand then carefully pour the whipping cream over it so that it runs in little rivulets into the apples. Bake pie at 425 for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 and bake for about another 25 minutes. I like a small scoop of French Vanilla ice cream with my little slice of this pie.

Today's listening pleasure, Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy, four and a half stars.

Melange a trois

I really should write this down before I forget...sometimes I think I'm the prize vegetable in my kitchen! This is what happened...I was feeling hermitlike but wanted to make soup...the carrots and leeks were just hangin' in the crisper so thought they might like to get together, then who shows up but the yam, who had never gotten over a previous relationship with the carrots (but that's another soup).
The result was...

Curried Carrot and Leek Soup

4 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 leeks, white and light green part only, well rinsed and chopped
1 yam, peeled and chopped
bit of butter (or light olive oil)
1 tablespoon curry paste or to taste
3 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
salt and pepper to taste
touch of light cream or milk, optional

Saute the veg in the butter or oil til slightly soft, stir in curry, broth and thyme. Simmer about 30 minutes then puree to desired smoothness. Salt and pepper if you wish. Swirl in a bit of milk or cream. Ridiculouly simple but to me, simply delish. Hope you enjoy it too!

Today's listening pleasure-
Una voce poco fa: A Portrait of Teresa Berganza , four stars

One for me and one for you

Speaking of chocolate (of course we were!) the other day I finally found some of my favorite dark chocolate treats, Baci. When I was little we had these at Christmas time and loved them, even though they were horribly stale and dusty tasting after being tucked away on a back shelf of our local Italian grocery from one year to the next. But they were Italian and therefore special and I used to love being able to read the words of wisdom on the little waxed paper inserts in two of the languages there :)

Just a few years ago I tasted for the first time a fresh Bacio. What a revelation! Please have one or two, I insist!

So far, so good

I've designated 2008 as my year of living wisely and well. I've successfully left a lot of stuff behind me and am movin' on up :)
In the food department, I've been making lots of wonderful winter soups. The latest one , Curried Carrot and Leek, was so simple and soooo good I'm almost embarassed to mention it. I didn't even take a pic! But I'm sure I'll be making it again very soon and will remedy that oversight.
My story writing is going pretty well and you can read me online at
Conte,
http://www.conteonline.net/issue0302/splash.html
and A Fly in Amber, http://aflyinamber.net/?p=57
And some of my very simple but kinda pretty jewellery designs are actually selling locally at a gift shop called LadyBugs. Incredible.I have a little online showcase at Etsy, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5530432
And the sun even came out today! Glorious! I spent most of the afternoon out in the crisp cold air, doing a bit of yard work. Does it get much better than this?

What Day is it?

My family did the time warp this Christmas and had it on the 23rd. Dinner, gifts, the whole shebang on that nothing day, December 23rd.And it turned out to be sweeter than I ever expected, because today, while the rest of the world tore off wrappings and tried to pry apart the legs of a massive frozen turkey to insert stuffing, I did...nothing. Yep. Nothing. I watched hours of Christmas programming while Lyle slept between night shifts ( no annoying male moaning about my taste in music) and read many chapters of a mindless page-turner while the storm raged outside. No worries here. If the power went out we still have lots of leftovers that I would happily consume cold. I can honestly say I have never had a more pleasant 25th of December. Very Merry Two Days after the 23rd to one and all!

LIve from New York

This morning I dragged my cold-wracked body out of bed early and made my way to the opera. Not my usual couple of hundred mile trek to the city opera, but a mere half hour drive to our new and lovely local theatre, where, with the finagling of some devoted opera buffs, the live telecasts from the Met are being broadcast right here in little old River City.
It was fabulous. Riveting. Soaring. Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette", featuring the gorgeous presences of Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna in the title roles.
If you have the slightest interest or affection for opera and you have live telecasts happening in your town or city, go. Just go.

Seriously, Santa...

...disregard anything those freaky elves say,I have been nice this year. Here, look, I baked you a cake! (weezie, does anything look familiar in this pic?)
I'm very fond of any foods with spirals or swirls or marbling of any sort...I think there is some kind of metaphysical reason for that but anyway, here's a great recipe for a tasty and pretty cake.


Marbled Banana Cake

1/2 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 ripe, medium bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
½ cup sour cream, ½ cup light cream
1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a 12-cup bundt pan (12-inch diameter).
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in the eggs one by one, waiting until each has been incorporated to add the next. Beat in vanilla extract and mashed bananas.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mix and stir to combine. Add in the sour cream and light cream, followed by the remaining flour mixture.
Remove 1 1/2 cups of batter into a small bowl and stir in cocoa powder.
Pour 2/3 of the plain batter into the prepared bundt pan, top with cocoa batter and spoon the rest of the plain batter on top. Run a knife through the batter gently to swirl.
Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed.
Turn cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.