Lindacakes

Achevres, I would love the dried fruit cake recipe. It sounds really good. I always have dried fruit around. I've been meaning to try the visiting cake -- I have the cookbook and have made some good things out of it.

That would be excellent, Hummingbirdkiss. Usually I have two of the three gingers on hand. Epicurious has a plethora of cobbler recipes, I'll survey those. I have a brownie cake recipe from a Wendy DuBord thread that seems perfect. I always have cocoa and it has only cocoa, no chocolate. Doesn't specify whether it requires frosting, though. I usually have a can of condensed milk around the house in the summer, for Key Lime Pie. Mine has to sit for a day, though, and that's no quick snack!

I'm looking for ideas for quick things to make for two in an 8 x 8 inch pan. I usually do butterscotch brownies, which require no special ingredients unless you want pecans in them. Using recipe from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book. This has been happening since childhood, as you may guess. Then there's the Cafe Expresso Cake from the back of the Domino Confectioner's Sugar box. You make the frosting first, and use some of it in the cake batter. A very tasty little cake, again needing nothing I don't keep around the house. It's a bit more work, though. Any one have any other recipes like this? I won't eat any sweet junk food, house rule I make it myself, but there's times when a person just wants a freakin' snack.

This is probably a monkey wrench, but under similar circumstances, I could not eat. Someone dropped off a plate of food I ended up pulling out of my mouth with my fingers because I couldn't stomach it. I went to the grocery store and bought eggs, english muffins and oranges. And so my father and I ate for about a week. Bread freezes well and is defrostable by the slice.

This is off topic-y, but I just recently bought my first duck fat. What do I do with it? I bought it for roasting potatoes, but how? Put some duck fat in the bottom of the pan and roast in the oven? What else do I do with it? Anything I do with butter? It would be an interesting side topic, related -- clever uses of the precious ingredients one must always have on hand. I think they're must-haves because they're versatile, but some you keep them on hand because you have to eat a certain food a certain way. For instance, the anchovy paste is for salad dressings. Little hint from Lynne Rosetto Kasper. Gives any dressing that je ne sais quoi . . . Lemon juice, baby, gotta have that on tuna salad with those black olives. Things like that.

I made the fresh apricot ice cream last night. I suppose I went amuck with the Bamix, because my "batter" was very fluffy, and when left in the fridge for the day, turned to a chiffon-ish consistency. The ice cream froze just fine, all the same. It is exceptional ice cream, and my parrot loves it, but somehow I felt it needed a bit of salt. I neglected to look through the book to see if other recipes called for salt, but that's how it seemed to me. Of course, this may have happened as a result of Bamixomania.

Sugar Plum, did you post that last one? THAT looks like a date bar from heaven. I like the texture of the date goo.

Thanks for sharing that recipe again, Andie. I have been looking for an all-corn cornbread for some time and I can't wait to try it.

I make the Mooswood cornbread with buckwheat honey and bake it in a cast iron skillet. I also really like a little number called Mexican Spoon Bread by Dolores Casella. You can google it and get the recipe. I have no standards whatsoever and will eat any form of it. However, I do order my corn meal stone ground from Falls Mill.

Check out the Baking Circle thread over at King Arthur Flour. There is a member there with a bun recipe, known as Moomie. Moomie's Buns enjoy a cult status at King Arthur. You can get them from the member's recipe's section. I, myself, have not made them, but personally, I would highly recommend trying them.

Forgot: tube of anchovy paste.

dried porcini mushrooms candied ginger candied ginger preserves from Williams Sonoma Hannah brand hummus from Costco frozen home made chili sauce (Chili Colorado from epicurious) frozen home made Linda's tomato gravy frozen home made orange/ginger/cranberry sauce frozen guacamole from Costco frozen nuts of various sorts frozen stock dates, figs (have recently discovered the paper-thin slices of dried figs in salads) Penzy's Foxpoint Penzy's chicken paste (that's not what it's called, but it's what it is) black and green Nyon olives with pits, indispensible, never without slab of grating cheese, currently grana padano tiny cans of condensed milk prepared horseradish

This is a very, very interesting thread and I thank everyone for contributing to it. I lean farther in the direction of Fat Guy's comments than anyone else's but I'd go even further with it. I, personally, have an issue with the issues approach to weight. I know this is absolutely a factor in eating as well as many other habits that are not-so-healthy for people. People gamble to feel better, people shop to feel better, people have sex to feel better, people physically hurt other people to feel better, people smoke to feel better, people exercise power over other people to feel better, people make money to feel better, people drink alcohol to feel better, and people give up and stop trying to feel better. It seems to me that it is only fat people who are made to feel truly inferior and ashamed about themselves and their need to feel better. In spite of the fact that sugar consumption raises seratonin levels in the brain and actually makes people feel better! Who well may have felt bad because of low seratonin levels in the first place. All of us have different metabolisms. What is true for one person's body is not true for another person's body. One of my brothers was thin all his life. Ate whatever he wanted to. Didn't exercise. Kept a block of Velveeta cheese in his fridge and a pile of candy bars and cookies in his cupboard. God bless him. My other brother eats bags of burritos from Sam's Club, drinks soda, and works his arse off daily. Physically. He's a fat boy. I follow Mottmott's dietary rules, I'm a nun with my organic lunch and my quinoa. I also like sugar and I sit on my butt for a living. I'm a fat girl. All of us live in a society which is obsessed with appearance, and obsessed with money. And these factors collide to make it quite difficult for us to concentrate on health, safety and human kindness. The food industry doesn't really want us to be well fed, and the diet industry doesn't really want us to be thin. The school system does not value physical education and we are not encouraged, while working in front of our computers 10 to 12 hours a day, to exercise. We have to pay for the right to exercise with machines inside a building if we're lucky enough to have time to do it. Sigh. What I really like, though, is how many people in this thread have identified themselves as fat. We're eGulleters and we're fat. And it's okay. It's okay to be fat and like food and accept oneself. And to also care about our health and well-being and the health and well-being of our friends. I am sorry for your loss, Pan. I'm sorry that you lost your musician friend who understood being a musician and music with you. I'm sorry that she lost her life early and I'm sorry that she had sadness in her life. I lost that skinny brother mentioned above too early. And since that day I've tried to hold on to what is important and happy about every day and every person with as much love and compassion as possible.

I dunno, if you're going to go that far, why not two fried eggs? What's with one fried egg? Whoever even heard of one fried egg, what's up with that? Also, us New Yorkers gotta have our bacon-egg-and-cheese "onnaroll". Nice soft, gooshy roll to absorb any escaped fat.

For balance, amazing: In college I had a friend who hosted Sunday potlucks at her tiny little house at the top of a hill. She had a couch in the kitchen, and over the sink a copy of Scott Fitzgerald's accounting of his household expenses (wild parties was one of the entries). One could open the back door, which led directly into the kitchen, sit on the couch with a drink, and talk to her while she cooked, gazing steadlily out onto the grassy hill. My grandmother liked to host mother's day at her house, with all of her children and their children and cook a lasagna so big that the oven door couldn't close -- a thick rug was placed over the cracked open part to close it off.

Ah, my favorite above is the mother who set her kitchen on fire twice. During a misspent youth I had a job bellydancing in a Middle Eastern restaurant. Try entertaining the dining room while the kitchen's on fire. Also in misspent youth I allowed an acquaintance to go into my spotless kitchen to cook. This was an act of off-the-cuff creative and entertaining inspiration for her and about a hour of cleaning greasy handprints off my spice jars for me. Since it's just us in here, I can say that my father in law has spat in my sink. The memory brings a sour taste into my mouth. Luckily, we moved into the apartment above and I no longer live with that sink, but I know it's down there. His wife, the MIL, is as the one mentioned above. I am from an Italian family where to have guests means to overfeed as many people as will fit in the kitchen with as many courses as possible until they are about to burst and then send them home with a bunch of wrapped food for later. She once fed twelve people on six eggs, I kid you not. More than once we've had dinner at her house and then sneaked out to get a hamburger. I once assisted her in the kitchen, dredging parsnips in plain flour at her request. I have a friend who cooks all the time, and I've never eaten at his house, but I saw his kitchen once. The stove was covered (not an exaggeration) with streaks of running brown-black grease. The sort of thing you think you'll see on the six o'clock news when they're exposing the home of a serial killer. There, I feel better.

Okay, so I'm hanging out on the Dorie Greenspan thread and I'm hanging out on the David Lebovitz thread and voila -- World Peace cookie ice cream sandwiches with malt ice cream . . . That's good. Really, really good.

Candied Cherry recipe has been added to Recipe Gullet.

The recipe has been posted to Recipe Gullet -- "Candied Cherries".

Which did you personally like better? I'm thinking fudgy?

Hee hee. I love when this topic gets resurrected. My fruit's been going since May, I don't intend to bake until September. Right now I'm candying cherries for my fruitcakes -- this year I'll be starting my fruit AT CHRISTMAS! So that it will be a year-long process. I like the poetry of that. The candied cherries are a real pleasure, take only about fifteen minutes a day for a couple of weeks and yield fabulous deep red delicious cherries. Very difficult to keep from eating them all now. I've copied all these recipes and I might change my recipe a bit. To answer a question above, I use ground pecans in my cake. You don't taste the pecan flavor, but I'm sure it adds to the overall effect. Also, regarding the aging of the cake -- I don't soak mine in alcohol. I wrap in plastic and then foil and leave it be. I personally don't like a really boozy cake, I want the taste of the alcohol to subside.

Candied Cherries From Favorite Homemade Cookies and Candies, Sedgewood Press 1982 Wash one pound of cherries and remove the pits. Place the cherries in a saucepan and cover with boiling water. Cook for about 4 minutes or until tender. Drain well, reserving 1 1/4 cups of the liquid. Spread out the cherries, in one layer, in a heatproof dish. Pour the reserved liquid back into the saucepan and add 3/4 cup of sugar. Heat gently, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour the syrup evenly over the cherries. Cover with a plate or tray to keep the cherries submerged in the syrup. Allow to soak for 24 hours. The next day, drain off the syrup into a saucepan. Add 1/4 cup of the sugar, stir to dissolve, then bring to a boil. Pour over the cherries again and let soak for 24 hours longer. Repeat this step every day for the next 5 days. The next day, drain off the syrup into a saucepan. Add 6 tablespoons of sugar, stir to dissolve and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the cherries. Return the pan to the heat and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes. Pour the cherries and the syrup back into the dish, cover and soak for 48 hours. On the tenth day, repeat but soak for 4 days instead of 48 hours. The syrup should be like clear red honey. Drain off the syrup. Place the fruit on a wire rack over a cookie sheet. Finishing Dry the cherries in a warm place or in a 250-degree oven. Cherries are dry when they no longer feel sticky. For a glace finish, place 2 cups sugar and 2/3 cup cold water in a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and keep warm. Have a saucepan of boiling water ready. Pour some of the sugar syrup into a cup. Dip the cherries, one at a time, first into the boiling water then the syrup. When the syrup in the cup becomes cloudy, discard and replace with fresh. As the cherries are dipped, arrange on wire rack over a cookie sheet. Dry the cherries as described above. For a crystallized finish, dip the cherries in boiling water and coat with sugar. ( RG1997 )

Wow, man, a peeled egg exploded? I'm sorry about your lip, but that's cool. Gives you a concept of just how strong those proteins are . . .

I lift the cherries out with a slotted spoon, then pour the liquid back into a saucepan. The recipe calls for a quarter cup of sugar per pound of fruit. I screwed up and used a quarter cup for three pounds of fruit, but the last time I did it, I added the full amount. Each day, then, the syrup becomes more concentrated. I did this last year and allowed the cherries to sit in their syrup in the fridge for six months. Just fine. The recipe I'm using asks you to dry them. I don't think I want them dry, but I'm not sure, so I'm going to experiment this weekend. Right now I have a single cherry sitting on the counter to drain all day so that I can sample it this evening. They're that precious. I've started making ice cream with the David Lebovitz book and I'm thinking vanilla ice cream with cherry pieces in it . . . David Lebovitz has a quickie method on his web site. I used that last season. It worked okay, but I like the long method better.

Oooooooooo. Thank you. What a concept: better than buttermilk. I'm dying here, because buttermilk is one of my all time favorite tastes on the flav-o-meter. I collect buttermilk recipes . . . I love buttermilk . . . . Oooooooooo.