TWD/BWJ: Nectarine Chiffon Cake

Of all times for me to decide to bake early...

Well, it was Labor Day. The King of the Castle and the Prince were both home. I blame them. TOTAL DISASTER! First, I should say that I was already making a pecan pie.  The King ordered a 6 pound box of the most beautiful, delicious pecans last week.  I think it was a Groupon or something. I've been nibbling them and dreaming of a pie. Today was pecan pie day.

I figured as long as the oven was hot I might as well bake the Nectarine Chiffon Cake. And could send at least half of each dessert back to school with the Prince. You know how much sugar college boys need.

Let me rewind for a second and tell you about Labor Day weekend in Atlanta. There's something for everyone. One of my favorite events is the Decatur Book Festival, the nation's largest independent book festival. Oh the joy of it! You wander from building to building, hearing authors talk about their books.  For two days you can do this, and it's totally free. Mind-boggling really.  This year, I could only make it on Sunday having previously signed up for a full-day quilt workshop on Saturday (which was awesome - some years there are just too many wonderful things). Still, on Sunday alone, I heard presentations about the dangers of prescriptions drugs, the development of the Lithium Ion battery , the stories held in our DNA, the similarities between writing a book and making music, and how creativity works. It doesn't matter who you listen to. When someone writes a book, they're passionate about the subject. It's always interesting!

And then there's DragonCon. Legions of people converge on downtown Atlanta dressed as everything from videogame characters to zombies to superheroes. My daughter's good friend said "I tripped on the steps and Captain America caught me!" Personally, I'm not interested in the convention activities, but one of these years, I WILL make it to the DragonCon parade on Saturday morning.

Oh yes, there were a few other events too.  Braves games (with Lynard Skynard afterward on Friday), a NASCAR race, a Hot Air Balloon Festival, and a Whiskey and Beer Fest. Like I said, something for everyone. And too much for any one person.

Back to the cake, er, disaster.  All went relatively well until the timer went off. Testing the cake with a toothpick, I determined that it was nowhere near done. Set the timer for 5 more minutes, twice. All the while my husband, the King of All Things Olfactory, announced repeatedly (and emphatically) that something was burning. The cake did look dark. I finally got tired of listening to him and removed the thing from the oven even though the toothpick never did test clean. Thought maybe it'd firm up as it cooled. NOT. More like some kind of lava cake.  The prince and I had a little piece anyway, with ice cream of course. But it wasn't good. I didn't care for the flavors or the streusel. Not even gonna try this one again.  On a brighter note, the pecan pie came out great! Oh, if you'd like to prove to me that the cake is wonderful, feel free to find the recipe here or here, and the blogs of other bakers here.  Good Luck!

This week's shoe showed up right down the street from my house. Not really a disaster, but it IS ominously black. 

TWD/BWJ: Popovers

Yet again, I baked on the proper day. I really did. After driving six hours to Kentucky and stopping in north Georgia to buy a popover pan, I baked. And I failed. For the first time, I totally blew a BWJ recipe.  Here's the sad evidence...

Eggy and dense. Nothing like all the other bloggers reported. Everyone else seemed to have a fabulous experience. Easy! Wonderful! Amazing!

So here's the thing - I arrived at my sister's house and we immediately began chatting, you know - sister talk. Honestly, I wasn't really paying that much attention to the "easy" recipe. I think I added too much butter. And maybe not enough flour. Certainly the eggs and milk were still a little cool. And no blender. Oh well. It was late, I was tired, and we were busy talking. So I invented egg muffins.  I do not recommend them.

Thursday morning I had time to try again.  Having invested in a pan, I was NOT going to let this recipe beat me. This time I used a blender. Bro-in-law had to dig it out of the back of a cabinet over the fridge. Warmed the eggs in hot water and heated the milk in the microwave.


Discovered that the flour I'd used previously was "self-rising"! Seriously, who hides self-rising flour in the flour tin? One of the hazards of baking in an unfamiliar kitchen, I guess. This time I concentrated, checked the recipe, and - voila!- success!  Even so, as I was pulling the popovers out of the oven, bro-in-law says "Did she tell you the oven's 25 degrees off?"

Happily, all's well that ends well.














The recipe can be found here or here. And the links to all the successful bakers' blogs are here.


In honor of my first BWJ failure, what else? A flip-FLOP! Spotted just before I left town. Perfect timing. Or prophesy? Is it possible that the shoes are trying to tell me something? Hmmm.

TWD/BWJ: Berry Galette

I made this galette last Tuesday. The right day for Tuesdays With Dorie. Really I did. But it never got posted.  The recipe can be found here or here, other blogs about it here.

We have an ancient apple tree in the corner of our backyard that's loaded this year.  The branches hang down so low to the ground that one of our dogs picks apples off the tree. She loves them.

Our galette was filled with apples and a handful of blueberries. It was small and we gobbled it up in one sitting. The humans, not the dogs. And there was homemade vanilla bean ice cream. It was good.

Decided to use the other half of the dough to make another the next day. This time we bravely took on the swarm of bees on the fig trees and picked enough to make a fig galette. Fruit, crust, ice cream. What's not to like? Gone in a minute.

I spent the rest of the week on a little road trip with my son, since he didn't get to go on the earlier one and will be starting back to school this week.  Just a little jaunt through Alabama and Mississippi.  Oh, the things we saw! Among them, the world's largest gallstone and the courthouse where "To Kill A Mockingbird" was filmed. We stuck our feet in the Gulf of Mexico and saw the very first dorm I ever lived in.

And we saw a great many shoes in the road.  Very few I actually got pictures of.  But here's a double. Just outside of Tuskegee, Alabama.  A white boot (how many of those do you see?!?) and a brown maryjane.  Hmmm.  There was another nearby, but I'm saving it for another time.

TWD/BWJ: Blueberry Nectarine Pie

I was doing quite well on the wheat-free diet. And then Blueberry Nectarine Pie came along. The recipe can be found here or here, and other bloggers are here. I honestly did intend to only eat the filling, and in fact made the filling wheat-free by substituting cornstarch and tapioca for the flour.

I made the crust by hand because I like using a pastry blender. It reminds me of my mother, who used one to make the crumbs for her famous peach crumb pie. She died when I was 15 and it's one of the few things I learned from her about baking.

Notice the tea towel?
The-Best-Neighbor-In-The-World moved back from
London and brought it to me.

An Olympic Pie! Sprinkled with a little purple sugar.
Probably not the best decision - it looked like freckles.

Because I felt so bad about not eating the crust (and was SO sure that I wouldn't), I made a little ice cream to go with the pie. It was strawberry-buttermilk ice cream from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home. I heard Jeni being interviewed on The Splendid Table last week, and then the book fell into my hands at the library so I didn't really feel like I had a choice.  Sometimes the universe conspires. 

                    

In the end, I ate the crust! Took one bite just to test it out and couldn't stop myself from eating the rest. Which means I've totally blown the scientific wheat-free experiment. But it was worth it. I tend to believe that the most sensible way of eating is governed by two rules: "Eat real food" and "Everything in moderation". Of course, I'm on the library waiting list now for The China Study. Why do I do this to myself? 

There was one other way that the universe conspired on my behalf this week. It's a long story that you don't want to hear, but I ended up with an amazing Singer treadle sewing machine "born" on May 27, 1898 (according to the Singer company after only 1 1/2 hours on hold).  It's gorgeous and in fantastic condition!  I took the entire thing apart, cleaned and oiled it up, and it sews beautifully. Can't tell you how long I've wanted one of these. My heart overflows. ♥

A shoe?  Let's see what I can come up with. How about another one from our road trip? It was York, SC.

  

TWD/BWJ: Semolina Bread

I wasn't going to participate this week but after seeing some of the other posts, I relented. Hated to miss out, even for a good reason. The recipe can be found here or here, links to other blogs are here.

Last week the library called to say that a book I put on reserve ages ago had come in. Oh, how I wish I hadn't read it. There are some things you don't want to know. Especially when you're learning to bake. The book was Wheat Belly, by Dr. William Davis.

What an eye-opener.  I realized that I knew very little about wheat.  Just when I was getting over the whole corn thing too.

The sponge gurgling on the back porch

You know, you think "whole wheat" = good thing!  That's where it lived in my brain. Never questioned it for a moment. Ah yes, there are all those gluten-free people, but they have some kind of disease, don't they?

Turns out there's more to the story.  And yes, the good doctor has a definite bias (one of my Facebook friends called the book "dogmatic").  But that doesn't change the facts.

Did you know that 2 slices of whole wheat bread have a glycemic index of 72?  That's higher than 2 slices of white bread (69), 2 tablespoons of sugar (59), or a Snickers bar (41)! Which means that it sends your blood sugar higher faster.  That one blew me away.  Apparently this is not in dispute and has been known for years. 

Every bread recipe should begin with "remove your rings"!
And has anybody else played with those Inktense pencils? 

And then there's the whole hybridization thing. The wheat that's available today bears very little resemblance to the wheat that was grown in the mid-20th century. Did you know that today's wheat is 12"-18" tall? No more amber waves of grain. And yes, this has helped feed a starving world.  But it has also changed the wheat which apparently adds the chromosomes from both parents. It ends up with twice as many when it's hybridized, unlike many organisms (including humans) whose offspring have the same number of chromosomes as the parents. Plus, there's an issue with genetic modification. The proteins and enzymes in wheat now are new to the human experience. It was a very scientific book. Don't read it. You'll be sorry.

Flat.  But what do I care at this point?

Basically, the point of the entire book was that there's a chance that the consumption of wheat could contribute to everything from diabetes and Crohn's disease to Alzheimer's and cancer. I know that sounds crazy. So, I'm going wheat-free for a month. It's a scientific experiment. I want to see for myself whether I feel better, have more energy, fewer food cravings, less brain fog, etc.  I'll let you know. 

In the meantime, I made something for myself while the bread was rising.  Wheat-free cheesecake (the crust is made of nuts).  Stopped by the Thursday Farmer's Market in town and found this wonderful jelly to put on top of it. It's Pomegranate Moscato, made by an 11-year-old boy!  He was the cutest thing.  And the jellies he makes are amazing and very reasonably priced.  Here's more info. Some days you just never know who's going to cross your path.

My husband hasn't read the book.  Neither has my neighbor...

A shoe for you.  Not very exciting, but I saw it while the dough was rising.  Can't believe the picture came out since I took it over my shoulder while driving in rush hour traffic.

TWD/BWJ: Hazelnut Biscotti (with no hazelnuts)

I never thought of biscotti as something that a person would make at home. It was a revelation. Easy as can be. Couldn't find hazelnuts at the first 3 stores I tried, and was too lazy to keep looking, so mine was Almond Biscotti. I drizzled a little white and semi-sweet chocolate on them. The recipe can be found here or here, and links to other participants are here.

Can I say right up front that I had a little issue with the actual cookbook? The ingredients are listed on one page and the instructions on the next.  Flipping back and forth, with the ingredients for another biscotti recipe listed on the previous page - well, I mixed up the wrong dry ingredients before I realized it.  Kept thinking I didn't remember cinnamon being in there, and it specified baking powder when I thought we were supposed to use baking soda... Had to toss and start over.

And while I'm fussing, might as well admit that I've dropped the book on the floor at least a hundred times because of that slippery paper cover. Every time I took it off the shelf, it would slip out.  Finally gave up and removed the cover all together.  I'm using a naked white book.  There.  I feel better now that I've confessed.

It's been an exciting couple of days around here. Entertainment wise. Friday night we went to see a Cirque du Soleil show called "Michael Jackson, The Immortal World Tour". My husband bought the tickets in 2010.  I'm just glad we remembered to go after all this time. Our seats were 5 feet from the stage.

There was more singing and dancing that a normal Cirque show, and they did all the incredible stuff too. The performers even swung out over the audience which was kind of scary.  The costumes were unbelievable. And of course the music was, well, Michael Jackson. Every favorite song. Huge videos of him. I think it must be the closest thing to a Michael Jackson concert that's possible at this point. Impressive but also a little sad. There was a graveyard scene in the Thriller piece that hit a bit close to home.

And last night we saw Coldplay.  If you ever get a chance to see this band, GO.  You don't even have to know the music to have a great time. Everyone got a wristband when they came in the door.  During the concert those wristbands came to life and lit up. Controlled by a computer somewhere.  Sometimes they blinked to the beat of a song, sometimes they twinkled, sometimes they stayed dark. There was not an empty seat in the arena and it was a sea of lights. Totally made you feel a part of the show.

There was also confetti, and huge balls that looked like planets falling from the ceiling, and a performance that included Rhianna on video.  At one point, the band emerged in the middle of the crowd at the back of the room for several songs. "We love the people in the back!" they said. Mostly, the music was great and the band LOVED what they were doing.  You could feel it. I've been to lots of concerts and this was one of the best.

Well, the Biscotti's done now. Here are a couple of pictures from the shows.

And a shoe.  This one was in Richmond, VA.