I get really excited about women who can write and who can cook…and who blog about it.  I first found Molly, and through her, Jess.

Last night, I read Jess’s entry about “Teddie’s Apple Cake” and it inspired me to make it.  I’m a savory cook – not really into baking – but this sounded really good. Plus, I love the way she describes everything.  Her blog is really fun to read.

So, I made Teddie’s cake.  Tonight.  Only thing I did differently is that I added 1/4 cup of Craisins to the cake…the tart addition just seemed right to me.   Well, I also didn’t discriminate on the apples.  I used what I found in the commissary…one was a Golden Delicious and one was a Braeburn, or something like that.  (Whatever!  Use what you want!)

And the verdict from John and Jan is:  “Make it again!” 

I’ve pasted the important parts from Jess’ post – in the italics that follow.

~~~*~~~

The recipe for Teddie’s Apple Cake first appeared in a New York Times article by Jean Hewitt in 1973. Amanda Hesser published it again in the Times in 2007, and again when it made the cut for The Essential New York Times Cookbook that came out last year. The recipe is, of course, Teddie’s. And while we don’t know anything about this Teddie, not even a last name, one thing is clear: whoever Teddie was, Teddie knew her (his?) cake.

There is nothing surprising about this cake. Apple meets cinnamon, meets walnut, meets sugar, eggs, and flour. An obvious combination, if ever there was one. Classic is classic for a reason, though. Teddie must have gotten that. The cake is made with oil, not butter, which caught my attention because I like the texture of most oil-based cakes: the way the crumbs cling to each other only lightly, as if trying not to touch at all, how when you mash your fork with the slightest pressure into the last bits on the plate, they stick. In some ways, it’s a delicate cake, but thanks to so much apple and a craggy upper crust, it feels hearty, too.

Teddie’s cake is an everyday cake, which is to say that it’s simple enough that you don’t need a special occasion to make it. It’s icing-less, and not too sweet and, in this case, so packed with fruit, it’s practically health food. But my favorite thing about everyday cakes is that, almost without fail, they are also anytime cakes.This one is, for sure. Eat it for dessert with loosely whipped cream, for breakfast, for second breakfast, or for those unnamed meals between pages written, or phone calls returned, when a quick stroll through the kitchen is only civilized. Yes, when it’s time to bake an apple cake, I recommend Teddie’s.

Teddie’s Apple Cake
Adapted from The New York Times, November 4, 2007 (Originally published, September 30, 1973)

The original recipe is for a large amount of batter that bakes in a 9-inch tube pan. I shied away from that for a couple of reasons. First, I don’t have a tube pan. But moreover, tube cakes are huge. I’m all for everyday cake, but if I’m going to eat a cake every day (and, as we’ve also established, anytime), I need to be able to slice off a wedge every now and then that’s significantly smaller than the state of Texas. Plus, there are only two of us here – two cake eaters, anyway – and this cake would be a terrible thing to waste. If you’d prefer to make the original whopper of a tube cake, double this recipe, use 3 eggs instead of two, and increase the bake time to 1 hour and 15 minutes. The recipe here is for one 9-inch round cake. Finally, the original recipe calls for 1 cup of raisins, but I omitted them because I thought that they might make the cake too sweet. If you decide to include raisins, add them when you add the walnuts.

1½ c. flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. baking soda
¾ c. vegetable oil
1 c. sugar
2 large eggs
½ tsp. vanilla
2 c. peeled, cored, and thickly sliced apples (I used a combination of Jonagold and Cortland.)
Heaped ½ c. walnuts, chopped
1 Tbsp. Demerara sugar (optional)

Oil and flour a 9-inch round cake pan and heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the oil and sugar together in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Meanwhile, sift together the flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda in a medium bowl. After five minutes, add the eggs and then the vanilla to the oil and sugar, and continue beating until the mixture is creamy.

Add the dry ingredients into the sugar, egg, and oil mixture and stir by hand until just combined. Fold in the apple slices and walnuts. It will look like a lot of apple and not enough batter, but it all works out in the end.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, sprinkle with Demarara sugar if you’d like, and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan before turning out.

Serves 8-10.

You know how a cherry pie tastes?  That delectable mix of sweet and tart? Well, to me, cherry pie is more tart than sweet.

This pie has the same signature flavor, but is slightly more on the sweet side – and absolutely delicious.

1 baked pie shell
Juice from 1/2 a medium lemon (an overflowing Tbsp)
4 cups blueberries
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch (or flour, if you don’t have cornstarch)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp salted butter

~ Sort, de-stem and wash 2 cups of blueberries, and dry them as best you can.  Spread them evenly in the pie shell.

~ Cook the remaining 2 cups of berries with the sugar, cornstarch, salt and water over medium heat, stirring nearly constantly until the berries pop and the sauce is thickened. (You have to watch!)

~ Remove the berry mixture from the heat, allow it to cool slightly, and stir in the lemon juice and the butter.

~ Pour over the berries in the pie shell, allow to cool about 30 min, and refrigerate for 3 hours before eating.

Really good with vanilla ice cream.  :)

For supper last night, John (Silkman Family Grillmaster) cooked chicken and veggies in foil packets over medium heat for 25 minutes.

I threw together the herb salad, added grape tomatoes and cukes, then drizzled it with the same vinaigrette I make every Sunday.  (I keep it in an old, squatty, wide-mouth olive jar, and I make enough to fill it halfway –  it’ll last in the fridge all week.)

The rice cooker did the rest, Baby.

Last night, I read, in one sitting, a fascinating book by food blogger and author Molly Birnbaum, called Season to Taste:  How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way.

Molly was in a traumatic accident several years ago that crushed her skull and left her (thankfully, temporarily) without the ability to smell – and subsequently, taste.  Only 10% of people so afflicted ever regain their sense of smell – and if you’ve ever had a cold before – and attempted to enjoy a meal…well, stuffy nose and general malaise aside, you cannot!  You really only taste dulled, muted versions of sweet, sour, bitter – and maybe experience the residual heat from something spicy.  It’s miserable.

Molly has, for the most part, recovered.  Her book takes us through the years when she dreamed of becoming a chef, to the years following the accident when she had all but given up her dream – and through her recovery…where she chronicles being rewarded, slowly, by wisps of scents – mostly from New York – the dank subways (not so great) or the drifting wave of Chanel #5 on the street – (a “powdery floral” … and always great).

I was interested by this girl because her accident was reminiscent of one my brother had a few years ago that prevented him from being recalled to the Army … both Molly and Armour were hit by cars when they were out for some fresh air and exercise – Molly was running, Armour was on his bike, training for his next triathlon.

The similarities don’t end there; Armour, as I said, was spared a recall to combat from his Army Individual Ready Reserve status – but Molly’s boyfriend was not.  I recall, actually, that I first started reading Molly’s blog because of her connection to that fellow West Pointer – and then kept reading it because her writing is so wonderful.  Her descriptions are so exact, so detailed but never boring or verbose.  She has said before that she admires “spare” writing, and she has achieved it – but not at the expense of us wanting to read more – every writer’s dream, I should think.  

Anyway, I finished her book last night – but in between, treated John to a “Molly recipe” – that I found on her blog, here.  It was, as John said, a “keeper.”  I made this flavorful chicken, topped with a piquant Greek yogurt sauce, and paired it with Ina Garten’s unexpected version of broccoli – where you roast the florets, and then toss them with a bright blend of toasted pine nuts, lemon zest, and smooth curls of Parmesan.

I loved our Saturday night.

And today?  Today is Sunday, and typically a day of preparation for the week ahead.

And because it is still rainy and a “soft day” outside (my favorite weather!) I am also “homing“…and enjoying my life at home.

Have a lovely week, Friends.*

* Thanks to my John for the close-ups of our yard, in the rain.

Mom is here, and we are doing our own thing – we thought about having a ham dinner, and that sounded good, but lobster sounded better.

So, Mom made up a beautiful little Easter Tree -

- and we enjoyed a spectacular repast, though it would have been nicer with Dad and John here.

Roasted Asparagus Craig-style:

Soak lovely asparagus spears in icy-cold water, after bending them in your hands and letting them break where they may (they naturally break at the tender part…so the bottom ends that break off are the woody, pithy parts you don’t want to eat, anyway…)

Then, toss them in olive oil, coarse salt, and coarsely-ground pepper.

Roast at 500 degrees (yes. 500!) for 8 minutes.

Serve, after the briefest squeeze of lemon over the entire dish…

Perfection.   Every time.

So, it was for us – a Day of Celebration, Redemption, and Life Everlasting.

Certainly, a day to be grateful.

Happy Easter; Happy Spring!

This old girl and I have lived together for nearly 16 years. Its nearly 1:00 in the morning (I’m waiting on my chili to finish cooking…

and…

before you ask…

I’m making chili to enter it in the SOCCENT Wives’ Chili Cookoff tomorrow at the unit.)

So, anyhow…if Dosie wants to eat her supper with her paw, who am I to say anything?

Great times with two special families…and finally making good on an idea hatched back in January.

(You know you’re busy when it takes five months to get together.)

We cooked up a couple of ginormous lobsters, John grilled some steak for the non-lobster eaters (we had two…due to allergies, pour souls), and the kids loved it.

I did not. I love the eatin’ hate the killin’.

We had a four-legged guest, too. Dosie was less than enthused.

Sweet girl…

Sweet girls…

…and terrific friends. Proof that your house doesn’t have to be neat and perfect to host a gathering…just open.

…and that would be…Margaret Adele Ball Craig.

She was my grandmother (and Armour’s, and Andrew’s, and Sara’s, too…)

I attribute my love of cooking to her!

She gave the best presents – always from a silly character that had a small reference to the gift she was giving you (like “Oliver Twist” the year she gave me a beautiful wooden spoon) and she loved Julia Child before it was cool.

She knitted complicated sweaters (saying she liked knitting because it was ”like doing a puzzle”) and loved peonies, a good mystery novel, and a dry martini.

Gin, please.

She would have been 94 yesterday.

I miss her.

Hello ultra-thin asparagus and miniature pattypans…

You were most excellent for supper with a salad and a baked filet of flounder …

 
Well, John and I had another wonderful Christmas with his folks – but I have to say, I was missin’ mine. It’s been four long years since we’ve spent Christmas with them – and there’s just something great about a snowy, cold, Colorado Christmas, the typical pâté and caviar pie, and my dad’s Prime Rib and his cheesy Christmas vest.

Still, we were so fortunate to be with John’s family – and I enjoyed every minute of it…I cooked the Main Event(s) of Prime Rib and Goose and both turned out well (in the case of the Prime Rib – a little too well-done for my taste – but it turns out that most people at the table preferred it that way.) Another of life’s Happy Accidents, I guess.

Here are some pictures from our gathering…hope y’all had a wonderful, meaningful Christmas.

XOXO -

Hol

 And once we were home again … the goose went into a pot!