The next day was rainy and windy. A perfect setting for Skye taking her naps on John’s chest, Spectre taking his naps at John’s feet, me catching up on filing from my mad dash to get the taxes done last week and Mom Silkman wading into the morass of John’s travel laundry (God Love Her!).

For a lazy Sunday supper it was leftovers with a brand new salad and afterward, a new (delicious!) take on peanut butter cookies while we watched an old movie.

Every once in a while, I love this kind of weekend.

I promise.  I did have a post planned – one that adequately and reverently addressed the glory of this most Hopeful of Holidays in the Christian faith.

But in the end, I was too happy to be serious, and by the time I sat down to write this, I realized it would have to be fairly casual anyway by the time I got to the dinner pictures – church clothes had long been exchanged for running gear (us) and PJs (Skye).

So, on this Day of the Resurrection -  He is Risen! – I decided to embrace my inner 70s child that is really never very far away.

Subtitles thanks to England Dan & John Ford Coley.  They said it way better than I could have:

Name your price – A ticket to paradise…
I can’t stay here any more – And I’ve looked high and low.
I’ve been from shore to shore to shore.
If there’s a short cut I’d have found it -But there is no easy way around it.
Light of the world, shine on me…

Love is the answer.
Shine on us all -

Set us free -
Love is the answer.

And when you feel afraid – Love one another…
When you’ve lost your way – Love one another…
And when you’re all alone, Love one another…
And when you’re far from home -

Love one another.
And when you’re down and out – Love one another.
And when your hopes run out – Love one another
And when you need a friend…

Love one another.

Happy Easter, Everybody.

Peace, Out.

Saturdays are great for waking up with Skye around 7:00, going for a walk or a run, and then making something good for breakfast. I had overripe bananas languishing on the counter (doesn’t everybody?) and thought, “Oh, I just don’t want to face another batch of banana bread.”

Introducing…banana cookies. They are apparently the brainchild of a Northern Minnesota woman about 80 years ago who, when she did get bananas at her store up there, found them to be very expensive and rare indeed – so using up her bananas that were just too-far-gone-for-eating was a *must*.

The cookies?  Good!  They turned out to be moist, cakey-but-chewy and with unexpected spice flavor. I tried the nutmeg in this batch, but I also think mace would be interesting, as she suggests.

And so here it is – from the Land of 10,000 Lakes:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Banana Cookies, adapted from SimplyRecipes.com

Ingredients

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup of mashed bananas (about 3 bananas)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 cups of flour
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground mace or nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 cup of pecans (walnuts and chocolate chips are fine alternatives) (and I used peanut butter chips…divine!)

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then add the egg and continue to beat until the mixture is creamy.

2.  In a separate bowl, mix the mashed bananas and baking soda. Let sit for 2 minutes. (The baking soda will react with the acid in the bananas which in turn will give the cookies their lift and rise.)

3.  Mix the banana mixture into the butter mixture. Mix together the flour, salt, and spices and sift into the butter and banana mixture and mix until just combined.

4.  Fold the nuts and/or chocolate chips into the batter, if using. Drop in dollops onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  (Or use a cookie scoop – a smaller version of the spring-loaded muffin scoop!)  Genius!

5.  Bake for 11-13 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Then, share with some of your favorite folks.

The first half of this pizza I ate early this afternoon at a waterside cafe, watching the sailboats in the harbor and thinking about the great hike I had just finished up the side of one of the rugged foothills that surround us here in Split.  I wanted to reach two mountainside chapels that were built into the rock-face.  John and I had spent some time in one of those while he was deployed to Lebanon, and it was an amazing sight.  These two were locked, but the hike was good, the view from the top, looking out over the sea and the islands just off the mainland, was amazing.  Besides – these days?  I’ll take all the exercise I can get.

The second half of the pizza was cold tonight when I picked at it – but I did eat the arugula, the garlic slices that had the unfortunate consistency of potato chips that have been sitting in the juice from your hamburger too long , and of course, a few of the anchovies in between pieces of dry crust.  And yes, there’s the water again.  I’m determined to drink it, even though I hate drinking water.  So many people tell me that if you drink enough, you’ll end up craving it.  Nope, not for me.  All I ever crave is Coca-Cola.    But I sure keep on trying.

At any rate, it was a decent afternoon after a working morning, and in three more days, I’ll be seeing her:

and doing more of this:

It’s a little past strawberry season, but we can still get big crates of them. Lucky for us, because we love them (who doesn’t?)

I think I’ve mentioned that Skye is a morning person, and (yet) another perk to not drinking any longer is that I don’t mind being morphed into a morning person these days.  Skye and I got up early, got dressed, and after her bottle, sliced a basket of strawberries and tossed them with a little sugar.  Then, Spectre and I took a walk.

By the time we were back, Jan had set out the pie for breakfast, John had made strong coffee, and – well – Good Morning!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aunt Nan’s Lemon Pie

  ~ Prepared crust (I use a Keebler shortbread or ‘Nilla Wafer prepared crust, but Jan makes her own with graham crackers and cinnamon).  All are delicious.
~ 1/3 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice
~ 1 tsp of vanilla (“if you wish,” Aunt Nan says – and yes, I do wish.)
~ 1 block of cream cheese
~ 1 can of sweetened condensed milk

Mix the last four ingredients together in a bowl – using an electric mixer. Pour into your pie shell, cover, and set in the icebox for several hours or overnight.

* Best with strawberries…

…and organic whipped cream suitable for Adorable Baby, if you’re lucky enough to have one.

]]> http://lifewithspectre.com/index.php/2012/03/16/my-aunt-nans-lemon-pie-and-strawberries/feed/ 2 http://lifewithspectre.com/index.php/2012/03/13/blueberry-flax-muffins-and-in-praise-of-the-muffin-scoop/ http://lifewithspectre.com/index.php/2012/03/13/blueberry-flax-muffins-and-in-praise-of-the-muffin-scoop/#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:00:06 +0000 Holly http://lifewithspectre.com/?p=1611 This morning I was up really early.  John is sick in bed and before I left for work I wanted to make something that would tempt him to eat – even if it was just a little.

Presto – these were the ticket:

Blueberry Flax Muffins*

Ingredients

~ 2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

~ ¼ cup whole flax meal

~ ¼ cup whole flax seeds

~ 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

~  ½ teaspoon baking soda

~  ½ teaspoon salt

~ ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

~  ½ cup light brown sugar (I think any brown sugar is fine.)

~ 2 large eggs

~ 2 teaspoons vanilla

~ ¾ cup buttermilk or plain yogurt (I used buttermilk because I hate yogurt.)

~  1 ½ cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (fresh won’t turn your batter blue.) 

~ coarse white sparkling sugar to sprinkle on top, optional

Directions

Oven at 375 degrees.

The recipe says to line your muffin tin with greased muffin liners.  You don’t need to.  Just use plain foil liners, paper liners, or grease the tin itself and use none.  Just do what you can!

Mix the dry ingredients together (flour, meal, seeds, baking powder & soda, salt.)

In a bigger bowl, beat butter and sugar until smooth, then add the eggs, one at a time.  Next, beat in the buttermilk and vanilla.

Now, it’s time to add the dry to the wet – just until smoothly mixed.

Fold in your blueberries, and scoop the batter into the waiting muffin wells.

The recipe says that a muffin scoop is great to have (it actually says:  “a muffin scoop works well here”) and yes, it definitely does.  I have one that is for normal-sized muffins (about a 1/4 cup measure) and it makes the process so fast and easy.  No fiddling with two spoons or trying to get sticky batter to release from a 1/4 measuring cup and getting frustrated in the process.  You can order one online pretty much anywhere…and if you make a lot of muffins (I do), it’s so worth it to add to your inventory.

So, husband is still sick, but at least he ate something.

*adapted from King Arthur Flour catalog’s recipe

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.  :)

]]> http://lifewithspectre.com/index.php/2011/09/09/labor-day-blueberry-pie/feed/ 1 http://lifewithspectre.com/index.php/2011/06/28/teamwork/ http://lifewithspectre.com/index.php/2011/06/28/teamwork/#comments Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:30:16 +0000 Holly http://lifewithspectre.com/?p=1083 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.