Now that I’m out of work, I try to do my errands, particularly the Amish market on Thursdays. Today I actually got an early start and made it to the Amish around 11 to get bacon, egg and cheese logs for the Husband, which they only make till 11:30. I picked up some cod and flounder and a box of hamburgers for the weekend, as well as buns and rolls. I got some chicken cutlets for the grill too, and then potato and macaroni salads and pickles and olives. Fresh squeezed lemonade too.
After the Amish I stopped at the liquor store for the Grand Marnier I needed for the creme brulee for Saturday, and also picked up a Menage a Trois rose. I’ve loved their red since we had it first a couple of years ago and I try to always keep a bottle in the house. With summer time here, I didn’t really want the heavy red so am thrilled to have something lighter to try. This is a blend of Merlot, syraz and Gewurztraminer.
At the Husband’s insistence, I FINALLY got to the Griggstown Farm Market today. I can’t believe I waited this long to get there! When you open the door it smells like fresh baked pies. The veggie selection is not tremendous but that’s ok. They had Jersey strawberries, the smallest berries I had ever seen in a market (I could hardly wait to get them home but knew if I started, I may not stop till the quart was gone!). I got some skinny carrots with bushy green tops and a very moist and tasty dried cherry scone.
I also picked up a container of duck fat. The holy grail of shmaltz. Next week, I think I’m going to roast or saute some baby new potatoes in that. Add some mushrooms for me….oh, lordy! I think my cholesterol went up 10 points just thinking about it.
A couple of more things to finish before I get to baking. Today I’m making a cherry cake and prepping for the creme brulee which I will do tomorrow. Saturday morning I will make the blondies; they’ll make the house smell nice too. I keep coming back to this lemon syrup cake with strawberries and mint. May need to do that too. Also need to remember to plan to make whipped cream on Saturday, too.
UPDATED: I baked a flourless chocolate cake, but overmixed the batter. It -seems- to have come out ok, but won’t know till Saturday. I’m not sure if I’m going to do any kind of frosting to go with it, maybe just some whipped cream.
I would’ve made a cherry cake but I didn’t have any unfrozen butter. I would’ve made fudge but no evaporated milk.
Tomorrow creme brulee and maybe the cake or fudge. We’ll see. Saturday, blondies. Maybe the lemon cake.
SECOND UPDATE: The cherry cake is cooling on the counter. I think it came out very well. Still not sure about the flourless chocolate cake. Have decided I’m making a creme anglaise, or vanilla custard sauce, to go with everything. So I’ll make that tomorrow with the creme brulee. Saturday, the blondies and whipped cream. Maybe I’ll try to stop myself at this point. Heh. We’ll see.
Recipes:
Cherry cake (but can use plums, blueberries, etc. Halve the recipe and use with sliced apples and top with cinnamon sugar).
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter (at room temperature)
4 eggs
2 cups flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
Preheat over to 350. Grease bottom and sides of 9′ springform and wrap with tin foil or place on baking sheet.
Cream butter and sugar. Sift flour and baking powder. Add eggs alternating with flour. Spread batter in pan. Top with fruit.
Bake until center of cake is set. Remove from oven and cool on rack 10-20 minutes. Remove tin foil and springform ring. Cool completely. Cake freezes fabulously.
Leave a Reply