Apricot Cherry Upside Down Cake

Apricot Cherry Upside Down Cake
Recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking book (page 180)

Dave pitting cherries with a chopstick. Works great! Apricots are halved and placed on a mixture of creamed butter and sugar.

The batter has almond paste, cornmeal and some vanilla and almond extract (next time, I would drop the almond extract as there was a bit too much almond flavor). The eggs are separated and the whites are folded into the mix.

We cooked the cake using the "convection" feature of the new oven. We lowered the temp a bit and ended up cooking it around 70 minutes. It turned out nicely, but I don't know if it made a difference. I'd like to try cookies on convection next (hint, hint Dave!)

I would definitely bake this again! Baked cherries are so sweet and delicious.

Phil's Garden in Los Angeles

Today, I went to Dave & Phil's house and explored Phil's front and backyard garden. It should have its own garden tour! Phil's garden is amazing!


Grapes! Grapes! in the middle of Los Angeles!

When I first passed the backyard deck, I saw the grapes and thought they were decor! Oh, how sweet, attaching very realistic plastic grapes to the roof... but THEY ARE REAL. These are red seedless and they are also growing some green seedless.

Oven Testing Chocolate Souffle

The Mary, Dave and Phil Souffles!

My friends Dave & Phil bought a great new oven as part of their kitchen/den/living room remodel. Dave was nice enough to invite me over to give the Ferrari red Bertazzoni oven a baking break-in.

I decided to try individual chocolate souffles! Here is the recipe from Epicurious. I made 3 ramekins (5 ounces each) but I'm sure you could have made 4 of them.

Although this recipe doesn't say to make a collar of parchment, I read about doing this and tried it out. Definitely do this - the collared ones baked up nicely.

Okay. We had a bit of oven malfunction. The "on/off" light was on, Dave clicked the gas on, and it was set to 400 degrees. However, when they went in, it wasn't on or turned itself off (the oven blows out air of a vent and had residual heat from the apricot cake, so it was all confusing)...and I thought my souffles were a disaster and didn't rise. So here I am watching the second try...15 minutes on the floor taking photos watching the souffle rise!

Photo taken looking into the oven! Second photo is Phil dusting the souffle with powdered sugar.

The souffles were a bit undercooked, but we were able to each the edges. Thanks Dave and Phil for being my guinea pig on this on! I'll perfect it and try it again later.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (with Jam Filling)

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with a jam filling

Did you ever have one of those mornings where you wake up, see the clock in its full color glory and think you have experienced the most amazing miracle of eye health (or secret lasik surgery)? I had that feeling this morning...until I realized I fell asleep with my contacts on.

Oh, reality does bite sometimes.

So, I pulled the transparent equivalent of potato chips out of my eyes, and went to the kitchen.

This morning, it was a return to an old favorite: Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins from Dorie Greenspan's Baking book. (When the Tuesdays with Dorie group does this one, I'll be ready and can vouch for its deliciousness!)

Save your friends the hassle of putting jam on their muffin - place it on the inside!

The topping is a mix of powdered sugar and fresh lemon juice.

I picked up some Holland Blue Poppy Seeds from Penzy's on my last visit and wanted to give them a whirl. When I read Dorie's "Playing Around" section that suggests putting a teaspoon of jam in the center, I was there!

One teaspoon of raspberry jam is placed in the center. Dorie also suggests using blueberry jam - that would be delicious too!

The muffin is filled pretty full (makes 12) and they puff up nicely.

Mixed Berry Cobbler - Tuesdays with Dorie

Mixed Berry Cobbler

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection was picked by Beth of Our Sweet Life. A perfect summer dessert (that can be made all year) – Mixed Berry Cobbler (page 416 of Dorie’s book).

I used one bag of Trader Joe's Frozen Mixed Berries (blueberry, raspberry and blackberry) and a few more frozen blueberries in order to get 5 cups of berries. Dorie says you shouldn't use too many strawberries in the mix - those guys are too watery. I filled 8 ramekins but could have probably made 10.

I added 1/8 teaspoon of ground ginger and cinnamon each to the dry mixture. In addition, about 3 tablespoons of diced crystallized ginger went into the mix.

I also topped the cobbler with a mixture of sugar, cinnamon and ground ginger. Fresh from the oven, the cobblers had a bit of spillage.

I baked the fruit by itself for 20 minutes, and then popped the biscuit on top for another 25 minutes.

This is delicious warm from the oven...it is worth it to nuke it for a few seconds if you don't have time to warm them in the oven.

Don't forget to check out other Tuesday with Dorie creations! It is always fun to see other people's take. Next week's recipe: Apple Cheddar Scones

P.S. My bad if your blog reader got this twice. I messed up scheduling the posting for 12:01 on Tuesday (hence the name, Tuesdays with Dorie) and it went up to early - man, I caught it within seconds but technology is always faster than me. It is now scheduled correctly, but apologizes if you got it twice.

San Francisco Heat Wave Visit

St. Ignatius Church, San Francisco

Just got back from a great mini-break in the Bay Area. I ate, visited, museumed (is that a word?), hiked, walked, and got my public transportation groove on.

There are a bunch of photos in my Flickr account here.
Also, click on any photo to enlarge.

My trip by the numbers (and photos):


3: museums in one day
Frida Kahlo at SFMOMA, Museum of Craft and Folk Art, and Legion of Honor - Women Impressionists exhibit


2: times standing in line for ice cream
Bi-Rite Creamery in the Mission district and Ici in Elmwood/Berkeley

46,579: steps on pedometer!
oh yes, I worked off some of the food. maybe...

90-100: degrees
so hot. so hot. so hot. did i mention i went up when both los angeles and san francisco were going through a heat wave?




???: calories consumed
but they don't count on vacation.
from top: bytes cafe at stanford; the butler and chef waffle in south park, san francisco; tandoori mint chicken and salad at khana peena, oakland; pizzas at delfina pizzeria in the mission
(note to CM: all yelp reviews...)



3: cats visited
pam's herman, and diane's chloe and sami





9: dear friends visited
completely the best part!

Thanks everyone for a great trip!
Please come visit me in Los Angeles soon!