I’ve joined NaNoWriMo this year with goal of completing the task during the onset of many gray days in Seattle, a sort of pick-me-up as I go along while the season gnaws at my will. 50,000 words in November. A new novel, approximately 200 pages, and, for me, it is the first draft of one … More Let’s Call It Southwestern Gratin
While Ms. McSquirrel enjoyed leftovers from the party a few days ago, today a smaller pumpkin was roasted, pureed and turned into a pie for three of us to have a dinner slice and another for breakfast, made in a non-traditional manner. Next time I will make the pie they both expected, using famous recipe … More Pumpkin, Dumpkin, Snick Snack
Oh boy! There they were on display in a heap of bags at the Grocery Outlet today, and at a bargain $1.99 each, three bags of cranberries made it into the cart, one for this cake and two for something else. I’ve been waiting to try Ben & Birdy’s Cranberry Upside-Down Cake every since my … More Fresh Cranberries! Time for Ben & Birdy’s Upside-Down Cake
I was gifted with a piano tuning and some hand-picked, organic, Mount Vernon-grown Jonagold apples. There’s nothing quite as pleasant on a rainy fall day as a warm house with the aroma of something delicious baking in the oven. Those three points are related. Today, while raking up another huge pile of those autumn leaves … More Celebrate Fall? Baked Jonagolds with Caramel Rum Ice Cream
A friend whose birthday was last week asked, when I offered to make it, that I choose which chocolate cake to bake. Her husband told me long ago that she is very fond of dark chocolate, so I decided to make a 3-layer devil’s food cake using strong coffee as the liquid, and to double … More Triple Chocolate Mocha Cake, aka Chocolate Coffee Cake
There’s still rhubarb in some local gardens, even after the big Rhubarb Cake with Cinnamon Sugar that I made last week for the Bon Voyage/Happy Birthday and block party. I’ve been promising this bread all season, and today was the day. I made it last year with pecans but followed the original recipe* this time … More Rhubarb Tea Bread with Hard Flour
Who thinks the title is a joke? It’s not, at least it’s not a joke if you don’t have a kitchen maid or if your local grocer doesn’t carry raspberry coulis. A couple hours of picking non-sprayed, local garden-grown raspberries, then a couple more hours of squishing and twice sieving six cups of berries to … More 5-Hour Raspberry Mousse Pie
In honor of Formula 1 Monaco today, I baked the third different rhubarb cake of the season, gratitude redounding to my niece for a link to someone else’s recipe for a cranberry upside-down cake*. After all, it’s often someone else’s recipe that gets adapted to palate preference or due to an ingredient gone missing from … More Rhubarb-Orange Upside-Down Cake
One of my nieces sent me a recipe for an upside-down cranberry cake from another blog in which the author said she sometimes makes it with rhubarb. I bookmarked it with the intention of making it today, along with a batch of rhubarb ice cream.* However, this morning when I clicked the link, it had … More Spring Rhubarb Cake with Rhubarb Ice Cream
Leftover Peeps? Shaved coconut in the fridge ready for toasting and this cake? I think it could be a new tradition since 3-layer coconut cake with cream cheese icing is one of those cakes which doesn’t get as much play as others. We’ll see how it works out next year. It’s worth making just for … More Peeps-a-boo Toasted Coconut Cake
