do i have to give titles?

when i was little my mom had this old black cast iron skillet that she used for absolutely everything - frying chicken, making gravy and even making cakes. in particular, one of my most favorite cakes - pineapple upside down cake. she would make sure that each pineapple ring had a bright red cherry in the middle and because we all loved cherries so much, she would place cherries inbetween the rings too. for the longest time, i thought pineapples always tasted vaguely of aluminum. imagine my surprise years later when i tasted fresh pineapple - the difference is just night and day.

which brings me to this recipe i got from smitten kitchen. if you decide to make it - go through the extra bit of expense and buy fresh pineapple. it's heaven when caramelized.

pineapple upside down cake

topping:
1/2 medium pineapple, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cored
3/4 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (i used dark brown since that was on-hand - that's why my caramel is so dark)

batter:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon dark rum (i omitted the rum as i didn't have any on hand)
1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice

Preheat oven to 350°F. If you do not have a cast iron skillet, you can use a cake pan.

make topping: cut pineapple crosswise into 3/8-inch-thick pieces. Melt butter in skillet. Add brown sugar and simmer over moderate heat, stirring, four minutes. remove from heat. arrange pineapple on top of sugar mixture.

make batter: sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then gradually beat in granulated sugar. add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. beat in vanilla and rum. add half of flour mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. beat in pineapple juice, then add remaining flour mixture, beating just until blended. (batter may appear slightly curdled.)

quickie short-cut tip: you can use a butter cake box mix, just substitute pineapple juice for the water in the recipe. duncan hines moist butter cake is a good one.

spoon batter over pineapple topping and spread evenly. bake cake in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes. let cake stand in skillet five minutes. invert a plate over skillet and invert cake onto plate (keeping plate and skillet firmly pressed together). replace any pineapple stuck to bottom of skillet. sprinkle rum over cake and cool on plate on a rack.
serve cake just warm or at room temperature.

in other news....i received the cutest handmade birthday card from elk today and it just brightened my day tremendously. thank you my friend - that was the sweetest thing. they say that friends are the family we pick instead of the family we're born with....i'm so proud she picked me.



and yes...the first bite of the cake took me back to summery days of cake, hopscotch, and running through the sprinklers.

ps - i'm guesthosting at laura's today if you want to take a peek.

real simple

shhhh, don't tell anyone but i have the biggest crush on the stylists that work with real simple magazine. the photography in this magazine is clean and beautiful and often makes me squeal with envy over the gorgeous lighting (of course they have gorgeous lighting in studios, right?) as i pondered over the new copy today, i've noticed they have started giving the names of the stylist for each article - hurrah! finally this job is being recognized in addition to the editors. even last week, the food network had a challenge for food stylist. this is an up and coming position - a dream position really. *le sigh*

also, the magazine had an article entitled "home pages" with four or five pages jam-packed with website addresses for places to decorate your home, including etsy. what i didn't know is there is another site, similar to etsy, that is a cache of vintage items - rubylane.com. it's packed with treasures - however, be prepared in some cases to spend some cash - these dealers know what they have and are demanding high market prices. (for example, when i searched for homer laughlin bowls - i drooled over a set of three for $120)

for the more budget minded shopper (*ahem* me) there is shopgoodwill.com. *gasp* i KNOW. it appears to operate much like ebay where you register to bid on certin items. a quick search for vintage cameras revealed seven pages of a variety of cameras, including polaroid, argo, and kodak duaflex. the downside of course is like ebay, you can't hold them in your hands before buying. but with bidding starting at $5 and few bidders - it seems you could find some good deals if you searched around.

i guess in the meantime, i will continue to play with my food (photograph it) and then eat it.

just a few shots

hope you have a fabulous weekend...i plan on doing a bit of celebrating.

christmas in july

there is something i love about driving - in the dark - with the radio low and just talking to whoever is sitting there. sunday night after a good day at the lake, my brother and i were reminiscing (as usual) about cooking and that always leads to talking about my mom. i know that people say that their mom makes the best dressing in the world....but i swear, my mother did. she did. ask anyone. i watched and helped for many years. so when my brother said, "it's been almost two years and it's hard to believe i'll never have her dressing again."

i took that as a challenge. now it may not match mother's...but i watched enough that i thought i could come pretty close. if you tackle this dish - please put aside three to four hours - it's just that labor intensive. and another thing - i rarely measure so a lot of this is to taste.

it starts by doing three things almost simultaneously. put your chicken on to boil with water and a palmful of salt and black pepper to taste. i highly recommend a whole bird (instant sandra lee tip: you can use a rotiserre chicken from the deli if you're in a hurry) but all i had on had on hand was breasts so i supplemented with boneless, skinless thighs. then put on two to three eggs to boil (while you're boiling, you might as well boil some extra for some egg salad - always a yummy lunch treat). and then, yes, the holy trinity of southern cooking - bell pepper, celery and onion. chop each of the following to a fine chop: a bell pepper, onion (medium-sih) and three stalks celery.

after chopping - add 1/4 cup oil to an oven proof pan (if you have cast iron - fantastic!) saute the pepper, onion and celery until the veggies are soft. check your eggs (my trick to perfect eggs - place eggs in cold water, bring to a boil and boil for five minutes and then turn the heat off and let them sit another five to ten minutes. perfect every time.)

in a separate bowl - prepare cornbread according to package directions (sans oil) - i love while lily cornbread mix but i'm not sure if that's a regional brand or not. stir in the cooked veggies (with the oil) and a good palmful of poultry seasoning. now, if you have a herb garden you can use fresh sage, thyme and rosemary (half the seasoning because fresh has more flavor than dried). make sure the herbs are finely minced.

while cornbread is cooking, shred cooked chicken and set aside. peel boiled eggs and set aside. after cornbread is done, turn into a large bowl - and i do mean large as you will need room to mix. now, comes my mother's secret ingredients - cream of chicken soup and a raw egg. crumble the cornbread and stir together with the chicken. mix in the soup (i was out of chicken so cream of mushroom works well too) and then add chicken broth until mixture is fairly soupy. dice the boiled eggs and stir in. turn the entire mixture into a large roasting pan. bake at 350 for about an hour - check frequently to make sure it doesn't dry out - you can add extra chicken broth throughout the baking to ensure the dressing is moist.

my brother said it was pretty darn close. yay! i needed a bit more seasoning i think and maybe i should have used some sage in addition to just the poultry seasoning mix (which is sage, rosemary, thyme, nutmeg and maybe one other herb.)

now...just so i could work harder? i decided to try a cream cheese poundcake that i got during the recipe exchange. i tweaked it a tad, blending it together with another basic poundcake recipe i had - the main difference is that i added more flavoring (hers called for vanilla only and i added some lemon extra. i used all butter - susan used one-half cup butter and one cup margarine.) at the last minute, i decided to go with the cake flour instead of the all purpose/baking power combo as shown in the photograph of ingredients.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake by Susan Jones
1 ½ cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract

Combine first 3 ingredients, creaming well: gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour to creamed mixture stirring until combined. Stir in vanilla and lemon extracts. Pour batter into a well greased 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 1 hour 45 minutes at 325 degrees or until cake tests done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely. Yield: one 10-inch cake.



excuse the slice....you know I had to do quality control!! it's light, yummy and the perfect foundation for fresh sliced fruit and a dallop of whipped cream.

it's monday - do you know where {fill in the blank}

just a few shots from the past week. variations on a theme if you will. as i've said, when shooting something, i sometimes take a few dozen of the subject until i get a few that i like . . . i think sometimes i need to get rid of the 'out takes' but then sometimes i revisit them.

and that has me thinking about how much i visit out takes in life - the moments that didn't work so well. i do that a lot at times. you know in a movie, they're often the funniest part - but too often they're that wiffle bat to the groin from america's home video kind of funny sometimes. where it's funny while watching later but not so funny while it is happening.

i opened one of my old journals and the quote reads, 'periods of tranquality are seldom prolific of creative achievement. mankind has to be stirred up. - alfred north whitehead' and then i paused and thought if that's true? do we need irritation and chaos to be creative? i don't know if i agree with that.

the weekend was good...fairly quiet but one of those goods that are just that - good. i had the pug herd so, they are very active and adorable.

update: this is the progess on my quilting project. today our assigned task was to cut the squares and figure a layout. i made some alterations to the suggested lay out (just because i like to make things difficult for myself, right?) and cut some 2x2's in addition to 4x4's. and i have started stitching. i am liking the organic feel to this project so far with the handstitching. i'm embellishing random squares as the mood strikes me. i can definitely see me doing more of these as pillows - maybe a full size in the future if i can find a decent used machine at a good price.

yummy

observations - i'm not as young as i used to be and i think, perhaps, that i'm pretty glad about that. of course there are days i complain - like in the morning when i get up and my heel is killing me (the shift to hardwood floors and my bad habit of going barefoot has kicked in a case of plantar fasciitis). so, the quiet gathering last night was a perfect evening. we all brought dishes, laughed on the back patio and watched the almost full moon rise over the treetops as we heard the distant booms of fireworks. (can you believe the size of these strawberries? they were humongous and so sweet)

some of you wanted the recipes for the ranch potatoes - but after making it last night, i'm not sure if i'm happy with it yet. i made some adjustments that didn't quite work yesterday so i'm going to try again. plus, i'm not happy with it's appearance - not attractive. but, wow - the goat cheese spread? soooo yummy. someone offered to lick the bowl last night. it's my friend carol's recipe and i finally snagged it when she participated in the recipe exchange we did about six weeks ago. (next time i'll take photos - but this time i didn't think about it)

ingredients: one or two logs of goat cheese, basil pesto (i used store bought because my basil drowned), one red bell pepper, one orange or yellow bell pepper, golden raisins.
putting it together: about an hour before, place the goat cheese out to soften.

one reason i've hesitated making this dish is that roasting bell peppers has always intimidated me. it was way easier than i thought it would be. put your peppers on a cookie sheet, turn your oven up to broil, and then put the peppers in the oven. (people say you can put the peppers on a fork and do this over a burner, but they drip so the cookie sheet is less messy) let the skins char (blacken) in the oven, turning so all sides are charred. take them out of the oven and immediately place in either a brown paper or plastic bag and let them cool down to room temperature. this steams the skins where they are loose and easily removed. so, peel and de-seed your peppers (if you pull the stem gently - most the seeds come away with the core). lay the peppers flat and chop into a coarse dice.

while the peppers are roasting, unwrap the goat cheese and place in bowl. add a healthy tablespoon of pesto to the cheese and stir together until mixed well. taste to make sure you have enough pesto to make you happy. stir in a good handful of golden raisins (the raisins add a sweet burst of flavor to this dish and a chewy texture; however, if you don't like raisins - you could leave them out.)

after the peppers are chopped, stir them into the cheese mixture. simple, right? if not serving immediately - refrigerate. let it soften a bit before serving so it's easily spread on crackers or bread. i am not kidding - the bowl was scraped clean before dinner.

don't even get me started on the salad nita made with the homemade lavender syrup dressing, the fresh corn salad or the homemade ice cream. serious eating my friends.

uh-oh, she's got that camera again

does this shot encapsulate the title without any further explanation? yesterday was my youngest brother's birthday so we celebrated with going to the farmer's market and g.a. was excited to play on the giant slip and slide they had set up for the children. note - never give a child with such a good sense of order and control a set up rules. she will make sure they are followed. there were about six little girls taking turns on this and g.a. made sure that each waited their turn and the slide was clear before then next took their turn. hilarious.



the youngest has starting saying 'cheese' as soon as she sees me. hmmmm, i wonder why? (not) have i told you how much i adore her smile? thought so....sorry (but i do).

ms g.a. has become obsessed with me and marriage. every time i see her she asks how i'm married to. last night when i was trying to explain divorce she asked 'was i sad?' well, no...not any more. 'why not?' it's been a long time. 'you can marry uncle pete'....well no....he's my brother. 'why not?' because you don't marry brothers. 'why not?' well, because. because. have you ever said that to a child? because because. i ran out of explanations.

photographers - do you ever fall in love with a lens? i'm very guilty of slapping on my 50mm and just going. but last night, for some reason, i put on my kit lens (18-55mm) and went to town. i forgot the sharpness and color saturation the lens has. wow. part of the sharpness is shooting at 4.5-7.1 apeture (which I rarely do) and a reminder that not every shot has to be at such a shallow depth of field. it's a good reminder to mix my lens up once and again. I want to try some fireworks photography this weekend - i hope it works out for me.

did i show you this shot? i played a bit with it as the theme just begged for a vintage look.



i need some yummy options for the 4th (can you believe it's here already??). i am thinking of an appetizer and a side dish for the barbeque (we've having pork ribs). nothing with corn or feta as other dishes have those options covered. i want to try my friend carol's goat cheese spread but i've never roasted bell peppers before. got any ideas?

***
ps - i discovered this photographer today going through some blogs. great stuff, right?

the sounds of the silence

i couldn't tell you much i did during the day today. washed some clothes, unpacked suitcases, puttered - you know. but i did it in silence today. i didn't speak one work really (except to the cat as i fed him). the television was quiet and the only sounds were of the air conditioning or of the washing machine knocking about. occasionally i could hear a dog snoring or the hum of the window unit in my brother's room as he slept.

it was peaceful. i was alone with my thoughts - that loosening of the skin of my mind. i didn't think of deep issues. actually i didn't think of much. i prepared a simple lunch of sliced homegrown cucumbers, paired with sliced ham, red grapes, strawberries, brie and a roll. in the quiet, my tongue experienced the beauty of the tastes. the cucumber was bitter and needed a bit of salt. the ham was pink and tasted both sweet and salty in my mouth. the grapes were sweet and the strawberries dripped lush juice down my chin. the cheese was soft as i spread it on the bread. i should have lunches like this more often.

the tiny roses were soft and lush and though i can't catch much of a scent from them, they made me happy sitting in the sun. amazing what three dollars can buy now and again. the black and white stray cat lies curled in the freshly cut grass. his body a question mark and watching him makes me sleepy too.

later this evening, sounds re-enter my world - the dogs barking, the television on the evening news, the sizzle of dinner cooking. the light has shifted from a blazing torch to a soft pinkish-gold. i'm puzzled by the squirrel's antics in the oak tree as i watch him cut small leafy branches and carry them to my favorite branch. i suspect he is really a she and she's preparing a nest. of course she chatters when some of the branches drift down. this is enough to entertain me.