Criss-Cross Applesauce

For the second time this year, I moved across the city. In one McDonald’s-fueled 18 hour day, Howard and I combined two apartments with their own sets of pets into a large one-bedroom in Rogers Park. Unfortunately, neither of us have much in the way of kitchen supplies (tonight we ate dinner off of pie plates), but it’s great! Neither of us mind roughing it too much, and we’re having a great time together.

Yesterday I made two applesauce cakes, which are dark, moist, and sweet. Not to mention super easy to make! I purposefully picked a cake that wouldn’t cause a breakdown to make without a mixer (since I left that at my old apartment—will get it back soon!); a category that is quickly dwindling, after so many weeks baking. We had to buy a few things at the grocery store—applesauce, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, walnuts, and raisins, and then one more return trip when we realized the milk I moved with was bad. We enjoyed the cake after a tipsy burrito meal and then again as necessity for breakfast. It’s really good! I don’t know why I keep thinking of church coffee hours with these unfrosted cakes, but this would be perfect for one of those. Easy to make Saturday night, easy to travel with, slice, and share.

Lastly, I love living in an apartment with a dishwasher. It makes cleaning up so easy! Gosh, that is the word to use with this cake experience (so different from my last move/bake experience, when I considered giving up after realizing baking was actually inducing a minor meltdown). I am conscious of and enjoy the pleasure I take from the little improvements in my baking life—a mixer, a dishwasher, a silpat, a spatula thing shaped like a slice to serve cake with…

What a change I feel with my baking experience! I feel so much more confident than I did a few months ago. 

Vermont

This week I didn't have a specific baking goal, since I am on vacation in Vermont with my family. I assisted in the final stages of making chocolate chip zucchini bread, which turned out to be delicious (I ate five out of six muffins in a span of just hours).

My sister has been taking the lead on a lot of the cooking. This morning she made blueberry pancakes that were just a little zesty from a squeeze of lemon, and thin and crisp along the edges. They were complimented by the gen-u-ine Vermont maple syrup we drizzled atop. That isn't to say that anyone in my family is slacking. In addition to hikes, board games, and biking misadventures, we all have a night where we prepare dinner for the family.

Regarding this blog, I have a few new goals for this project. I want to:

1) Make cupcakes instead of a cake.

2) Try more vegan variations.

3) Use a contemporary recipe or two.

4) Work out. Not that I have a scale, but I'm pretty sure I've gained weight since I started baking (and eating desserts) so much. See above statement on muffin consumption.

UPDATE 8/29/2014

Just kidding! I did actually make a cake last week. Four people in my family have birthdays in August, and so I made a very simple white cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. It was very traditional and delicious, and not at all fancy, though it did have pretty periwinkle sprinkles (or as my sister and I call them for some reason, “sparkles”).  It was scarfed down very quickly. I had a total of one small piece.

My sister Jessie and brother Luke

sweet picture of the cake (tiny piece!)

yet moments after this happened, and seemed much more honest

Perhaps the best thing about this cake is that I made friends because of it! The mixer at the house where we stayed was busted, so my Mom went door to door trying to find one for me. Eventually she found a couple who were home and lent her theirs—an old-fashioned hand one. It wasn’t all that much of a help, a fork worked fine, but when she came back she said: “Michael, you will love returning this. The man has an adorable accent.” When I returned it, I met a lovely couple who lived next door! We had dark and stormy highballs and they introduced me to their dog and showed me their garden. It was great to make friends while on vacation, though I wish I had seen more of them.  They had a gorgeous home and land, and seemed to live an idyllic existence. 

Going Bananas

After two weeks of not baking, I am getting back into the mess. There have been a lot of changes and stress in the last few weeks, with the decision to move neighborhoods and subsequent search, the death of one of my cats, financial worries, and for at least one week, a stifling heat. But I guess I am starting to expect this of life, and I may have that limited view like Jack Burden in All the Kings Men: it's made of "shreds and patches and old cog wheels held together with pieces of rusty barbed wire and spit and bits of string." So the only thing to do is take a break in the midst of it and bake. Oh, and listen to Patsy Cline. 

I woke up this morning on my day off and cuddled with my fluffy pillow of a cat, Georgella. She is an exciting pillow, all nuzzles and purrs with the constant risk of claws and teeth. It was a good way to start the day (really woke me up!).

I tried to pretend it was a Sunday morning. I am nostalgic for Sundays, when most people are off and slowly wake up, maybe cuddle with someone, maybe they're a little turned on, and then go to brunch with friends and have the whole day stretching out before them. Maybe they'll go to the beach, or maybe just stay home and do a crossword puzzle. Either way, it's Sunday, and it belongs to them.

Tomorrow evening I am visiting my friend Ben, who lives out in the suburbs surrounded by flowers and tending his bee hives. He's making a pot roast and I am making a banana cake with browned butter cream frosting for us. The banana cake, if you look up recipes online, looks like a carrot cake. I hope it will turn out "moist and luscious" like the mommy blogs say it is. After I woke up I made my grocery list (which aside from the cake ingredients includes just bread, cat food, and Ramen) and drank a cup of instant coffee, then headed to the laundromat with my fistful of quarters. While my clothes swirled in their sudsy bath, I did my shopping. I have it down now so I do a minimum of waiting around. Shopping takes just enough time for the clothes to wash, then I put them in a dryer and run the groceries home. Once those are put away, I head back out to pick up my dry clothes.

Banana cake, like most (all?) the recipes in my Good Housekeeping cookbook, is simple to make. In one bowl I combined all ingredients except for the bananas. In the other I mashed four bananas.

After mixing all the ingredients, I beat them on high for five minutes, until the mixture was smooth.

And then, with my beautiful bowls from Mitch, poured the batter into two round 8-inch cake tins. The smell of bananas and vanilla is delicious, and the mix is light and fluffy. I have high hopes for this cake!

The frosting I chose was a browned butter cream frosting, the making of which taught me that butter can go from browned to burned rather quickly. My second attempt worked out better, and gave the frosting a nice toasty color. I then cut slivers of banana, dipped them in lemon juice, and put them on top of the cake.

Here is a picture of a banana cake from a site called Wives with Knives (lawrd!):

this murderous housewife uses cream cheese frosting

Here's the equivalent of a selfie of my finished cake (taken from a good angle, as flattering as possible):

decidedly "cute," obviously amateurish 

And here's the truth of my cake:

whoa, buddy, where you off to?

And now for some Banana Trivia!

1) According to The Internet, bananas combat depression as well as help "cure" hangovers (like that's a thing). I wonder if it still applies when they are mixed with sugar and gluten and baked?

2) Bananas is also the name of a Woody Allen movie that I have never heard of. Currently it is not politically correct to admit you still like Woody Allen movies (but I do).

3) 5 companies control 80% of the banana trade, exploiting workers to keep prices low for customers in the US and EU.

Wasn't that fun?

too hot, too tired

It was too hot and I was too tired to bake anything this week. I feel only slightly bummed to not be keeping up on my project, but there's been a lot going on in my life. Sometimes one needs a break.

I have been writing, though. Howard and I wrote mini stories today, which was a lot of fun. I'm also working on putting together some of my poetry, which is generally terrible, as you'd probably expect, but I'm also thinking of some of it as prose poetry. The first prose poem I read was "The Life of a Day" by Tom Hennen. Later, my cousin Brienz, whose long silences are broken by surprise books in the mail, sent me a copy of Gary Young's collection Pleasure.

Last week I did bake. I made an orange juice cake. It was delicious, but I only had a slice or two before the flies got it. I threw it all away. I will have to make it again. It was like a tasty coffee cake.

Sidebar: Beef 'n' Bitters

This is actually a picture of a Rob Roy

I'm having a difficult time getting started today. Eventually I have to leave and do laundry and buy groceries, but it's hard to leave the apartment. I sat on the couch with Noreen, looking my cookbook to pick the next cake, and then I just started flipping through the entire thing. I am so interested in the cocktail and beverage section! For example, there is an aperitif that is made of beef broth! Pour it over ice, add bitters and squeeze a lemon wedge in it, and voila! I've never heard of such a thing, but it actually sounds good. I like savory drinks. There's also a cocktail version, called the Bullshot, which is just vodka and beef broth stirred over ice and served in an old-fashioned glass. Has anyone tried it? I think in addition to my cake, I'm going to try this cocktail this week. I can't imagine ordering it at a restaurant. Servers and bartenders already give me funny looks when I order stingers, and that's a drink still mentioned today (RIP, Elaine Stritch).

Cherry Pie Take 3

Killer Hedgehog!

Today, Howard and I made a cherry pie. This time without the canned cherry pie filling, and instead using fresh, sweet cherries. He introduced me to the eighties hair-band song "Cherry Pie." That video is so tacky and silly.

Elise is still in Italy, and we had to talk about future living arrangements, so Howard pitted the cherries while I cleaned the living room, waiting for Elise to Skype us. Howard's hands were stained purple from the cherry blood.

Joan (from Tree House) recommended I use Crisco for the dough to make it extra flaky and easy to roll out. "Get ready for some trans-fats!" I told Howard, as we head into the kitchen to finish the pie.

"To Ease the Pain, Detroit" -Love, Jerry Vile

I mixed a fourth cup cornstarch, a touch of sugar, and a teaspoon of salt with the halved cherries, and then took down a bowl for the crust. Even with the shortening, putting the dough in the freezer for a bit (per Aaron), and rolling it out between two sheets of plastic wrap (thanks, Casey!), the dough was cracking and splitting and so difficult to get into the pie pan. I think it may be just too warm to make pies. Howard stopped me and kissed me when I got frustrated.

The dough almost made it across the pan

When I was ready to give up on my project, he said: "Maybe you can make a drink every week, instead. I like drinking, you like drinking, it could be fun! You could make drinks out of whatever you have at hand. Like, rum, coconut milk, and cat food." 

But actually, I think maybe I'll just focus on cakes. The pies always turn out well, but they are so frustrating to make. Before I give up on pies for the summer, I'm going to cooling the dough for longer. I'm not ready to give up. 

I told Howard making a lattice top crust, while beautiful, was going to put me over the edge. He agreed, so I just rolled out the crust and covered the pie. 

Voila.

After dinner at Simone's, we were too full for dessert, so I sent him home with a couple of slices and I'll have some tomorrow. 

last of the season

As you can see, part of the dough survived the rolling pin

This week, feeling overwhelmed with these endless commutes, work, and cat-stress (how can that be a thing? people without pets wonder), I hardly thought about my baking. Recently I've been feeling trapped, with no dreams readily available. I spend so much of my life under Chicago, so to speak, in humid tunnels with creaking, shrill noises, surrounded by people I don't know and would never want to know. And that's all before I even get on the train. 

I was in the midst of my grocery shopping when I remembered I didn't have anything planned to bake this week. I intended to make a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, which was Howard's request (what a classic!). When I looked at my Good Housekeeping book, I found I had already made those two items, of course, so I will have to save that for a bonus. 

Jenny from work had what I think might be the last of her rhubarb in the freezer at work for me, and Joan brought be some the last strawberries from her farmers market. So again I made strawberry rhubarb pie. The rhubarb was mushy from being in the freezer, and some of the strawberries couldn't be used, but they made enough for the filling. 

I made an oil crust again, so my vegan friends can eat it at work. I've been having the worst trouble rolling out the dough, so I've been all about the "no-roll" pie crust (read: pressing it into the pie plate and along the sides while Howard chops the strawberries and mixes the filling). But my friend Patrick gave me this lovely dough-cutting tool which I'm obsessed with. It makes it much easier to move the dough around. The right tools! As my Dad would say. They make all the difference. 

We made the pie quickly, because I was in between a phone meeting and our movie night with a friend. We still managed to be late to the second installment of our Leopold and Loeb-themed film night.

There isn't much to write. I was stressed and felt strung out this week. Yet I had a nice lunch with a dear friend, and a few lovely days with my boyfriend.