Last night I did it again. I knew I wanted a curry for dinner, and wanted to use up some corn from the farm market. After such luck the other day, I decided to Google. Immediately, I had dinner planned, thanks to Thai-xican. It even made use of the Thai basil that desperately needed pruning/using in my yard. Not only that, it was easy and really tasty. Find the recipe here!
I have enough leftover for another whole meal tomorrow, I think, since tonight I'm out to another installment of Mitered Mitten knitting. And unfortunately, my husband does not know or care to fix up leftovers...
Oh, you'll make a lovely dinner tomorrow, my friend.
(The update on my knitting Mitered Mittens is that I started over 5 whole times, the last time on much larger needles. I still am in the process of knitting a mitten for a society woman of the 1800's, since I still can hardly get it on, and it's not that I have humongous hands either. After Loop Yarn Shop consulting, I decided to halt knitting progress until tonight's class to see what size needles I should actually go up to before beginning again. I have the general idea of how to knit a mitten, which was my goal starting out, so Mission Somewhat Accomplished! Meanwhile, I started the Alien Illusions scarf from the Stitch'NBitch book for my friend R1's birthday...and I am proud of my one whole alien head already in emergence. I'll be Posting the preliminary pics on Flickr when I get a chance.)
So by this morning, the cool front had moved in and it was actually chilly in the house. Having no cake, I decided I had to make one. And plums aplenty sitting on the counter prompted another Google search. Of course, many, many food bloggers beat me to the punch with Dorie Greenspan's recipe for Dimply Plum Cake...but I thought I'd try it anyway. Since the iPod formats so nicely to blog recipes, I pulled the barely tweaked recipe from Smitten Kitchen, published about a year ago...but mine came out with much different results.
I think I need to buy a square baking pan. I got one for a wedding gift, and it was a good one, Calphalon, I think. But somehow its coating started flaking off, and the bottom actually rusted, and since I have round cake pans and springforms, I decided I could limp along without one. I do have a 8 in. square glass baking dish - used exclusively for small batches of fudge and petite chocolate cakes for home consumption, but I really needed a 9 in. square baking pan for this recipe I think.
Given that I love to bake Marcella Hazan's Morning Cake (Lydia's Winter Fruit Cake) in a springform, I decided to bake this one in there as well. After all, it was morning.
All looked well going into the oven,
but coming out, was a slightly different story.
The only tweaking I did, was to add about a T. of Cointreau since I had no orange on hand for orange zest, and I doubt an extra T. of liquid was the culprit for my now Buried Plum Treasure Cake.
I was a little confused, but it smelled good, and looked edible, so I didn't pay it much mind - and boy-o and I took Mr. Bean for a walk. A long walk for him to be sure: 2.5 miles. My child could hardly make it back to the house, and fell asleep very promptly post lunch.
While meandering around the neighborhoods, we found a laden pear tree, it's neglected perfection of fruit littering the ground. While I couldn't see myself climbing a stranger's tree to harvest pears, I could see myself foraging around
the bottom of the tree for some not too bruised fruit. And I got to thinking, "I saw another neglected pear tree somewhere, I think. And I know of an apple tree at the end of our street that for sure is not on anyone's property." So, on the way home, I gathered a bag of apples, with the intent of some applesauce today or tomorrow. But just look at this! It's all relatively perfect! I can see myself now with eagle eyes eagerly foraging around the city for unclaimed fruits! And just like the Morell Mushroom Hunters, I'm not giving away my spots...
After we were home, had lunch and boy-o put himself down to nap...I had to try this seeming flop of a cake. I didn't know really what to expect. But it was delicious! And had this faint alcoholic punch, I only assume comes from baking very ripe plums with a tad of orange liqueur. But it was soggy and comforting in the middle, and I strangely wished it was the depths of December so I could justify eating to stay warm. Another win for the recipes of Food Bloggers (and, of course, Dorie Greenspan).
The Last Bite. And I'm looking forward to having some more later as well. I better knit like the wind so I burn enough calories, but if the rain stays away, the rest of this week promises to be perfect walking weather. Good thing.