Decorate Your Tree -- In Frosting!

After admiring the Christmas tree cupcakes mentioned yesterday, I came across this Christmas tree cake, decorated on the same principle, from Dessert Recipes Grill.

Wow.

(Here are the cupcakes, in case you've forgotten. They're cute, too.)

     You'll need icing decorating tips and, of all things -- ice cream cones.  Unlike the cupcakes, the cones are cut in half, then fixed to the side of the cake.

Go here for decorating instructions, and the recipe for the cake.  This video, on making the Christmas Tree cupcakes, helps too. (The link to the cupcakes recipe is here.)

Wouldn't these be pretty on your holiday dinner table?

We're Coming Back!

Look for Thanksgiving suggestions in the next few weeks... then it's on to Christmas.

It's nice to be home again.

Sylvia Plath's Spongecake

After a few days of coolness, including a big rainstorm, we're back to Hot, Sticky and Still. Yuck.

Time to head to the air-conditioned trailer with a cup of coffee, and some of the wonderful fruit that's out there right now. I've been thinking about shortcake to go with it. Normally, I make a kind of biscuit for this, heavily buttered and the fruit poured over. But when we had supper with our friends, they served it on squares of 'hot milk spongecake.' This plain cake is tasty on its own, but absorbs fruit juice nicely. There are dozens of recipes out there, but this version is simple, frugal...and  good. 

NANNIE'S HOT MILK SPONGECAKE

(from AllRecipes.com, with photo)

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat milk until almost boiling; while it's heating, beat everything but flour together. Gradually pour in milk, then flour, a little at a time, until thoroughly mixed. (Make the flour measurements heaping, if you live at high altitude, like we do.) Pour mixture into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, bake for 45 min. until light brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Serve lathered with sliced strawberries, cherries or peaches mixed with a little sugar, and a generous topping of whipped cream. Ummm…

Just to get away mentally, I've been reading a biography* of Ted Hughes, a brilliant poet who was anything but kind when it came to his many women. (Why do talented writers have to be such pigs sometimes??) Simultaneously, I've been dipping into a volume of letters** by Sylvia Plath, his first wife. She could also be demanding,  and more than a little narcissistic. But boy, could she write -- and cook. Lo and behold, Sylvia made spongecake, too. In a letter to her sister-in-law Olwyn**, she wrote:

"Here is a heavenly sponge cake recipe which you should make in a high cake pan with a funnel in the center so the cake has a hole in the middle:

6 eggs (separate)

1 1/2 cups sugar (sifted)

1 1/3 cups cake flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons water

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon vanilla

"Directions for sponge cake: Beat yolks until lemon colored. Add sugar gradually. Add water nd flavoring. Beat. Add flour gradually, beating. Beat egg whites to froth; add baking powder and salt to frothy egg whites. Beat until very stiff. Fold gently, but thoroly [sic] into egg yolk mixture. Sprinkle granulated sugar lightly over top of cake before putting it in the oven.

    Bake for one hour at 325 degrees. Do not remove cake from pan till cake is cold. Happy eating..."

Hughes and Plath during their marriage -- go here for more

This post ran on the Brickworks blog, as well.

*Ted Hughes: The Unauthorized Life by Jonathan Bate (Harper/Harper Collins, 2015). Extremely well-documented and fascinating...until the scum builds up. Huges was not exactly a Nice Man -- but then again, Plath wasn't always a Nice Woman, either, though she hid it better.

**The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Vol. 2: 1956-1963   (edited Peter Steinberg and Karen Y. Kukil, Harper/Harper/Collins, 2018). Sylvia's recipe is on pp. 323-324.

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Garbage Plates...And Cincinnati Chili

It's been a long day, with lots of clouds and wind. The fridge is full of leftovers, and you've had plenty to do, without even thinking about what you're going to eat tonight.

It may be time for a Garbage Plate.

Before you register a mental 'ewwww,' bear in mind that garbage plates have a long and honored tradition. The first mention seems to be Nick Tahou Hots in Rochester, NY; Alex Tahou, Nick's dad, is said to have invented the original Garbage Plate in 1918.

    The Garbage Plate, according to Nick Tahou Hots, starts "with a base of any combination of home fries, macaroni salad, baked beans or french fries topped by your choice of meats and dressed to your liking with spicy mustard, chopped onions and our signature Nick Tahou's hot sauce. Each plates comes wiht two thick slices of fresh Italian bread and butter."

    Sounds like the perfect dish for a customer who can't make up their mind. ("Hey Nick -- give me a little of everything!") 
     Another site described Tahou's mixture as "two hamburger patties and a choice of two sides -- usually some combination of home fries, macaroni salad, and beans. The contents are often laced heavily with ketchup and hot sauce, and mixed together before eating. Rolls or white bread are served on the side."

New York's Tom Wahl's burger chain makes a similar dish, but calls it the "55 Junker Plate." So, to my surprise, does the national Culver's chain. According to one review, their "Hot Plate" is made up of three cheeseburgers, home fries and macaroni salad lumped together on a platter, with "sneaky good" meat sauce ladled over all. (Bread is extra.)

Culver's 'hot plate'

No fuss, garnishing or arranging here -- the food is lumped on, sauce poured over and the plate is slapped out on the counter. (I remember George Orwell asserting, in his 'arranged' memoir, Down and Out in Paris and London, that the less fuss paid to a dish, the more it was probably not dropped on the floor, picked up, moved around with sweaty fingers that had been licked, etc etc. Yum.)
     This actually looks a lot like what The Mama called 'Slop:' various leftovers mixed together in a frypan, then served topped with sauce or gravy, if we had any. Her comment, after that, was usually "Shut up and eat." Even now, that command is still used, with much giggling, at family gatherings. (The Mama generally blushes when it's trotted out.)

All this slopping and pouring reminds me of another regional specialty:

 Cincinnati Chili. This interesting dish features spaghetti heaped with a spicy tomato sauce that's not traditional chili... but something else. Word is it was invented, c.1920, by two Macedonian Greek immigrants for their restaurant, The Empress. (They'd been using the same sauce on their 'coney' dogs shortly before.)

I'm pretty sure this is 5-way -- see below

This is not your typical chili -- it's considered a Mediterranean thin soup, rather than a stew. It uses spices not associated with traditional chili, including cinnamon, allspice, bay leaf, cloves and nutmeg. Cumin and chili powder are in there too...but they show up in a lot of chili recipes, including Colorado's famous green chili. Some recipes even include a little dark chocolate, though Dann Woellert, author ot The Authentic History of Cincinnati Chili, says that's not the case for any chili parlor in Cincinnati.

The 'ways' are important in this dish. According to Wikipedia, they are:

• Two-way: spaghetti topped with chili^[4] (also called "chili spaghetti")
• Three-way: spaghetti, chili, and cheese^[4]
• Four-way onion: spaghetti, chili, onions, and cheese^[4]
• Four-way bean: spaghetti, chili, beans*, and cheese^[4]
• Five-way: spaghetti, chili, beans, onions, and cheese^[4]

*usually kidney beans

So what's served with it? Oyster crackers, of course!

Here's the recipe, as interpreted from AllRecipes.com, direct from a Cincinnati native.

CINCINNATI CHILI

2 pounds lean ground beef
2 chopped onions
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 square (1 oz) unsweetened chocolate  (optional)
1/4 cup chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
5 whole cloves
5 whole allspice berries (or a teaspoon of allspice)
1 bay leaf  (optional - I am not a fan)

Directions:

Step 1:  BOIL THE MEAT. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Cover the hamburger with water, then boil until cooked, breaking up the meat to give it a fine texture. Cool (preferably overnight), then skim the fat off. Keep the broth -- you'll need it.

Step 2:  Stir in everything else, bring to a boil, and reduce to simmer for three hours. Check occasionally to see if more water is needed. Pull out your bay leaf, if you used it, and serve as a topping for freshly-cooked spaghetti. Makes enough for 4-8 hungry eaters, depending on how many 'ways' you add. (Variation: Serve 'coneys' first, with the sauce spooned over hot dogs in buns -- then use the rest of the sauce later in the week for Cincinnati Chili.)

     Plan ahead, and you can have just enough leftovers from other dishes to make a quick Garbage Plate or Cincinnati Chili some cold and overcast March evening. Top your meal off with a goold old Irish Eton Mess, and you've got a messy, satisfying meal.

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(This post was also published in my general blog, A Brick Looks At Life. Our third blog, Christmas Goodies, is taking its annual long winter nap.)

St. Patrick's Day Is Coming...

...with a new batch of recipes for the Irish (or wannabe Irish) in you.

While you're waiting, have some tea and peruse Irish-inspired recipes from previous posts, including Kinky Eton Mess and, of course, Irish Cream Cake. (There are more in earlier years.)


Erin go bragh. Forever.

Comfort Foods: Potato or Chicken Noodle Soup

I'm thinking this is the start to a new series, inspired by a gloomy, snowy January and a sudden case of flu. Enjoy.

A stomach flu bug hit hard Saturday night...meaning the Brick covered our obligations for Worship Team at church. As he pointed out, it wouldn't have been pretty for me to be throwing up onstage -- and sharing whatever this/was with everyone else.
     So I stayed home. Warm blankets, warmer snoozing dogs and a hot cup of coffee with a chunk of leftover-from-Christmas cranberry bread.
     What a relief.

     Still felt iffy at supper, so I made my favorite 'sick' dish:

POTATO SOUP

Chop 1-2 potatoes per person, plus half of a small onion. (Or a tablespoon of dried onion.) Barely cover in water -- cook on high until potatoes are almost mushy. (About 20 min.) Add a pat of butter, then just enough milk to cover. Salt and pepper heavily.

That's it. 

Something about the potato/butter/milk mixture soothes and fills your stomach, without stressing it out further. Try it the next time you're wet, cold or just not feeling well. Don't forget the pepper, either.

The lovely thing about this peasant dish is that it can be added to for a heartier version: a handful of chopped bacon or bratwurst; chopped carrot and/or celery; leftover vegetables -- a tablespoon of sour cream stirred in right at the end, or a handful of grated cheese thrown on top. Serve with bread, crackers or biscuits, and you've got a filling meal for very little cost.
     Loaded baked potato soup, a variation on this, is good, too.

Sprinkle with parsley, if you want to get fancy

Sometimes you're not even up to chopping potatoes. In that case, my go-to is Campbell's Chicken Noodle. This was luxury food, growing up -- my dad ate so much macaroni & cheese in the Army, as well as chicken noodle soup, that he refused to eat it at home. We had it as a treat whenever he was out of town -- which wasn't much.

A can of Campbell's, with an egg or two stirred in -- easy bliss. Add chopped tomatoes, green chilies and a sprinkle of minced cilantro on top just before serving, and you've got Mexican chicken noodle. Or just stir a large spoonful of salsa into each bowl just before you serve it. (Sour cream on top is good, too.)

Then go back to bed -- or those warm blankets. You've earned the rest.

(This post also ran on my other blog, A Brick Looks at Life.)