The Hurrier I Go, The Behinder I Get

One of the ways my husband and I complement each other is that he's always early and I'm always late. This averages out to mean that when we're going somewhere together, we get there on time. A little bit frazzled and cross, but on time. When it's just me, though, I am late.

I don't mean to be; I honestly try to be organized so that I can get everything and get out the door with plenty of time to get there. But somehow, something always happens. I underestimate the time it takes to get there, I underestimate how awful traffic is at that time, or there's the last-minute crisis at home that demands that mommy fix it. And, of course, how could I even think of going out the door without hugs and kisses from everyone?

The upshot of this is I'm always the last one puffing into the restaurant (because I couldn't find parking and had to jog seven blocks), the one guiltily sneaking in the side door in class, and the one posting out of season food on my blog. I could be sly and say I'm thinking of my southern hemisphere friends (I've done that before), but the truth is, I forgot about it till now and if I put off posting it for another year, there's no way I'll be able to remember what cookbook that came from!



This recipe is super versatile. You can use a combination of summer fruits like berries, plums, or nectarines. It was heavenly with the peaches and pears which I used because they were sitting on the counter going bad (do you sense that procrastination theme music playing again?). Bookmark the recipe and use it next summer, or, if you're one of those weird, plan-ahead kind of people, pull some of the fruit that you froze or canned out of storage and use it to enjoy this dish all winter long.

Peach-Pear Cobbler
- adapted from Williams-Sonoma Desserts

Filling:
6 cups of sliced peaches and pears
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour*
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
pinch of salt

Topping:
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

* If your fruit is especially juicy, you might want to add a bit more flour.

1- Preheat the oven to 375 deg. F. Lightly grease a 1-1/2 to 2 quart round or oval baking dish.

2- To make the filling, gently toss the fruit with the rest of the filling ingredients until blended. Pour into the prepared baking dish and set aside.

3- To make the topping, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla until well blended. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and, using a rubber spatula, fold gently until the flour is moistened and the mixture forms a soft dough.

4- Drop heaping spoonfuls of the mixture onto the fruit, spacing them evenly over the surface. The topping will not completely cover the fruit, but it will smoosh together during baking. Bake until the topping is browned , the filling is bubbling, and a toothpick inserted into the topping comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

This serves 8 to 10 and is splendid served warm with a scoop of vanilla or cinnamon ice cream. It can also be served at room temperature.

Baking: From My Kitchen to Yours - Part 2

The second installment of Baking: From My Kitchen to Yours happened this week. The fabulous Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody made the trek down to bake with me. Since I was the host kitchen, I got to decide what we were baking. I had a short list of 4 or 5 things, but with all the socializing, side tangents of photography, and children demanding attention, we only accomplished one baking project.

I was drawn to this recipe when I saw it on the website for Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. But when I think of Pea, I think of pumpkin, so naturally I thought of substituting Pea's pumpkin brioche in the recipe. Pumpkin, apple, and pear, all together in a rustic, tasty cake. Yumm.

Since I had a large bowl full of brioche, I decided to double the recipe, making two cakes so there would be enough for everyone. That might have been a mistake, since I was getting so distracted. I ended up with an interesting texture to the streusel topping and an oddly large amount with lots of leftovers. (I'll post later about what I did with that.)

When the recipe calls for an 8 x 3-inch cake pan, apparently it really means it. I realized after I'd put both cakes together that my pans are more like 8 x 2-inch. In the oven the brioche rose, pushing chunks of streusel off to burn on the bottom of the oven because I'd forgotten to put in baking sheets. There's nothing like big clouds of smoke issuing from your oven to really make you feel like a pro baker.

Peabody's kitchen is gorgeous and was spotless when I visited her. My kitchen is more of the "Oh, no, company's coming. Get the snow shovel and clean off the counter!" variety. My cookbooks multiply on the cookbook breeding ground (some people might call it an island) and I have recipes printed off the computer drifting around the kitchen like the first snowflakes of winter.

Peabody's kitchen is also very peaceful. Just Pea and her culinary concoctions. As soon as she got to my house the kitchen was stuffed with people. My oldest daughter, my husband, and my two younger children all wanted to meet her and hang around her. Well, who wouldn't? But it didn't make for smooth, effortless baking.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, it's my excuse for what my oven produced. First, billows of smoke, then a cake that fell in the middle. But it tasted good and we had fun!

Fall Brioche Coffee Cake
- adapted from Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes a Day (go there to see how it's supposed to look)

The Streusel Topping:

1 cup oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar, well packed
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 cup melted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

The Cake:

1 pound (grapefruit-size portion) Pumpkin Brioche dough (make it the day before baking - this will yield enough for 2 cakes plus leftovers)
2 small apples (1 tart and 1 sweet, thinly sliced)
1 large pear, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons brown sugar
zest of half an orange
1 1/2 cups streusel topping (above)

1- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare an 8-inch x 3-inch round cake pan with grease, a round piece of parchment and a dusting of flour or sugar.

2-To make the streusel: Place all the ingredients in a bowl and toss until well combined.

3- Divide the pound of dough in two equal pieces, form them into balls and roll them out to be just slightly wider than the cake pan. Place one of the disks of dough in the prepared pan. It should come up the sides just a bit.

4- Combine the apples, pear, brown sugar and zest in a bowl. Spread half of the apple mixture on the first layer of dough.

3- Sprinkle with about 3/4 cup streusel. Repeat with other layer of dough, rest of apples and another 3/4 cup streusel. Let the cake rest for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

4- With a baking sheet beneath the cake to catch drips, bake for about 45 minutes , until tester comes out of the center clean. Run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake.

5-Invert the pan onto a plate. Lift the pan off the cake. Peel the parchment paper off the bottom of the cake and then invert onto a cake plate.

I Know What I Like

When we bought our house many years ago it was stained a nasty dark, dark brown. It hadn't had any treatment in 15 years and you could scrape a nail over the siding and get to bare wood. Something had to be done. My husband sanded the entire house with a hand-held orbital sander (that's what he had and it worked, but it took a loooong time), we brushed primer over the whole thing. Twice. And then we painted it a lovely light blue with a greyish undertone. New Zealand Lake, the color was called.

Our house has stayed that same color for about 20 years. We'd repaint a side of the house as it needed it, but the look stayed the same.



This year it was time to paint again and my husband decided it was time for a change. He wanted to go grey. I agreed, so long as it wasn't a really dark, lowering grey, the tone that says Communist East German government housing.

We went together to the paint store, debating over swatches. This one was too dark, that one was too yellow, and then we found one that was just right. Light grey with a blue undertone. Perfect! We bought 15 gallons and brought it home, set up our ladders and drape cloths and began to paint. Wait just a doggone minute...it's the same color. The exact same color! We couldn't even tell where we'd started painting or where we'd left off.

If you're a Red Dwarf fan, you'll know what I mean when I say that we went from Ocean Grey to Military Grey.

Well, at least we know what we like. And one thing I like is this pear bread. It's super easy to make and stays moist and delicious for a week. So in case you're working on an onerous task like painting your house, you can make it early in the morning when it's still cool and then have painting break snacks for several days. Unless you're smart like us and import help (son and nephew). Then it'll be gone in a day.


Pear Bread
- adapted from America’s Best Recipes

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup plain yogurt*
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla etract
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped pear (about 3 pears)
1 cup chopped pecans

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Thoroughly grease 2 9-x-5-inch loaf pans (or 4 mini loaf pans, or 1 large and 2 small).

2- In the bowl of an electric mixer cream butter. Gradually add sugar, beating well at medium speed. Add yogurt and beat well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

3- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and nutmeg. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

4- Gently fold in the chopped pears and pecans.

5- Spoon the batter into the loaf pans. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes for large loaves, 45 minutes for small loaves, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 2 large loaves or 4 small loaves

* I used Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt and it was delicious! You can click on the link to get a coupon, if you'd like to try it.

Squint And It Looks OK

One of the things that bugs me (aside from ill-fitting shoes and knives put away in the wrong slot) is putting up yucky-looking pictures on my blog. I must confess that I have a folder bulging with delicious meals and desserts that I've prepared but I am not eager to post as the pictures are either bleh or downright nasty. Like a proud parent sending her child off to the first day of school, I want my little blog to look it's best.

But there are times, and recipes, that I have to close my eyes, or squint, and hit the publish button because the recipe is so good and I can't bear to not share it with you. Today is one of those days.

Just in case any of you are suffering from the delusion that everything that comes out of my kitchen is a feast for the eyes, as well as the tummy, I'll talk you through the process of photographing this cake. Hopefully you'll have a laugh, then go bake the cake, because it's worth it.



I made this soup and realized the pictures were bland so I went to the store and bought the most beautiful pears I could find, just to take their picture to dress up the post.

After I'd done that, well, I couldn't just waste the pears. So I found a recipe that called for exactly two pears and I had all the other ingredients. But, hold the phone, it called for a cup and a half of vegetable oil. Euwwww- that's a lot of oil! Thankfully, from my low-fat cooking days, I learned that you can easily substitute up to 1/2 a recipe's oil with non-fat yogurt or applesauce. Since I had yogurt, I went with that.



The cake came out of the oven late at night. I had to have a slice to see if it was as heavenly as it smelled. Yes, it was. Divinely moist, tasting of pears with a hint of cinnamon. Then it was time to take pictures. The lighting was poor and I realized after I looked at the pics that I'd have to try again in the morning. But in the morning, the glaze was as wrinkly as a senior citizen in Florida without sunscreen. Not a good look.

So I thought, I know! Pears + caramel = delicious, so I'll drizzle some lovely caramel over the top. Well, drizzle would have been good if I hadn't overcooked the caramel to the consistency of shoe leather and had to press it onto the cake. Now my lovely cake looked like it was going to the prom in a caramel-colored duct tape prom dress with the slip showing. Tacky. I even tried to get some sexy, caramel dripping shots. It looked much more like something that would take out a filling than something sexy. DIY dentistry is not sexy.



But the good news was that sitting under the cake dome softened the caramel so that my teeth were no longer in danger. And it really was delicious. The recipe goes in my keeper file. Not the pictures, though.


Moist Pear Cake
- adapted from Taste of Home

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup non-fat, plain yogurt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1-1/2 cups finely chopped peeled pears (about 2 medium)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 Tbsp milk
caramel sauce (optional)

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. with a rack in the center of the oven. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.

2- In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, beat eggs on medium speed. Gradually add sugar, oil, and yogurt; beat thoroughly. Combine the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda; add to the egg mixture and mix well. Stir in the pears and vanilla; the batter will be stiff.

3- Spoon the batter into the prepared tube pan. Bake for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate.

4- In a small bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Drizzle over the warm cake. Or, if you prefer, drizzle with caramel sauce. Cool completely.

A Peck of Pears - Part 3

My first Thanksgiving away from home was when I was at college. My sister, who lived in the area, invited me to come over and break turkey with her. For the two of us we had an enormous turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and two pumpkin pies. We got so hungry waiting for the turkey to cook, that before it was out of the oven we'd eaten one whole pumpkin pie.

When we sat down to our plates of turkey and fixings I decided what it needed was gravy. My sister said that she didn't know how to make gravy, but I said, no problem, I'd make it, gravy is easy. Well, not so much if you've never actually made gravy and don't have a recipe to follow. What I ended up with was a glutinous white sauce. Not really tasty as a gravy substitute. It was years before my sister stopped teasing me about my mad, hot gravy-making skills.

In the intervening years I've learned how to make gravy and also learned how to time the prep work of all the dishes so you don't have rolls, pies, and a 20 lb turnkey all jockeying for position in the oven. This year, though, things changed. My newly married daughter, her husband, and her in-laws would be joining us for Thanksgiving. She offered to bring the rolls and 2 other dishes, so that cleared a big space on my Thanksgiving day to-do list.



So when I walked into the kitchen Thursday morning and saw the last of the bag of pears sitting on the counter, I had a risky thought. Should I try something new? Very risky, indeed. But I had possibly enough leftover pie dough in the refrigerator and all the ingredients for a new pie recipe that I'd been eyeing for two weeks. Putting aside common sense, I went for it.

With my helper peeling pears, it went together quickly and easily. I didn't have enough crust to make a lattice top and I put on a crumbly streusel topping instead. It went perfectly with the flavors of the pie - sweet, tangy, gently spicy, and altogether wonderful. The only thing I'd do differently next time would be to add a bit of instant tapioca to the fruit mixture to keep it from turning into pie soup.

Cranberry-Pecan-Pear Streusel Pie

1 unbaked pie shell
4 cups sliced, peeled fresh pears (about 5 medium)
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp grated lemon peel
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Instant tapioca - 1 to 2 Tbsp (optional)

Streusel topping:

1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold

1- Preheat oven to 400 deg. F.

2- In a bowl, combine the pears, cranberries, pecans, honey, butter, cornstarch, lemon peel and cinnamon; pour into crust. If mixture looks very juicy, stir in 1 to 2 Tbsp of instant tapioca.

3- Mix streusel ingredients in a small bowl and cut butter into dry ingredients until it’s crumbly. Sprinkle streusel over the pie.

4- Bake at 400 deg. F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 deg. F and bake for an additional 40 to 50 minutes or until the filling is bubbly. Cool on a wire rack.

Morning Muffins

I have a quick and easy way to check the temperature. When I get up in the morning, I look at my neighbor's roof. The amount of frost tells me how thick of a sweater I need to put on; recently it's been fairly frosty. When it's chilly out I'm always looking for excuses to warm up my kitchen by turning on the oven. The bag of pears on my counter and my Nigella cookbook gave me just the excuse - Ginger Pear Muffins.

I loved these muffins warm out of the oven. The chunks of pear are so soft that they almost merge with the surrounding muffin and the ginger adds a warm spiciness that makes them perfect breakfast fare for a chilly fall day.

I wanted to try adding candied ginger to them, but was unsure whether or not that would work, so I stirred it into 1/2 the batter. I think it worked best when the muffins were warm, as all the ingredients blended together beautifully then. Once cold the bits of ginger were much more distinct, and unless you are a huge ginger fan, they might be a bit off-putting.


Nigella suggest that in the evening you can combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and the wet ingredients in a large measuring cup, cover both with plastic wrap, and put the wet ingredients in the refrigerator overnight. Then in the morning all you have to do is peel and chunk the pears, stir it all together and bake. Does breakfast get any easier than that?

Pear and Ginger Muffins
- adapted from Nigella Express

1-3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 6 tsp packed light brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
2/3 cup sour cream*
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp honey
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups peeled and diced pears,
1/4 cup candied ginger, diced (optional)

1- Preheat the oven to 400 deg. F. and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper muffin cups.

2- Measure into a bowl the flour, granulated sugar, the 1/2 cup of brown sugar, baking powder, and ground ginger.

3- In a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream, oil, honey, and eggs, Add all at once to the dry ingredients and gently fold in.

4- Mix in the diced pear and candied ginger (if using) and divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

5- Sprinkle each one with 1/2 tsp brown sugar and bake for 20 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack. Best when eaten while still a bit warm.

* You can substitute non-fat plain yogurt for the sour cream, if you'd like to reduce the fat and calories a bit.

A Perfect Pearing

I am inexperienced with pears. I'm fairly clueless about how to tell when they're ripe, so I've had some hard, crunchy pears and some squishy mealy pears, neither of which is an incentive to buy more pears. But I persist because a pear that is perfect, juicy, yielding, and smooth, is beyond compare.

With my chirpy optimism firmly in place I bought a bag of pears at Costco. If you shop at Costco you know that's a serious amount of pears. When I was unloading my Costco haul my family looked curiously at the bag and asked, "What are you going to do with that?" Well, duh. Bake!

I have several recipes lined up to try and I'll bake till the pears run out or go runny.



At first I thought I'd make an apple, pear pie that sounded scrumptious. It still sounds scrumptious and depending on how the supply holds out, I might still make it, but this crumble sounded waaaay easier to make. And it, too is scrumptious. Somewhat surprisingly, though, the predominant flavor is orange. If you like orange and cranberry together, you will adore this. If you don't like orange flavor, I'd suggest leaving out the orange zest and swapping out the orange juice for apple or pear juice.

Pear, Apple, & Cranberry Crisp
- adapted from Barefoot Contessa At Home by Ina Garten

2 lbs ripe Bosc pears (I used Bartlett), about 4 pears
2 lbs firm Macoun apples (I used Fuji), about 4-6 apples
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

topping:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced

1- Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F. with a rack centered in the oven.

2- Peel and core the pears and apples and cut them into large chunks. Place the fruit in a large bowl with the dried cranberries and the zests. In a small bowl combine the sugar, flour and spices. Sprinkle the fruit juices over the fruits, then toss the fruit with sugar mixture. Pour into a 9 x 12-inch baking dish. (If you don't have one, a 9x 13-inch would be fine.)

3- For the topping, combine all the dry ingredients in either a mixer bowl or a food processor bowl. Add the butter and either stir with paddle attachment on low for 1 to 2 minutes, or process with several pulses until the mixture is in large crumbles. Sprinkle the crumbles evenly over the fruit, covering it completely.

4- Place the baking dish on a sheet pan (lined with parchment paper if you like, for easier clean up). Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the top is brown and the fruit is bubbly. Serve warm. A drizzle of cream or a dollop of good vanilla ice cream would pair nicely with it.

Sweet Dreams

Dreams are funny things. Sometimes a dream seems so real that it lingers into the waking day and it isn't until you get a jolt of reality that you think, "I'll take the Ferrari to work today. What? Where's the Ferrari? Did I only dream that I bought that new, red, Ferarri? Doggone it!"

A few times I've had the kind of dream where my busy subconscious invents something so amazing that it will revolutionize the world, eliminate poverty, and auto-process the laundry. I cling to this thought as I wake up, knowing that my genius will fade into the mists if I don't immediately write down this brilliant idea down or tell it to someone. Usually that someone is my husband and as I relate the details of this amazing brain storm, I can see in his face that I'm talking complete jibberish. Dang! And I thought I was going to win the Nobel prize for this one!

One night I half woke with a stupendous recipe idea. I fumbled in the dark for a pencil and wrote it in looping handwriting on the pad of paper I keep at my bedside. When I woke up I looked at it and strangely, it still sounded like a wonderful idea. Take a pineapple upside down cake and instead of pineapple, use pears. And instead of a regular yellow cake, use a gingerbread cake. That sounded like baking genius to me.

Then I found that it was already in a cookbook I owned. Drat! It was such a good idea, but I'll never get to Stockholm for the Nobel awards at this rate. (There is a cooking category for those things, right?)

Then I bought a new magazine, Fine Cooking. For those of you whining about certain cooking magazines that have been less than exciting, get a hold of one of these. It's an amazing magazine that shows techniques, has fabulous recipes, and drool-worthy food photography. I opened up to the section on caramel and, lo, there was a carmelized pear upside-down cake. I could still be brilliant - Carmelized Pear Upside-Down Gingerbread Cake! Yes? Yes!



I followed the magazine's instructions for the pear & caramel part and then added my own recipe for gingerbread. When I'd poured my gingerbread in I suspected that I was in a bit of trouble. My recipe makes a 9 x 9 -inch square of gingerbread, and I was baking in a 9-inch round pan. The difference (if you're nerdy enough, like me, to care) is about 25% by volume.

A smarter person than I, on seeing that the batter came to within 1/2" inch of the rim would have taken some of the batter out and done something else with it. I just don't think that way, so I put it in the oven and hoped for the best. It did bubble over some, but not horrendously, and I had a pan under it, so it didn't produce a charred mess in the bottom of the oven.

Even with bubble over, it was really good. What's not to love about pears, caramel, and gingerbread, all in one incredibly moist slice of deliciousness?

If you want to try this, you can either 1) make it in a 9 x 9 -inch square pan, adding extra pear slices to cover the bottom, 2) use a 10-inch round cake pan, or 3) take some of the batter out and bake it in ramekins to top with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. Even more brilliant yumminess!

Carmelized Pear Upside-Down Gingerbread Cake

For the topping:

2 medium firm-ripe Bosc pears
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup cold water
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

For the cake:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 cup molasses
1 cup hot water

Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 deg. F. (If you plan on cooking the extra batter in ramekins, position the racks in the upper and lower third of the oven.) Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round cake pan (or your choice of other pan). Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and butter the top of the paper.

Peel, core, and cut the pears lengthwise into 1/4-inch thick slices. Arrange the pear slices on the bottom of the pan, overlapping the edges slightly, in a decorative pattern with the pointed ends in the center. If the slices don't cover the entire pan, arrange a few more in the center so the bottom of the pan is entirely covered.

In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, stir the sugar lemon juice, and 1/4 cup cold water. Brush down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush and water to wash away any sugar crystals. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until the mixture starts to turn dark around the edges, about 5 to 8 minutes. Brush down the sides of the pan occasionally. Gently swirl the pan when the sugar syrup starts to darken, to even out the color. Continue to cook until the sugar turns medium amber, about 30 seconds more. This happens quickly, so keep an eye on it.

Immediately remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the 4 pieces of butter, one at a time. until they are completely melted. Pour the hot caramel evenly over the pears.



In a mixing bowl beat the 1/2 cup butter until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and ginger and mix well. Stir in the molasses and hot water until well blended.

Pour the cake batter over the pears in the pan, till the pan is 2/3 full. If you use all the batter, be sure to put a cookie sheet under the cake pan. If you pour the extra batter into ramekins, place them on the cookie sheet.

Bake until a wooden pick comes out clean, about 45-50 minutes, depending on how much batter is in the pan. Keep an eye on the ramekins, if you're making them, and start checking at about 20 minutes.

Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake. Put your serving plate upside down over the cake pan and, using hot pads, carefully invert the cake onto the plate. Gently peel off the parchment paper and serve either warm or at room temperature. Be prepared for oohs and aahs.

Fall Fun Day

When my big kids were little we had a fall tradition. We'd take a day off from schooling (easy to do when I'm the teacher) and have Fall Fun Day. We'd go for a walk and talk about all the signs of fall that we saw. The prettiest leaves were picked up and carried home. We used the leaves for crayon rubbing pictures or made place mats out of them. Then we'd drink mugs of hot cider, read fall stories, and make caramel apples. It wasn't a day of hard learning, but hopefully it made some fun memories that they'll carry through life. And someday when they have kids of their own, they'll think, as the leaves start to turn, "Hey, we should go on a walk and then have some hot spiced cider."

One of the foods that seems very fallish to me is pears. I've not done a lot with pears, though, because I seem to either get pears that are crispy or pears that are mealy. Either way is not good. But on a recent Trader Joe's expedition I picked up a 4-pack of lovely Bartlett pears that turned out to be just perfect. Juicy, flavorful, and delicious. We'd consumed two before I remembered the recipe. The one I'd ripped out of a magazine years ago. The one I'd been wanting to make but never seemed to have all the ingredients at the same time. I pulled it out, praying that two pears would be enough. It was, and I had everything else on the list. Well, almost everything. I didn't have non-fat sour cream, so I used non-fat plain yogurt. They have a similar taste, consistency, and basically serve the same purpose in baked goods. Plus it makes me happier to use yogurt than fake food.

Amazingly, this beautiful little cake is not laden with humongous amounts of calories. It has a light, delicate crumb to go with its gentle pear flavor. It's a perfect cake to pop in the oven when you've got friends coming over for coffee. Or make it with your kids and start a new fall tradition.


Pear Cake with Pine Nuts
adapted from Cooking Light

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 salt
1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces
2 Tbsp pine nuts, toasted
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup non-fat plain yogurt
1/4 cup 1% milk
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 large egg
2 cups thinly sliced, peeled pear

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Coat a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray.

2- Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl, stir well with a whisk. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Remove 1/3 cup flour mixture, place in a small bowl. Stir in pine nuts and cinnamon, set aside.

3- Combine the flour mixture with the next 7 ingredients (yogurt through egg) in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Pour the batter into prepared cake pan. Arrange the pear slices evenly over the batter. Sprinkle with pine nut mixture. Bake at 350 deg. for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into 8 slices.