.
From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
This week cooking was centered on desserts, most by request, so I thought it would make a good theme for tonight’s recipe exchange.
JeffreyW made one of my favorite toppings, Creme Fraiche, pictured above and recipe here.
He also makes quite a few dump cakes, which are easy fruit desserts. A yummy sample are his Cherry Pineapple here and Apple Crunch here.
I have a Blueberry Upside Down Cake in the oven as I write this, and if it turns out tasty and photogenic, I’ll post photos and recipe tomorrow.
Until then, what’s on your plate this weekend? Is it time for grilling yet? Hit the comments and don’t forget to share your favorite fruit desserts.
BTW, if you haven’t seen the latest visitor to the shelter Mrs. J volunteers at, he has stolen my heart, check out Hank.
Tonight’s featured recipe is my annual birthday cake for a friend. Simple to make and very tasty:
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Sometimes I substitute crushed pineapple. It needs to be drained well, using a mesh strainer and I usually omit the addition of 1 tbsp pineapple juice because even after draining, there’s usually about that much left in the crushed fruit. You can also substitute blueberries or other fruits to a make a different kind of upside down cake.
8 oz can sliced pineapple, in pineapple juice
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
======1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
stemmed maraschino cherries, stems removed (opt)
8×8 glass baking dish and mixing bowlDrain pineapple, reserve juice. Melt 3 tbsp of butter and add to baking dish with brown sugar and 1 tbsp of reserved pineapple juice. Mix well. Arrange pineapple slices over sugar and butter mixture. In bowl, cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beat until fluffy. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, add to creamed mixture. Add enough water to remaining pineapple juice to make 1/2 cup and add to batter, mixing well (it will be lumpy) and then pour over pineapple slices. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick test in the cake center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes and then invert on a plate.
Note: in the pretty pictures it always has a maraschino cherry in the center of each pineapple ring. None of us like those, so I never add them. But add to the pineapples before baking if desired.
That’s it for this week. If you missed it, the dinner menu this week was Herbed Fettuccine and Apple Salad. See you next week – TaMara
MikeJ
Just finished eating. Grilled up some halibut with lemon pepper and had a corn/tomato/basil/moz/green onion salad with it. Yum.
schrodinger's cat
Mangoes with Cream
Dice fresh mangoes add a pinch of salt and some sugar and some lemon juice, chill the mangoes
Whip heavy cream with sugar
Add the cream to the chilled mangoes
Enjoy!
Omnes Omnibus
Fresh strawberries, sour cream, and brown sugar. Simple and tasty. It was one of the specialties of the Mill Race Inn in Geneva, IL.
rikyrah
that looks delicious…yumm…
trollhattan
If you still have your childhood love of dinosaurs, you’re in for a treat with the biggest gawddamn dino of all.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27441156
Wow.
jl
I didn’t know creme fraiche was so hard to make. But I will try. Probably take many many many attempts for a bad cook like me to get it just right.
You know, this post has obliterated my healthful slimming diet.
I am headed back to my old status as a human monument to Tunch’s slender girlish figure.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: Jesus rode that motherfucker.
schrodinger's cat
@jl: Are you fluffy?
jl
@schrodinger’s cat:
” Are you fluffy? ”
I”ll have to work on that to counter the massive tuck ‘n’ roll I feel a-coming on.
schrodinger's cat
@jl: I think Tunch just got a bad rap, he was not fat he was floofy.
I miss that kitteh!
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: Dude was fat. When he sat around the house, he sat around the house.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Side-saddle, beyotch!
Speaking of cursing, a 10-best list from”Veep.”
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/05/in-praise-of-veeps-beautiful-cursing-the-15-best-p.html?utm_source=PMNL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=140516
How I love that show.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Heretic. Thou shalt not malign the deity of Balloon Juice also known as Tunchland.
jl
If I can work up to Tunch levels of mass off of creme fraiche, hell, the food will just gravitate to me.
It will be physically impossible to do anything about it.
That will be SWEET!
Cole comes by, will he hear the souls crying for a TuncPic?
Edit: Oh wait, I did type “Tunch’s slender girlish figure.” I’ve been tricked and hornswoggled by the heartless mean BJ commentariate.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: Heretic? Woohoo!
Arclite
The use of creme fraiche in the picture was probably intended to invoke one of my favorite South Park episodes of all time.
If you’ve never seen it, here’s the full episode on South Park Studios. So much win.
tsquared2001
I got to tell my Dad that he has some competition for best pineapple upside down cake cause that looks delish. I have always been partial to Mom’s Bisquick scones with fresh crushed strawberries poured over. Yum
tsquared2001
There was a quick, easy recipe for small cakes that I learned from a girl in England – something like cuppa sugar, cuppa flour, cuppa something else. Anybody got a clue?
Omnes Omnibus
@tsquared2001: Cuppa whisky and then order the cakes from a pro?
wenchacha
I made a rhubarb-custard pie this week; the rhubarb is going crazy and needs to be divided yesterday. I used some frozen pie dough I had mixed and rolled at Christmas, or maybe Thanksgiving? It was a Pastry Bible recipe, using whole wheat pastry flour. Baked up well, but too much intrusive flavor from the whole wheat. Maybe not as acceptable to the palate as it might have been closer to the 3 month “use by” date.
Plenty more rhubarb where that came from. I’d like to explore roasting it, sauteing it, some ways to use it in savory dishes. The sweet/sour aspect ought to work with lots of Pan Asian foods. Mom, now 89, stopped using the lard in her pie dough. That was delicious. She now uses an oil recipe, and one or two others, I think.
tsquared2001
@Omnes Omnibus: Like nearly everyone else, I am partial to throwing money at a problem but this request has sentimental value.
Omnes Omnibus
@wenchacha: My grandmother used to make a rhubarb bread. Basically, a zucchini bread type of thing but with rhubarb. She died in 1995, so I can’t offer a recipe. Rhubarb also pairs well with strawberries and raspberries.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Rule of thumb when cooking with rhubarb:
Carefully add the amount of sugar the recipe calls for. Then add more.
Omnes Omnibus
@wenchacha:
My other grandmother who made the best pies I have ever had always used lard. She also operated on a kneed it until it feels right type of recipe.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
It may be from before your time, but the slogan used by Crisco for many years in print and on radio was nothing if not straightforward.
TaMara (BHF)
@wenchacha: This is one of my favorite rhubarb recipes: Rhubarb Spritzer. Also love strawberry rhubarb anything,
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
So is it an avian or non-avian dinosaur?
aangus
Test. test!
aangus
Sorry, please, ignore last remark!
:)
Origuy
Pineapple upside-down cake is my absolute favorite.
Anything with cherries? Bings are in season here.
Omnes Omnibus
@Origuy: Try something like this.
Origuy
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks, but I think Bings are a little sweet. I just remembered that I bought some cherry vareniki (dumplings) at the Russian deli and they are still in the freezer. Too late to make them tonight.
BillinGlendaleCA
OT: I snapped this pic on my walk:
Strippers in Oil
Yatsuno
Because Nigella.
Tommy
I am going to read this all in. I like to think I can cook a little. Fruit, other then in its natural variety, I don’t know how to cook/use it,
NotMax
@Origuy
Yeah, a lot of the Eastern European recipes call for sour cherries.
For Bings, how about this?
(If don’t care for duck, sounds as if it would work nearly as well with pork – say, sliced pork loin.)
J.Ty
1.6 hours ago I got a master’s degree.
Reviewing my academic career, my favorite sentence is probably “As the reader may have suspected, COINTELPRO did not spring fully formed from the head of Zeus.”
Tommy
@J.Ty: Congrats. I recall when I got my MA and it was a very, very happy day.
J.Ty
@Tommy: Thank you. This is my M(L(I?))S, to abuse a regex or whatever but i can’t believe it’s over.
BillinGlendaleCA
@J.Ty: Congrats. I was happy to get my Masters, though it was sort of a consolation prize after not passing my quals the first time around.
NotMax
@J. Ty
Congratulations, and welcome to the club.
Now, where do we send the dun for the dues?
J.Ty
@NotMax: Not a reference I’m really catching there, sorry? Ha. I don’t have the strength to search either, which is kind of ironic
NotMax
@J. Ty
No reference. Just a congrats and then a little jokelet, son.
WereBear
I am up beaucoup early because I can’t stop thinking about kittens.
Soon.
schrodinger's cat
@WereBear: You has new kittens?
WereBear
@schrodinger’s cat: Mr WereBear wants to go to an adoption event in a few hours, because of this little guy:
Meet Fudge
I’m surprised I slept at all!
schrodinger's cat
@WereBear: He looks like a little bobcat. Want!
WereBear
@schrodinger’s cat: Lots of Maine Coon there… our Reverend Jim has turned Mr WereBear into a fan.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
That is a favorite of mine. In June we go strawberry picking and then come home and go crazy dunking the berries and gobbling them up.
My kids also love strawberry rhubarb pie and strawberry shortcake made with biscuits and real whipped cream. If it is a last minute request, I’ll just make drop biscuits since they are so quick and easy.
J R in WV
When we have berries sometimes I’ll make biscuits from bisquick (not the branded version, I get Krogers baking mix) by adding melted butter, a couple of TBSPs for a one cup batch, and a heaping TBSP of suger. They’ll be more like shortcake than drop biscuits.