Them’s the breaks.
The Spanish Cup
Tansy from the lower garden, seckel pears from the tree in the dooryard and the Spanish china from Aunt Dorothy.
Archive for February, 2009
When there’s 3′ of snow in the front yard, you work on still life.
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009Some summer for your snowy day
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Stonington Dock, July
We have 10″ of new snow, heavy and wet and bending the spruce tree branches to the ground. This drawing is from a hot late summer afternoon in Stonington harbor that smelled like seaweed and motor oil and gave me a sunburn right through my SPF50 and a straw hat. Welcome to Maine. . .
Across the Street Series: The Yellow House
Saturday, February 14th, 2009
Bar Harbor streets are old and narrow – even more so when the ice and snow build up along the edges. Some houses can only be seen from straight on, so I have an entire series from “across the street”.
Valentine Cranberry Bars
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
I think those are Barbie sprinkles. Lovely color.
Cake:
1 cup unsalted butter, melted (2 sticks)
1 1/4 cups firmly-packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup minced dried cranberries (you really need to mince the berries. I whiz them in the food processor for a minute. You want tiny bits but not a paste.)
1 1/2 ounces white chocolate (such as Ghirardelli brand) chips
Drizzle:
The remaining white chocolate chips melted with 1/4 C butter
1 cup sifted powdered (confectioners) sugar
Enough half and half or cream to make the mixture spreadable
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9-by-13-inch pan with parchment paper and then grease the paper, or use treated foil. These are sticky.
To make cake: In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; continue mixing until light. Sift together flour, ground ginger and salt; add to the butter-sugar mixture. Continue mixing until flour is incorporated. Fold in dried cranberries and chocolate. Spread the batter in the prepared pan and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely in pan.
While it’s still slightly warm, use an offset spatula or the back of a large spoon to uniformly spread the frosting onto top of cake.
To serve, slice the cake lengthwise down the center, making two long rectangles. Cut each rectangle into four equal portions; slice each of these in half diagonally and then again if you want smaller portions.
New snow, new work
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009The “minimal” amount of snow predicted is piling up outside, canceling the kids’ plans for ballroom dance class. Instead, we’ll have a new work post: “Maple Ave., The Green House”, 16″ x 20″, pastel on Ampersand Pastelbord.
New work, February 2009
Poverty Cake
Sunday, February 1st, 2009
Yum.
Tonight we’ll have a central Asian rice stew (because I have everything on hand, including two cups of cooked rice from last night’s curry), with Poverty Cake for dessert. Poverty Cake was a staple of my mother’s family during The War and was too good to let go when times got just marginally better in the fifties and sixties. I remember this cake sitting on the counter at the house on Tunxis Avenue, the dark brown of the cake showing through the brilliant white frosting on one slice – because my mother liked her’s plain.
This recipe is for the dark, rather chocolately version that includes cocoa. You can skip the cocoa and up the spices a little bit and it will still be very good. Some people prefer it this way. My family used Crisco, but my uncles preferred it sans cocoa and with bacon fat or lard for the shortening. My own variation is to add chocolate chips, and I’ve made it that way for decades so that’s how my family expects it. Obviously this recipe is a blank canvas on which to paint your wildest cake dreams, or something. It also packs well in a lunchbox.
Poverty Cake (from a recipe card in my mother’s handwriting)
Boil together for 5 minutes: 1 C water, 1 C sugar, 1 C seeded raisins (can you buy non-seeded raisins nowadays?), 1 heaping Tbsp shortening (whatever), 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cloves, 3 Tbsp cocoa (optional) 1 tsp salt. Cool. (The cooling part is important. If you’re in a hurry go out and put the pan in a snowbank or something like I’m going to in a minute. If the mixture is still hot when you put in the flour and baking soda you’ll end up with little white sour clumps in the finished cake.)
Add 1 3/4 C flour, 1 tsp baking soda (mix lightly with a fork), 1 tsp vanilla and about a cup of chocolate chips (optional). Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until firm and glossy.
Frosting: A heap of confectioners sugar (about half a bag), add 3 Tbs softened butter (I cheat and just melt it, why stir?) and enough milk to make it spreadable. I like to add multicolored nonpareils – who wouldn’t?