verbicide | weekend in progress

Been a phenomenal weekend so far, actually. Probably because laundry hasn't yet been involved, but of course that's not the only thing.

Friday night, I baked an upside-down apple cake with brown butter and maple sugar. Maple sugar is apparently the most costly item on EARTH. But I couldn't resist it when I saw that Greenwood Market actually carried the little jars of gold. I haven't done much baking in my cast iron pan yet, so that was fun. The recipe called for a mix of All Purpose and Whole Wheat flours, so I decided to try some white Whole Wheat and I think it was nice, because the taste wasn't overwhelmingly wheat-y, though it was still a touch too wheat-y for me.

I've been really lame about taking pictures lately, and hope to amend that soon. It was pretty and tasty and despite being enormous, it's all gone now.

It was so utterly glorious to see Sarah's mom. I really just love that woman. She radiates goodness and kindness and love. I have to admit, it was both comforting and painful, as tomorrow marks the anniversary of my mom's death. I've been thinking about her so much lately, and as ridiculous as it is, I still can't believe she's gone.

Jeff got home from the ballet shortly after I did, and we stayed up too late. Some chatting, some tv watching, and some napping on the couch in apparent denial that we should go to bed.

But it was okay, see? Because today was Saturday! We both slept in and slowly embraced the windy, overcast Fall day. Jeff had left his cell phone in his friend's car, so we drove out to pick it up before heading to the Farmer's Market. It was so windy, there were a few dodgy moments under the Tall Grass Bakery tent where it seemed like it would collapse on us. But it was worth it. There is so much glorious goodness to be had at the market. We've been trying to restrain ourselves, but picked up a lot of lovely things.

And finally, inspired by some beautiful raspberries, I've finally decided the time has come for Jeff's special request cake. He wants a raspberry variation on the orange cake. Any time I suggest a modification that might make it easier to make, he emphatically vetoes it. And Jeff never asks for anything, so there's no way to deny him here. More on this later

After the market, we went to the grocery store to pick up some lemons for the curd and a few other things. Jeff was delighted by the giant pumpkins, so we spent some time picking the perfect one!

We came home, unloaded everything, and even cleaned out the fridge, which had gotten a little ridiculous. I made us a simple lunch of market things --pesto, tossed with some shell pasta and a baguette, smeared with chevre, topped with a simple tomato salad, and toasted under the broiler. I used the Cook's Illustrated recipe for pesto and I have to say that I wasn't impressed with the results, considering the few extra steps they want you to take. The steps aren't that daunting (blanching the garlic in the pasta water, bruising the basil leaves before processing, and toasting the pine nuts), but I didn't think it did that much for the pesto. I think I would add more pine nuts and less olive oil next time. And maybe a little more garlic, too. It wasn't bad, it's just that I've made better before. Also, Jeff's taught me the trick of adding a little pasta water to the pesto, which makes it more sauce-y and coats the pasta better. But this time, I forgot and tossed all the pasta water out. It wasn't bad though, and we have a little left for maybe a pizza or some more pasta this week.

After that, I started the process of making the raspberry curd. The cake is too much work to do all in one day, so I'm going to make a variety of cake components throughout the week. I started to juice the raspberries and somehow, while reaching for something, I flipped over a bowl that had just a bit of juiced raspberries. It shattered all over the floor. Jeff came running to the rescue and swept up all the glass---because he is the nicest person ever and I mopped up the floor for lingering bits. I'm sad to lose one of my set of blue glass bowls, but I'm glad it wasn't worse (like, shattering a bowl FULL of the raspberry juice).

The eggs needed to hit room temperature, and there just wasn't enough time to do that before I left for Judy's. So I prepped everything for later and headed out the door.

John made his delicious pasta e fagioli and I got to play heaps with Milo, who grows cuter and cuter every day! We caught up and played and had a lovely, lovely evening. We also watched Inside Man, which we'd all seen (even though I initially didn't think I'd seen it) and Milo fell asleep in our laps, cuddling his blankie.

I came home, totally about to pass out with sleep, but I really wanted to do the curd tonight. Having everything set out made it pretty easy. The worst part is just waiting for the damn thing to come up to temperature. Fie. However, it's um... pretty freaking spectacular. It's rare that I like something I make that much, but it's really, really good. It didn't make very much, and it was a lot of work, AND there's only just enough for the cake recipe. But I am really happy with it! I wish it wasn't a minor pain to make because I know a lot of my friends would be happy to get some. I think this is much better than my Meyer Lemon curd in texture, too. Jeff loaned me the book with the recipe and the author included a lot of extra tips and hints which I think made the difference.

So, that's done. Tomorrow I'm going to try to make a brioche loaf from that Saveur recipe