TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY

Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. The holiday was conceived by two Oregonians, John Baur (Ol' Chumbucket) and Mark Summers (Cap'n Slappy), who in 1995 proclaimed that Sept. 19 would be celebrated with outbursts of "Arrrg" and "Avast!" Last year, as I surfed the net for food blogs, I ran across Talk Like a Pirate Day. That makes today my one year anniversary as far as pirate day goes. So in honor of pirates and the wenches who love them, I will either buy a t-shirt at http://www.talklikeapirate.com/ or finish off the devilishly good chocolate cake I made yesterday.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CAKE from Epicurious

3 oz good chocolate chopped (I also added 1 oz. semisweet chocolate)
1.5 C brewed hot black coffee
3 C sugar
1.5 C flour
1.5 C cocoa powder (not Dutch)
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking pwdr
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
3/4 vegetable oil
1.5 C buttermilk
3/4 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300, grease two 10" pans lined with wax paper or parchment.
Combine chocolate & coffee, mix until melted & smooth.
Sift together: flour, sugar, cocoa, bsoda, bpwdr, salt.
In mixer, beat eggs til thick & lemon color (3 min), then slowly add buttermilk, oil & vanilla, beating until well combined. Add chocolate mixture & combine well.

Add dry ingredient mixture & beat on medium just enough to combine well.
Pour into prepared 10" pans. (If using 9" pans, do not use all the batter. Also bake 3-4 cupcakes)
Bake approx. 1 hr at 300 degrees.

When cool, remove from pans & frost with chocolate ganache or buttercream frosting. This is a rich fudgy cake. I served one layer - with ice cream. I froze the other layer, unfrosted, tightly wrapped. To defrost, remove from freezer, do not unwrap, let thaw.

But if you don't want to bake a cake from scratch, take a look at this Betty Crocker video that shows exactly how to make a pirate cake using packaged cake mix & canned frosting. It's enough to make you say Arrgh!!

http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/How-To-Make-a-Pirate-Cake-Video/Detail.aspx


Of course, if a real pirate, like Captain Ron, is coming to dinner, you'll walk the plank if you don't serve rum cake. Dark rum is said to be best. But, it is a good idea for the cook to try several kinds of rum before baking. Use the rum that gives the best buzz. That is either the best rum in the group, or the last rum you drank.

ORIGINAL BACARDI RUM CAKE RECIPE:

1 c. chopped pecans or walnuts
1 pkg. (2 layer size) yellow cake mix
1 pkg. (4 serving size) Jello brand vanilla flavor instant pudding & pie filling
4 eggs
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. oil
1 cup sugar (for glaze)
1/2 c. Bacardi dark rum (80 proof)

Or use pudding included yellow cake mix; decrease water to 1/4 cup.
Sprinkle nuts evenly in bottom of 10 inch tube or fluted tube pan that has been greased and floured or sprayed with Pam pure vegetable cooking spray. Combine remaining ingredients in large mixer bowl. Blend, then beat at medium speed for 4 minutes. Pour into pan. Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 hour or until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan. DO NOT UNDERBAKE. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Prepare glaze. Invert cake onto serving plate. Prick with cake tester or wooden pick. Carefully spoon warm glaze over warm cake.



GLAZE:

Combine in saucepan:

1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. water
1 cup sugar

Stir until mixture comes to a boil; boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in 1/2 cup rum; bring just to boil.

PEACH SCONES ON PEARL

SPRUCE CONFECTIONS 9th and Pearl St, Boulder

What a gorgeous day for a latte with a peach scone. Spruce Confections is a charming little store front with outside seating. Whatever you don't eat, you can give to the birds that hop around at your feet, hoping for your crumbs. Of course, the dog wants his bite, too. So I guard the peach treat knowing his propensity for devouring entire peach pies. He gets a homemade biscuit from the jar at the register. This is a lovely morning & the temperature promises to rise above 80 degrees.

It is a morning worth remembering so I will post it.

Dogs who like peach scones and pies also like the following:

Basic Dog Treats

Mix together 3 1/2 cup unbleached flour, 2 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup cornmeal, 1/2 cup skim milk powder, 1 tablespoon (1 package) dry yeast, 3 1/2 cups lukewarm chicken or meat broth. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm chicken or meat broth. The richer this broth is, the better your dog will like the biscuits. Let yeast broth mixture set 10 min. Then stir in flour mixture. Roll resulting dough out 1/4" thick. Cut dog biscuit shapes from dough. Brush biscuits with egg wash. Bake on greased cookie sheets at 300* for 45 min. Then turn off oven and leave in overnight to finish hardening. Makes 60 medium-sized biscuits. Recipe from a newsgroup post by: Jill Faerber

KILLER TOAST

Everything is coming up tomatoes....and squash. So what's a girl to do but make soup, of course. The best soups are the simple ones, full of fresh flavor from the garden vegetables. Go wild with the garnishes if you must. For tomato soup, I carmelized a chopped onion & 2 shallots in olive oil, added about 15-20 assorted tomatoes cut in 1/2 (seeds and all). I cooked that down for over an hour on low heat, covered. For flavor, I added some fresh basil and cilantro as well as 4 large garlic cloves, peeled. Once the tomatoes were tender and very soft, I removed the skins by pushing the mixture through a colander into another pot. I then added 1/2 cup of half & half, one T of sugar, a pinch of thyme, a handful of shredded fresh basil, and S & P to taste. I cooked this for about 15 minutes to meld the flavors. A dollop of sour cream and some shaved parmesan reggiano cheese was all I wanted, but I served bowls of Jasmine rice, pine nuts, pecans, shredded basil, and cilantro to round out the topping bar. My version was inspired by a recipe in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison. Her Summer Tomato Soup is on p.216:

Melt 3 T butter in a soup pot over low heat;

Add 1 C of diced shallots and cook for about 10 minutes;

Add 5 Lbs juicy tomatoes cut in big pieces;

Add 1 tsp salt and 1/2 C water to pot;

Cover & cook for 3-4 hrs. Strain, add S&P to taste, serve.

Deborah suggests a splash of lime juice & diced avocado.

I'd add shredded cheese, cilantro & sour cream & serve with

fresh tortillas heated 'til slightly crispy in a buttered fry pan.

But what's soup without a samidge? We're hooked on BLTs, although my personal choice would be a BCT. I love the way the cheese oozes out when the sandwich is perfectly grilled. The browned butter in my pan adds a nutty taste and the toasty bread crunches when I take a bite. This is a sandwich with a lot of bang for your buck. Its chewy texture gives me a mouthful of cheesy/salty goodness that sticks to my teeth and keeps the flavor going long after each bite.

And speaking of toast, we watched an old episode of Two & Half Men last night. Jake, precocious kid that he is, came up with the perfect crime. Death by toast. You just eat the evidence.


Squash soup with the fixin's.

TWO DAYS WITH DORIE

I planned to skip this week's recipe for health reasons. Chocolate Whopper cookies call for 2 cups of Whoppers, 1/2 bag of chocolate chunks/chips plus a cup of malted milk powder or Ovaltine. That's pretty high on the sugar scale. The other problem is that whoppers make me sick. A lot of people feel the same about whoppers. It is probably because you can't eat just one.

I've been on road trips with a carton of whoppers at my side. The kind of whoppers that come in a milk carton sort of box. A thin chocolate coating that probably isn't real chocolate at all. An hour into the trip, I have that yucky feeling that comes with too many whoppers.

But just in case, I buy some whoppers in bulk at Sunflower Market, which is next to McGuckin Hardware. McGuckins is a Boulder institution. There are smiling men & women at every turn and they all want to help you. "Nuts and bolts" is such a friendly aisle that I share my whoppers with staff & shoppers alike. We are having a grand old time until someone points out that eating too many makes you sick. This pretty much kills the party in aisle 7.

On the way home, I buy more whoppers. I buy chocolate ones & yogurt-covered ones. The latter are white and may not be real whoppers anymore than white chocolate is real chocolate. Nevertheless, I used them both in my cookies with good results. The only other change I make is to use Nesquik, as suggested by some TWD bakers, instead of malted milk powder. (My research on the net fails to come up with a healthy alternative.)

This is my second Tuesday baking with Dorie and I've enjoyed eating the results. I'm not sure what's next, but I hope it involves zucchini. My garden is full of them.

WILL BLOG FOR VOTES

I'm amazed at the response to my blog. I have only baked the Peanut Butter Chipsters, but look where they have taken me:

TUESDAYS WITH DORIE

PEANUT BUTTER CHIPSTERS mmmmm

Tuesday has always been the day I rise early for the weekly office meeting. No donuts (ever) & no treats. Just the facts ma'am. But effective today, I'm spending Tuesdays with Dorie. I'll bake a select recipe & post about the experience. At least 250 other people will do the same, forming a virtual baking circle. This cosmic event beats my office meeting in a number of categories, including taste.


A member of the group has chosen Chunky Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters. The other choice, Malted Milk Ball Whoppers, will surely promote hyperactivity in adults and children alike. I choose the chipsters for safety reasons. Dorie warns against using natural peanut butter, but doesn't say why. I decide to use the only peanut butter I have: Whole Foods natural chunky. My research on the net leads to many recipes & similar warnings. Some folks, vegans & others, post recipes using natural PB. Their recipes use less butter (fat) & less sugar.

I also research the issue of salty butter (which I have) vs. unsalted (requiring a trip to the store). I reduce the sugar & butter by 50% and use salted butter anyway. I use WW pastry flour. I also add chunks of Dove bar & 1/2 C coconut. These are thick chewy cookies. Rick eats 7 right away. I take the rest to a party & serve them with vanilla ice cream and a banana rum caramel sauce. The crowd goes wild.

LABOR DAY BRUNCH

The kids are coming for breakfast. I am cooking on all burners. We're having tomato/mango salad with arugula, zucchini pancakes, bacon (real and turkey) & eggs. For dessert, there's chocolate zucchini cake, peanut chipsters (from TWD), plus fruit salad. Turkey bacon is weird. The first batch turns crispy hard like doggie chew strips. The second batch is a horrible fake pinky-red strip with a white pinstripe.

My tomato salad was a huge hit at a recent tennis party. I made it up but imagine someone else has been eating it for years. Is there really a totally new idea out there? How is it that year after year, bake-off winners come up with their recipes, and are they really original? I read somewhere that recipes published in magazines are selected because they photograph well and are easy to duplicate. They are not necessarily the most tasty but they are colorful.

My tomato/mango salad goes like this:

1 mango cut in bite size pieces
4-6 tomatoes cut "
3 green onions - cut crosswise into 1/4 inch slices, including green tops
1 cup of arugula torn into large shreds
1/2 C fresh basil leaves, torn
1/3 C fresh cilantro, well chopped

Dressing: 2 T olive oil, 2 T balsamic vinegar, 2 garlic cloves minced.

Toss all ingredients with dressing & add salt/pepper to taste. I don't add a lot of dressing because the tomatoes are juicy. If the salad gets "runny" sitting in the frig, pour off some liquid & add another hit of balsamic.

The left over fruit salad goes into a cake that I bring to a BBQ in the mountains. I made a basic sour cream cake, substituting peach yogurt for the sour cream. I added 1 T orange rind, 1/2 cup juice, 2 tsp. vanilla, 1 whole cut up banana plus 1 cup of fruit salad (mango, blueberries, peaches, bananas) cut into small pieces. While still warm, I glazed it with a syrup of OJ, powered sugar & rum (poking holes in the cake). The cake is a hit with the guests, but next time, I will add some coconut to the cake and more rum to the syrup. It is best served as a brunch/coffee cake.