Cakes and Tea

Thanksgiving is many folks’ favorite holiday; what’s not to like? No gifts involved, no divisive religious differences, just togetherness, gratitude, feasting with loved ones. Though returning to the home place can be bitter sweet, spending time with family can also be wonderful. Or a little from column A and a little from column B! We also like to count our blessings, give our attention to gratitude. Unless you are a turkey-hater, in which case we can no longer be friends, sorry, we can agree that we like to feast. We like to gather around a big table which has been covered with traditional food.

Personally, I could eat a whole thanksgiving feast every week. I love turkey and stuffing and butternut squash and green beans and mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin and pecan pies. At our house, leftover turkey is more a coveted commodity than a conundrum. Will there be enough left over for enchiladas, sandwiches, à la king, pot pie, and soup? Even for just the two of us, a 20 pound turkey is called for. Sometimes we end up with a small 12 pounder and fret so much that we get a spare, specifically for the leftover turkey meat. And yes, we are those people with an off-season turkey (or two) in our freezer. I can neither confirm nor deny that we bought a chest freezer just to hold frozen turkeys, bought at prices too good to pass up at holiday time.

Most Thanksgiving days, of course, find us celebrating with family. The more people we add, the more dishes we can rationalize: how about a green salad, roasted Brussels sprouts, that horrible, I mean “delicious” sweet potato casserole with mini marshmallows, wild rice stuffing in addition to the cornbread one, homemade rolls, a couple more pies, a trifle or pumpkin roll? You get the idea. Feasting with a capital, Victorian F. 

It’s now possible to purchase an entire Thanksgiving dinner from the supermarket. Nothing but reheating involved. That is certainly one way to go. Suzi and I sometimes fanaticize about going to a fancy hotel for the meal. No one would have to do dishes but no leftover turkey, either. I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner for my beloved housekeepers at the bed and breakfast where we all worked every weekend and every holiday. Though I was nervous about overcooking my turkey, it turned out juicy and delicious and we all felt so thankful that we could still feast though we were all away from home. From then on, I am always game to throw a turkey in the oven, at the slightest provocation. Once you have a cooked turkey on your hands, your protein needs are covered for many days. I adore the concept of planned leftovers, and a cooked turkey resides atop the pyramid of useful ingredients. What fun to create something new and different form a stock of food building blocks. Our post-Thanksgiving tea menu utilizes not only leftover turkey but leftover pie, as well! 

Smoked, barbequed, and deep-fried turkeys each have their admirers. Above see a proud proponent of turkey cooked in the trusty Webber kettle barbeque. I find that men like turkeys cooked out-of-doors, generally speaking, of course. I, however, favor a true oven-roasted turkey. When the bird is cooked in the oven, juices and drippings are created which add to the flavor of the turkey gravy, not a small consideration in the whole equation of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy. Add stuffing and cranberry sauce to the aforementioned holy trio, and you’ve created a turkey sundae or turkey boat. Classic Thanksgiving leftover magic!
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However, now and then, a slightly less traditional leftover turkey dish is needed. Enter curry and spice, yogurt and herbs. My holiday gift to you all is this layered turkey salad recipe. It is equally welcome at lunch, dinner, or tea time. Our annual autumn tea party may feature mini wide-mouth jars of the colorful salad this year. I hope so. I do love our post-Thanksgiving tea party menu so much that I have a difficult time straying from my tried-and-true menu. Peruse it here: www.myteaplanner.com
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This is a fabulous dish adapted from an old Gourmet magazine recipe originally using a roaster chicken. My friend Louise sent me the clipping, marked with the notation YUM! and a heart. Yum is correct. This is a layered dish comprised of pretty red grapes, turmeric-spiked turkey salad, cool yogurt and herb raita, spiced chickpeas, and sliced almonds. It begs to be showcased in a glass serving dish or trifle bowl. Gourmet originally suggested serving it in glass jars, suitable to take on a picnic. Use mini jars for tea party-sized portions or glass bowls for an indoor dinner. However you serve it, your guests are sure to be happy eating their leftover Thanksgiving turkey in this YUM! dish. 

Turkey salad:

• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 2-4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
• 1 tablespoons minced or grated peeled fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt, nonfat is fine
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 3-4 cups coarsely chopped or shredded cooked turkey

Chickpeas:

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed, drained, and patted dry
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Raita:

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt, nonfat is fine
• 1 English or Persian cucumber, peeled, cored, and chopped (2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley or cilantro
• ½ teaspoon salt
• For assembly:
• 1 cup red grapes, halved
• ½ cup sliced almonds, toasted and cooled

Special equipment: large skillet, wooden spoon or heat-proof spatula, large bowl, small bowl, 1 large glass serving bowl or 4 individual glass serving bowls or 16 ounce wide-mouth Mason jars or 8 smaller glass bowls or jars (The style of glass jar in the photo above are Weck canning jars.)

Serves 4 as luncheon or dinner or 8 as part of a tea menu

1. Curried turkey salad: In a large skillet, over medium-low heat, cook onion, garlic, and ginger in 2 tablespoons oil, stirring occasionally until onions are softened, about 5 minutes. Add curry, cumin, and salt. Cook and stir for 2 minutes.
2. Turn up heat to medium-high. Stir in tomatoes and continue to stir until thickened, about 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in yogurt, cilantro, and turkey. Cool to room temperature.
3. Chickpeas: In cleaned skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add chickpeas and stir for 1 minute. Add cumin, turmeric, cayenne, ¼ teaspoon salt and cook, stirring to coat chickpeas, until skillet is dry, about 2 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
4. Raita: In a small bowl, stir together yogurt, cucumber, parsley and ½ teaspoon salt.
5. Assemble: Layer grape halves, then turkey salad, then raita, then chickpeas, finishing with almonds on top. 

Back to school, back to baking. Autumn can’t come soon enough for me. The hundred plus degree temperatures of Northern California summers lose their charm long before the calendar says it’s time for a change. Shorter, cooler days, with a promise of warm beverages always sound inviting. Fall combines the baker’s rebirth of spring with excitement of New Year’s fresh, clean beginnings. It is a gentle gateway to the happy madness of the winter holidays.

I may have only turned the oven on three times this summer and each time begrudgingly which is no way to approach our favorite pastime. To renew our baking excitement and celebratory mood, I’ve rounded up some resources and inspiration.
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My first step to ready my pantry for fall baking is by surveying the spice cupboard. I recommend fearlessly tossing any spices which are old. I like to dump them right into the compost bin, adding a lovely, spicy scent to my rotting banana peels. I like to purchase small amounts of the finest quality spices I can find. My baker friend, Marie, and my father both use Penzey's for extremely fresh spices, here: https://www.penzeys.com. I just replenished my mace, apple pie spice blend, and ground ginger with Penzey’s. Another favorite I get at Penzey’s is their freeze-dried shallots. They are amazingly aromatic and very fresh shallot-like. I put a few into all my beef and chicken sautés and stews. I even added a few teaspoons to my savory babka recipe which can be found at the end of this blog. It is fun to read the Penzey’s catalog for the sheer volume of herbs and spices available as well as the featured recipes and homey stories of their beloved employees and customers.
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​I receive Fancy Flours baker’s catalogs several times a year and each one is a little piece of baker’s heaven in my hands. It’s hard to put into words how wonderful the gals at Fancy Flours in Bozeman, Montana, are at picking out unique, beautiful, fun, and creative supplies for decorating and baking. They combine the best brands of home bakeware, seasonal decorations and edible accents, cake stands, nuts and bolts cake decorating supplies and fantastic gifts for bakers of every persuasion. They are the best source for edible wafer paper for every holiday and occasion. Everyone I’ve spoken with at Fancy Flours has been very helpful. http://www.fancyflours.com
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​Another catalog I like to pour over is the King Arthur Bakers Catalog: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop-home. You may have seen their high-quality flour for sale in markets nationwide. It is made in Vermont and now they have a wonderful store you can visit and baking classes on offer. They sell good quality equipment and baking ingredients as well as their whole line of flours and specialty mixes. I ordered the trio of baking cocoas in anticipation of the chocolatey holidays to come. I splurged on real maple sugar, too, so keep an eye out for a maple recipe in the next few months.
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​One of my big autumn baking drivers is the seasonal fruit available at our local farm stands, farmer’s markets, and on backyard trees and bushes. As I type this, my father’s quince tree is loaded with fuzzy fruit, ripening from green to yellow, almost ready to turn into beautifully pink jelly or a quince and apple pie. Soon I will visit my old ranch out in the country to pick deep orange persimmons and late harvest blush grapes. Even if I can’t find a kid to take, I’ll make a trip to the pumpkin patch for pretty décor pumpkins and unusual squash. Ever a Watsonville girl, I will go out to Corralitos for the first apples of autumn. We never tire of apple pies, cakes, crisps, cobblers, crumbles, muffins and tarts. The fall harvest of local produce is my never-failing inspiration.

​​For my fall Baker’s New Year celebration, I created this savory babka, filled with asiago cheese, dried morel mushrooms, and freshly ground black pepper. Most babka are filled with sweet chocolate or cinnamon fillings, rolled and swirled through the loaf. This bread is a brioche-style, extra rich dough which pairs well with butternut or late-summer tomato soups and makes heavenly toast. My baking partner, Suzi, suggested any leftover slices would make excellent croutons. Dried mushrooms lend a subtle earthy flavor which compliments the tangy asiago and black pepper. I was lucky to be gifted with a large bag of wild morel mushrooms, gathered and dried by friends in Montana. Any dried mushrooms can be used in this recipe. They can be pricey, so it pays to shop around a bit. Trader Joe’s and World Market both have had dried mushrooms in small packages for reasonable prices. My group of faithful testers gave this bread many thumbs up. I think it will become a much-requested part of your autumn repertoire. My brioche dough is based on Nick Malgieri’s recipe from his excellent How to Bake, 1995.
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Filling:

• 18 (about 30 grams) dried morel mushrooms, divided
• 1 heaping teaspoon (about 2 grams) black peppercorns, coarsely ground
• 1 cup boiling water
• 2 tablespoons Penzey’s freeze-dried shallots or dried onion flakes
• ¾ to 1 cup shredded asiago cheese or parmesan
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Dough:
• ½ cup milk
• 2 ¼ teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
• 2 ½ cups unbleached flour, divided plus more for dusting
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, cut into 6 chunks
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs plus 1 yolk

Preheat oven to 350˚F in step 4
Special equipment: food processor, spice or coffee grinder, medium bowl, 2-cup glass measuring cup or heatproof bowl, sieve, cutting board, sharp chef’s knife, instant-read thermometer, small wooden spoon, plastic wrap, silicone scraper, large, oiled mixing bowl, light-colored loaf pan, sprayed with baking spray or greased and floured, skewer or cake tester, cooling rack

I’ve been baking for 49 years. Longer than any other thing, really, and I enjoyed learning everything from the basics through multi step French pastry. I’ve baked countless birthday, wedding, anniversary, funeral, baby shower, snack and coffee cakes. Puff pastry, brioche, Danish, artisan breads, pizza, crackers, quiche, muffins, scones, and thousands upon thousands of cookies came out of ovens from tiny apartment stoves to massive commercial Wolf ovens. I read cookbooks like other gals read romance novels. Yes, I love to bake.

I’ve decided to take a break. The oven is off, the kitchen is closed. Just for the summer, for now, anyway. “Cakes and Tea” is going on break as well. Maybe I’ll be thinking about baking or maybe I won’t. Fall is the baking New Year, so perhaps I’ll be excited to fire up the oven and jump into a big bowl of dough. As my Grandfather Pat used to say, “I’ll observe myself closely and see what I do.”

​May is flowers and springtime and strawberries and Mothers, mostly Mothers. Everyone has or had a mother, but surely, no one has a mother like mine. She doesn’t drink coffee or tea, drink alcohol, play cards, craft, garden, or go on girl's weekends. She took a dim view of living in the country, marriage, having children, and road trips. What she did like to do was read. She was a true champion reader. I’m sure no one was more familiar to library staff and on less friendly terms. She was not interested in small talk. Human beings tended to irritate her, but cats gravitated to her and she accepted their company. Dogs? Smelly and unacceptable. Also, she didn’t like things. I believe her perfect room would be lined with book shelves, have a good reading lamp, and a comfortable sofa and nothing else. She doesn’t like antiques. An unapologetic feminist, she doesn’t wear jewelry, carry a purse, or shave. So, narrows down the gift ideas, eh?

​In searching for a cake to feature for spring, I realized I usually don't make a big cake for our Easter holiday. For the past 39 years, my girlfriends and I have had festive Easter breakfast gatherings where cake isn't necessarily on the menu. Though the menu has slight changes from year to year, there are always lots of favorite “bready products,” as Suzi would say, just not typically cake. Probably because I am a baker who cooks, rather than a cook who bakes, when I'm cooking a meal, I am not focused on a fabulous cake for dessert. When cake baking, I want all my attention on the cake, not stuck in between salad, chops, and veggies. I like to have a fruit dessert, if I'm the dinner and dessert cook. A cobbler, pie, or shortcake gets the job done.

​A few years ago, Suzi found a small cake recipe which is insanely good and perfect for Easter. Golden Eggs are cakelets baked in egg-shaped pans or muffin pans. It is a rich butter cake which is then brushed with butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar, making them taste like the best doughnut you’ve ever had. The recipe is by a talented baker named Gesine Bullock-Prado and is from her fabulous cookbook, Confessions of a Closet Master Baker. Besides being an excellent baker and witty writer, she was the media lawyer for her sister, the actress Sandra Bullock and she writes entertainingly about her time in that world and her escape to baking. She has since written many cookbooks and now has a television show, Baked in Vermont. I cannot recommend these delicious cakes highly enough; as Gesine says, they are really magical as well as almost addictive. Find the recipe here on myteaplanner.com: Easter Tea Menu
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As to those bready products, a few make the menu most years, and several others show up frequently. Orangey French Bread Custard is probably the star of Easter breakfast, closely followed by my Hot Cross Buns. The Hot Cross Bun recipe is on our website: Easter Tea Menu. French Bread Custard is a delicious and highly adaptable baked French toast casserole which came from the Four Sisters Inns. My girlfriends and I grew up in Watsonville, an agricultural town on the California coast between Santa Cruz and Monterey. Many of us worked in the hospitality industry in gorgeous Monterey County as chefs, caterers or inn managers. I served the luscious French Bread Custard at the Gosby Inn and the Green Gables Inn in Pacific Grove, the Cobblestone Inn in Carmel and had it served to me when we stayed at the White Swan in San Francisco and the Maison Fleurie in Yountville. The breakfasts at Four Sisters Inns are as high in quality as the properties are well-appointed and beautifully run. Do treat yourself to a stay in one of their luxurious inns when looking for a getaway in California, Hawaii, or Puerta Vallarta.  See the collection of inns here: www.foursisters.com

​Back to breakfast, and its more glamorous sister, brunch. We always called it breakfast but it was really brunch, with fancier egg preparations, all manner of bready products, morning meats, and mimosas of all stripes. After we added Tiffany to the family, we always had plenty of the best Driscoll’s berries, made into fruit salad, dropped into mimosas, and decorating everything in sight! Tiffany’s family owns a berry farm in Watsonville and sells their produce to Driscoll’s to be shipped all over the world. The first Easter breakfast, when we were fifteen, was at my parent's house, using the pastel plates and mugs from our picnic basket. I chose breakfast for our party because Suzi was already working at age 15, and her shift at Thrifty’s was from 1:30 to 10:30pm. I know I prepared all the food, but besides hot cross buns, I have no idea what I made. Each Easter breakfast since then has been a shared cooking event, hostessed by various gals, a collaborative effort. The locations changed from one girlfriend's house to another and has come over time to include the children of those then teenaged girls.

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​A celebration in spring to welcome the return to green seems as old as the world. Who can resist lilies and tulips, freesia and daffodils? Add in bunnies and eggs, resurrection and renewal and you’ve got a lovely reason to celebrate. With spring pastels always the palette of the Easter breakfast parties, we held the feasts at kitchen tables, picnic tables, and in back yards around our green valley. We all decorated, cooked, and baked with spring joy and abundance in mind. And we had lots and lots of fun along the way!

French Bread Custard
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​This recipe is highly adaptable, and I confess I haven’t measured the ingredients for twenty years and it always comes out perfectly. I almost always put in the orange ingredients, but you can easily leave them out and it tastes lovely with just vanilla and a little spice. Feel free to pass maple syrup or a berry syrup and or a nice pourable custard sauce, such as crème anglais. The casserole can be assembled the night before with good results though it might need a few additional minutes of baking and will be a slightly firmer texture.

• 1 loaf French bread, cut into 1” slices
• 2 ounces melted butter
• 6 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 4 cups half and half or any combination of whole milk and cream (This is not a low fat recipe; please don’t be tempted to use low fat milk.)
• The grated zest and juice of one orange
• 2 tablespoons orange flavored liqueur
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg or ground mace
• Powdered sugar for garnish

Special equipment: 13” by 9” glass or ceramic baking pan, sprayed with pan spray or greased with butter, pastry brush, large mixing bowl, whisk, sieve or sifter for powdered sugar
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Preheat oven to 350˚F

​Serves 12 as part of a party buffet or 6 to 8 hungry teenaged girls

1. Brush both sides of the bread slices with melted butter. Arrange in the prepared pan.
2. In large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, half and half, zest, juice, liqueur, and vanilla. Slowly pour mixture over bread, making sure all bread is moistened. Sprinkle nutmeg or mace over top.
3. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until golden and puffy and a table knife inserted into center of custard tests almost clean. Let rest 10 minutes before serving. Sieve powdered sugar over top just before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature. Refrigerate leftovers covered for up to three days.

Lightened Up Deviled Eggs
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These deviled eggs are a lower fat version of the classic recipe. Garnish with slices of pickled okra, tiny dill or sweet pickles, dill weed, bacon crumbles, Italian parsley, flying fish roe, olives, or sprinkles of paprika, curry powder, and or dill, whatever strikes your fancy. The recipe is easily doubled or tripled for a crowd.

• 6 hard-boiled eggs, cooled and peeled
• ¼ cup nonfat Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons dill pickle relish
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• ½ teaspoon dry mustard (I like Coleman’s best.)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne or white pepper

Special equipment: sharp knife, medium bowl, deviled egg plate or platter lined with fresh greens, potato masher, fork, silicone spatula, piping bag or zip-top bag
Makes 12

1. Cut eggs in half and place yolks in medium bowl. Place whites on egg plate or prepared platter, set aside. Mash yolks with masher or fork until evenly broken down and as smooth as possible. With fork, stir in yogurt, relish, vinegar, dry mustard, salt, and pepper. Stir until smooth.
2. Scrape yolk mixture into piping bag or zip-top bag. (If using zip-top bag, snip about ½” off one corner.) Pipe into egg whites.
3. To serve immediately, garnish as desired and serve. To make in advance, cover lightly with plastic wrap and chill up to one day. Garnish just before serving. Chill any leftovers promptly and use within two days.

To misquote Henry James, “Chocolate cake—chocolate cake; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” Perhaps a slight overstatement but essentially correct for our purposes. As I’ve said before, if you imagine a prototypical birthday cake, it’s most likely chocolate, and in my imagination, has pink frosting.

A good chocolate cake transports you to another realm, makes you temporarily forget your current surroundings and situation. You can see it on the faces of those eaters lucky enough to be forking morsels of good chocolate cake into their mouths. I’m not necessarily talking about dedicated chocoholics, many of whom will be as happy with a Snickers bar as a slice of chocolate cake. I’m imagining a high quality chocolate cake so delicious it almost surprises the unsuspecting with the breadth of its succulence. How it can seem to reach past your taste buds deep into your very soul. Eyes closed, face a reflection of almost Edenic bliss, time slowed to savor this bite of cake, so very, very chocolate.

Then there are dry, cardboard-tasting cakes from the supermarket bakery who only share a passing acquaintance with any cocoa powder or low quality chocolate. The dark-colored cakes sporting vile drifts of oily shortening frosting garishly decorated with air-brushed day-glow roses masquerading as a chocolate cake: eek! These are not the stuff dreams are made of.

We begin with a good recipe, good ingredients, good intentions, moral fortitude. Decent cake pans, no less. I digress. The recipe is the thing we are discussing here.
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My first favorite chocolate cake recipe was from a little paperback cookbook by Peg Bracken called, The I Hate to Cook Book. As the title suggests, most of the book deals with ways to not cook anything, especially desserts. The chapter dealing with the after dinner portion of a meal is called something like, “Dessert, or people are too fat anyway.” As an eight-year old, I found this hilarious, amplified by the accompanying charming illustrations of Hilary Knight, the same talented gal who illustrated the Eloise at the Plaza books. After suggesting many droll ways to avoid making dessert, Ms. Bracken grudgingly gives one all-purpose cake recipe, to be used if all else fails. It is a chocolate cake, of course. It is eggless and butter-less, making it appropriate for vegans though they probably weren’t invented at the time Peg Bracken was writing the book. The cake is sometimes called a “dump” cake because you dump all the ingredients into one bowl and just beat them together. It has also been know as “wacky” cake (how wacky that you just beat everything together!) or “war” cake (eggs and butter are scarce in war time.) Technically, the absence of eggs and butter makes the cake very light and the addition of oil makes it moist. The trade offs are a less dense chocolate experience, a slight chemical taste from the baking soda-vinegar leavening, and a shorter shelf life than a traditional butter cake. As it makes a snack-sized 8-inch cake, the keeping quality is rarely a problem. It is a delicious, if light, chocolate cake. I’ve made it hundreds of times, served it to many people, in guises from a chocolate trifle to a layer cake to plain old unadorned cake, eaten warm, right out of the pan. The book has been reissued in a 50th anniversary edition, and I highly recommend you click over to Amazon and pick up a copy.

This is a famous recipe, I believe, but I haven’t the faintest idea who invented it. I saw it in a newspaper years ago, meant to clip it, didn’t, and finally bumped into the cake itself in the apartment of a friend of mine. It was dark, rich, moist, chocolatey, and she said it took no more than five minutes to mix it up. So I tried it, and, oddly enough, mine, too, was dark, rich, moist, chocolatey. My own timing was five and a half minutes, but that includes hunting for the vinegar.

• 1 ½ cups sifted flour
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup cold water*

Put your sifted flour back into the sifter, add to it the cocoa, baking soda, sugar, and salt, and sift this right into a greased square pan, about 9 x 9 x 2 inches. Now you make three grooves, or holes, in this dry mixture. Into one, pour the oil; into the next, the vinegar; into the next, the vanilla. Now pour the cold water over it all. You’ll feel like you’re making mud pies now, but beat it with a spoon until it’s nearly smooth and you can’t see the flour. Bake it at 350˚for half an hour.

Eventually, though, I wanted a denser, more chocolatey chocolate cake. In the dark pre-internet times of the 1970’s, outside of cookbooks, ladies' magazines were the leading source of new recipes. I clipped many a recipe from Good Housekeeping, Sunset Magazine, and Ladies’ Home Journal. Recipes came from articles and also from the advertisers. A craze for chocolate cakes made with mayonnaise grew out of a successful Best Food’s mayonnaise ad campaign. Though sounding odd, there’s actual science behind mayonnaise use in a chocolate cake. Mayo is made up of eggs, fat, and acid, such as vinegar, all components found in cake. American kitchens of that time stocked a quart jar of mayonnaise as a matter of course, so even if you were out of eggs or butter, you could still produce a good chocolate cake. It was my go-to recipe for cake for many years. Here is a version from All Recipes website:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/7423/mayonnaise-cake-i/

But time marches on and we don’t stock such large jars of mayonnaise in the fridge and we generally do keep eggs and butter in the house at all times. This led me to my current favorite dark chocolate cake recipe which I’ve been using for twenty years now. I have to confess I was immediately attracted to the full-page advertisement for the recipe in a 1998 copy of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The recipe is recipe file card size, against a backdrop photograph of a very much enlarged slice of the frosted layer cake: stunning! It’s such a great ad, I never did cut out the recipe and glue it to a recipe card; I just kept the whole magazine page.

​A TEA ROOM REVIEW
© www.myteaplanner.com
BY: KATHLEEN

FIRST IMPRESSION, EXTERIOR PARKING:
GLENDEVEN INN IS LOCATED RIGHT OFF A SPECTACULAR SECTION OF hIGHWAY ONE ON THE NORTHERN CALIFORNA COAST AND COULD NOT BE MORE ENTICING, WITH ITS PRISTINE 1867 CLAPBOARD FARMHOUSE AND SOFTLY WEATHERED WINE BARN SEEN DIRECTLY FROM THE DRIVEWAY. IT SITS ON EIGHT LUSHLY LANDSCAPED ACRES, INCLUDING A LLAMA PASTURE WHICH OVERLOOKS BREATHTAKING SEA VIEWS.

WELCOME, DECOR, AMBIENCE:
WE WANDERED INTO THE WINE BARN AND CHECKED IN WITH THE HOSTESS. SHE LED US TO THE FARMHOUSE WHERE A TEA TABLE WAS LAID FOR US IN FRONT OF LARGE WINDOWS, OVERLOOKING THE LLAMAS AND OCEAN VIEW. tHE ROOM, AS ALL THE SPACES WE SAW AT GLENEVEN INN, WERE BEAUTIFULLY AND TASTEFULLY DECORATED IN CONTEMPORARY STYLE. OUR SERVER WAS FRIENDLY AND ACCOMMODATING. THOUGH IT WAS HER FIRST TIME SERVING AFTERNOON TEA, SHE DID A WONDERFUL JOB.  LIGHT JAZZ WAS PLAYING SOFTLY IN THE BACKGROUND.

MENU, VARIETY, TRADITION, SPECIAL DIET:
GLENDEVEN'S AFTERNOON TEA MENU IS PUBLISHED ON THEIR WEBSITE AND INCLUDES HOMEMADE FINGER SANDWICHED, SCONES WITH HOMEMADE CLOTTED CREAM, LEMON CURD, JAM, FRENCH MACARONS AND PETITS FOURS. THE TEA MEAL IS SERVED ON THE TRADITIONAL THREE-TIERED PLATTER. WE DIDN’T ENQUIRE ABOUT SPECIAL DIET SUBSTITUTIONS, BUT WE RECOMMEND MENTIONING ANY ALLERGIES OR SPECIAL DIETARY REQUIREMENTS AT THE TIME OF MAKING THE RESERVATION. 

BEVERAGES, TEA SELECTION AND BRAND(S), CHAMPAGNE:
GLENDEVEN INN SERVES TEAS FROM FLYING BIRD BOTANICALS BRAND WHICH WERE NICELY BLENDED AND EXTREMELY FRESH. A CHAMPAGNE TEA OPTION IS OFFERD DURING THE RESERVATION PROCESS, AND WE CHOSE IT. THE CHAMPAGNE WAS SLIGHTLY SWEET AND APPROPRIATELY CHILLED.

TEA: QUALITY, STEEPED CORRECTLY, HOT, REFILLED PROMPTLY, APPROPRIATE TEAPOT:
FLYING BIRD’S ENGLISH BREAKFAST TEA IS A TRADITIONAL, WELL-BALANCED BLEND.  GLENDEVEN INN SERVES THE LARGE, PYRAMIDAL TEABAGS IN CONTEMPORARY WHITE CERAMIC TEAPOTS AND LEAVES GUESTS TO STEEP THE TEA AS LONG AS DESIRED. OUR HOT WATER WAS REFILLED PROMPTLY.

FOOD: TASTINESS, FRESHNESS, AS DESCRIBED ON MENU: QUALITY OF SAVORIES, SCONES AND TEA BREADS, SWEETS:
THE QUALITY OF THE FOOD AT GLENDEVEN INN WAS VERY HIGH. THE SANDWICH SELECTION WAS PARTICULARLY DELIGHTFUL TO THE EYE AND THE PALATE. AN ABUNDANCE OF GARDEN-FRESH CHIVES EDGED THE GOAT CHEESE SANDWICHES AND ADDED A FRESHNESS AND PEPPERY BITE. WE BOTH ENJOYED THE EGG SALAD WITH CAVIAR AND THE CUCUMBER SANDWICHES AND AGREED THAT THE DEVILED EGGS WERE OUTSTANDING. TWO TYPES OF SCONES WERE ON THE TIERED SERVER, BOTH OF GENEROUS SIZE AND PLEASINGLY WARM. I LOVED THE PLAIN CREAM SCONE, AND MY TEA COMPANION JUSTIFIABLY RAVED ABOUT THE CHERRY CRANBERRY SCONE. THE THREE SCONE TOPPING OPTIONS WERE ALL AMONG THE BEST WE’VE SAMPLED ANYWHERE, WITH THE CLOTTED CREAM PERHAPS THE BEST I’VE HAD OUTSIDE OF BRITAIN. tHE MENU LISTS THE JAM AS SHANDEL’S LOCAL BLACKBERRY JAM, AND I’D LIKE TO GIVE A WARM THANK YOU TO SHANDEL FOR A TRULY GREAT PRESERVE.

DESSERT SELECTIONS INCLUDED DELICIOUS FRENCH MACARONS AS DESCRIBED IN THE MENU, BUT SADLY THE PETITS FOURS WERE REPLACED BY BISCOTTI. I DO UNDERSTAND THAT MAKING THE FAMOUSLY LABOR-INTENSIVE PETITS FOURS FOR JUST TWO GUESTS BORDERS ON MARTYRDOM, AND THIER ABSENCE WILL THUS BE OVERLOOKED.

OVERALL FEELING, RATING OR STARS:
ATTENTION TO DETAIL IN EVERY CATEGORY MAKES GLENDEVEN INN STAND OUT AMONG TEAROOMS. FROM THE PHYSICAL BEAUTY OF THE BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS TO THE INCOMPARABLE OCEAN VIEWS TO THE INVITING FARM HOUSE SETTING TO THE FRIENDLY SERVICE AND EXCELLENT FOOD TO THE BUCOLIC VIEWS OF PASTURED LLAMAS, GLENDEVEN INN IS A NOT TO BE MISSED DESTINATION ON THE MENDOCINO COAST.
 
A SPECIAL THANK-YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SERVER FOR SHARING HER KNOWLEDGE OF WHALE WATCHING.  RIGHT FROM OUR OCEAN VIEW TEA TABLE, SHE SHOWED US HOW TO SPOT DIFFERENT COURTSHIP BEHAVIORS OF MIGRATING GRAY WHALES. MY TEA COMPANION, BEING FROM THE EAST COAST, RIGHTLY RANKED THIS AS ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF HER CALIFORNIA TRIP.

​January is National Soup Month, Slow Cooker Month, Sunday Supper Month, Oatmeal Month and Hot Tea Month. I approve of all of these. In the chilly days of January, I’ll take any and all reasons to cook, bake, drink hot beverages, invite people over, and even eat the occasional bowl of oatmeal with plenty of brown sugar, warm milk, and a pat of melting butter (though I’m really more of a toast gal.)
 
After the hullabaloo of the holidays, January can be a bit of a let down. As a January birthday girl has frequently said to me, everyone is broke and on a diet during the first month of the new year. After New Year’s Day, festive holidays are scarce on the ground so we may as well make our own reasons to celebrate. We do have visionary Martin Luther King Jr to honor and he is included in this link to some famous January-born Americans:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/90220/10-famous-birthdays-celebrate-january
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​You’ll note that Elvis Presley and David Bowie share a birthday on January 8th (along with my friend Randy and my Grandma Rose.) I’m not sure about the Thin White Duke, but we can rest assured that Grandma Rose, Randy, and Elvis are all reported to enjoy a good, home cooked meal. As January 8th is on a Monday this year, you could cook up a Sunday Supper on the eve of their birthday, with one hell of a sound track. (Rock and roll for sure but Grandma Rose favored Italian opera.)
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​What to serve? You can never err with hot soup on a winter’s day. Well-made soup, that is. Not much is more disappointing than ho-hum soup. I’m a firm believer in homemade stock (some might say rigid fanatic…ahem.) It’s difficult to think up another passive activity that yields such amazingly delicious results.  

There are two general schools of thought on making stock. One is what I’ll call The Best Ingredients method and the other might be called The Garbage method.  Though you might surmise which one I favor by my titles, surprisingly, I have a foot in both camps. By now, readers probably know that in my baking, I spare no expense on ingredients.  The best butter, the beautiful garnishes, the imported chocolates all show up in my cookies and cakes. But daily cooking is another matter.  A little frugality is generally the order of the day with getting dinner on the table.  To this end, The Garbage method of stock-making appeals. The tops and tails of vegetables trimmed for another meal go right into the stock pot, wasting nothing. The bones from that Costco roaster chicken go into the pot. Even the skins of yellow onions can be added for an extra golden color in chicken stock. The only caveat is to add no cruciferous vegetables, i.e. no stinky ones such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or cabbage. As you are preparing dinner, toss the vegetable scraps and bones into a zip-top freezer bag and store in the freezer until you are ready to make stock.

The Best Ingredient method, as the name implies, means you start with the freshest, finest ingredients you can find. I’ll chose this method when I’ll be serving the finished soup at a party or when I sell stock to friends, as I have been known to do.  Homemade stock is like money in the bank. It’s your secret weapon. It means you can be 30 minutes away from homemade soup at all times. It makes you a cooking rock star with almost no effort. Who doesn’t want that?

Kathleen’s Homemade Stock Instructions

Add to a 5 quart or larger stockpot, Dutch oven, or any large pot these vegetables:

• Peeled garlic cloves, 3 or more
• Onions, 1 or 2, quartered
• Celery with leaves, several stalks, cut into big pieces
• Carrots, 3 or 4, cut into big pieces
• Italian parsley, a big handful or half a bunch
• Thyme, a few fresh twigs or a few pinches of dried
• Peppercorns, I tend to just open the pepper mill and pour out some in the palm of my hand
• Optional but yummy, some mushrooms or mushroom stems

Add to pot, a meat component:
Roasted chicken or turkey carcass. For beef stock, add beef bones and a blob of tomato paste. (I keep a tube of very concentrated tomato paste on hand, found at Trader Joe’s.)
Add enough water to cover, or mostly cover the ingredients, not more than 2 or 3 quarts.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn heat down to a low simmer and cook for 2 hours or more. If you like paying attention and hanging around the stove (nice on a cold day,) you can skim the scum that rises to the top and discard it. Or, you can ignore it entirely for two hours, no problem. The stock is done when it tastes like stock rather than lightly flavored water. The longer you cook stock, the more concentrated it will become. In classical French cooking, stock is boiled down to a few tablespoons of ultra-concentrated demi-glace, true culinary gold. But for our purposes, cooked down to delicious liquid stock is fine.

Strain stock through a mesh colander into a clean pot or bowl. You may have to do this in batches, depending on the size of your colander. For clearer stock, line the colander with cheesecloth. Discard solids. (Yes, it’s done its job, you don’t need it anymore. If you feel better about it, you can pick through it and nibble on the parts that you are interested in. The discarding of all the ingredients is hard for some of the frugal cooks among us, and I think that’s why The Garbage method appeals to them.)
Add salt to taste, remembering you may not want it overly salty if you will be adding it to unknown ingredients. But some salt is advisable.

Chill stock until fat solidifies on top. At this point, you can remove the fat, if you so choose. I’ll leave it up to you how much, if any, fat to leave in. 

Divide into freezable containers, leaving lots of head space, as stock expands greatly when frozen. I use wide mouth canning jars in quart or half quart sizes or plastic containers with lids. Always mark the contents and date on containers and use within one year.

Now that you have gorgeous homemade stock on hand, you can make soup anytime.
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​Mexican-ish Corn Chowder

​This is my version of a Pinterest soup recipe that used cheese to create the thick texture of the chowder. I originally made the soup for friends who can’t have lots of cheese, so I modified the recipe. You could certainly add cheese back in or offer shredded cheese as one of the toppings. The best change I made, though, was swapping out canned green chilies for my go-to tomatillo salsa, Herdez Salsa Verde. It has a much brighter flavor than plain green chilies. It’s also delicious as a table salsa with tortilla chips. It’s a pantry staple.

• 1 tablespoon oil, vegetable or canola
• 1 small onion, in small dice
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped finely
• 3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 to 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups half and half
• 1 jar (16 ounce) Herdez Salsa Verde, or similar
• 1 can (14 ounce) creamed corn
• 1 can (14 ounce) diced tomatoes, drained
• Salt to taste
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken or cooked shrimp

Garnishes:
Lime wedges, chopped cilantro, diced avocado, shredded cheese, hot sauce
Makes: soup for about four
Equipment: 4 or 5 quart sauce pan or stock pot

1. Heat oil in sauce pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook to soften, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes. Add garlic, jalapeno, and cumin. Cook for a few more minutes.
2. Stir in chicken stock, half and half, salsa verde, creamed corn, and drained tomatoes. When mixture is hot, add chicken or shrimp. Taste for salt and add if needed. Heat until chicken or shrimp is hot.
3. Serve immediately in pre-warmed soup bowls, passing bowls of garnishes.

Variation: add a can of drained hominy in step 2 to turn the soup into a Mexican-ish pozole.
 
 
 
 
 

Ho, ho, ho! How do we have the best possible Christmas without going insane? How can we make it fun, spiritual, communal, satisfying, comforting, novel, traditional, easy, and magic? Well, you can’t. It’s impossible. But you can rearrange your priorities, let go of what is not important and concentrate on what feeds your soul. Let go of musts and have-tos and figure out love-tos and want-tos.

​Ho, ho, ho! Easier said than done, you say and I agree. But delving into what parts of the holidays you really enjoy and which parts you dread is a good place to begin. If you were starting from scratch, with no Christmas traditions or family obligations, what would your holiday season include? The answers are different for different people. Sometimes, we’ve grown beyond traditions we used to enjoy. New circumstances require new adaptations. Losing or adding family and friends in our circle may call for and or allow changes in our customs. Give yourself permission and dream space to ponder a holiday season that truly lifts your heart and allows joy to truly shine.

​Ho, ho, ho! First, let’s think about the things you look forward to most. The list might include chopping down a tree from a snowy lot, attending religious services, baking holiday cookies, decorating the house, exchanging gifts. But for some of us, the preceding list has some or all of the things we dread the most. That is why you need to be honest with yourself about your true feelings. Though you may have made your special cocoa mix every year for friends and family and hosted a hot cocoa and caroling party each year for twenty years, you’re actually totally bored with cocoa and long to do something else. Is it AA that tells you to make a fearless inventory? Do that about holiday likes and dislikes. If you hate turkey, now is the time to admit it.

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Ho, ho, ho! Shall I share some of my inventory with you? My loves: looking at Christmas lights, covering everything with red tartan, going to the woods to hunt for fresh mistletoe and greenery, baking the Italian Christmas cookies with my Suzi, staying cozy in the house while my man makes tamales, watching the black and white version of A Christmas Carol on television, playing with Christmas crackers with my mom. My loathes: mall shopping, tacky decorations, secret Santa-ing, mandatory gift-giving, football, excess consumerism. Your lists will be completely personal to you.

​Ho, ho, ho! I can just hear the parents among you say, “The children want things to stay the same! Grandma has to have her Polish candy fruitcake loaf!” If your children are small, now is the time to introduce new customs just for your family or try different activities or foods. Their childhoods will be richer for it. If your children are grown and settled in their ways, now is the time to let them try out some independent holiday activities. If you’re in charge of making holidays for older folks, now is the time to have heart to heart talks with them. You may find that grandpa has never liked big family gatherings and has secretly longed to spend Christmas in a cabin in the mountains. Or your mom would love to go to Thanksgiving dinner at a fancy hotel. You don’t know until you ask. If you change things, there may be complaining, there may be pleasant surprises. Best of all, you may find what feels meaningful and joyful to you, making the holidays feel magical again.

Ho, ho, ho! I do like a holiday party. Several years ago, I tried a cookie exchange party with my gals. I’m a baker, have a best friend that’s a baker, come from a family of bakers, so I assumed that everyone was enough of a baker to look forward to being part of a cookie exchange party. I was not correct. By casually Googling “cookie exchange party” you get lots of ideas on how to throw a successful party, what to serve, and tellingly, lists of rules. Rules? Is this supposedly festive party complicated enough to warrant rules? The most complete lists of rules is found here: http://www.cookie-exchange.com/rules_of_the_cookie_exchange.html by Robin Olson.
​She’s so good, she even wrote the book on the subject, http://www.cookie-exchange.com/the_cookie_party_cookbook/index.html
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Ho, ho, ho! Perhaps her guests are much more willing and compliant than mine or just much less busy but it was like pulling teeth to get about 6 gals to bake 6 dozen cookies each and show up at a party. Six dozen may sound like a lot of cookies but most cookie recipes make 3 or 4 dozen. Thus, one double batch of cookies would cover it. The questioning and complaining by guests was matched only by the cajoling and threatening by the hostess! Not a recipe for a relaxed and enjoyable gathering. Luckily, one of the younger guests showed up without cookies but with all the ingredients for a hot apple cider toddy. Another party saved by the judicious application of alcohol. 

What have I learned about myself, my friends, parties, cookies, and life? All very good questions. I still enjoy baking cookies for loved ones during the holidays and that not everyone does. Parties should be as stress-free and as rule-free as possible. If you want to bake cookies this holiday season, check out Rose’s blog which lists a baker's dozen of the most delicious and reliable cookies EVER. If you don’t feel like baking cookies this holiday season, please don’t. No one has ever starved for lack of Christmas cookies. Please yourself by finding Christmas cheer that feels right to you and please those around you by giving them a less frazzled and happier you.
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