Scribbles & Munch

      This last weekend I went to visit a very dear friend of mine in Madison, WI. We chatted, I helped her get ready for Thanksgiving company, we chatted, we went to my favorite restaurant in the world, we chatted, she made me a cake, we chatted, I taught her how to knit, we made pizza from scratch, and we chatted some more. And there may have been some crazy shenanigans free of malice, corruption, and danger, yet still of a marginally suspicious nature, which will not be discussed further. (Hey...that's what friends are for!)
      My friend feels a strong connection with the Greek Goddess Iris, whose messages from Olympus resulted in a rainbow trail across the sky. Therefore, she tends to make a lot of rainbow-themed desserts, including the scrumptious cake we enjoyed during my visit.

Now THAT'S a celebration cake!

She got the recipe online from rainbow dessert mistress YoyoMax, although we did make a couple small changes. For one thing, we separated and batter and dyed it before adding in the egg whites. We also added about double the lemon, and a couple teaspoons of vanilla to the batter as well.


For the filling, we added another teaspoon each of lemon juice and vanilla, and a hefty pinch of salt (salt always helps the sweetness stand out, trust me).

I do not have the skills to pipe this stuff, but my friend made it look easy.

It was a lovely, lightly lemony dessert, beautiful to look at and - honestly - tastier than I expected. As you can see, we slightly over-baked the cake, but the texture and flavor were still great--the only unhappy consequence was that the rainbow colors didn't stand out as much as they should have on the exterior.
      Also, I suspect the inside of my digestive tract will be color-coated for a few days.
      As you might imagine, my friend and I discussed (among other things) our Thanksgiving plans. She intends to make a pumpkin pie, and has already slow roasted and puréed a sugar pumpkin for this purpose. Which meant I was forced to make a confession which frequently shocks people, especially around the holidays: I don't like pumpkin pie.
      The problem is texture. I don't like sqwooshy* foods. I don't like pudding, I don't like porridge, and I can only eat yogurt with a lot of fruit and/or granola. I even make my mashed potatoes lumpy on purpose (I also leave the skins on--I call them "rustic"). The way I figure it, if I am fortunate enough to live to a ripe old age, either digestive problems or dental issues will likely result in a return to a diet not unlike that of an 8 month-old. As long as I have my health, my food will require chewing.
      There are three traditional alternatives to pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving time: pecan (which needs about triple the amount of pecans to not count as sqwooshy), mincemeat (yeah...don't go there), and apple. I considered trying some unusual pies, including a maple pecan bruelée pie which will probably find it's way onto my menu next year, but I finally decided on an apple pie. Which, to many of you, may seem like a cop out, because I've already done apple pie twice on this blog.
      To which I reply: yeah, but not THIS apple pie!!!
      I've already professed that if given the opportunity, I would readily shave my head and take a vow of poverty to become Alton Brown's disciple. But even I have had a few moments where I thought he'd lost his mind, and his Super Apple Pie was one of them. I mean, have you READ this recipe? It starts out seeming reasonable - adding applejack to the crust is like my vodka trick, and a mix of four apples could produce a great balance - but by the time you've sugared and drained the apples, then boiled down their liquid, then layered the slices just so, and then went out and bought a special baking dish you'll probably never use for anything else ever again in your life...well...frankly, it seems a bit overboard.
      However...
      ...there's his pantry pasta sauce, which calls for sweating vegetables before oven roasting, and it is so delicious I don't have the words.
      And then there's his coconut cake, which involves more uses for coconut than I believe is strictly legal in about thirteen states. Involved? Yes. Time consuming? Oh, yes. Worth it? Honey...if you ever want to impress the $#!% out of someone who likes coconut, this is the way to go. I dream of the day I have the time to make this cake again--I dream of it the way some women dream of their wedding.**
      So the evidence would suggest that this insane apple pie might actually be worth it. And since I was already buying the applejack for cocktails and I recently came into possession of some Grains of Paradise (oh yeah, did I mention AB doesn't use traditional cinnamon in this recipe? he uses something I'd never even heard of before, called Grains of Paradise), I decided - with a little prompting from my brother - that this was the year. I'll let you know how it turns out. And I want to hear about YOUR pie adventures this Thanksgiving! Did it go smoothly? Or did the power go out and leave you without an oven for pie or bird (happened to my family when I was in elementary school)? Or did you burn yourself putting the pie into the oven and throw it into the air as you jerked out hand back, coating your kitchen in orange goo (happened to my Mom when I was in middle school)? Or did you knock over the caramel sauce as it was cooking and lose half of it all over your stove top (happened to my brother just a couple years ago)? Holidays are how memories are made, my friends--don't think of them as disasters, think of them as glorious stories to be laughed about over future successes!

Happy Impending Turkey Day!



*It's a word now.

**If you ever decide to make this cake - and you should - yes, really do make your own coconut milk, coconut cream, and harvest your own coconut water and coconut flesh. Don't argue, just do it.