Nothing to report, except for desserts

Here's the cherry pie. I won "Mom's Best" again. Next year, I think I'll go with something less traditional, but it was fun.





This next one is a cocoanut cream pie with a cocoanut and graham cracker crust, topped with red raspberries, white meringues, and blackberries. Happy belated 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

On to the 4th

Every year (or nearly) for the past 5 years, we have gone to a lulu of a 4th of July party. The friends who host it live in an old farmhouse a bit north of here.

The crowd starts rolling in in the early afternoon, and the last stragglers weave away on the following day (having camped out in the nearby woods).

I like to bring a few food items. Everyone contributes. Sometimes it's booze-soaked fruit on skewers, sometimes a cake, or a salad. Too, we bring spirits or beer, and something for the grill.

Everyone lounges around, talks, has a few drinks, eats to repletion and beyond, plays croquet (on a very uneven lawn) and some bands play. (The host has a band of his own, and many other musician friends.) There's also a chance that some of us will forget we're glad the 80s are past, and we'll bop around to various 80s music...all kinds.

But right now I'm fixated on the dessert I'm bringing. It's going to be a three-layer cocoanut cake with a lavender cream cheese frosting. And my inner cornball is helping freely--one layer is red, one is white...and yes...the third is blue. The frosting is nearly white.

The recipe is delicious. I found it in a 1928 Royal Baking Powder book. Caveat: the damn thing sinks in the middle, whatever I do. I've made it five times so far, so I should know.

The oven is hot enough. Believe me, when your oven dates from 1938, you remember to pre-heat. Two possible culprits remain: the mixing technique, or too much baking powder. I've been following the basic cookbook directions, and melting the butter.

Usually when I make a butter cake, I cream it in with the dry, and then add the liquid gradually, beating for a minute or minute and a half between additions...I think I'll try that next time. And lessen the baking powder amount. It calls for 4 teaspoons! That's a lot for a one-layer cake.

If you're a baker, feel free to sound off and let me know your opinions, and/or what you're done to correct the same problem.

When the cake is assembled, I'll post a photo or two.

Why MIA?

I've been MIA for a few reasons.

We had a great 4th of July weekend (ah, it was so nice to have it fall on a Friday!) and kept very busy.

Friday itself I did a bit of cleaning and cooking. I made a Booze Fruit Salad (blueberries, strawberries, kiwi slices, and chunks of pineapples, liberally doused with good rum). On Thursday night I made a cold soba noodle salad with peanut sauce & cucumbers.

Then we went to a 4th of July cookout and had a great time. Jen & Chris know how to throw a party! We left early, though, because we were expecting company from Boston on Saturday.

I got up around 5:00 on Saturday and cleaned until I nearly fell over. For once, the kitchen looks good to me! I even washed all of the colored vintage glasses I keep on the windowsill, and scrubbed the floor properly. Very old-fashioned and effective: I used Fels Naptha soap and scrubbed, and followed it with a vinegar rinse, and then rinsed with water, and buffed it dry.

ZantiMissKnit (as she is known at Knitty) and her just-as-fabulous DH came in to play in Providence with us. We hit a few closed stores and restaurants (I always forget that half this town shuts down over the week of the 4th), but we ate lunch at Julian's, went to Rocket to Mars, and out to a great antiques center for long browsing and some buying. We had tea at L'Elisabeth and dinner (nosh style) at Local 121. They also met the terrible furry twosome. They were a bit spooked by Mr. ZMK, who's a tall drink of water, but Than Than even stood on his head for the Mrs.!

And...we're thinking of buying a house!

MAYbe. It depends.

(So if you're curious about the details you'll have to Tune In Tomorrow. Or another day, to find out!)