I have confirmed with Toria and will be bringing her.

I'm going to attempt "Hollywood Honey Cake" from "Maida Hatter's Book Of Great American Desserts", mostly because it's supposed to be easy, but also because I need to be disciplined into actually following a recipe for a change. I'm twisting Joan 2's arm to do the madeleine's she did for Julia Child when she worked w/ Ina P. back in the day. Just because Julia declared them "delightful". But that's up in the air at this point.

I'm looking forward to Sunday and hoping I don't drown in estrogen. We may have to do a drop and dash: J2 is allergic to cats. It's been years since she's been in a cathouse (sorry JJ), so we'll have to see how well she tolerates...

bean: maida hatter is a great place to start as she writes her recipes very thoroughly. and i'm glad you mentioned joan's cat allergy. i'll keep the cats in my bedroom during the event. my place is pretty clean. maybe she'd consider taking an antihistamine before you arrive? that'll help, too.

justjoan wrote:bean: maida hatter is a great place to start as she writes her recipes very thoroughly. and i'm glad you mentioned joan's cat allergy. i'll keep the cats in my bedroom during the event. my place is pretty clean. maybe she'd consider taking an antihistamine before you arrive? that'll help, too.

Thank you for the offer of cat containment. I'm pretty sure Joan2 will be fine. She managed to live in an apt. in Hyde Park for years with three cats upstairs; they would visit often. It's just been so long we don't really know what might happen.

I vaguely remember a Tupperware rule/recommendation. Can you clue me in as to what, if any kind of containers we're supposed to bring?

I'll bring the Maida Hatter book as I seem to remember folks like to pour over each other's offerings.

I'm getting excited about Sunday. Thanks for doing it.

The container rule is to bring something in which to take home your share of the desserts. It can be the container in which you brought yours.

Ms. Ingie wrote:The container rule is to bring something in which to take home your share of the desserts. It can be the container in which you brought yours.

That's a pretty easy rule. Thanks!

bean wrote:

justjoan wrote:bean: maida hatter is a great place to start as she writes her recipes very thoroughly. and i'm glad you mentioned joan's cat allergy. i'll keep the cats in my bedroom during the event. my place is pretty clean. maybe she'd consider taking an antihistamine before you arrive? that'll help, too.

Thank you for the offer of cat containment. I'm pretty sure Joan2 will be fine. She managed to live in an apt. in Hyde Park for years with three cats upstairs; they would visit often. It's just been so long we don't really know what might happen.

I vaguely remember a Tupperware rule/recommendation. Can you clue me in as to what, if any kind of containers we're supposed to bring?

I'll bring the Maida Hatter book as I seem to remember folks like to pour over each other's offerings.

I'm getting excited about Sunday. Thanks for doing it.

no need to bring the book, i own it. strangely enough, we don't actually spend much time discussing the desserts, though i personally would like to do more of that. and we can start this sunday.... as for containers: you'll be going home with 8-10 desserts, so you'll need tupperware type containers, if you have them. that means we each go home with a slice of each cake that shows up, or a couple of cookies from each batch that is brought. some of us will sample everything at the exchange, and then we'll divide the remainder to go home. or you can just pack up one of each offerings to go home if you don't want to eat some on the spot. we usually try to stay away from things like pudding, as that would be messy to divide and transport home. though those sorts of gooey things can be brought already placed in individual containers. if you don't have anything appropriate, i have bakery boxes of various sizes that i'm happy to give you. i usually bring several different sized plastic containers-each of which is big enough to hold several slices of cake. that usually does the trick. it always works out!

justjoan wrote:no need to bring the book, i own it. strangely enough, we don't actually spend much time discussing the desserts, though i personally would like to do more of that. and we can start this sunday.... as for containers: you'll be going home with 8-10 desserts, so you'll need tupperware type containers, if you have them. that means we each go home with a slice of each cake that shows up, or a couple of cookies from each batch that is brought. some of us will sample everything at the exchange, and then we'll divide the remainder to go home. or you can just pack up one of each offerings to go home if you don't want to eat some on the spot. we usually try to stay away from things like pudding, as that would be messy to divide and transport home. though those sorts of gooey things can be brought already placed in individual containers. if you don't have anything appropriate, i have bakery boxes of various sizes that i'm happy to give you. i usually bring several different sized plastic containers-each of which is big enough to hold several slices of cake. that usually does the trick. it always works out!

Containers should be no problem. I hope we are able to hang long enough to sample your wares and get to dessert. We have a new four month old puppy who insists on urinating every few hours--we're going to have to fit him into the mix. I was hoping you, Cathy2, or anybody else would have a book that I haven't seen yet and will fascinate me/inspire me to do things like this more often, i.e. FOLLOW A RECIPE, for once in my foolish life. I'm sort of kidding about that--I'll spill the secret when I see you Sun.

One of the reasons we don't end up discussing the desserts is the host tends to make phenomenal food so we are too stuffed to even try the desserts, although I try.

I'll bring the Maida Hatter book as I seem to remember folks like to pour over each other's offerings.

....bean, it turns out i do not own MH's great american desserts, so feel free to bring it. her titles all sound kind of alike.

i'm planning to make a non-italian, fall version of panzanella salad for dinner (beets, oranges,greens, fennel) as well as mugs of butternut squash soup. i still have no idea what my dessert will be....

btw, i think i forgot to mention in my PM with my address, that my nearest train stop is the kedzie stop on the blue line. it's a 15 minute walk to my place from there.

i just made my first trip over to Baker Miller and dave and megan kindly gave me some samples of pastry flour, sifted and unsifted. so i plan to experiment on you all and try out their locally sourced and milled flour. this is very exciting, IMO.

justjoan wrote:i just made my first trip over to Baker Miller and dave and megan kindly gave me some samples of pastry flour, sifted and unsifted. so i plan to experiment on you all and try out their locally sourced and milled flour. this is very exciting, IMO.

Sounds wonderful.

Looks like I will be back in time from Wisco to attend.

It really depends on what time we get back in what I will bring.

If anyone happens to have a 9 inch springform bottom or a complete 9 in springform pan that they don't want I probably can give it a home.

i've had quite a morning. i had breakfast at Reno, which i do regularly. during which i knocked over the hot sauce. 10 minutes later i spilled the pitcher of milk for my tea. then i knocked the pitcher on the floor. 5 minutes later the busboy dropped/broke a glass. i carefully walked home and then as i was folding up my sewing machine table i dropped it on all 5 toes on my right foot. i'm going to be baking/cooking very carefully today and tomorrow and try not to cut off or burn any fingers.... i'm going to try making hand pies for dessert, using baker millers' pastry flour. i have some organic rhubarb and peaches to put inside. we'll see what happens....

Hi,

I see springform pans at rummage sales quite often. I can keep an eye out, if you don't otherwise solve your problem.

Regards,

justjoan:

Hand pies sound great! My Joan made a batch a month or so ago using the first of the farmers' market blueberries. Rhubarb and peaches sound like a good combo. Joan is now leaning towards a Julia Child recipe for gingerbread cake that includes fresh ginger, chocolate, coffee and molasses. Julia uses espresso powder. I doubt we'll be able to source that on short notice (Whole Paycheck, Ashland?) so I'm going to try and make a coffee reduction.

Hopefully the sun will shine on your back porch tomorrow.

best wishes for a damage free baking experience,

bean

bean wrote:justjoan:

Hand pies sound great! My Joan made a batch a month or so ago using the first of the farmers' market blueberries. Rhubarb and peaches sound like a good combo. Joan is now leaning towards a Julia Child recipe for gingerbread cake that includes fresh ginger, chocolate, coffee and molasses. Julia uses espresso powder. I doubt we'll be able to source that on short notice (Whole Paycheck, Ashland?) so I'm going to try and make a coffee reduction.

Hopefully the sun will shine on your back porch tomorrow.

best wishes for a damage free baking experience, :wink:

bean

bean: if you have any espresso grounds, even if they aren't powdered, joan can use them. spin them in the food processor or blender just to make them smaller. it'll add unnoticeable texture to the cake. i've done that many times. the cake sounds delish.

Thank you, justjoan. I should have thought of that. We don't have espresso, but will probably do it with regular coffee.

I made two versions of Hollywood Honey Cake. I got five mini loaves using reconstituted dried cranberries and walnuts. I ran out of cranberries, so I made a second batch using raising, walnuts and a touch of maple syrup. The first batch just smelled like it could use something like that. The maple syrup is barely noticeable in the sample I tried, so I probably should have had a heavier hand. In any case, I'm pretty happy with the way things came out. This stuff is pretty awesome if you toast a slice. We'll see how they do overnight.

Hi,

As much as I would love to attend, I would be twisting myself into a pretzel to make it work.

I ended up canning 100 pounds of tomatoes today. I had originally planned to make sauerkraut and Concord grape pie filling.

Sorry! I know I was going to enjoy it, too.

Regards,

ok, you're smart to recognize when you've got too much on your plate (pun intended). see you soon, joan

I just saw that there is an exchange today...
Right, I know?
So overwhelmed w holidays, etc
Willmiss you all andcatch up next time

For youse on the El: I don't believe there is a Kedzie stop on the Blue line. I think Joan means Logan Square, yes?

Espresso powder can be found at the Spice House and probably Savory Spice Shop (Evanston & Old Town, and Lincoln Square, respectively), for future reference.

I am bringing both desserts (don't worry, one's an 8' square and the other is a loaf) because the Squares were made from an incredibly poorly translated Czech recipe and may be a disaster. But it's chocolate, so it can't be too bad.

Thanks, Joan, for another fab dessert exchange! Your kitties are so cute! Would you mind posting the salad recipe?

It was nice meeting the new recruits. We hope you return!

The chocolate I used was Kandit brand. This is their website, and I translated it through Google for some amusing results.
http://www.kanditdessertchef.com/tekst/ ... -kocke-12/

I dunno where the parsnhip cake recipe came from, but I can scan the thing and email it to people.

Joan I am stuffed. Thanks so much for youe wonderful hospitality and delicious meal.

Thank you Joan for a lovely evening. The soup and salad were delicious and hit the spot. Such an interesting and delicious array of desserts. So nice having Sean, Joan and Katherine join the group. Look forward to having you back.

Here are my pictures from the dessert exchange

Some more pictures

Here are the last pictures

I can only echo the thanks to Joan for providing fabulous hospitality and victuals. It was, really, a great assortment of people and desserts. Everybody did such a great job of welcoming my wife and making her feel at home that she's trying to come up with a clever alias so she can be a part of this board. I'm very grateful that she enjoyed herself so much. Happy wife, happy life, ya' know.