Cathy-I just found out my friend is going to be coming in for a visit this weekend- so sorry I won't be able to make it...will have to save the recipe for next month.

Talk soon-
Melissa

Hi,

Not a problem, we were overbooked anyway.

Regards,

I decided to bring oatmeal-coconut-sunflower seed cookies instead of the turtle cookie/bar.

HI,

Everyone who is attending has received instructions to my house. PM if you have not received it.

Regards,

HI,

I am made plum cake this evening. I wanted it done before the weather heated up tomorrow.

See you all tomorrow!

Regards,

Unfortunately I did not get a chance to make the juice/soda thingy, since we apparently recycled our juicer. I'll have to bring it at a future exchange.

However, the pie seems to have turned out well (I hope I added enough spice) and I made spiced candied peanuts and a variation on my favorite chocolate sauce to go with it.

What a lovely afternoon, complete with dining on A & P Plates .

Cathy thanks so much for hosting.

Would you share the recipe for the plum cake, haven't grabbed my Joy of Cooking yet, & that salad. I regret not asking you if I could bring some back for Alistair .

Thanks to Cathy & her family for hosting! It was nice meeting some new faces, too. I'll post my recipes shortly.

Here are some pictures from the dessert exchange.

Cathy brought Plum Cake:


I liked the fact that there was a lot of fruit in this dessert.

Pie Lady brought Spicy Peanut Butter Pie with Candied Peanuts:


I would like the recipe for the candied peanuts.

Shorty brought Sunflower-Oatmeal-Coconut cookies:



pairs4life brought Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:


The browned butter adds a lot of flavor to the cookie.

toria brought Maida Heatter's The Best Damn Lemon Cake:


Better than pound cake.

mrkrogers brought Maida Heatter’s Chocolate Cake and Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting:




ymas brought cherry teabread:


The cherry lovers in my family really liked this.

Helen brought Coconut Sticky Rice Wrapped in Banana Leaf:


I have had Chinese sticky rice in banana leaf, but have never had sticky rice as a dessert.

Dessert Table at Cathy's House:



Plate of desserts:

@Cathy2- Found the Recipe in my Joy of Cooking. It's an edition that tells you how to dress squirrel & rabbit.

I love it for those by gone bits of information.

A quick look, tells me I need to get back in this book wherever it says Cockaigne.

Hi,

Thanks for attending today. My Dad ate dessert, then Shopska salad to finish.

Recipe and information on my offerings:

- Lemonade would have been lemon soda, if I had bought seltzer water. LTH was only a few weeks old when rosemary lemon soda recipe popped up.

- Oma's Apple Cake recipe was posted a few months later. In retrospect, the quantity of dough for that size pan you may find too thin. You may want to consider 1.5X the dough mixture, especially for juicy plums and peaches. My Dad happens to like it thin, which is ok for apples. Any recipe with Cockaigne in the name is a Rombauer family favorite in the Joy of Cooking.

- Muhammara--roasted red pepper and walnut dip was inspired by Thaiobsessed's post this week.

- For the baba ganoush, I used mayonnaise instead of olive oil, though I did use tahini and garlic.

- Bierkase recipe came from a DANKhause German culture cooking class.
4 ounces Edam (I used Swiss)
4 ounces Blue Cheese (I used Roka Blue)
4 ounces Parmesan grated
1/4 sour cream (I used yogurt)
4 ounces butter (I used 3 tablespoons)
1.5 teaspoons paprika (I used smoked paprika)
0.5 teaspoon salt (I used less to none, because the cheese was salty)
Process until smooth, then refrigerate at least two hours before serving.

- Bulgarian Shopska Salad

This is not an exact recipe, though I will tell you what I used today:
- 2 large cucumbers, deseeded and cubed
- 1 oversized green pepper, cubed
- 2 baskets cherry tomatoes, quartered or cut into 6th's depending on size
- 1 red onion chopped roughly the same size as the pepper and tomatoes
- 4-5 green onions sliced thin
- Parsley, I probably chopped up a cup.
- Red wine vinegar until I ran out, then switched to rice wine vinegar. The use of vinegar varies with the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Some olive oil, several tablespoons
- Freshly ground pepper, lots.
- Salt to balance some of the sweetness from the rice vinegar

I made this about an hour before people arrived. To finish the salad, use a rotary grater to finely grate feta cheese, which was stored in salted water.

Again, thanks for attending.

Regards,

Thanks for hosting Cathy. Everything was very good. I got home before any storm which has yet to come.

Here are my recipes. Please tell me what you guys thought of the spice in the pie.
The pie recipe is an approximation because I did a lot of it by taste and didn't write anything down. Oops!

Spicy Peanut Butter Mousse Pie
1/3 cup butter
1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ to ½ teaspoon ancho chile powder
3 dried ancho chiles
1½ teaspoons unflavored gelatin
1½ tablespoons cold water
3 tablespoons milk
1¾ cups whipping cream, divided
1 cup smooth peanut butter
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Place dried chiles in large bowl; cover with boiling water. Set aside about 20 minutes or until chiles are softened. Remove stems and seeds; place chiles in blender or food processor. Process with enough soaking water to make smooth paste.
2. Preheat oven to 325F.
3. Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add graham cracker crumbs, granulated sugar and chile powder; stir until well blended. Press into 9-inch pie plate. Bake crust 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely.
4. Dissolve gelatin in cold water; let stand about 5 minutes. Heat milk in small saucepan over medium heat to a boil; remove from heat. Add gelatin; whisk until completely dissolved. Allow to come to room temperature. Combine ¾ cup cream, peanut butter, powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon chile purée in large bowl; whisk until smooth. Beat remaining 1 cup cream in large bowl with electric mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer running, pour in gelatin mixture; beat until stiff peaks form. Fold into peanut butter mixture in 3 additions. Stir in additional chile purée to taste. Spread mousse in pie crust; chill, uncovered, 1 hour. Cover; chill until serving.

Mom’s Favorite Chocolate Sauce*
1 cup water
5 ounces granulated sugar
¼ cup corn syrup
2 ounces sifted unsweetened cocoa
8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (I prefer 70% cacao or so)

Bring water, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil in medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in cocoa until well blended. Whisk in chocolate in batches until smooth. Strain, if desired (I never found this step necessary.) Can be used warm (sauce is a bit thin; good for drizzling or fondue) but thickens upon standing to the point of being spreadable.

*I didn’t bother to check the pantry before making this sauce, and lo, I was out of chocolate! But I slapped together a passable alternative (three fourths of the recipe above): ½ cup water, 3 tablespoons corn syrup, 1½ ounces sifted cocoa, and 6 ounces dark chocolate Hershey’s kisses; same directions were followed.

Spiced Candied Peanuts
1 egg white
1 tablespoon cold water
1 pound unsalted peanuts, toasted and cooled
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup plus 1/6 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300F. Whisk egg white with water in large bowl until frothy. Add nuts; stir to coat. Combine sugars, salt, chile powder and cinnamon in small bowl; add to nut mixture. Stir to coat. Spread on parchment-lined baking sheet; bake 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Thanks Cathy for hosting! as usual, everything served was very good! I'm still savouring and enjoying all the dessert I brought home!

Recipe for "Bico" glutinous rice cake (w/ some adjustment made on my part)

Ingredients:
4 cups coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups glutinous rice
1 cup sugar
1 package banana leaves ( Run leaves under warm
water: to make it ply able)
For topping:
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup brown sugar
Combine topping ingredients in a sauce pan boil and stirring till thick then set aside.

Bring coconut milk to a boil, add salt and rice cook on medium heat, stirring to prevent it from sticking on the pan.(45 min)
Line pyrex pan with banana leaves and brush with melted butter.
spread rice in pan level the rice. Pour topping over rice mixture spread evenly.
bake at 350F until top is brown.

So sorry I missed it. Made a good call though, I truly needed to be with my family that day.

Has anyone volunteered for the next one? I can't remember. Are we skipping May?

Pie Lady wrote:Has anyone volunteered for the next one? I can't remember. Are we skipping May?

I believe it's mkr.

Hi,

I need to contact her. I will send her an e-mail right now.

Regards,
CAthy

Perhaps we should begin again in June? These next two weekends are too busy for me anyway. Anyone want to volunteer?

Hi,

I just spoke to Monika about an hour ago. She is posting an announcement for May 22 sometime today.

Now if someone wants to volunteer now for June, that is fine, too.

Regards,

Cathy the recipe for the pepper dip calls for pomegranite molasses. Did you use this in your dip or substitute it. Also can you send the recipe for baba ganoush that you used? Thanks. The dips were good.

toria wrote:Cathy the recipe for the pepper dip calls for pomegranite molasses. Did you use this in your dip or substitute it. Also can you send the recipe for baba ganoush that you used? Thanks. The dips were good.

I was also wondering the same thing. I could not find pomegranate molasses at the store.

Hi,

I didn't use the pomegranate molasses. I remember people buying some at Andy's Fruit Market in the city.

Regards,