Lemon Angel Food

No, not the cake, although it is my hands down favorite. But angel like the ones with wings. It is a ministry at my church, The Angel Food Network, and although I am the first to admit I am not a terribly involved Catholic, I sign up every year to cook for people who are sick and events at church. I love to do this. My first assignment about 6 years ago was a woman who was my age who had kidney failure. She had endured a transplant as a teenager, and was back in dialysis and hoping to get strong enough for another transplant. I was a frequent follower of a kidney friendly recipe site and happily cooked for her and her teenage daughter. I would take Nic over and we would mow and clean up her yard, anything I could do to make things easier for her, I was willing. She passed away as a very young woman, and I was devastated to say the least. I find comfort knowing I held her hand along the way.

There have been many other assignments since then, and this week I am making a cake for an event at church. My choice. So after a lot of searching I decided on lemon. One of my favorite (if not terribly ambitious) baking books is called in the sweet kitchen by Regan Daley. I wish she was my neighbor. This book is a great resource for a baker and is full of unusual and different recipes. Simple and Seductive is how she describes it. So I settled on a lemon Bundt cake with a glaze. I know, nothing earth shattering, but perfect for spring. But no, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I decided to bake it as 2 layers 8" with a little lemon buttercream instead of a Bundt, because everyone loves frosting. How good does that sound? The bad thing is, I wouldn't get to taste it. So what the heck. I made a second cake using half the recipe (always a dangerous thing in baking) and made it for my family! I used a 7" cake pan so it was a little higher, and sliced it to make 2 skinny layers.

Lemon Cake
(adapted from Old-Fashioned Glazed Lemon Bundt Cake by Regan Daley)

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
grated zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 large lemon (about 2½ Tablespoons)

Grease two 8" cake pans. Using the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy and pale. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.

Sift flour, soda and salt and add into creamed mixture in 3 additions alternating with the buttermilk. Don't over mix. Fold in zest and lemon juice.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake at 325° for about 20-25 minutes. Cool and pop out of cake pans to cool thoroughly.
The original recipe would have you pour a hot glaze over the warm Bundt. I made frosting.

Lemon Buttercream

12 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2½ cups confectioner's sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Fresh squeezed lemon juice as needed

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar and salt and add lemon juice until the right consistency is found for a fluffy buttercream. Frost as desired.

You will see on the top of my cake (at the top of the post) for home I adorned the top with some candied violets. These amazing little flowers are from Parma, Italy and taste just like a violet should. They are pretty expensive, so if you slice a piece and a non eater gets one, distract them and swipe it off their plate! I recycled a cake carrier from an event I helped with at school to transport my cake to church. My friends laugh as I load up all the plastic containers from grocery store bakeries. But since I don't buy that stuff, I don't have them! I am all about recycling! Success all the way around. It was bright and a delicate crumb thanks to the buttermilk. And I love that I can buy a small ½ pint milk carton of buttermilk for $.33. Wow! Thirty three little pennies. It's like the best deal in the supermarket. I find many times when a little buttermilk would be a great addition, but those large quarts are easily forgotten and go bad. So for just over a quarter, I always have a cup on hand. The buttercream was dangerously delicious. I especially liked it the day after when it was cold out of the fridge. Nothing like a little lemon to really usher in the flavors of spring. It would make delicious cupcakes for a spring brunch or Mother's Day. I think I am going to try and make a lemon version of sugar cookies. Those would be yummy for Easter! So, what are you waiting for....get in there and bake!

Thank You, Grazie, Merci, Cheers

I know, I sound like a broken record. But we just don't say it enough. Thank You. Those simple little words can make someone feel like all of their effort was worth it, that someone noticed their hard work, that someone appreciated a little something they did. Thank you in my family is huge. Grandma and Grandpa have made it very clear, that those Christmas and birthday checks will come to a screeching halt if a thank you note fails to appear. I think that is a great policy. Even as my kids approach adulthood and spend less and less time at home, I still keep stacks of thank you notes handy for holidays and birthdays, and send a good amount of them myself.

As my daughter began Senior year, she came home with the paperwork for the Europe trip. This is a big deal. She and her friend had talked for the last 3 years about this trip, and I had every intention of going along. As I looked through the paperwork, the price, and the itinerary, I thought having been to 3 of the 4 destinations already, I could find something better to spend the money on. So we sent the paperwork in for Christina. As the trip approached, we found out only 10 girls were going and 3 very brave chaperones. Now don't get me wrong, these are nice girls. But 10 days with 10 teenage girls who will be without social media, getting up early and walking a lot of miles...it could get a little hairy. But the chaperones, they could not have been more suited for the job.

I really never worried about Christina traipsing around Europe. I knew the Dean was in the lead, and she told them to start walking before they left because their little feet would be tired. And the girls will tell you this woman can book it! Next was the guidance counselor who knows these girls so well as she helps them all prepare to go to the college of their dreams (Thank You for that too!) and the French teacher, who I wish had quizzed my 4-year French student all over Paris and made her chat it up with the locals! I know they were in complete control....and I am so thankful.

So I write thank you notes. And if you're me, you make thank you cookies. For the time in London, Cheers (their slang for thanks),
for the romp in Paris, Merci,
for the rainy days in Rome and Florence, Grazie,
and for bringing my sweetie home safe, Thank You.

My Dirty Little Secret

So here it is, my confession. I hate cleaning pots and pans. The insides are always clean, but I really hate scouring the exteriors, so I don't. Or shall I say, I didn't. Trust me, from this point forward, I am scrubbing.

Let me say first however, that I am meticulous about some odd places in the house. My washing machine and dryer sparkle, always. No old soap scum, no dust, I wipe them down all the time. And my fridge. I have been known to clean it out thoroughly in the middle of the night when I just can't sleep. You will never find anything moldy in there. I can go thru an entire box of toothpicks cleaning all sorts of odd places, and I can disintegrate an entire box of those magic scrubber things. But the pots and pans, I basically have ignored the exteriors.

We are moving this year, and I know I have a great house. I have been debating about the pot rack and most real estate people I know said get it down. Every cook I know said keep it up. My house will sing to someone who loves to cook. So if I am to keep the pot rack up, I have to clean the copper. I found a scouring copper powder and went to work with pathetic results. It took off the tarnish, but the black stuff did not budge. So I walked away.

Then one dreary day, I started Googling, (this is a dangerous habit, it can suck up an entire day and find you in your jammies, still, at 3 in the afternoon). I found many ideas, most for basic tarnish. I know all about lemons and salt and ketchup. But I was beyond tarnish, I am talking cooked on oil, food whatever. Looking at it, well, I am pretty embarrassed. But I know I am not alone, and if you are lucky enough to find a garage sale copper pot that looks hopeless, well, here's hope. So I whipped up a concoction of salt, copper cleaner, vinegar, and steel wool. Now, my copper is the real deal. Not lacquered, not tin lined (I have a few of these but I didn't use this solution on them) and all stainless steel lined. I basically dumped a bunch of copper cleaner granules, some salt a little vinegar and made a paste. The tarnish, what little there was disappeared instantly. Then I attacked the black with the steel wool, very fine grade. This was a very big project. I scrubbed for hours, and have the blister to prove it. But the results are amazing. Now, steel wool will etch the copper, but here's the thing. These are not for display, I cook in these pans everyday. Etching, scratches, and a little patina are part of the process. I can deal with that. If you have lacquered copper and use my method, you will likely cry when you see what happens to cheap copper. If you are sitting on a set or a few pans of Mauviel, then hop to it. It will take a lot more than steel wool to ruin a $300 pan. I even tackled the insides which were clean, but not sparkly, but now have a high shine from the steel wool and some dry Cascade. Here is before... and after. Wow! My pot rack glistens. I still have a few pots on top of the cabinets and in the cupboard that could use a little scrub. But the worst of it is over, and will never be an issue again! So if you are looking for a house in the Memphis area, here's a kitchen any cook would love!