Sunday, August 25, 2013

Sunday in the Kitchen



Armed with a favorite recipe for Anise Seed Pound Cake, a new bunt pan and Spanish anise seeds found this morning at a local spice shop, the guys and I whip up a delicious cake.



The fragrance brings back a Sunday, long ago in the medieval Spanish village of Chinchón...sipping strong coffee and eating local, hot anise bread with Tall Husband.   I breathe in the pungent anise and I hear a passionate flamenco played on Spanish guitars in the distance.

Skipper (left) and Scooter


And the aroma of warm cake has the Guys dancing too.
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Anise Seed Pound Cake

1 cup unsalted butter
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons anise seed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Spray bunt pan with a cooking spray that contains flour.  In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and add sugar.  Beat for 10 minutes at high speed.  The mixture will be light and fluffy.  Add eggs and beat well.  Stir in flour and salt, do not over mix.  Stir in anise seed until evenly distributed through the batter.  Spoon batter into the bunt pan and tap pan on counter a couple of times.  Bake for about 45 minutes, testing with a toothpick to determine when the cake is done.  Cool in the pan before removing to a cake plate.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Eat your cake with your favorite person and/or dog(s).  Can you hear the Flamenco guitars yet?

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Happy Birthday David!

 


Thirteen Years!

This is a birthday to crow about.  Time flies, so hurry and make a name for yourself.

(get it?  Blocks...name for yourself?  Crow...fly?   Well this birthday did not make your grandma's humor any sharper.)


Love You,
Grandma
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Saturday, August 3, 2013

Warrior Rabbits and Bubble Gum



Maggie the mannequin is wearing a usagi (Japanese for bunny) hat.
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We are what we wear...in this, as I walk the dogs, I am not grandmother.  No, I am Usagi a Japanese Warrior without a master, without fear (as I swoop down to pick up the dog poop.)  Those bunny ears fill me with the same magic that I felt as a child of six. Way back then, there was a cartoon kid in my bubble gum wrapper named Bazooka Joe.  He had a cape and could blow gigantic bubbles with his bubble gum.  As Joe knew nothing about aerodynamics, his bubble gum and cape propelled him through the sky in search of adventure.  So, with a doll blanket tied around my shoulders and a giant bubble of Bazooka gum plastered against my face, I would jump from the porch stoop, fully expecting to be airborne.  Each time I knocked myself silly, landing on the ground or in a shrub, I got up and tried it again.  To think of it...that's pretty much the way I have gone through life.  Joe, what kind of a life lesson was that!?


Thursday, August 1, 2013

A Little French Mystery, Please



This beautiful little antique was supposed to be a pencil sharpener for the dance card of a nineteenth century French lady.  However, when it arrived from my favorite brocante source... 




...the design did not appear to be that of a functional pencil sharpener.  Par exemple, it did not sharpen pencils.




So, I asked a house guest, a Dutch engineer, to have a look at it.  After manipulating it for a very few minutes, he announced that I have a cleaver candle wick trimmer.  We tried it out on several candles around the Bungalow...voila! 




I do believe the Dutchman got it.  What do you think?
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