I bought a giant cantaloupe this past weekend. It was one of the sweetest I have ever had, and it was only 50 cents. So I made some parfaits. One melon ball in the blender and one for me is about how it went while I was making them.  

 If you find yourself with a super sweet cantaloupe, I suggest you do the same.

In addition to my dessert of the week, I should probably also do a pizza of the week. For this week: drizzle the crust with olive oil, layer thinly sliced potatoes in concentric circles, top with gorgonzola crumbles, pile on some baby spinach, and crack an egg right in the middle. Drizzle with a little more olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until egg is set. I don't have a picture, I pulled it out of the oven and ate it straightaway.

Speaking of no pictures, Winston spent six hours at the groomer yesterday, getting his summer haircut and clean up. He was exhausted last night, and Bear didn't recognize him at first. He kept growling at him. Winston slept like a log last night, and is back to his chipper self this morning. I think he feels much better now. I'll try to take photos soon. 

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I made up a cake recipe. Well, I started with a recipe and tweaked it so that it now bears little resemblance to the original. I have a fruit dessert thing going on this summer, I think I'm on dessert four for four consecutive weekends. 

This week at the grocery store the plums looked especially nice. I love upside-down cakes. You don't have to frost them, and I love the caramel-ly, fruity goodness on top. I had some almond meal that needed using, and I figured that this is the kind of cake that could benefit from the dense, moist texture. I made two cakes, one for Independence Day and the second for a potluck at work. The first one (above) I made in a springform pan, which resulted in a big, sticky mess on the bottom of my oven despite the fact that I wrapped foil around the bottom and outside. Oops. The second time I made it in my cast iron skillet, and it was a tight fit, there was still a little bit of overflow. Luckily, I put a big roasting pan underneath to catch any drips. 

Plum Upside-down Cake

12 T. Butter (a stick and a half)

1 c. packed brown sugar

5 plums, cut in half, pit removed, and each half cut into wedges

1/2 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. white whole wheat flour

1/2 c. almond flour

2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

1 c. sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 t. vanilla extract

1/2 c. cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a 9" cast iron skillet. Add the brown sugar, and stir until sugar is melted and syrupy. Arrange the plum wedges in concentric circles in the bottom of the pan (or transfer the butter/sugar mixture to a 9" cake pan). Set aside. 

In a large mixing bowl, beat the remaining 6 tablespoon butter with the sugar, until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until smooth and fluffy. In a smaller bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Whisk to combine. 

Add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg mixture, alternating with the cream. Stir just to combine after each addition. Spread batter over plums, and bake for 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes or so, then place an inverted plate on top and quickly flip it over. It should come out nice and cleanly. It's good slightly warm or at room temperature. Top with dollop of whipped cream, if you like, although we had it plain, and it was delicious!

Let me know if you try it, and what you think! 

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You might want to make this very soon. And be sure to get some vanilla ice cream to have with it. 

Here's the story: I basically used this recipe (scroll down for the English version). I actually used the shortbread crust recipe from The Joy of Cooking, which I used for the jar pies I made at Christmas. It's pretty similar, just with the ingredients halved and the addition of a little lemon zest. I think the original crust would have been too thick in my tart dish, so choose which recipe to use based on the size of your dish. I only had cherry and blueberry preserves, but lots of fresh apricots, so I made a little fresh jam by cooking down some peeled, chopped apricots, with a little brown sugar (because I like that brown sugar flavor), and a dash of vanilla. Once it was cooked down I dissolved a little cornstarch in some water and added that to thicken it. The recipe doesn't mention putting the tart back in the oven once you arrange the apricot halves, but since it's called a Roasted Apricot Tart, that's what I did. It took a good 25-30 minutes for the apricots to cook through and get a little soft. The apricots aren't peeled, so if you have pre-made jam, this is a pretty quick and easy recipe. It was about as good as you would think, which is to say Holy Cow that is one tasty tart! I will be making it again, and soon. Next up, I think I may need to try this recipe. 

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Oh how I love summer fruit. Most of the time I just like eating it as is, but I seem to have developed a weekend baking habit. Actually, I made one of these cherry tarts on a weekday, but that was for a farewell lunch at work, so it's not really the same thing at all, right? So, about these cherry tarts…the first one I made following this recipe exactly. It was quite good, although not spectacular, and was quickly consumed by my co-workers, much to the disappointment of Mr. HeyLucy. So I promised to make another one for him, only this time I decided to make it even better. I used mascarpone instead of cream cheese, and added a little lemon zest and juice to the creamy filling at the very end. I also brushed the cherries with cherry preserves, rather than raspberry, because that's what I had and it just seemed to make more sense. Strangely, the original recipe called for a six ounce package of cream cheese. Silly Martha, everywhere I looked, cream cheese is usually in eight ounce packages. I thought the mascarpone version was pretty perfect, very light and creamy. The lemon added a nice bit of tang. I am quite pleased with my adjustments. Also, it's just really pretty, no? 

   

Our air conditioner is currently refusing to come on before 8:30 pm, so I've been busy cleaning up the porch and making it into a couple extra rooms. It gets the morning sun, but it's lovely and shady the rest of the day. Things will be re-arranged throughout the summer, but I spent a good part of my afternoon here, reading a good book. I planted some lavender and mint in the pot in the corner. The chickens haven't discovered it yet. I'm also working on painting a table and set of chairs. One day I'd love to find a daybed, so we can really stretch out and relax.

 

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I never thought about it before, but we use a lot of herbs and spices when we cook around here. Maybe it's because Mr. HeyLucy is trying to consume less sodium, or maybe our taste buds are just dim and need more spice to wake them up these days. Whatever the case, the spice cupboard was out of hand. I had most things in little metal watchmaker's tins, which look quite nice. Once upon a time I had big plans to hang up a magnetic bar to hold them, so they'd be right at our fingertips whenever we needed them. There were just a few problems with that scenario. I'd need at least five bars to hold everything. The lids on some of the tins were loose, and would be prone to falling off if they were hung vertically. And it was just too darn hard to find what we were looking for in all those stacks of identical tins. Also, I buy most of my herbs and spices in bulk, so I was constantly filling those little plastic bags too full, so when I got home, only about half would fit and the shelf was filling up with bags, tins, and spicy dust. 

 

 

So. I decided to re-do the whole mess. I raided our drawer of jars (Mr. HeyLucy likes jars, and would like to save them all. I suppose I should be grateful in this case), and headed to World Market to stock up on some more from their selection of 99 cent spice jars.

I had some label rubber stamps from way back, so I just stamped them and cut them out and glued them to the jars. It's nothing fancy, but it was a very satisfying craft project. Our shelf of herbs and spices is so pretty now, and things are much easier to find. 

 
 

 

I think this may turn into a cooking blog for the summer. I've been making so many delicious things (if I do say so myself). This weekend there was a pie, one of the best I've ever tried.

 

I used this recipe, and I highly recommend it. I left out the kirch, and I cheated and used pre-made pie crust from Trader Joe's. I was so happy to find the crusts in the freezer section, all rolled out in perfect circles, with an ingredient list that wasn't much more than flour and butter. I make good pie crust, but it's so messy and I just don't enjoy it, so I've seldom made pies. I think that is about to change. The filling was sweet and tart at the same time, neither overwhelming the other. My nectarines weren't very ripe, but it still worked. 

And one last photo, because it's still peony season. 

 
 
 

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Number one: I'm pretty sure rhubarb season is just about over, but I've made this rhubarb compote twice, swapping vanilla for the orange liquer, and it was delicious and super easy.

 

 
 

My favorite way to enjoy it is like this: 

 
 

With a some Greek yogurt and granola. I was eating for breakfast, but it was such a treat, I've started having it for dessert.

Number two: I've been trying to drink more water and less diet coke. But plain water is boring, so I've been making lots of iced herbal teas. I funnel it into this pretty bottle, and take it to work. In no time at all I can drink the whole 750 ml. I had a little Monin raspberry syrup in the cupboard, and added a tiny bit to some ginger tea. Another nice combination was ginger tea with lemon and mint. 

 

 

Number three: I tend to have insomnia, and now that the sun is coming up even earlier, it's a struggle to sleep past 5 or 6 o'clock. I have never, ever been a morning person, but I've decided to let my insomnia work for me. Instead of tossing and turning I've just been getting up and puttering around the house. Of course this means I have to work on going to bed earlier. I've managed to be in bed before 11, but I need to work up to 10 0'clock. I'm slowly getting some serious spring cleaning done in these early morning hours.

 

 So far I've managed to transplant some herbs one morning, cleaned and organized my shelf of spices (more on that later) and my shelf of baking items, and made a dent in a pile of ironing. All before work!  

 
  

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