Happy Birthday Nicole! How about a chocolate cake made with tomatoes?

chocolate thunder cake with chocolate buttercream frosting











Today is the birthday of a dear friend who loves cupcakes perhaps slightly more than me -Happy Birthday, Nicole!


Every time I make chocolate birthday cake or cupcakes, I use a recipe that I learned about in a cake decorating class. The cake is called "Chocolate Thunder" and is made with tomato puree. It's also a very fitting for Nicole's birthday because she loves books, and this recipe comes from a children's book called Thunder Cake by Michigan born author, Patricia Polacco. Thunder Cake is the story of how as a young girl, the author conquered her childhood fear of Michigan thunderstorms with the help of her very creative Grandmother.


Here is the recipe with a few twists that I've added along the way. Nicole, if you're reading, I promise to make you some Thunder Cake cupcakes the next time I see you.


Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs, separated
1 cup cold water
1/3 cup tomato puree
2 1/2 cups cake flour (Softaslik works great)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt


Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together one at a time: shortening, sugar, vanilla, water, tomatoes & eggs (blend yolks in. Beat whites until they are stiff, then fold in.)
Sift together these ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt.
Mix the dry mixture into the creamy mixture.
Grease and flour two 8 1/2 inch pans.
Divide batter into the two pans equally.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.


Frost with your favorite chocolate frosting. Many chocolate butter cream recipes can be found online. Enjoy!


Happy Birthday, Nicole!

My husband is growing Mushrooms!

My husband has wanted to pick up a mushroom starter block from Far West Fungi for a long time, so he could try his hand at growing some shitake mushrooms. I was skeptical, as he is a man who has killed a cactus. So, on a recent trip to the farmers market, we purchased one.

After reading the directions twice, and choosing a low lit, somewhat cool part of the house (under the house near the wine cellar for those readers who have visited mi casa), we patiently awaited the first harvest.

And look - success!













There has been one harvest so far, which meant that I enjoyed one very delicious pizza, my husbands specialty, topped with the gently sauteed fruits of his labor. I'm looking forward to the next harvest which, if all goes according to plan, should happen in about 6-8 weeks.

Brentwood, California - A Visit to the Orchards

Coral cherries ripe for picking and pie making













We had family in town recently and decided to take a drive to Brentwood, California to pick some cherries.

The area around Brentwood is full of orchards and fields where strawberries, peaches, plums, apples, loquots, almonds, and every other kind of produce you can imagine is grown. Much of what is grown in the area ends up in stores across California but locals can also go and pick their own produce, which is what we did.

Once we had our eight, yes, eight pounds of cherries, we ate some fresh and then pitted the rest and froze them in 3 cup bags for making small pies and cobblers throughout the year.

With the eight, (coincidentally it seemed that eight was our magic number for the day) pounds of peaches, we ate some fresh, and we made a huge pie. We ate the peach pie warm, with vanilla ice cream... it was dreamy!

If you are from the San Francisco Bay Area or, if you are planning a visit to our area soon, check with the Harvest Time organization in Brentwood to see what is in season and perhaps plan your own visit to pick your own produce.

The Nobu Cookbook

seared albacore with onion salsa from the Nobu cookbook and various makizushi (yes, with a "z") made at home












I posted "Making something new from the Nobu cookbook" on my Facebook status update and my sister wrote back, "What's Nobu cooking?" When I read the reply, I nearly fell out of my seat! Why had I not told her about this cook book before?

Nobu is the great sushi restaurant in Los Angeles and one of the hardest restaurants in the world to get into. It's owned by Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa. There are now several Nobu restaurants, and Nobu had a cook book published in 2001 and a copy came with my husband when we got married (along with a washer and dryer and a bunch of junk). I use the book often to make a recipe for onion salsa that is excellent with grilled albacore. Most of the ingredients are exotic and somewhat intimidating - like I'm EVER going to kill and clean an octopus in my kitchen - but it's sure interesting! The sauce recipes are plentiful and simple, and there are good marinade and appetizer ideas in the book.

Nobu Cookbook