So perhaps there will be lobster cookies in the future, or perhaps crustaceans covered in sugar are beyond my means.  But the intent was there, and the birthday wishes hopefully still will get conveyed.

My goal has been trying to bake at least one item a week.  Definitely haven't been posting that frequently but have been trying to at least catalog so when I do get to play catch-up, it will all be ready to go.

A couple of weeks ago I made a Whipped Cream Cake from Rose's Heavenly Cakes.  I have to say that I think it was one of my favorite cakes I've made recently.  Not exactly an angel food cake, but enough similarities that hit all the right spots.  The part of the recipe that caught my eye was that it didn't use any butter or oil in the cake batter.  The whip cream itself was sufficient.

I got to break out one of the multitude of new cookbooks and tried my hand (again) at an upside-down cake.  It seems that having a pan that actually is non-stick goes a long way in making the upside-down part of the cake...feasible.

So here is a Chocolate-Banana-Caramel Upside-Down Cake

It was a very light caramel, so you could still taste the banana.  And the cake was very light, and since it was made with buttermilk had a nice tang to it.  A good combo.

Sadly, not everything in the morning that needs to get done always gets done.  But I have been pretty good about the breakfast part of it, and have even been trying to be better about the breakfast that I make.  It tends to almost always be an Odwalla, yogurt, and granola.  Lately I've been trying to make my own yogurt and granola, with some decent success.

The nice thing about homemade granola is that you can make it chock full of just the things you like.  And I've found a really great local honey that I've been using to sweeten it.

Now, if I could just make sure and make time for the walk every morning.

We had a bake sale at work to benefit a local Food Bank, so I broke out the cookie cutters and tried to make something appropriately festive.  Many people said they looked fine...I considered them a disaster (especially since only about 2/3rds of the cookies made it into the office).  A Note to those who are interested...an irate anxious dog parking directly beside you makes it challenging to have a steady hand to decorate things.

Also, my housemate and I decided to make gifts for people this year...we got many local figs and pears and then infused some vodka and orange liqueur with the fruit and some spices.  After that sat an appropriate time we made some fresh sour with lemons from our Farmer's Market.  For some reason everyone thought we were giving them vinegar...we kept saying it was alcohol for drinking.  We also got to put in some of the gift baskets some Christmas chocolate that my housemate brought back from Germany (milk chocolate with coriander, anise, and other spices).

They came together nicely.  It was lots of fun to put together.

Hanging out, being geeks, getting to catch up...all makes for a fun day.  And when dinner rolled around the pantry was stocked well enough to provide a meal (mostly dairy-free even - for the non-dairy eater, but no meat for the die-hard carnivore).

A Relaxed Saturday Meal

And of course to snack on throughout the day, a very basic and homey chocolate chip cookie.

But sometimes, all you want to do is come home and not have to think about the rest of the outside world.  So the heat of the oven be damned.

Now in defense of the brownie.  I'm not sure if it did completely live up to its name, but it did win rave reviews.  So, while it may not be the best brownie...it is a brownie worth making.

Brownie recipe from "Baked." Click on image for larger version.

So, when I say it was an annoying tart; I may or may not only be referring to the finished baked good.

Still, it came out tasty and was a good excuse to have friends to come over and help eat it.  And any baked good that you get to share with people is good.

Will be sad to no longer get the bimonthly boxes overflowing with fruit.

Basically a plum based steak sauce, well...

I guess it doesn't have to be just for steaks, I think 

mixing it in with some ground turkey could be 

good as well.  But it was mighty tasty on the steaks. 

The comment from one person was, wow...this is 

like a decadent A1.  Which I'm taking as a 

compliment.  lol

As an aside, waiting until Sunday to reply 

to an unpleasant Saturday work e-mail is 

a good idea. 

Another weekend that I don't get to sleep in, since the dog for some reason doesn't like me being in bed past 7am.  I have to get up, and as soon as I do he then decides it is time to crawl back into bed.

As an aside, if I'm never heard from again it means the 110+ degree weather in the Central Valley did me in.  The thought that one's last moments were spent in sweltering heat on their high school campus is a sad and sobering thought.

I thought of calling this post American Blackout as a tip of the hat to the snazziest documentary filmmaker that I know.  But for some reason that seemed as if it would come across as too flippant.

So, this is a recreation the old Brooklyn Blackout cake and was made from a recipe from Cook's Country.  It was tasty, although I think the coffee flavor in the cake was a bit strong.  One vote was for a raspberry filling in addition to the pudding filling that was used by the recipe.  I was thinking a butterscotch pudding filling and a burnt butter/brown sugar cake.

Which sadly my review has to be... 'eh.'

I did like the mildness of the brown sugar coffee cake, but just didn't like how the whole thing came together.  It didn't seem to be the most user-friendly of baked goods.  Perhaps this is because everytime I tried to move it around to wrap it in plastic the plums wanted to break apart and take the cake down with it.

Although they were a fun excuse to visit the old offices and share the largess with folks.  It was great to get to see friendly faces and hear that everyone seems to be doing well.