Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog

And here we are at week 5 of the Sunday Slow Bakers. It being Mother's Day weekend, I had company in the kitchen this week; once again it was a Saturday morning project and my son was home from Sacramento, awaking about the time I was ready to put the dough in the fridge to firm up. Later, his sister and her husband rolled in for breakfast and after that, it was time to bake.

I thought that these were a realitive breeze to make, and only required hunting down some semolina flour at Bristol Farms. I even found a lemon in the yard and a bottle of limoncello in the fridge. Mine turned out a bit thinner than some others I have seen in pictures, and I also found I needed to take them out of the oven a minute or so early as the edges and bottoms were already a nice brown. I will definitely make these again.

I think I will not be baking next week, as we will be in Toronto for David's medical school reunion, and the next few days just look too busy. However, I would like to try the next recipe, so maybe some catchup will take place.

With love from the kitchen . . .

Siena, April 2006

Today my youngest child celebrates her 23rd birthday. We were both wondering just a few minutes ago how she got to be this old. She was born on a May Wednesday in 1985, and with a birthday so close to Mother's Day sometimes she had to share the day with me; when she was younger this did not always make her happy. We will have to save the celebration for a few weeks, when she comes home for Memorial Day weekend. Today her boyfriend is taking her to dinner (it's a surprise, she says) and her parents have sent her flowers to her office, because as she just said, wow, this is the first year I have had a work address. It's almost a year since we spent a wonderful week in Santa Cruz for her graduation from UC Santa Cruz. The baby is really growing up.

When I began this blog I wrote about my reluctant reasons for starting down this path. I gave credit to the Sunday Bakers, as well as to a growing desire to create a place for my travel notes. What I failed to mention is this man: Jack Smith. Jack Smith was a columnist for over 40 years for the Los Angeles Times. He wrote daily for most of that time, and as a child coming of age in the 60's and 70's, he was the person who shaped a lot of my thinking and gave me memories of growing up in the City of the Angels. He may have also been the only person my mother-in-law and I equally enjoyed outside our family; his columns gave us a common interest, she bought me his books. Eventually his column became less frequent, then he retired, tho still active in the writing and book world for many years; he passed on several years ago.He and his wife raised a family on Mt. Washington, an LA neighborhood just east of Los Angeles, and not far from South Pasadena. David and I used to see him at our gym in Pasadena. The library at the elementary school his sons attended in Mt. Washington 50 years ago is now named for Jack & Denny Smith.

Currently his life and times are the focus of an exhibit at the Huntington Library. His papers are part of their archives. I had the poignant pleasure of reliving his times, my times, on a recent visit to the library and also at a lecture given in March by the curator of the exhibit, Sue Hodson. It was in her opening remarks at the lecture that I had that "lightbulb" moment, a small epiphany of sorts. Ms. Hodson referred to Jack Smith, the quintessential columnist, as a man ahead of his time, who today would have most likely been an original blogger. So that was it for me, the quantum leap from journalism into cyberspace, from a column to a blog. I could have been a columnist, thus I guess I could be a blogger. Back in high school, I remembered, I thought I wanted to be a foreign correspondent for a newspaper, so writing and traveling. Maybe I am coming full circle in some ways. Thank you, Mr. Smith.

If anyone is interested in learning more about Jack Smith, here's the link to the exhibit:

Jack Smith http://www.huntington.org/Information/jacksmith.htm

I just wanted to thank everyone who has read and commented on my new project. It's a little bit like giving birth (ok, not the same physically but it's a good metaphor), and to put it out there took some courage. I feel very blessed to have people surround me with encouragement and good thoughts. And so, I say grazie.

My other new project is learning some Italian before our next trip in June. It seemed like a good idea, this weekly conversational Italian class, beginners, that meets at a local high school and is offered through a community college near us. This is week 3, we have covered a lot of vocabulary, pronouns, subjects, oh, a lot of stuff, I think we're doing verbs on Thursday. So after several trips, David and I are getting serious. He's actually studying more than I am. We have a lovely instructor from Milan, and an interesting group of students. I'm really glad we're doing this.

Ciao!

It's week 4 of the Sunday Bakers, and now that this blog is up and running, I can not only post on the Slow Travel Board, I can blog about it here (which was the original idea I think).

This week we made Grappa-Soaked Mini Sponge Cakes. For me the chase was for the baking pans, not the ingredients like in other weeks. We even had some grappa, unopened, from our last duty-free run through the Milan airport. This recipe called for the cakes to be baked in mini bundt pans. I have a large bundt, and muffin pans, but wanted to find the mini bundt pans. I knew they existed since I had bought some for a bridal shower gift a few years back.

I did a Google search, found that Target carried them, as did Sur La Table, Wal-Mart, etc but I wanted them by the weekend, so did some store searching in person and by phone. None to be found in Pasadena last week. On Wednesday night, I found them on Amazon and did something I hardly ever do, pressed the 1-day ridiculously expensive delivery button, and yes, indeed, they were mine on Friday.

As for the baking on Saturday morning, thank god for that Kitchenaid mixer, since this recipe called for separate mixing of yolk mixture and then the whipped whites. I almost had a baking disaster when I realized that I had mixed the dry ingredients with a 2 cup measure and now had 4 cups of cake flour mixed with the salt and baking powder for 2 cups. Couldn't fix that so tossed it and started over.

I usually like to quick bake, so doing this, which took awhile and had several steps, was a bit out of my box. But it all went fairly smoothly and I might even make them again - the mini bundt pans really turned out some nice looking cakes. I passed them around yesterday to family and friends; David thought it also made a good breakfast with his coffee this morning. If I were doing them for a dinner dessert, I think vanilla ice cream or gelato and fresh berries would be a good addition.

And then the finished product:

Next week, Lemony Semolina Cookies - guess I'm looking for semolina this week.