Bounty from the garden this morning

The sun is out!  

It has been so dreary here all week with the sun making a short peek out of the clouds for maybe an hour in the afternoon.  This past Thursday afternoon while my class was on break for thirty minutes I even went out and sat in the sun (with my hat on) to soak up the Vitamin D and improve my mood.  It helped.

Went to my garden plot this morning and harvested Hungarian Wax Peppers and Jalapeño Peppers.  The Hungarian Wax will go in Paella and the Jalapeños will be used in a Tomatillo Sauce/Salsa I make.  More on the Tomatillo Sauce/Salsa on a future post.  The tomatoes and large onions are from my own home garden - I guess they don't mind the June gloom.  The garlic I grew in my garden plot and have been drying out (thanks to Shelley from The Rebel Homemaker) and now appears to be ready.  Might make a Garlic Aioli tonight with dinner to see how the garlic tastes.

So I've made it to my tenth podcast which has led me to realize that I will be doing this for a long time as it appears to be no end to quilting history I can dig up.  Thanks to access to a college database and an endless supply of curiosity (sometimes a downfall) along with topics that people have suggested to me and the ones that just spring up in my head, the History Quilter Podcast will go on.

Thank you to Rhonda from Quilter in the Gap for her blessing to speak about quilting history in the fascinating area that she lives in.  If you have not listened to her podcast (also called Quilter in the Gap), please do as she is very funny and has a great take on quilting.

Here are links from Episode 10:

Go here for the blogpost I did on the Inside-Out Chocolate Cake.

I talked about Lizzy House and the 1000 Peeps Summer Camp Troupe 2011.  The Pool Toys I spoke about are featured in Week 2 here:
http://lizzyhouse.typepad.com/lizzyhouse/2011/06/1001-peeps-summer-camp-week-2.html

Explore the Appalachian Quilt Trail at:
http://www.vacationaqt.com/

Appalachian Arts and Crafts Center in Clinton, TN:
http://www.appalachianarts.net/

Check out Pillars of the Earth and the follow up World Without End by Ken Follett for a great story about the building of a Cathedral in Kingsbridge, England in the 12th Century.

Ciao~
Susan

Inside-Out Chocolate Cake, March 2000

See that cake?  Do you want to make/serve/taste a cake that makes your friends and family swoon?  Inside-Out Chocolate Cake was on the cover of Gourmet Magazine in March 2000 and whenever I make it for friends and family, they always insist that I make it again...soon.

Well I love it when people enjoy my food but with about six hours of labor that goes into this cake, I do not make it very often.  I've learned over the years to cut the process up into two days by baking the cake layers the day before (then freeze them) and toasting the coconut/pecans for the filling - also the day before.  I began working on this yesterday afternoon so I could bring this cake to my In-Law's to serve in honor of Father's Day (my father-n-law is pretty cool and he loves chocolate).  Just for fun I thought I would share with you some of the steps:

Melted Butter + Chocolate Chips + Corn Syrup

= Chocolate Glaze...oh so gooooood.

Condensed Milk after cooking in water bath for 90 minutes.

Cooked Condensed Milk + Toasted Coconut/Pecans

Filling sandwiched between layers of chocolate cake.

I'm getting there...about five hours in at this point.

Enrobing the cake with the Chocolate Glaze.

Cake is ready for plating.

Crowd devours about half and I leave the rest for the FIL.

This cake is truly spectacular.  The combination of the not to dry/not to moist chocolate cake with a filling that has a lovely soft nut mouth feel (do not be deterred if you dislike coconut...toasting changes the taste) and the luscious chocolate glaze (yea at 10pm I just licked the bowl...oh so good) equal a chocolate bomb worth your time.  Try it!