foodlove

caramel glazed pear cake

so yes.  you will see so many cakes here.  and yes that's bad, bad, bad.  i agree.  i should behave. 

my longtime trick in the sweets area is to lovingly carefully make something i love -- and then take a slice for each family member, just one (just one), then take the rest to friends or the office.

social responsibility, waistline management, whatever.  world peace could happen this way, i swear.  try it.

this recipe is not for anjou pears.  it's for those awful texture-y bartletts that some people have in their yards.  at the end of the summer, the pears fall like mad, and the pear-tree owners look at you pleadingly like, you know, zucchini gardeners, and beg you to take their pears.  take a bag, they say.  here, go into the yard and just take what you want.

this cake gives you permission to go and take all the pears you want.  it's cheap, super easy, and delicious.  make a few at the same time and take one to your friend who's had a shitty week.

first:

peel and dice 4-6 bartlett pears.  toss them with 1 tbsp sugar.

beat:
3 eggs
2 c sugar
1.25 c melted butter (eeek! yes this is a southern recipe)
2 tsp vanilla

add:
3 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda

mix all together with 1.5 cups chopped pecans.  walnuts will work but they sometimes get bitter.

pour into a prepared bundt pan.
bake at 350 degrees for an hour or until a toothpick tests clean.

turn it out onto a rack.  place a plate beneath it.

when it's cool to the touch, mix:
1 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c butter
1/4 c evaporated milk

bring to a boil in a small saucepan.  then cook on medium for 2.5 minutes, stirring constantly.  ooooh, caramel or something like it.

pour the glaze over the cake.

it helps if you move the cake to a plate with parchment or wax paper beneath; otherwise the glaze sticks.

works well without the glaze as well.

and yes, then go to the gym.  but with love in your heart.

blueberry buckle

when we lived in athens georgia many years ago (1989-91), things were good.  we saw peter buck at the grocery store, michael stipe actually walked the streets without any fanfare, and we made a few pilgrimages each june to miller's blueberry farm in watkinsville to pick blueberries.

for years, i made their blueberry buckle recipe.  sometime in 2003-04 (it's important enough that i remember when), i lost the tattered paper from miller's on which the recipe was printed.  i've tried since then to replicate the recipe, and this is as close as i've come.  thus far.

it is luscious.  made it midafternoon.  tonight, after grilling out, we'll have it, topped with homemade ice cream (recipe to follow, perfect, yum, oooh la la.).

and then, of course, 70 hours of cardio.  heh.

cream together:
1/2 c butter, well softened
1/2 c sugar

add:
1 egg, at room temperature.

add:
2 c flour
2.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c milk

pour into a greased deep dish pie pan or 11x8 casserole.

pour 2 c fresh blueberries.

mix together:
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c butter

sprinkle over the berries.

bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for :45.

total summer-only yum.  don't you dare use canned fruit in here, though you can use almost any combination of fresh fruit.  one of my aunts used to mix pecans into the streusel; another would mix pecans into the actual batter.  the true southern cobbler has the fruit stirred in, but you'll see that the batter rises around the fruit as it cooks.