olive oil + candied meyer lemon madeleines

Have the Meyer lemons disappeared from your local grocery store? Maybe I still have access to them because they’re considered too culinarily exotic where I live, and so no one buys them. Or maybe they’re still abundantly for sale across the country, and I just know nothing. Regardless, I’m thankful for the continued opportunity to enjoy these darling gems.

I decided to candy Meyer lemon slices, which resulted in the decadent syrup you see draped suggestively across these madeleines. The syrup – oh, how lovely it is. Sweet, tart, floral, citrus, herby; all come together under this bold orange-yellow banner of deliciousness. The chopped-up candied slices were incorporated into a basic madeleine batter, along with enough olive oil to provide a punchy kick of flavor. If a bold and flavorful dessert (or snack… or breakfast) is what you’re looking for, these are your cakelets.

Next question. Have you ever had a mother-of-millions houseplant? No? Bear with me. Yes? Party on.

In your home, has it multiplied at a phenomenal rate, to the point that you worry it might take over the room in which it lives? Has the plant’s behavior come to annoy you so much that just the mention of its name sends a shiver down your spine? Do you wish you could do more to warn others about the dangers of letting this beast into your house? If you answered yes to one or more of the above, I bet that you and my mum would get along well; you have a common enemy. Hi Mum!

I on the other hand love my weird little mother-of-millions. She’s actually at most only been an approximate mother-of-two-to-three-dozen, and I think she’s cute. I was given a little slip of this plant back in high school (where has the time gone?) maybe nine years ago, and I have nursed it along through alternating stages of growth and decay. Until two months ago, though, I had never seen it try to flower.

I read somewhere that if you let your plant flower, it may die. But I mean, is it really possible to kill this plant? My mum would shake her head and respond vehemently in the negative. I’m not sure, but I’ve been waiting patiently now for many weeks, watching the flower buds grow larger and droopier. Finally, over the weekend, I noticed that the flowers had opened. Aren’t they sweet? There’s something so impermanent and special about a houseplant flowering that I couldn’t help but memorialize it here.

Final question. How fast can you eat these? Probably not as fast as me. Three at a time, dawg. Three at a time.

Olive Oil + Candied Meyer Lemon Madeleines {recipe by myself}

Makes 24

++Ingredients:++

1/2 c. unsalted butter + 1 tbsp for madeleine tins
3/4 c. flour + plus more for dusting tins
2 tbsp reserved candied Meyer lemon syrup, plus more for glazing
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. almonds
3/4 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 candied Meyer lemons (follow this recipe to candy your lemons – 2 Meyers to one regular lemon), chopped up into fine pieces

++Directions:++

Melt 1 tbsp of butter and brush into two regular-sized madeleine tins. Cool one minute, then sprinkle flour into each mold. Tap in each direction to evenly coat, then tap out extra. Set aside.

Melt butter in small bowl or saucepan with candied Meyer lemon syrup. Mix in sugar. Set aside, let cool.

In a food processor, grind almonds (note: I don’t blanche my almonds – I like them as is. If, however, you’d prefer blanched almonds, do that ahead of time). Add flour and baking powder, and process until mixed.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and salt for three to five minutes until well-frothed. Whisk in half of flour mixture. Add the butter/lemon syrup mixture. Switch to a spatula, and fold in candied Meyer lemon pieces. Fold in the remaining flour.

Transfer batter into a pastry bag, making sure that the tip is large enough to allow almond chunks to pass through. Pipe batter into tins, making sure not to overfill: 2/3 to 3/4 full should be plenty. Alternatively, spoon batter into molds (my method of choice).

Chill tins in the fridge for two hours, or preferably in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake tins for 10 – 16 minutes, depending on how cold (frozen) they got. Rotate tins once. My nonstick tin takes less time to bake than my tin tin: watch your madeleines bake carefully! When the edges turn golden brown, and the center bumps appear cooked (the change is noticeable if you watch them bake), remove pan from the oven. Check to make sure they are cooked through. Quickly invert onto a cooling rack, or pry out with a spoon or knife.

Dip madeleines in reserved candied Meyer lemon syrup, and allow to cool slightly. Serve warm, or at room temperature.

angostura bitters pineapple upside down cake

If you like pop music, I am utterly convinced that you would, like me, find Hanson’s 2010 release Shout it Out to be the penultimate pop record. I would like to preface by stating that if you don’t like Hanson, you are either a guy, or are someone who must not actually like pop music. Or both.

Between them, the brothers Hanson have about 35 kids, and yet they are still able to devote time to crafting perfect pop music. With each record they’ve released, their sound has remained essentially the same (due to Taylor’s charismatically identifiable vocals), and yet their songs have become richer, deeper, and – I believe – respectable to the point of being labeled as perfect pop songs. If all you know of them is MMMBop, then to be honest, you don’t know jack.

Their new one. And it is amazeballs!

The Hanson of present-day seem to be a well-kept secret, closeted amongst women who spend their days reminiscing of the 1990s, clutching their dog-eared copies of Baby-sitters Club and Saddle Club novels, wearing their faded ☆NSYNC t-shirts, and occasionally re-watching Spice World while staring at those impossible platform boots and remembering how damn much they wanted that one pair with flames down the sides available from the dELIA*s catalog that one time. Err, right. So I’m just describing myself, but that’s only because I haven’t yet met any other fans of Hanson’s recent discography.

The above enamored discourse is coincidentally well-timed. While I had planned to just write paragraph upon paragraph on why listening to the 3-year old Shout it Out while baking made for the best-tasting pineapple upside-down cake ever, I found whilst doing my bimonthly “where are they now?” search that [sound the bugles!] Hanson have a new single being released tomorrow, on April 9th (SQQQQQQQUUUUUEEEEEEE!!) with a full album and world tour to follow in June. From my strategically-placed location in the middle of nowhere (get it?!???), I could make it to like four stops of the tour. Ohmygosh.

Anyway, the guy in my life much prefers pineapple upside-down cake to Hanson. I try to make it for him a few times every year, although I’ve never made it the same way twice. That might change now that I’ve baked up what you see here.

The juicy sweetness of the canned pineapple and maraschino cherries is fancifully paired with Angostura bitters – that same mysterious mixture of herbs and spices commonly used as an additive to cocktails. Given that my drink of choice is an Old Fashioned (Sweet), garnished with orange and maraschino cherry and flavored with bitters, finding myself in the kitchen liberally dousing pineapple cake batter with Angostura isn’t such a stretch.

Angostura Bitters Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

{recipe inspiration here}

2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
3-4 dashes Angostura bitters
6 pineapple rings (canned, juice reserved)
Maraschino cherries

Heat oven to 350F. Butter an 8″ square pan, line with a square of parchment paper, and butter the parchment. Cream butter, brown sugar, and bitters in a small bowl. Spread mixture into the prepared pan – I find that five or six seconds in the microwave helps to give this mixture sufficiently easy spreadage. Place pineapple rings and Maraschino cherries as desired on top of the butter mixture. I was able to fit five rings, plus a sixth that had been cut into quarters.

10 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 c. granulated sugar
1 1/2 c. flour
heaping 1/2 tsp salt
heaping 1/4 tsp baking soda
heaping 1/4 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 c. Greek yogurt (I used peach-flavored)
4 tsp pineapple juice (reserved from can)
5-10 dashes Angostura bitters

In the bowl of a stand mixer (using the paddle attachment), or by hand if you’d like a brief workout, beat the 10 tbsp butter with granulated sugar for several minutes, until light, fluffy and fully mixed. Meanwhile, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a medium bowl.

When the butter mixture is fully incorporated, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture in two parts, alternating with the Greek yogurt, pineapple juice, and bitters.

Pour batter into pan over fruit, spreading evenly with a spatula, pushing batter into the corners and along the pan’s edges.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, rotating once, until cake is caramelized and golden brown on the edges, and cooked through. Remove from oven, and set on a cooling rack for 30-45 minutes. When cool, turn out onto a plate, remove parchment paper, and serve.

Pineapple upside-down cake: making cats jealous since always.

sweet potato bundt cake, or why logging is a good thing

There is this one sweet potato that I have lugged back and forth from my home to weekday cabin, to my home, to my cabin, to my home, to my cabin, and back to my home. Last week, my track record with said sweet potato being somewhat poor, I gave up, and left it at home. It was still kickin’ when I checked it out yesterday morning, and so off it went into to the glorified (yet lengthily-named) bundt cake that you see here.

If I have sweet treats during the week, they are ones that I make over the weekend, to portion out betwixt myself and my boyfriend. I don’t yet have any baking supplies at my enchanted forestland abode, as I’ve affectionately taken to calling it. But what I lack in material goods I more than make up for in fresh air, ability to break showshoes (two separate pairs, down!), and wildlife sightings.

After a 7″ snowfall this week, I followed a fisher‘s tracks down a mile or two of untraveled road, only to find the fisher itself gnawing on something nasty along the edge of the woods. Hearing my vehicle, he glided away in a whimsical sliding shimmy.

Aside from checking off animals on my life list, I do quite a bit of real ‘work,’ I promise you. I also promised to tell you more about what that work is, and judging from recent comments, ideas on what it is that foresters do vary a great deal.

When people hear that I am in forestry, they often think that I do one of three things: 1) I sit in a fire tower and watch for fires, 2) I am a logger and I cut down trees, or 3) I am a park ranger and I lead nature walks, check on campers, etc. Not to get too specific, but a) I have been in several fire towers, and they are all suffering from disabuse as I don’t think anyone has regularly sat in them on fire patrol for decades, b) if I were a logger, I would call myself a Logger, and c) if I were a park ranger, I would call myself a Park Ranger.

I was sincerely hoping that some of you would assume these tasks to be part of my daily routine, so that I could help to debunk this myth. Forestry is, I believe, a forgotten and much-maligned profession by the public, which is something that I strive to change as I move forward with my career.

So what is it that I do? I manage areas of forestland. I forest the forest, if you will. I walk these lands, focusing primarily on the trees, and check to see how they are growing, if they are healthy, and think about ways I can increase their productivity. How can we increase the growth of these trees? is something I get to ask myself every day. This is where loggers come into play. While I myself am not a logger, I work with loggers on a regular basis to manage the landscape around me. I prepare prescriptions, just like a doctor would, to treat areas of forestland that are sick, or that are in need of assistance, or that are mature and ready for ‘treatment,’ if you will.

I am incredibly lucky because in my corner of the globe, whenever we cut trees, other trees quickly grow back to take their place. This is not the case in many parts of the world. Those places require extra thought and assistance, and trees often have to be planted. But where I live, planting is not a necessity.

My sole hope is to convince those of you with environmental inclinations that logging is not evil. It has become very hip, very conscientious, to be an ‘environmentalist,’ whatever your definition of that may be. All the companies you make regular payments to have probably pleaded you to go paperless, in order to save the trees. What they really mean is to save them the money of sending you a paper copy.

These pictures are from the first harvest that I have been looking after over the past six weeks. The harvest is in a managed deer yard, meaning that there are special stipulations in place with the state to make the harvest more conducive to increased deer populations – which are relatively low in our area.

As a forester, I consider myself to be at the forefront of environmentalism. If there were no foresters in the world, it might be a good idea to save those trees. But we are here to make sure that trees don’t just disappear from our landscape when they are cut down. We are here to make sure that there are strong and healthy trees long into the future. And we are here to say, please keep using paper, especially if it is made in your country, in your region, perhaps even in your state. In this digital age, paper demand has weaned significantly. And the forest industry has suffered. I am okay with this – – I think we need to find ways of adapting, we need to find new technologies and new uses for our products.

You use paper every day. You are surrounded by wood and wooden products. Perhaps you already embrace the idea of sustainable timber harvesting. I really hope that you do, to see the benefits that it brings to humanity, to the economy, and to the forest. But if you don’t, if you have qualms of any kind, I would love to hear about them, and I would love to assuage them if possible… with science.

And if I can’t assuage you with science, let me do so… with cake!

Sweet Potato + Orange Pineapple Bundt Cake with Hazelnuts and Pecans

{original recipe, inspiration from here}

++Ingredients:++

5 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, plus more for bundt pan
1 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
2 jumbo eggs (3 small)
1 sweet potato, diced and cooked well
1 tbsp (homemade) almond extract, or 1 tsp store-bought
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2/3 c. buttermilk
1/3 c. orange pineapple juice
1/4 c. hazelnuts, chopped
1/4 c. pecans, chopped

1/3 c. powdered sugar
A few dashes of orange pineapple juice

++Directions:++

Generously butter a 10-cup or 12-cup bundt pan. Set aside. Preheat oven to 330 F.

Beat butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (with the paddle attachment), or by hand. Add eggs, sweet potato, and almond extract, and beat until well-mixed. Add flour, salt, baking powder, and beat; then add buttermilk and orange pineapple juice, and mix well.

Pour 1/3rd of the mixture into the prepared bundt pan. Evenly sprinkle nuts into the pan. Pour in the remaining batter. Bake for 55-70 minutes, until cooked through. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes. De-tin the cake.

Make a glaze out of the powdered sugar and a small amount of orange pineapple juice. Drizzle over the top of the cake. Serve!